How to make perfect steamed rice – the "absorption method
*** Courtesy of Madhu Menon, the chef and owner of Shiok … Far-eastern cuisine
- What you need
- Long-grain rice – 1 cup
- Water – 1.5 cups
First, you need to wash off the excess starch from the rice. This will prevent it from making a sticky mess. Put the rice in a deep bowl, and in your sink, run cold tap water over it. Once the bowl is full of water, use your fingers to swish the rice around. The water will start getting murky. Now gently pour this water out. Repeat this process till the water is mostly clear. This will take at least 4-5 washes.
Now fill it up one last time. Don’t wash the rice again. Just leave it in there, covered with water, for about 30 minutes or so. This results in a much fuller, softer grain. After the soaking, you will notice that the rice grains have turned a nice milky white.
Drain the water out carefully again. Try and get as much water out of the bowl as you can without pouring out the rice grains as well.
Cooking the rice…
Put the rice in a heavy-gauge pan that has a flat bottom. If your pan is made out of some thin flimsy metal, your rice will get nicely burnt at the bottom while the grains at the top may not cook properly. You also need one with a tight lid, or else the precious steam will leak and your rice won’t cook right.
Now put in the water. I like to add 1/2 teaspoon salt to the rice, but most Asian recipes don’t salt the rice. This is your choice.
Put the pan on medium high heat. Wait till the water boils and starts bubbling. Now turn the heat down as low as you can, cover with the tight lid, and let it just sit there for about 15-20 minutes. Resist the urge to lift the lid and peek at the rice.
After the 15-20 minutes is up, turn off the heat. You still can’t lift the lid. Now you have to let it "stand" for another 10 minutes or so. This will help the rice to "settle" so you don’t have dry grains on top and wet grains at the bottom.
After 10 minutes, lift the lid, take a fork and fluff the rice. You will have nice separate grains without having used any oil, butter, or other fat in the cooking process.
Your rice is ready to serve with whatever you choose.
Cooked rice will increase in volume by 300% of the original raw rice. So if you’re cooking one cup of rice, make sure that your pot can hold at least four cups, preferably five. Otherwise you could end up with a mess as the water spills all over the kitchen top.
Leftover rice can be put in the fridge, and it will make splendid fried rice the next day.
Leave Your Comments