I’ve been dinking around with coconut rice recipes for a very long time, and it says a lot about my love of coconut milk more than anything. I’ve been dissatisfied with the various recipes I’ve tried over the years–they’ve all been kind of flat, so I added more salt, more lime juice, more cilantro, but it never tasted right to me. The reality is that at the time I didn’t know what right was. I watch a lot of cooking programs, and I have my favorite cooks on tv, and recently I’ve been noticing that vinegar is the word of the year. Alex Guarnaschelli adds a tablespoon of vinegar to a lot of what she makes — especially sauces. So, I was daydreaming through one of her sauce recipes last week, and I suddenly realized that vinegar might be that missing ingredient in my coconut rice ! I dinked one more time with my recipe — and the angels sang! A tablespoon of rice vinegar is what has been missing all these years. 

Make the whole darn thing — the leftovers are delish

!

Ingredients:

2 cups of Jasmine rice (my favorite rice in the whole world — easy to find in regular grocery stores these days)
1 can of your favorite coconut milk
2 1/4 cups of water
1 T. cooking oil — I usually use avocado oil or olive oil
1 1/2 t. salt (it’s a lot of rice!)
1 T. of your favorite vinegar. I have to be honest here. As a kid, I used to drink vinegar from the bottle, so I tend to add more than a tablespoon . . . but start with a tablespoon and find your sweet spot. I generally use rice vinegar, white wine vinegar (either Chardonnay, champagne) — whatever I have.
1 T. sugar (because I saw it in a recipe and thought I should try it, and it was a great idea!

Garnish: I love chopped garlic chives, or a load of minced cilantro, chopped green onions, black and white sesame seeds, or all the above! And as you probably know, I also have a fetish for Aleppo pepper which I use to garnish EVERYTHING.

Directions:

1. Rinse the rice throughly in water, until the water runs clear.
2. Add the rice, coconut milk, oil, water, salt, VINEGAR!, and sugar and stir in your favorite cooking pot.
3. Bring to a boil, then cover the pot, and turn the heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes. Taste the rice at this point to make sure it’s tender.
4. Stir it with a fork to break up any clumps (also known as “fluffing).
5. Scoop it in to your favorite serving dish, and garnish! Eat. It. UP!!!!