Ingredients
150 g (about 3/4 cup) black rice
Seasonings
15 g (about 1 tablespoon) brown sugar
Instructions
1. First, rinse the black rice thoroughly, then soak it in cold water for 3 hours. After soaking, drain the rice well. Note that soaking softens the rice more quickly—in summer, soak for a full day and night, and in winter, for two days and nights. To prevent the natural pigments in black rice from dissolving into the water during soaking, gently rinse it with cold water before soaking without rubbing or scrubbing; the soaking water should be used to cook the rice and not discarded, to preserve its nutrients. It's worth mentioning that many people don't know how to tell real black rice from fake—here's a simple method: take a grain, bite it open, and check if the cross-section is uniformly black; if it's evenly black all through, it's genuine. Also, if the soaking water turns red, it's fake; real black rice will turn the water black or purple.
2. Add about 1500 ml (6 1/3 cups) of cold water to a pot, add the black rice, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low heat and simmer for 1 hour until the porridge thickens, stir in brown sugar to taste, cook for another minute, then serve.