Rice & Grains

Rice is the base of the plate from Lahore to Jaffna, and each region has its own grain. This department brings them together online, arranged the way a home cook thinks about it: basmati and long grain rice for pulao, biryani and fried rice, South Indian rice such as sona masoori, ponni and idli rice, and Sri Lankan rice including keeri samba, red country rice and naadu.

Basmati is judged on grain length, ageing and aroma. Extra long aged grades give the showiest biryani, everyday grades suit a weeknight pulao, and brokens are kept for kheer and khichdi. South Indian and Sri Lankan rice usually comes in parboiled and raw versions of the same grain, and the difference matters: parboiled, or boiled, rice cooks firm and separate for daily meals, while raw rice turns soft and sticky for pongal, kiribath and curd rice.

Beyond the rice itself, poha and puffed rice cover breakfast and snacks: thick pawa for kanda poha, red aval for a sweet Kerala breakfast, mumra for bhel. Millets and grains bring ragi, bajra, little millet, barley and popping corn, and sago is there for sabudana khichdi on a fasting day and javvarisi payasam at a festival. Speciality rice covers black kavuni, kalijeera and glutinous rice.

Bag sizes follow how families actually eat. Small packs let you try an unfamiliar grain such as seeraga samba or mottakaruppan, and large sacks make sense for a household that cooks rice twice a day and knows exactly which grain it wants.

Store rice in a sealed tub away from the steam of the cooker and it keeps for months; basmati even improves with a little age. Rinse every grain until the water runs almost clear, then soak basmati for twenty to thirty minutes so it lengthens without breaking. Parboiled grains such as ponni boiled rice and Sri Lankan red rice need more water and a longer simmer than raw rice, so follow the ratio on the bag the first time and adjust to your own pot.