Sunday, March 30, 2008

Muthu samba rice - the verdict is in...

It's official. After some experimenting over this weekend with the muthu samba rice that proved so nauseatingly odoriferous the first time around, I have made the decision that... it STAYS! I wont be throwing it away. Yay!

Make no mistake, I wont be using it as cooking rice any time soon (unless it's to try a different batch when I buy some). Neither will I be making idlis with it (erk - the smell!!! Like the batter had been faintly infused with concentrate of l'eau de dead rat. Ditto for the taste).

BUT.

When I made dosas with the very same batter which I used to make the experimental idlis, the smell and taste were magically, mysteriously, miraculously neutralised and I ended up with dosas that were perfect in texture and aroma and taste.



Dont ask me how that works, because I have literally no clue. I'm just happy that I wont have to throw away the muthu samba rice. Phew.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

In some of the temples in Tirunelveli Dist, they will distribute Samba sadam as prasadam. If I remember correctly, they cook samba rice, and lot of nai, and some cracked pepper. The taste is great.
I am glad the dosas came out great.

Revathi said...

Its good that you dont have to throw away the rice.. The dosai looks soft and fluffy !

ms said...

im glad the muthu samba epic ended well!

Srivalli said...

Ok..thats great...nice to know you won't be forced to waste that...

btw I have a dosa mela going at my blog...you can send this..:)..plus other dosas that you may have...

Suganya said...

Yay! You tamed the beast. Dosa looks silky soft.

Shammi said...

Anon: Hmmm... I have to say that when I was in India, I really couldnt tell the difference between different kinds of rice (except basmati). I might well have had samba rice without knowing what it was.

Revathi: The dosas were beautifully soft and fluffy. I just couldnt get them to brown up, though! (should have soaked chana dal with the rice, I guess)

MS: Tell me about it! :D

Srivalli: I did think about sending this to your dosa mela... but I wasnt sure it would be appropriate. Now I will! :) Thanks!

Suganya: Thanks :) The dosas were soft, but stayed white even when I made thin crispy ones.

Sra: Thanks :)

indosungod said...

Glad to hear that the rice story ended well! White might just be the new look for dosais ;)

I had posted a picture of whole ragi after your query. Wondering if you took a look and before I forget my mom's tip, add a few cloves to the rice to keep the bugs away, so throw a few cloves into the samba rice!!

Shammi said...

Indosungod: I'm going to search your back posts for the picture of whole ragi. Thanks for the info! :)

Anonymous said...

I am even less fortunate than you as I bought 5 kg of that rice in a big shop in the famous parisian indian market, " Gare du Nord ", remembering an absolutely delicious dish I ate in D K Pattamal's house! "sambar saadam" mixed with ghee! I am french, studied music with her, lived in Madras for ten years, was a bharata natyam dancer, and I love indian food! (who doesn't?!!!) when i typed in google "why does "samba rice" stink? I was surprised to see that other people had the same experience. I am not sure at all that the rice has gone bad. they would not have enormous bags of this rice on sale and no one complaining. I think it is the original smell. I was in the shop yesterday and mentionned this problem of smell to two of the people there but they could not answer. I think i am going to go back there with a bit of the rice and make them SMELL it to be abble to get an answer!
As I smellt the rice before cooking it, not like you! i was already horrified by the stink and instead of cooking this rice with the minimum of water like they do in india, I decided to cook it with the maximum of water like they do in Europe and strain it, the smell was awful while cooking (like vomit) but it tasted allo right after beeing cooked this way. I think i can even make sambar saadam with that with ghee and appalums, I even think of making some kind of dessert for my daughter, after having cooked it , to cook it again in milk adding cardamom sugar and ghee ( she loves this combination)
A friend of mine had a sri lankan cook, I am going to inquire this matter to him!!!
Another subject, i am getting crasy trying home make idlis. I was abble sometimes to get the idli batter rise naturally (near a heater )but it took much more time than eight hours maybe 14! but very often it doesn't rise,even in a very hot place, yesterday was the worse day, i had made a good sambar with drumsticks, bringals, and coconut roasted with the spices but as I had not much time I put the idlis batter IN the owen at 40 degrees centigrade for eight hours and the idlis were like...STONES... instead of beeing lide CLOUDS...I was receiving a professor from Kerala who was in Paris for a few days to attend and participate to a conference and it was the shame of my life. But he said he did not mind!!! very polite!!! and that the sambar and coconut chutney were very nice...
Mind you, i buy "special iddlis rice" that cost now 3.90 euros a kilo, so expensive now this rice, thinking it would make lovely iddlis. How dissapointed I am. I was thinking that while making the batter with the mixy i noticed that the batter had gone very hot and thought this could be a reason? The original way of making the batter on the stone will not provoke the heating of the batter.
I wish i could have the clue to good iddlis and not depend on luck especially a day like yesterday!
Sorry for having been so talkative!!!

Anonymous said...

I bought this araliya brand muthus samba to make biryani . Smell and taste both were awful.
Glad I found the solution which I learned here about what to do with the remaining rice. Thanks

Giovanni said...

Hello. But the question is: why has this sickening smell? Thank you, if you have news about you I'll be grateful. I instinctively do not eat it, just need to cover up the smell bad, I have to at least understand why has this smell, it may be for the refining of rice the same? What is used to make it white? This is the right question to ask.
Hello and good blog!
Giovanni