Healthy and Safety Cooking

Whenever you cook, there are certain safety rules you must always keep in mind. Even experienced cooks follow these rules when they are in the kitchen.
•Always wash your hands before handling food. Thoroughly wash all raw vegetables and fruits to remove dirt, chemicals, and insecticides. Wash uncooked poultry, fish, and meat under cold water.
•Use a cutting board when cutting up vegetables and fruits. Don’t cut them up in your hand! And be sure to cut in a direction away from you and your fingers.
•Long hair or loose clothing can easily catch fire if brought near the burners of a stove. If you have long hair, tie it back before you start cooking.

Cooking Tips

1. Cooking Rice

I use brown rice, which still has the nutrient-rich bran and hull intact. If you’re using white rice, cut the water to 11/3 cups, and the cooking time to 15 to 18 minutes. You can mix the white and brown rice to ease your family into eating brown rice.

Stovetop method:

1. Place 1 cup brown rice, 13/4 cups water, and a pinch of salt in a saucepan.

2. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to very low, and simmer until the rice is tender and all of the water has been absorbed, 30 to 40 minutes.

3. Turn off the heat and let stand, covered, 5 minutes.

Electric rice cooker method:

There are several brands of cookers on the market. Follow the instructions that come with your cooker.