Perfect Rice
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How to Cook Perfect Rice
Let me show you how to cook Perfect Rice
We all want to be able to cook that perfect rice, you don't want it over cooked and soggy you need to get it just right, and that means following a few simple rules.
Lets start by getting the quantity correct, for me the perfect amount of dry uncooked rice per portion is half a cup or 85g. This should give you a good size portion once it it cooked.
So cooking the rice is a pretty straight forward case of boiling it in some water, right ? Well yes and no. Some people will run the rice under cold water for five minutes before cooking it so as to remove the starch. If this works for you then great !
Personally I cook the rice first then remove the starch. So for the purpose of this recipe we are going to do it the other way around.
Half fill a medium sized sauce pan with cold water and add 1/2 tsp of salt. Bring this water to the boil. When the water is boiling you can add the rice.
You should cook the rice for 9 Minutes to get the perfect texture.
You need to reduce the heat to a slow rolling boil and then cook the rice until it becomes Al Dente (to the tooth). Judging this can be a little tricky so keep checking it by taking a small amount out with a fork and tasting it. As a rule you should probably cook it for a minimum of 9 minutes before testing.
Al Dente
Once the rice is cooked and not crunchy but not soft either take the pan off the heat and get it in the sink. Run cold water into the pan and let it keep running so that all of the water starts to flow out of the pan.
You will notice that the water is cloudy, this is the starch coming out of the rice. Keep stiring the rice with a fork now and then in order to disturb more of the startch.
Dry Out The Rice
Once the starch is out of the rice or when the water is running clear after mixing it up you need to dry the rice out.
You can do this by decanting the rice into a Colander or Sieve.
You should leave the rice to dry out for a few hours or even over night , but remember to mix it up with a fork a few times to help get the water out of it.
The drier the rice , the better.
As you can see we have only focused on cooking plain white rice, although we used Basmati rice for this. So what if you wanted to add a bit of colour to your rice as we have done here with this yellow rice.
All you need to do to make this is add 1/4 tsp of Turmeric to the water.
One the rice is completely dry it is a simple case of warming it up in a microwave, yes that is correct I said a microwave. If you just want to use it for a curry or to go with a meal I normally put a knob of butter in it and warm it up for two minutes and it tastes delicious.
Of course you can do more with this than just warm it up in a microwave. Cooked dry rice is perfect for making other speciality rice dishes such asEgg Fried Rice, Mushroom Fried Rice or Special fried Rice. You can find recipes for these dishes clicking on the links.
There are many other uses for cooked rice such as Sushi and you will be able to explore these options in more detail once you have mastered cooking the basic rice.