For some, this is an unnecessary recipe. Plain rice, nothing less, nothing more. Simple. But for some, getting perfect rice is something that's not that simple.
I know that I used to mess up rice like I was being paid. It was either overcooked and mushy or it was uncooked and soupy. Or worse, it would be burnt and stuck to the bottom of the pot. Try washing that out by hand. Believe me, you don't want to.
I know some have rice cookers and have great success with them. I excitedly bought one from Costco a while back, only to discover that I still was having control issues with the results. So, I leave the rice cooker to steaming veggies and continue to cook my white rice on the stove top. It comes out perfect every time, so why make it complicated. Keep it simple, stupid and all of that.
The must-do tricks to have perfect white rice is as follows:
1) Rinse your rice. Yes, sounds strange, but unless you want sticky rice, like with making sushi or risotto, you want to rinse the extra starch off of the rice. It makes for nice separate pieces of rice, for fluffy rice. Just throw the rice in a fine strainer, rinse with cool water and then throw into the pot.
2) No matter the amount of rice you're making, it's always 1 part rice to 2 parts water/broth. So, I do rice like my Arabic mother-in-law taught me.... I do one coffee mug of rice to 2 coffee mugs of water. If you do 1 cup of rice, it's 2 cups of water. 1/2 cup of rice? 1 cup of water. You get it.
3) Once cooking, DO NOT CHECK. Don't peek at all. Doing so will release the steam in the pot and will make for sticky rice. You will be mad at yourself for doing so when you have ruined rice, so just don't. Go by the time to know when your rice is done or do what I do, and go by sound.... I know mine is done when I can't hear the water boiling anymore.
For a great, fail-proof brown rice recipe, check here.
White Rice
1 part white rice
2 parts liquid (water or broth)
Place rice and water into a pot. Set over high heat and heat, uncovered, until water starts to boil. Once boiling, immediately cover and set to lowest setting. Cook for 20 minutes.
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Or you can use these two rules of thumb
ReplyDelete#1 Add water until it covers the knuckles when your hand is flat on the rice.
or
#1 Point your index finger to the surface of the rice. Add water until the level reaches the first joint of your index finger.
Hi! Stopping by from MBC. Great blog!
Have a nice day!
Good post. I also learned from my mother, who's Brazilian, and we love white rice. I learned for every cup of rice - double it with water.
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