Chapter 31 or The Mauryan Empire of India introduced us to the Jakata Tales and Rabbit Ear Productions. Apparently, PBS showed a series of books read by famous actors between 1984-1995, put together by Rabbit Ear Productions. The Tiger and the Brahmin with Ben Kingsley is one of them. I did not want to look it up through my library, especially because I found something similar online. The kids loved it.
For this chapter’s activity, we made white rice. Three things I want to say about this. First of all, I don’t usually eat white rice because it is not as healthy as brown rice.
But I happened to have some white rice in the house and we gave the recipe a try. Secondly, I have never understood how people can say, “Don’t peek” when it comes to cooking rice. The steam always needs to be let out, otherwise it overflows even on the lowest stove setting. I always cook my rice with the lid tilted. Thirdly, how do you like your rice? If you like it crunchy, then 12 minutes and two cups of water to one of rice as the recipe suggested would be fine. I like my rice soft.
The nutrition class I took in college recommended that we cook all whole grains for at least one hour, to make them as digestible as possible. I use three cups of water for white rice and four cups for brown rice. I realize people have strong feelings about how they cook their rice. I am just sharing what I have discovered in my kitchen.
