Violet said:

Flash Hydration prep:
The aim of this preparation is a bit different. We want to bring the grains just short of both fully cooked and fully hydrated.

Bring to a rolling boil 2x-3x the volume of water as the volume of dry grains to be prepared – 2x for grass seed...

With the grains in a tote on the floor next to you, take the boiling water right from the stove and pour it into them...

Water should come a bit above the top of the grains.
The grains will rise over the coming hour...

Wait an additional hour or three (depending) after the grains have expanded before straining...

... but I suggest you let them soak longer!  It may be a bit better to under-do it than over-do it, but over-doing it does not come easy with this grain preparation...

Grass seed is ready to go anywhere around 2 hours after hydration, since the greater amount of water stuck between the grains after straining will finish their hydration in the cooker. It is a very friendly grain when prepared nicely.

Strain for just a few minutes:
This is what makes this grain approach so easy & once learned works perfectly every time... Since the grains aren't so heavily cooked and hydrated by this prep, the moisture on the grains after just a few minutes of straining is perfect to finish hydration & stop any burning/drying.
...

After the initial hydrating heat treatment we allow 24-28 hours for contaminant mold spores and bacterial endospores to germinate.
Then we repeat the heat treatment to destroy those contaminants and leave behind a far reduced spectra of bacteria.
...

If you only boiled&soaked once before straining and loading, or used the flash-hydrate preparation to do the same, you need a second heat treatment. The microwave is perfect for this...

Lids loose if the grains are hydrated nicely. Lids off for part of the time if you may be concerned with the grains being too wet.
Microwave for 7-8 minutes depending on how many containers you have in there...

Like said above, 24-28 hours after return to normal temperature they're ready for sterilization!


_______________________________________________________


REMEMBER:  There are slight modifications in the water and heat times of these preparations for different grains...

---

Violet said:

For Grass Seed containers
...

Measure out about 110-120 mL volume of dry seed for each container you intend to make, presuming that the seeds will expand to over double their original dry volume.
Measured by weight, this would be 50-60 (~55) grams of grass seed for each container, about 1/8 of a pound of seed.

Start with 4 times the volume of water as the seed. Keep in mind some may steam away while boiling.
Bring the water and seeds up to a boil in a pot.

Once at a boil, reduce the heat some to maintain a steady rolling boil, not a crazy wild boil that could build up and spill out.  Just enough to keep it rolling.
...

20-25 minutes at a boil is a good time to keep in mind for grass seed.

After this period of time, pour everything from the pot through a strainer to catch the seed.
...


Toss the grains around in the strainer for a bit, until you see that little drips from it each shake. I usually do this for about a minute.
...

At this point you're ready to load your containers with the seed, then sterilize.

Boiled & strained grass seed is loaded up 1/4 the way.  This should be 1 cup of grain, or up to 250mL volume.

Sterilized for at least 60 minutes at 15psi
Beginners may do well to start with 80min and reduce from there once they know they're pressure cooking correctly. Remember to blast the heat and let the air vent out until there's pure steam coming out of the vent.  Probably longer than you think.  You don't want to pressurize air, only pure steam.
...

---

Coyote Bruce said:

If you cook rice like the Japanese do, there is no necessity for removing excess water. Doing it so that it is only partially boiled (so that your jar does not turn into a mass of gel) means putting 1.5 times as much water in the pot as the volume of rice you are going to use. Normally this would be 1.75 - 2 times that volume, depending on taste, but we want rice that is not fully cooked. I usually stir when adding the rice so all the grains are wet.

Next cover your pot and bring it to a simmer. Simmer until all the water is absorbed but NEVER stir rice when doing it this way. If so, it WILL come out sticky and be harder to work with. The way you see if there is any water left on the bottom of the pan is by putting a spatula directly down into the mass of grain, vertically, until it comes flush with the bottom. Then slowly and gently pull just enough of the grain to one side to see the bottom. If the water is gone, you're good and you can pull the spatula out but if it is not ready, pull it out carefully, trying to disturb as little of the rice as possible. It is better to have a little sticking to the bottom than not. You can leave the very bottom layer there if it's stuck. That way, the remaining grains you keep from this pot will be ready to use and pretty dry.

It is important to watch rice pretty close when you do it this way. Once it starts to stick, it will burn rather quickly thereafter. This works for any grain but the amount of water will vary depending on species and I am not sure if any other grains besides rice have that sticking problem. It's the only one I've seen glob up like that.

If nothing else, now your stir fry will have rice that isn't clumped up and gooey. Cheers!!

---