prepared Rice

Ingredients

• 1 cup of long grain Basmati or Jasmine Rice 

• 1 1/2 cup filtered water for each cup of rice

Preparation

Selecting the Rice
Rice recipes vary depending what you are making. Sushi require Japanese short grain rice. This recipe is for rice to serve as a side dish with dinner or for stir fry rice. Don’t even think about grabbing that big bag of Uncle Ben’s or some other rice from your pantry. The rice will stick together and be messy.

Washing the rice
This may seem like work, but it is a necessary step to remove starch from the rice. Carefully measure 1 cup rice. Wash the rice in a large bowl of cold water. Gently rub the grains together with your fingers. The water in your bowl will quickly turn a milky color.  Rinse the rice and discard the water immediately. Rice absorbs water very quickly when you start washing, so don't let the rice absorb the unclear water. Carefully tip your bowl to drain off the cloudy water. Fill your bowl with fresh water and repeat the process a couple of times until the water is almost clear.  Drain the rice in a colander.

Cooking the Rice
Place washed and drained rice into a heavy saucepan, cover a with filtered water and allow to soak for 15 minutes.

Drain water from rice and add 1 1/2 cup of filtered water to each cup of rice.

Make sure to put on a tight-fitting lid and bring to a boil on med high heat. Stir and reduce heat to simmer. Place the lid and do not remove the lid. If the rice wants  to boil over lower the heat slightly. If it persists place the small end of a chopstick under the lid. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove pot from heat. Lift the lid and stretch a tea towel over the pot. Replace the lid and let the rice finish steaming for another 15 minutes.

Urban Cowgill 2023