In our ongoing effort to incorporate more whole grains in our diet we discovered Lundberg Brand of wild rice blends. I have been using my crock pot to make rice but making smaller quantities can be a challenge to come out right. I was thinking of making a full package of wild rice and freezing it in smaller quantities to heat and serve later. Has anyone tried freezing rice? any tips? Thanks

I have frozen rice and it turns out okay. Not as good as freshly cooked, but edible, especially with sauce, gravy, etc.

I use my small pressure cooker to cook brown and wild rice as well as dry beans. Put water in the pressure cooker pot, then put a small metal bowl in the water. Put the rice, water and seasonings in the bowl and cook for 20 min. after the pressure comes up. (This is the Diet for a Small Planet Method which I have used for many years.) Dry beans cook in 30-50 min. without soaking.

Cheryl (and Glen and Ross)
currently parked in Corvallis, OR

Do you have a Foodsaver vacuum packager? If so, vaccum packed cooked rice comes out pretty well! Cook the rice, cool it, measure it into whatever size amounts you want, bag it, and vacuum seal the bag. I always use the Foodaver bag rolls instead of the pre-formed bags; you can eliminate wasting expensive "space" by cutting the rolls into the bag sizes you need.

Great topic.....I'm going to be trying rice in my solar cooker and know there will be more than one serving. LOL!

quote:

Originally posted by Glen & Cheryl:
...
I use my small pressure cooker to cook brown and wild rice as well as dry beans...

Cheryl (and Glen and Ross)
currently parked in Corvallis, OR

I have never used a pressure cooker but the speedy cooking time over a crock pot peaks my interest. What size pressure cooker do you use? will it cook just 1/2 or 1 cup uncooked rice? I Googled pressure cookers and see there are aluminum or stainless steel. The stainless are more expensive than the aluminum are they a better product?

Thank you for the suggestion.

quote:

Originally posted by Rosita:
Do you have a Foodsaver vacuum packager?...

I don't have a Foodsaver, would ready made freezer bags work?

Thank you.

I'm not sure what my pressure cooker is made of, probably regular steel?? It's heavy, so not aluminum. It holds about 2 qts. I put in about 1 inch of water, then my 1 1/2 qt. stainlesss steel bowl in it to cook the rice. Put the rice and water in the bowl. This prevents the foaming and clogging of the vent. I don't know about which type of PC is better. I inherited mine from a maiden aunt who died in 1962, so it's probably an antique. I know the Presto rep I talked to when I ordered a new sealing ring was amazed it was still in use. I have sometimes seen small PC's at Goodwill. At least for the Presto brand you can still get replacement rings, weights and release buttons (or whatever that thing is called). I use a food saver now, but have also used regular freezer bags. Be sure to squeeze out as much air as you can or insert a straw in the last bit of the seal and suck out the air.

Cheryl

quote:

I don't have a Foodsaver, would ready made freezer bags work?

The advantage of vacuum packaging is that the process removes virtually all of the air before sealing the package. "Air" in packaging is the main cause of food developing ice crystals from retained moisture; the cells in the food product expand, then burst, and the food either "dries out", e.g., freezer burn on meats, or turns to mush when thawed, e.g., rice, many fruits, some starchy vegetables, etc.

I've never had much luck maintaining sort-of-close-to-the-original quality of the food without vacuum packaging/freezing; I did try the "suck the air out with a straw" technique, but I wasn't satisfied with the end product. So, I finally broke down a couple of years ago and bought a very basic Foodsaver model; it does the job, and, IMO, maintains the quality of the food much better than ziplock bags.

After using the Foodsaver bags, don't throw them away! Wash them. If you were carefull when you cut them open, they can be resealed. They'll just be a little bit smaller.

Also, with the foodsealer bags, most brands can be used as "boil in bag" reheaters. By just popping the bag in boiling water, the food reheats without the further deterioration of most reheating methods.

Thank you all for the wealth of info, I am learning so much. We buy our meat at Costco then break down and freeze in meal size portions. It seems the Foodsaver would be great for this in addition to the rice or leftovers.
The wash and reuse bags seems very economical.

Re-heat by boiling, can you put them in the Microwave?

What features do you look for in a foodsaver/sealer? size, capacity, brand,
Are there different processes of foodsaver? is one better than another?

Where do you buy the supplies for a foodsaver?

Thank you.

I have a Hawkins Futura 5 Liter Pressure Cooker. I bought mine in a thrift store for $5. It had never been used, still had the labels on it but no owners manual. I contacted an online company to buy an owners manual.

I will make up the 6 cups of rice and freeze it in 1 cup amounts. Any zip-lock freezer bag will work fine. Just make sure you get out the excess air. For the RV, I have been using the Glad Handi-Vac system. It's good for short term freezing. I try to keep stuff in the RV's freezer no more than a month. It's usually not a problem as the freezer is only 4CF. But I like the Tilia Foodsaver for long term food storage. I have kept stuff frozen for over 2 years. Turns out just like I froze it last week. I do not like either the Black & Decker food vacuum or their food storage bags.I recently sold my B&D food vac at a yard sale. I will replace with another Tilia. I want a Professional Foodsaver as I tend to do a lot of food vac seals at a time. I have found the regular models do not like to be in use for hours at a time. For home use, I tend to buy meat in large packages and break it down. Also I have been known to grill 30 lbs of chicken parts and freeze it up in one session. I like to use both regular & widemouth canning jars (jar lid attachment) to keep homemade mixes in too. The jars work well with "powdery" stuff like homemade cake mixes (I would lay a clean coffee filter on top of the mix before sealing to keep the "dust" from preventing a seal. The Foodsaver site has some recipes & FAQs that may help you.

Here is the recipe for Brown Rice according to my owner's manual.

BROWN RICE
Makes 6 cups

Pour 2 cup water into cooker. Bring to a boil on high heat. Add 2 cups regular long-grain brown rice and 1 tsp salt. Stir. Close cooker. Bring to full pressure on high heat (steam coming out of steam vent steadily). Place finger-tip vent control (my cooker's pressure regulator) over steam vent. Reduce heat and cook for 18 minutes. Remove cooker from heat. Allow to cool naturally for 5 minutes. Press finger-tip control lightly to reduce pressure. Open cooker.

Note: Ingredients may be halved but do not decrease cooking time.