I've gotten my rice cooking down now after I stopped using Western techniques and switched to Eastern methods
I'm good with long grain white and brown rice. I think I've done decent jasmine rice, but it's not clockwork. Basmati rice, and brown? That;s two unknown variables, so I'm not going carry my previous assumptions over. Maybe there's a reason they're not toasting the rice grains. Maybe washing is more/less necessary. I don't like true trial and error, just going with things people have written down. But not written down on the side of the rice bag--they can ruin Uncle Ben's (kidding--I have no idea, I've never cooked it) with the wrong steps.
I really like recipes to go like my street directions--of course, you're going to tell me what you're trying to achieve. Putting in "don't go so far as to..." that's good so you know when you've blown it, but "You'll know you're almost done with this step when..."
One of the hardest things about cooking rice is leaving the damn lid on the pot when you are supposed to and not lifting it to check on it until the allotted time is up
I shake it and see if I can hear too much movement. Usually when I err, I err soupily.
Also, fuck, need to put these recipes into Evernote. How many people a) use Evernote b) use it for recipe management? A shared notebook would be great!
On the first, there's a standing lamp aiming up at me from the bottom right of the picture?
I'd say straight on (in terms of height) and slightly behind your shoulder. Your hand is shadowing your neck, not your face.
I'd say straight on (in terms of height) and slightly behind your shoulder. Your hand is shadowing your neck, not your face.
That makes sense, lighting Yoda. It looks very narrow somehow, though. I don't have anything that narrow that's that bright. I'll try recreate that over the weekend. I wonder if there's EXIF info in those JPGs I could use too...
Damn, it is WARM outside. Like mid-70s. At 6 am. On Nov 1. Weirdness.
In 45 minutes I get to write my test for the job at OPCW. It's a timed test. They email me a PDF at 8 my time and I have to email them a Word doc with my completed test by 10. I an surprisingly not terribly nervous, but I have been awake since 4:30.
Wish me test-ma and no tech glitches.
I suck at flash photography. I would rather use natural light and push my camera way past its limits than try to figure out the proper way to light a scene.
I'm a big fan of natural-light photography. You need a very fast shutter/very sensitive light-catcher-thing, though, or subjects that stay very very still.
ita, one suggestion for rice is boil it like you would pasta and then pour the water off. I've never tried it, but I know that people have great success with it: [link]
The other trick with rice (and quinoa) is to always rinse it. With rice it is rinse and drain at least 3 times. With quinoa it's rinse and scrape against a mesh colander for 2 minutes and then toast.
