What's the magic rice cooking trick?

[DancingHouse]

I've perfected the amount I need (half a Dennis the Mennis mug) just need the special formula so the rice cooks without needing to stir and doesn't even need to be drained. I can't be faffing about with scales and measuring jugs I just need to eyeball it and know it'll be done.

Anyone know how it's done and no I wont get a rice cooker

Double the volume of water to rice. I do 150 mls rice in 300 mls water. Simmer under a really low heat for 15 mins under a lid and it's done! No need to drain. Works well.with basmati rice.

Double the amount of boiling water to rice, cover, in the microwave for 12 mins on medium. (May need slightly less time depending on size of Dennis the menace)

Rinse it well in a sieve and put it in a pan with a lid. Add twice the amount of water (I.e. A whole Dennis the Menice mug!) and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, pop the lid on and turn down to a simmer. From now on, you don't need to stir it. Cook for about ten mins (check it periodically) until it looks mostly dry. Then, lid still on, take it off the heat and leave to stand for five/ten mins. It should have soaked up all the water. Fluff it up with a fork and you should have lovely soft separate grains of perfectly cooked rice!

I add boiling water/stock (double volume by absorption method so one cup rice two cups liquid) to rice that’s been pushed around in oil garlic etc on medium heat until all coated, add the boiling liquid turn heat up put fitted lid on turn heat off and leave, don’t even peek.

Excellent MsHippo that sounds like the one I'll most likely to remember! Thank you!

It’s actually 1.5 water to rice ratio- 2 is too much! Bit of salt and a bit of oil too. Make sure you have rinsed the rice so that the water is clear and not cloudy. Happy rice cooking!

Method I use for basmati rice - wash a couple times to remove starch. I use 1 1/2 cups of water for each cup of rice. Add salt if you use it, I do. Bring to a good boil. Then turn to lowest and simmer for about 15 mins. Do not stir and resist the temptation to check. Once holes start appearing in the rice (looks like you poked a chopstick down the rice) you can turn off the heat, put lid back on and let it steam through.

That works on my cooker with my pan, so timings may need adjusting a little. Not sure if not adding the salt would affect the cooking either.

Rice cooker. Perfect rice every time.

Twice the rice, boil and put lid on, then turn off heat and don't touch for 10 mins.

I work by ratio of mug to water. So one mug of rice equals one mug of water and then a tiny bit more water. Into a saucepan with th3 lid. Heat until boiling, turn down and simmer, when steam is coming up consistently. Turn the hob off and then leave the pan. Don't touch the lid or stir or anything. Just leave it where it is. 15 mins later perfect rice and you just fluff up and salt. No draining.

Steam it.

I love my rice cooker, but do as many above suggest when using a saucepan. When you have measured for a bit you may find you can eyeball the amount of water close enough - it is fairly forgiving. So my standard method starts by measuring rice by the handful ... I would generally give everything a good stir once when I first put it on.

In terms of knowing when it is ready, I find if you take the lid off and it is starting to quietly talk to you - ie faint crackling - then it is perfect (will stick to the bottom if kept on any longer though).

Happy rice cooking!

What about brown rice? I think I just wasted money on a microwave rice pot. All water soaked up but rice still not cooked through.

Rice Cooker. 1 rice 2 water. Switch on. Eat when it switches off.

It depends on the rice and whether you lie it dry or sticky. I use Jasmine rice so I use 1:2.3 rice to water ratio with a drop of rapeseed oil and a punch of salt. Bring to boil and simmer until all water is gone.

I just bung it in with loads of water, boil for x mins [whatever it needs] and rinse in a sieve at the end with boiled water. Much easier than the measuring and faffing rinsing at the start.

Same as singasong - especially the 'holes' in the rice. Take the pan off the heat at that point, whack a lid on and just leave it - about 10 mins gives great rice.

I don't measure the water - stick the uncooked, washed rice in a pan and pour in enough cold water so that if you touched the surface of the rice, it comes up to your first knuckle (the one nearest your nail!). It works with whatever volume of rice I use. A bit weird, but I was taught this by a colleague from Mumbai so it must be right

I don’t bother rinsing basmati, I was told the rice is too delicate. I like to leave it to stand, if I can. I’d half fill your Dennis mug, top up with water, then when you are ready to cook bring it to the boil, stick the lid on, turn off the heat and wait.

Oh no it's not delicate at all. You should rinse the starch off.

I bring water to the boil, add rice, switch the cooker down to the lowest settle & ignore it for 15 mins. Then drain whatever water is left. No rinsing, no faffing. Works every time

I use half a cup of rice, 1 cup of boiling water per person. I never rinse it, just put straight in a pan and bring back to the boil. Put lid on and slow simmer. Takes about 5 minutes. No stirring.

Then just leave the lid on till your ready to serve it. I find that 10 minutes after switching the heat off, does it.

If you stir the rice as it cooks, you knock the starch out of the rice and that’s what makes it gloopy and there’s nothing you can do with it then.

That’s why those Uncle Ben rice bags work so well, you can’t stir it.

I used to mess up rice every single time without fail... until I started microwaving.
Half a Dennis the menace of rice, a whole Dennis the menace of boiling water, micro for 11 mins, perfect! I don't even bother covering it.

You absolutely MUST rinse rice as arsenic builds up on the surface (from contaminated ground water and soils) and in the husk of brown rice.

Brown rice has higher levels of arsenic than huskless white rice.

Rinse rice well five times in hot water.

I use one cup well rinsed basmati rice and 2cups water and I microwave it on high 800 for 12 mins in a glass bowl. I stir once at 6minutes if I can be arsed, though it doesn’t need it.

Fluff up and serve. Sometimes I stir a bit of butter into it.

If you want to remove 60% of the rice without rinsing, just use a 1:6 ratio of water in a pot and boil the rice, then strain it.

From the Huffington post article.... Yes, there is arsenic in your rice

“You can also cook rice in a way that will remove some of the arsenic. While the modern technique of cooking rice in a limited amount water helps retain the most nutrition from the grain, it also retains the arsenic. Boiling the rice in a 6:1 water-to-rice ratio (sort of how you’d cook pasta), draining the excess water once cooked, has been shown to remove up to 60 percent of arsenic levels in rice. Rinsing before you cook can also reduce arsenic levels. In other words, flush the rice with lots of water.”

Bah, that should read 60% of the arsenic....

Removing that amount of rice sounds like a whoopsie with the colander

On the whole arsenic thing is there anything to the theory that easy cook rice has already been processed and therefore arsenic removed or is that bonkers?