I'm All Over This Like White on Rice

OK, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. But when an internets correspondent referred to black rice in a recipe she was sharing I did the whole head-tilt-confused-huh?-look. Yes, there is rice beyond white and brown. Somewhere in between there's even mahogany. So what's the deal?

Black rice is a group of old varieties of rice that really is a deep blackish color. It's reported to be very high in the nutrition star-of-the-moment, antioxidants! When I cooked it the water turned a beautiful purple color. I was able to note this as not all the water was absorbed in cooking even at the recommended 1:1.75 rice to water ratio. I cook white rice at a 1:2 ratio and eschew the other rice-cooking voo-doo recommendations with consistent success.

The particular rice I used is marketed as "Forbidden Rice." I know I've just done this recently, but I must *insert eyeroll here.* Honestly. It's like "forbidden" has become synonymous with "exotic" these days. It's food, people. Deal. One purveyor markets it as a blood tonifier. (Which I assure you is a perfectly cromulent word!)

Anyway, the rice cooked to a nice, tender consistency in thirty minutes without becoming mushy or sticky. While marketed as having a nutty flavor I didn't think it was any more flavorful than brown rice. Where I think it's really going to shine in my kitchen is in the visual presentation. I'm looking forward to working it into main and side dishes and seeing how much of the color can be bled intentionally into accompanying ingredients.