Somebody in this family has diarrhea

[conuly]

And I made her some rice water to help with that, ignoring her complaints that she wouldn't drink it. (I know full well that if I'm patiently persistent enough most people in the family will agree just so I go away. It's my own little superpower. Doesn't work on Ana, but luckily she's not the sick one! Anyway, worst that could've happened is I ended up throwing it out.)

So I made the rice water, and added a little salt and raw sugar to re-add electrolytes, and added a squeeze of lemon juice to add some flavor. It really tastes like Gatorade, if you can believe it! But without the food coloring and a lot cheaper. Gatorade is kinda gross anyway, but this isn't.

I have two cups of leftover rice that I'll probably mix with yogurt for everybody's lunch.

The real problem is what to do with any rice water that's left over after that person is better! We're not all coming down sick, so I doubt we'll need as much as I made. (I wasn't sure about how much I'd need.) Can you freeze it and thaw it as needed? If so, maybe I'll even make extra.

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

Freezing and thawing rice water causes the rice starch to settle out. It takes more than a quick shake to re-suspend the starch, when it's possible at all. (Depends how fast it freezes, and how acidic it is.) At some point, it becomes quicker to just make a fresh batch, if you're working with white rice. Brown rice takes longer, but that tradeoff is unattended cooking time for something reliable, vs months of taking up freezer space plus 10 minutes of fiddly work with stovetop and whisk for something unreliable.

I wouldn't bother, unless I had more freezer space than I knew what to do with. Of course, a significant fraction of my freezer space is currently devoted to ice packs, so I realize that priorities differ.

[adrian_turtle]

The real problem is what to do with any rice water that's left over after the person is better!

For future reference, you can make a substantial batch of rice water and only add the salt and sugar to each cup as you give it to the sick person. Then the unflavored leftover rice water can go into soup, where the starch will thicken the broth a little. Once you've added the sugar, there are relatively few soups where this seems appropriate to me...but follow your own taste.

[conuly]

I actually like a bit of sweet in my savory dishes, and find a spoonful of molasses indispensable for all sorts of recipes, from chili to pasta sauce. The lemon juice would be a greater concern....

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

I see no reason why you couldn't freeze it - do it in ice-cube trays, store the cubes in a freezer bag, why not? Sounds like it might taste better with a little ginger in it, which is also comforting to the tum.

I used to do mashed garlic and grated ginger that way - mash or grate a metric ton of it at a time, pack it hard into ice-cube trays, freeze, then store in tupperware. You can keep layers of cubes from freezing together by putting a piece of wax paper or thin foam (like cold cuts come with) in between.

[conuly]

I thought about ginger, but honestly, any combination of ginger and water makes me think of the awful, awful ginger tea we make when congested. It works wonders, but I suspect that this is because your body gets well in sheer self-defense. Better than taking that stuff again!

(It's ginger as a base, but I've been known to add a bit of dried pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and of course lemon juice. It could remove paint.)

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

I'd store it dried personally rather than mixing it up, because it's the same stuff as rehydration sachets and those have the following information:
"Once reconstituted, any solution should be used within one hour, or within 24 hours if stored in a refrigerator."
There's no mention of being able to freeze them. Rice is a bit iffy sometimes when reheated, so perhaps that's why they're being careful?