How can I make a good pot of rice?

[divineorder]

This is such a wonderful thread. I keep looking for recipes here.

But I can't seem to make a good pot of rice. If I boil it, it sticks or is too hard. I tried steaming it, that didn't turn out too well, either. You see, I've become interested in Chinese and Indian cooking lately, and want rice at least as good as the restaurant-light and fluffy, and not bland and sticky.

BTW, how do you find or make Basmati rice?

Thanks

[SoCalDem]

1. Rice is SOOOO Easy..Here's how I do mine.

pot with tight lid.. COLD water..rice I use 1-2 cups..some butter..

bring to a boil...turn fire all the way down..cover with tight lid..

DO NOT PEEK.....

cook at least 20 min to 1/2 hour, turn fire OFF...Still do not peek yet..when you can touch the side of the pan without an immediate OUCHIEEEEE, remove the lid and fluff with a fork.

Perfect rice every time:)

[imenja]

2. someone gave me a rice steamer for christmas last year

and the rice always turns out perfectly now.

[politicat]

3. My thesis on rice.... *grin*

Rice depends a lot on what type of rice you're using, what type of cuisine it's for, and how old it is.

Never use rice more than a year old. If you can't use 5 pounds of rice in a year, don't buy it. Rice is best if it's less than 6 months old.

Rice comes in a lot of different shapes, sugar/starch contents, cooking methods, etc. Indian food uses a long-grain rice, while Japanese uses a short, sticky rice. However, one key fact to remember is to always rinse rice. Wash it thoroughly in a mesh colander, changing the water several times until the water runs clear. (I do this by filling a bowl that my colander fits into with water, soaking the rice for 3 minutes, dumping the water into a bucket to take out to the compost heap or garden, repeat. It usually takes about 4 gallons and about 4 changes of water.) Then let the rice drain for at least 1 hour.

I cook rice by metric system, because you should cook white rice with 15% more water than rice, not equal as my mother taught me (this makes hard rice, no matter the altitude). I cook 200 grams of rice in 250 ml of water (about 7 ounces in about 8 ounces). When I use the stove, I use my heaviest bottomed, deepest pan, and make sure that the water level is not more than a third from the base of the pan. For brown rice, the ratio is 2 parts water to 1 part rice, and cooking time increases to about 40 minutes. (I cook a lot of brown rice; it's very good for one.)

I start the rice cold, bring it to a boil with a lid on top (glass lids help here!) and then turn the fire down until it's barely visible. On an electric stove, I guess this is low.(?) I then set a timer for 8 minutes, so I don't get distracted and forget it and let it burn. Once the water has been absorbed, I remove it from the heat (or turn off the burner) and leave it alone, still covered, for 10-15 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

The woman who taught me Indian cooking told me that Indian rice should lay together like brothers, side by side, not sticking together like lovers. This, apparently, is a proverb. The rinsing helps this quite a bit. She also dropped 1 T. ghee (clarified butter) into the pot, but then again, she dropped 1 T. ghee into everything. I don't use it when I make my long-grain rice, and it's not sticky or hard. You might try it.

For Japanese rice, and to an extent, Chinese, where you want it to clump so that its easier to use with chopsticks, you want a higher starch content in the rice. I personally love the flavor of Minori rice, which is an oryza japonica grown in Spain short-grain rice that is often used for sushi.

Basmati rice is a type of rice, not a method of preparation. It's an Indian rice that must be imported to get the proper fragrance and flavor. Tex-mati and Cal-mati are close, but not right. Other varieties of rice are Jasmine, Black, red, arborio, and 3000 or so that I'm missing. I seem to recall hearing Martha Stewart say that you can use Carolina Gold rice as a substitute for Basmati, and it's a wetlands rice.

My preference for most varieties to to buy an imported rice for important environmental reasons. While I'd love to support the American farmer, the way we grow rice in the US is ecologically irresponsible. Rice grows very well in wet paddies, but US rice is grown dryland, and requires herbicides (weeds don't grow in wet paddies) and pesticides, as well as about 7% of the US annual water consumption. In California, this is a very bad thing, since the state is in a perpetual drought. Thus, buying imported rice that was grown on naturally occurring paddies thanks to seasonal monsoons, paddies that provide important ecological niches for water-birds, frogs and other such creatures, just seems logical to me. The exceptions to this is the Carolina rice farms and Lundberg Farms in California. (Lundberg grows organic, nutra-farmed, water-responsible and non-GMO rice.)

