Tips For Cooking Perfect Rice

One of the staple meals in the world, rice is prepared every day by millions of families. Rice must be properly cooked in order for it to taste well, just like it is with any other type of starchy carbohydrates. Some people believe they are unable to prepare this meal precisely. If you adhere to a few basic guidelines and use the appropriate technique for your variety of rice, cooking rice is clear and simple.

1. Washing rice is an extremely important step when it comes to cooking rice. Washing removes impurities and chemical or pesticide coating if any.

2. To wash rice use cold water and rub the rice well with your hands. Change the water 2 to 3 times until you get clear water.

3. Soaking rice is the next important step. Long grain basmati rice needs to be rinsed well before cooking to get rid of any excess starch to get fluffy rice.

4. Soaking the rice in cold water will help cut the cooking time. Moreover, soaking rice in water helps the rice grains to absorb water.

5. The water absorption by the rice grains speeds up the digestion and absorption time of rice in the body. This leads to better assimilation of nutrients.

6. Ideally white polished rice should be soaked for minimum 2 hours while brown rice should be soaked overnight. Short grain rice for risotto and rice pudding needs excess starch to make the final dish creamy. So, rinse the rice only once just to clean the grains.

7. Use a heavy bottom large pot when you are cooking on the stove as rice swells in volume. If you want to cook rice with each grain separate use the open pot method.

8. In an open pot use 1 liter water (approx.) for 1 cup of rice. Get the water boiling first and then add the rice. Stir gently and lower the flame.

9. If cooking in a pressure cooker the general thumb rule is to use twice as much water as the rice. But brown rice needs more water than white rice to cook and also takes longer time

Many culinary dishes require rice to be prepared in a certain way. For instance, Biryanis calls for rice to be cooked such that each grain is separate whereas risotto or Pongal or rice pudding requires rice to be overcooked till it is soft and almost sticky. Keeping the above few tips in mind will help you cook rice perfectly for every occasion and every type of recipe while also ensuring that its nutrients are not lost.

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