Mr. Cracker set out to make some fried rice to go with dinner for Mrs. Cracker, and the first step is making just plain rice so you can later stir fry it. Naturally, needing to make the rice perfect for Mrs. Cracker, he checked his recipe for making rice, which he thought had always been equal amounts of rice and water, some salt and then bring to a boil and simmer 20 minutes. Think again…
Try Googling (Googling? Is that even a word?) perfect rice. Every food site on the internet has a myriad of recipes for rice, and all of them have a method for making perfect rice. Except they don’t match!
Genius Kitchen, a site that has a lot of cool recipes to try, says to use twice as much water as rice and cook on medium low. Plus, butter and white vinegar (never cook with white vinegar, it’s for cleaning!) are optional ingredients. Personally, a rice wine vinegar would be a better choice. Or leave it out, rice doesn’t need it.
Bon Appetit, a normally well-respected food publication, specifies equal amounts of rice and water for short grain rice, slightly more water for long grain. It also specifies 18 minutes on low (granted, both low and medium low kind of give you a simmer, but stoves vary and you really need to check yourself) and then a rest for 15-20 minutes to “tighten up.” Whatever that means
Fine Cooking, another good food magazine and source of knowledge, recommends yet a different amount of water, in between the previous two sites. They do explain the reasoning, and recommend you test for yourself. I’m not about to make five batches of rice to see what comes out best, so I’d have to just wing it anyway. Besides, these guys want me to soak my rice first, and suggest 12 minutes as a time and a five to 30 minute rest. What I get from this recipe is that yoiu should try making rice and see how it comes out, then fix it the next time Not much help.
Martha Stewart, who is pretty good at putting on a show and publishing stuff, not so good at investing strategies and possibly not really that good at doing all the stuff she demonstrates (She does have a staff, after all), says one and half times as much water as rice. At least she’s specific. 16-18 minutes of simmering, along with ten minutes of resting to finish steaming, and you have her perfect white rice. She uses long grain rice, but only gets three out of five stars for how well this recipe works out.
The Wanderlust Kitchen, which has some interesting Asian dishes, has a rice preparation that gets pretty detailed. Rinse your rice three times (not four, not two), then boil, cover with a dish cloth, simmer and let the rice sit. Being the most involved, I figured it was the one to try. So…
First, I poured a cup of rice in a pot and added water to cover it. Then I swished it around, got out my best pasta strainer, and dumped the rice into it to drain. All the water immediately drained from the strainer, as it should for pasta, followed by all the rice. Right down the drain. First lesson, use a really fine strainer.
For my second attempt, I got out a mesh strainer and rinsed my rice. Three times. The cloudy water drained away each time, and I worked to get the rice from the strainer back into the pot, but I was diligent. I rinsed three times, exactly as instructed. Then I got all the rice back in the pot, added a cup and a half of water, plus a little salt that the instructions didn’t call for (never hurts to get a little flavor while you can), and set the pan over medium heat. The water was still cloudy. even after three rinses. But the instructions never say it should run clear.
It took a few minutes for the water to boil, then a few more for it to reduce to below the level of the rice, as per the involved instructions, and I got out a clean dishcloth and covered the pot. Then I put the pot lid on, set the timer for 15 minutes, and waited. When the timer went off, I moved the pot off the heat and reset the timer for ten minutes, leaning on the still-hot burner as I did so. Needless to say, boiled rice filled the kitchen.
After getting the rice cleaned off the floor, stove, cabinets, ceiling, cat and windowsill, and a change of rice-infested clothing, I repeated the process again. This time, I set the timer for ten minutes and then moved the pot and turned off the burner. After ten minutes, I opened the pot, removed the soggy dish rag, fluffed the rice with a fork and tested it.
Pretty close to perfect rice. Use it as a side serving or as a base for another recipe, like fried rice or chicken and rice soup.
Making Perfect Rice
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cups Long Grain Rice
- 2 Cups Water
- 2 Tbsp Butter Optional
- 1/2 Tsp Salt Optional
Instructions
- Pour rice into a sauce pot and rinse with running water, swirling rice with your fingers. Fill, swirl and dump the pot three times, then drain it through a mesh strainer. Pour rice back into sauce pot and add the measured water. This rinsing is essential to eliminating the sticky rice syndrome.
Put the sauce pot on the stove burner and turn the heat to medium. For additional flavor, you can add 2 Tbsp unsalted butter and 1/2 tsp salt to the rice at this time. Let the water heat until it boils, then let the water boil away until the water level is just below the rice. Don’t increase the heat, just let it go on medium. This usually takes about five minutes.Once the water level is just below the top of the rice, place a clean dish towel across the pot and put on the lid. Fold the towel back over the lid to keep it away from the burner, and let the rice cook for 15 minutes.When 15 minutes is up, remove the pot from the heat, leaving the lid and towel in place, and the rice sit off the heat for another ten minutes. When ten minutes is up, remove the lid, fluff the rice with a fork and serve.