I really recommend a rice cooker, because it always comes out perfect, and some of them can be used as a steamer, as well. They work on a temp or weight principle (mine turns itself off when it gets light because the water has steamed out). Mine was something like $7 at the Asian grocery something like (oh, god I feel old) 15 years ago. I bought it my first year of University, and it's still working fine. I think I saw one recently at the local Asian grocery for about $20.

You can buy Basmati at Whole Foods, Wild Oats, most grocery stores in the Asian food section (look for the imported stuff) or online at http://www.americanspice.com, EthnicFoodsCo.com, Indian Harvest Specialtifoods, Inc. (I found them at shop.com using a Froogle search). Again, for Basmati, you really want the imported stuff.

Hope this helps.... I love rice, too, and am fascinated by this stuff that feeds most of the rest of the world.

[divineorder]

4. Thanks everyone

I have a combination of domestic rice both white and brown. What I will do is both rinse that rice several times, and write down the directions for cooking that rice in a COLD water pot. I have beans, so that should work quite well with the rice. I'll let you all know how that turns out:)

Basmati is a kind of rice. Looks like I'll have to order online for any quantity. Just about anywhere I can think of buying it in person is simply too far to ride the bus on a tired Sunday. Besides, your link looks like its a good one for the kind of spices I simply cannot find at Krogers:)

And it looks like a rice cooker-I have a lot of not yet used brown rice-would eventually be a good investment.

[divineorder]

5. Wrote the last post

And then remembered I'm only a few blocks away from an African shop that sells imported rice. The rice is Indian and Asian in origin, I beleive, and they sell it in 10-lb sacks. Will check it out later this afternoon, or most likely when what i have already on hand runs out.

[wildeyed]

6. I can't cook rice either.

I finally bought a rice cooker and I love it. Probably use it three times a week. You can cook other grains in it, too. When I have guests, I make a whole mess of oatmeal in in, let people spoon out what they want and add their own fixin's.

[imenja]

7. mine also came with a vegetable steamer insert

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Secret to cooking rice: Rice Cooker

They come as low as under $30 to well over $200. Forgo the racing stripes and mag wheels and get a cheaper one. They all work the same. And they all make perfect rice.

Their size is measured in cups ... but these are not ordinary cups. They're rice-cooker-maker cups :). I have **no** idea what the cups mean except as a relative term of size. You'll probably want one in the 3 to 5 cup range. They go to well over 20 of these mystical cups.

How do they work? Well, in practice, you add as many of their included measuring cups of rice as you want and as many of their cups of water as the directions for your cooker say to add. Close the lid. Turn it on. Wait till it tells you its done. Perfect rice each and every time.

Yeah, but how do they work? I mean, what makes them cook prefect rice every time? Simple, really. They measure temperature. As long as there's liquid water in it, the internal temperature stays at the boiling point. As soon as the last of the water is absorbed, the temperature spikes. It senses the temperature spike and shuts the cooker off. Very simple.

Most, but not all, have a "hold" cycle. They automatically switch to the "hold" setting when they're done. This is simply a lower temperature that is set to keep the rice warm but not make it brown and crunchy. It usually works ... but not always.

We have one for which we paid (as I recall) about $79 at our local Asian marketplace. They always have a fleet of them for sale.

Now, if you're talking about rice pilaf or risotto, or other rice preparation methods, that's a very different ballgame. But for plain old white rice, these things are the easiest, simplest, most foolproof way.

[Warpy]

9. Ha! You beat me to it! But I'd add a few things

I have the cheapest rice cooker out there, a $14 job from Target. All it consists of is a heating element, a timer, and the pot. I cooked rice for years on top of the stove, but I'm a space cadet these days, and the rice cooker saves me from that first whiff of "OH NO!" I've discovered it does a good job on brown rice if I let it sit and steam for an additional 10 minutes or so.

White rice should always be washed, just dump it into a strainer and run water over it. This gets rid of all the "stuff" left over from polishing the husks and germ off it. This is always a good policy unless you are using sticky rice for sushi or are planning to dine with chopsticks. Then you want the rice as sticky as possible. Yes, washing removes the "enrichment," but added vitamins aren't necessary here in the US, where rice isn't eaten alone as the basic part of one's diet. You won't get beriberi if you wash your rice.

Basmati rice, jasmine rice, Texmati rice and a few others are special varieties of rice and all have distinctive aromas and flavor. They're more expensive, so I save them for special dinners. You can now find them unpolished (brown rice), and that makes it really nice for whole foods people.

