Читать книгу Indian Cooking For Dummies - Monisha Bharadwaj - Страница 17

Although India grows many different varieties of rice, basmati is the best known outside its country of origin. This beautiful, aromatic (the name basmati means “fragrant”), long-grained rice finds the climatic and soil conditions at the bases of the Himalayan mountain range ideal.

In India, basmati rice is considered special and is more expensive than other rice varieties. This is because it’s a uniquely slender grain that cooks up fluffy, a trait that’s valued in Indian cooking. To enhance this quality of cooking into separate grains, it’s aged in warehouses where conditions such as light, air, temperature, and humidity are highly controlled. This results in each grain drying and forming a light skin, which can effectively seal the grain and help lock in the starch. The aging process can take anywhere from a year and a half to two years, the longer period yielding a more expensive rice.

When the British divided India at the time of independence in 1947, a part of this basmati-growing territory fell in the newly formed country of Pakistan. The cuisines of both countries celebrate this superlative grain in dishes such as biryani and pulao.