The Culinary Quest Ending In Failure

Making puffed rice at home has been on my mind for quite some time now, and today I finally got the chance to try it out. The college let us off early today, so by 1:00pm, I was home in comfortable clothes and relaxing. I thought, why not give it a try today? I have both the time and ingredients, and that led me to the kitchen.

The first step was putting the ingredients where I could see them. I had a bowl of regular rice, a bowl of sella rice, a bowl of salt, and cooking oil. I began by washing the rice thoroughly, then I added a few spoons of water to the rice, mixed them, and then left it. Taking out a thick-bottomed pan, I turned on the stove. I put the sella rice in the pan and stirred it continuously until I was able to see the shift in color. Putting it aside, I repeated the process with the regular rice. I put both the rice by the stove and fetched a saucepan and a deep-bottomed pan. Putting cooking oil in the saucepan, I heated it up. Once it was heated, I poured in a handful of regular rice, stirring it around, but nothing happened. Giving it some more time, I hoped it would work.

Sadly, it did not work and the rice burned. Throwing away the burned rice, I repeated the steps with the sella rice, but I faced disappointment since it didn't work with sella rice either. Putting the saucepan aside, I tried another method I saw in the videos. Putting the deep-bottomed pan on the stove and filling it with salt, I turned the flame up. The salt was now warm according to the thermometer. I added a handful of regular rice and stirred it around.

Nothing happened, and the rice grains turned black. Throwing away the burnt rice, I repeated the steps with sella rice. My hopes soared as I heard the sound of popping, but when I looked for success, I was met with another failure. The rice didn't puff, and they were about to burn. Turning off the stove, I took the rice out and put them separately before calling grandma. I hoped she knew how to make puffed rice. From what I know, my Grandma has a large arsenal of mouthwatering recipes, so I was betting everything on this.

My Grandma just entered the kitchen, looking around. She surveyed the kitchen before looking at me, asking me a silent question, "What was I up to?" Pouting with puppy dog eyes, I told grandma the sad kitchen story, hoping she will turn everything around like a fairy godmother. Patting me on the head, she told me that she had never tried it, but she was willing to try now. Happy, I showed her the videos of the process. Pushing back, she said she had some idea and she was going to try it.

But no success there either. Grandma told me a step must have been cut in the videos, thereby the results ended in failure. She said she was going to ask around in her next 'Grandma Club' since word of mouth is sometimes more reliable than the internet. Nodding in understanding, we both happily went to clean up. It was a fun experience, blowing bubbles around. It's something I never get tired of, even at my current age. This reminded me of life, how we experience failure causing us to feel disappointment, but following it, a simple fun with a loved one makes the day happy and brighter.

Have you tried making puffed rice at home? Do you have any idea what I did wrong?