Arborio rice is an Italian variety that is essential for doing superior risottos. Pearl rice is a Chinese variety that is generally parboiled and then used as a coating on Chinese meatballs.

Rice, like nearly everything else, has become available in a dizzying array of choices, and it's easy to get lost. I hope this quickie overview has been helpful.

[NMDemDist2]

10. cheapie rice cooker here too

actually mine is a veggie steamer with a rice insert. I bought one 12 years ago for about $20 as a wedding present, liked it so well I picked one up for myself too

years later that thing pops out of the cupboard several times a week for either veggies or rice

i'll replace it immediately when it finally dies (knock wood)

[ironflange]

17. Same here, el cheapo rice cooker

It cost 12 bucks. I use 2 parts water to 1 part rice. It likes to boil over a little, I just have to tilt the lid a bit for a while. Twenty minutes, turns itself off, the rice is perfect, beautiful and fluffy. If it sits on 'warm' for any length of time, it gets browned a bit on the bottom (yum) and since the liner's not non-stick, I have to soak it before I throw it in the DW. Best of all, it sits on a corner of the counter, so it doesn't take up stove space while I do my Iron Chef Chinese thing.

[politicat]

11. The mystical "cup" is 7 ounces.

See the thesis.

[MrsMatt]

12. Also depends on what heat source you use

I've always had much better results with a gas cooktop than with an electric.

My method is: two cups cold water in a non-stick pan. Bring to a boil, and add 1 cup rice (I almost always use basmati - because I love it. I don't always rinse, especially if it's just a family dinner). Turn heat to simmer (VERY low) for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and let steam for 5-10 minutes. Has worked for me every time (I've been cooking rice this way for 15 years). Just note that this method is only for WHITE rice - brown rice requires a slightly different time.

IMO, a rice cooker is not mandatory for great rice - I have a tiny kitchen, and I have no room/inclination to house yet another small appliance. FYI, I do make rice at leat 2-3 times per week.

[divineorder]

13. The rice turned out great

I rinsed my combination brown-white rice several times using my strainer until the water was clear,then put it in my large pot, putting it on my electric burner. I let it come to a rapid boil, then put the burner on low for 20 minutes, and then let it sit on the burner for about a half an hour or so. The rice came out soft and fluffy and tender. I ate some with my beans, then poured the remainder in with my beans.

Which reminds me that the same technique I used with the rice should be what I do with my beans. I should be rinsing them several times so that they come out very soft and can truly absorb the flavor. While these beans aren't too bad, they are not like the ones my mother made either.

Once again...Thank You :)

[XanaDUer]

14. Here is my slight twist on rice

I call this "Iranian rice" since this is how it is prepared and served with a beef-and-celery stew called horesch (sp?).

Boil 1 cup of white rice in water for about 5-7 minutes. Then , remove from heat and turn the heat to low.

Take a tight lid, and pour out almost all of the rice water, leaving a little in the bottom. Take a spoon or whatever and then pile the par-cooked rice in a little pyramid in the center of the cooking pot. There will be a little bit of left over starchy water on the bottom that you did NOT pour out.

Then, once I formed the little rice pyramid, I take a long sharp knife or something similar and poke little holes in the rice pyramid. I pour a little cooking oil in the holes so it settles at the bottom of the rice pyramid.

Then, taking a tea towel or some cloth similar, I wrap the towel around the tight-fitting top for the rice pot. This will absorb any steam. I then replace the lid, with the towel around it, on the top of the pot. Cook the rice on low (must be low, not medium low) for about 25 minutes.

Then, take off the top and your rice will have this nice, crunchy bottom that is browned and taste very good with the stew.

It's a lot easier than it sounds.

[demnan]

15. I love my rice cooker

sometimes I add a few extras to make a light curry rice such as a teaspoon of Penzey's Maharaji curry, a half cup of frozen mixed vegetables, 1 teaspoon of onion flakes, butter, mustard seed and salt. (I make approximately 4 cups of rice at a time for this. The Maharaji currey contains saffron which imparts a beautiful yellow color to your rice. This dish, a salad and a nice chicken curry is all you need to make a special Indian dinner (although the bread chipatis are nice).

The general rule is to have twice the water by volume of your rice. That means if the rice comes up to the first knuckle on your finger, the water should come up to the second knuckle. And always multiple wash foreign rice (such as Basmati or Jasmine). Also pre-soak Basmati rice for about a half hour before cooking to retain the delicate shape of the long grains.

[politicat]

16. Divineorder, if you have a Cost Plus, they carry Basmati.

EOM