Anyone a pro at cooking rice?

[Bumbun]

I’m not bad at cooking rice, it’s perfectly acceptable - never mushy, never hard. However… we had rice yesterday at a Persian restaurant and it was just divine! It was so super soft, light and not one grain was stuck together, it was cooked to perfection. It was relatively plain (saffron rice) and I’d love to be able to recreate it at home.

Any ideas on how to get that perfect texture?!

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Rice cooker. 😀
But also rinse the rice several times.

2 to 1 volume ratio cold water to rice, I use a mug.
Bring to boil, stir, reduce heat to as low as possible. 10 minute with lid on.
Then take off heat and leave 10 mins longer, do not open lid.

Was a gousto box method and its great, no sticking, clean pan, good texture, no gloopiness

Rice cooker is perfect every time. Chinese supermarkets so the best ones in our experience.

A restaurant would have coated the rice in oil and salt. I make decent rice at home but not near restaurant standards as I don't want to get a heart attack from the oil and salt by cooking the same way regularly!

Brilliant - I will invest in a rice cooker. Admittedly I never wash or soak the rice, perhaps I should give that a go too!

Always wash your rice. Rice has arsenic. I parboiled my rice then wash to get all the starch off

I've nannied for families who have rice cookers and they always seem to end up with a sort of 'baked on' layer of rice underneath the 'perfect' stuff, quite a substantial amount. They just throw it away but that bothers me as I hate wasting food. Do you guys not find that's the case?

Add a tiny drop of oil. Or coat the inside of the rice cooker.

Rinse it until the water runs clear.

following for cooking tips.

Anyone who has a rice cooker, any concerns about what the pans are coated with? We have been trying to get away from teflon and plastics in the kitchen, ideally towards cast iron.

Was a Delia Smith method long, long before it was a Gousto method! I've been cooking rice that way for about 40 years. Never felt the need for a rice cooker. These days I only buy basmati rice. Separates much better than ordinary long grain rice.

I come from a rice eating country. No need to wash the rice (but you can), fry it in butter (and garlic / onion if you like it) and add double the volume of boiling water. Salt to taste. Cold water is not good for fluffy rice. Cook on medium heat with a half closed lid for about 15 min. It will be fluffy and delicious.

This is why I wash it a lot, as it is even in organic rice. There have been some studies and rinsing well removes a lot of it.

No your rice cooker won’t burn the rice at the bottom (or at least not in my experience). It will also cook all your chickpeas and beans and porridge.

You MUST wash rice though however you cook it. That will make your rice much much nicer.

Odd, then, that India, China, Pakistan and many other places across Asia and West Africa where rice is a staple have booming populations.

Yes, I forgot to say I do use boiling water. Quicker than cold. Good to know it also gives better results.

I have a metal rice ball that cooks rice brilliantly.

2 glasses of water per 1 glass of rices. Cook (and keep stirring) untill all water boils out, stir so that doesn’t burn to the bottom

I am absolutely terrible at rice. To be honest I now just put in much more water than is necessary, and drain it at the end of cooking when it's got the texture I want. I know that's probably all sorts of wrong but everything else resulted in either gloop or crunch.

It's not just how you cook it but also about the type. We have number of different rice types at home.
Restaurant rice usually has some oil in to prevent sticking at any case.

https://www.theguardian.com/thefilter/2025/mar/14/best-rice-cooker?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Usual Guardian article on rice-cookers. I’m keen to try the microwave one they mention - anyone tried one?

Depends what you want. For Asian dishes you want some degree of sticking together. Not glued. Just soft and enough stuck to hold together when using chopsticks

Don’t know what country you come from but rices are all different. Many rices must be washed or they’ll congeal into a glutinous glob

A rice cooker is the best appliance in my kitchen... perfect rice every single time.

The Joseph Joseph microwave rice cooker is brilliant and much cheaper than an electric one.

Rinsing won't make much of a difference to the arsenic content as it's inside the rice . Its actually now advised to cook in a vast quantity of water rather then the absorption method

@Bumbun restaurant rice is usually a higher grade rice then your bog standard supermarket own label , I can get Kohinoor Gold and Askash Gold on occasion here which whilst arent the best quality - are a mile away from Tesco own label