I was thinking about rising prices of rice, cataclysmic food shortages, and the wisdom of peasant cultures while eating some Thai sticky rice this weekend.
I love sticky rice (and mochi and bibimbop) and other toothsome chewy rice-based treats because they all remind me of concón. This is literally the rice that gets stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Rather than being a culinary disaster, concón is a delicacy in the DR (In PR it is too, called pegao). To the point that some cooks purposefully cook rice so that it creates concón. (I've never quite gotten the hang of this, but I think it involves extra oil and extra fire toward the end of the cooking process.)
Like any hyper-local delicacy, there are rules:
1) It's easiest to make this in those possibly harmful aluminum round-bottomed pans commonly called calderos and available in hardware stores in Latin nabes. Do not try making it with your automatic rice cooker.
2) While it should have some color, it should not be burnt (golden to caramel, not black).
3) Texture-wise, it should be chewy to crispy, but should not threaten to chip your fillings (although some masochistic friends love just that, fighting the rice to submission).
3) It should be served separately, not mixed in with the regular rice. All the better to savor.
4) The more you can scrape from the pan in a single piece, the better. Hence why the picture below, of a pot-shaped piece of concón, is so impressive.
It makes sense that concón would also be loved in Haiti, and I know that for me the only proper bibimbop is one that has rice stuck to the bottom of the pot it's served in, but I wonder how many other rice-eating peoples love that crunchy sticky treat.
Anyone?
UPDATE: In Cuban = raspa. In Korean = nurungji. In Catalán = soccarat. In Farsi = tahdig. See, I knew it!
[concón pix via remolacha]
Los cubanos call it raspa, as in raspando el caldero.
This Korean blog gets a little weird towards the end, but also seems to dig la raspa.
www.bonappegeek.com/2006/06/13/rice-mojo-and-hot-sex/
Posted by: papupu | May 19, 2008 at 04:52 PM
Concón rocks. Hard.
Posted by: Kiko Jones | May 20, 2008 at 04:43 PM