Day 2: Rice

Rice occupies a place in my mind alongside filling in tax returns and walking home drunk when you've spent your taxi money on beer. It promises nothing but drudgery and stodgery. I look at the featureless kernels of rice and see less spark of human kindness than a line of airport security workers.
Rice, somehow sensing this through a cereal form of low animal cunning, has frustrated me in all previous attempts at turning it from a commodity into a food. It has congealed, burned, dried too much, refused to dry enough, turned strange colours, and generally engaged in behaviour unbecoming of a cereal.

Nevertheless, it is cheap as chips and I have two kilograms of it. I followed the instructions on the pack and was soon looking at the business end of a boiling pot of rice (200g, 37c).
My stovetop burners are as capricious as a Spanish girlfriend. They engage at full blast at almost every point on the dial. This is great for boiling things, but simmering is quite another matter. After stirring and enlidding, I tried to find the mildest point on the dial with the strained delicacy of one explaining to Guadalupe that sequined capri pants may not be appropriate work attire. After accidentally turning the heat off entirely twice, I found the sweet spot and settled back patiently.

The rice wasn't burned, exactly; it was more... generously browned in a clumpy layer at the bottom. I let it rest for a while and reflected on where my life had taken a wrong turn, then churned the whole shebang into a bowl. Happily, the clumps were a pleasant mocha shade rather than the espresso tone I had feared.

Given that large parts of the rice were already fried, I took half and fried it by turns with Worcestershire sauce and chicken stock powder. The latter was fine; the former tasted like sarcasm in food form.

Revisiting bready things, I mixed up some more flour and water, but this time the water was hot and mixed properly. I added a few grams of active yeast and a teaspoon of sugar, then let it ruminate and fester for several hours.
When I came back it had risen by about half, so took 35g of the firm and sticky mixture and gave it a ride in the radiation box. While it came out looking surprisingly like food, the consistency was that of a disgruntled turtle.
I left the rest to rise some more while I plotted its demise.

Later, I saw that it had not risen. I was crestfallen and immediately burned it in a pot and ate it in front of the other food, which appeared visibly shaken.

I fried the remainder of the rice with stock and onions. It was a fair whack of food which at the time felt like enough but upon later reflection was not, and I made soup with diced potatoes.

This is the soup. It is heartier than it appears, so watch out.

Cost of food eaten today:

19c — Oatmeal

37c — Rice

12c — Apples

6c — Potatoes

11c — Flour

85c — TOTAL