Interesting - cooking the soaked rice in the oven - can you describe how (temperature and amount of water) please?
Do you soak your rice?
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Interesting - cooking the soaked rice in the oven - can you describe how (temperature and amount of water) please?
garlichead
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I drain the rice, give it another rinse then after adding clean cold water in a 1:1 ratio or a touch more I bring the rice to a simmer or just as it starts to boil, then covered into a 350 oven for about 12 or 13 minutes.
MrsDangermouse
Guru
Well last night I made sure to rinse and soak my basmati rice....and I can't say that I noticed much difference to the finished product. Well except it was possibly a bit soggier than normal 
I cook mine in a pressure cooker (1 cup of rice + 1 cup of water, 4 minutes at pressure followed by 10 mins natural release) so the actual cooking part should be identical each time. I guess I need to use less water if the rise is soaked....but exactly how much less is difficult to measure. The only way I can think of is to weigh the rice raw, weigh it soaked and the subtract that from the water added....but that's far to much faff.
I cook mine in a pressure cooker (1 cup of rice + 1 cup of water, 4 minutes at pressure followed by 10 mins natural release) so the actual cooking part should be identical each time. I guess I need to use less water if the rise is soaked....but exactly how much less is difficult to measure. The only way I can think of is to weigh the rice raw, weigh it soaked and the subtract that from the water added....but that's far to much faff.
garlichead
Über Member
I wasn't expecting cooking rice and pressure cooker in the same sentence. I suspect you'll need to adjust your time for sure as you say. Cheers.Well last night I made sure to rinse and soak my basmati rice....and I can't say that I noticed much difference to the finished product. Well except it was possibly a bit soggier than normal
I cook mine in a pressure cooker (1 cup of rice + 1 cup of water, 4 minutes at pressure followed by 10 mins natural release) so the actual cooking part should be identical each time. I guess I need to use less water if the rise is soaked....but exactly how much less is difficult to measure. The only way I can think of is to weigh the rice raw, weigh it soaked and the subtract that from the water added....but that's far to much faff.
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The only rice I have ever soaked was brown rice. Soaking white rice is a very strange concept to me.
garlichead
Über Member
I don't think there's a right answer, except for sure wash the rice to get ride of arsenic if it's imported from Asia, just to be safe. One Indian chef I knew as well as soaking would fry the rice for quite a long time then add water or stock. Different qualities result in different cooked texture as well. Basically there is quite a bit of nuance in rice cookery. I'm still learning I know that for sure.
Do you mean whole grain brown rice? Rice that still has the outer shell on it doesn't benefit from rinsing or soaking, other than to remove any dirt that might be on it from the farm. The brown "shell" keeps water out. That's how I understand it, anyway.
CD
MrsDangermouse
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I'm surprised you've never heard of it, a pressure cooker is ideal for cooking rice via the absorption method and gives very consistent results (I've cooked rice this way for years).
For an Instant Pot (which is slightly lower pressure than a stove-top pressure cooker) 4 mins is spot on for basmati (on the other hand jasmine only needs 1 minute at pressure) so no need to adjust the time, its the water that I think needs adjusting if you soak the rice. But the question is how to measure it without it being too much of a faff....I don't think there's an easy answer to that, so I think I'll just continue not soaking the rice
I often do that too especially for biryani dishes and kedgeree.
I'm surprised you've never heard of it, a pressure cooker is ideal for cooking rice via the absorption method and gives very consistent results (I've cooked rice this way for years).
For an Instant Pot (which is slightly lower pressure than a stove-top pressure cooker) 4 mins is spot on for basmati (on the other hand jasmine only needs 1 minute at pressure) so no need to adjust the time, its the water that I think needs adjusting if you soak the rice. But the question is how to measure it without it being too much of a faff....I don't think there's an easy answer to that, so I think I'll just continue not soaking the rice
How long does it take from start to finish, as the Instant Pot takes a while to get up to temperature?
CD
MrsDangermouse
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About 20 minutes-ish for one cup of rice (serves 2). It'd probably take a bit longer for larger quantities because the IP would take longer to get to temperature. So its not particularly a time saver, but its convenient and reliable because once you've put the rice on you can just forget about it until its done.
I've never done this. My method of cooking rice is really low investment. Just water in a pot with rice, no seasoning whatsoever, let it boil and absorb the water. This is what I've learned from my parents who were notorious for cutting corners in the kitchen, but I've tried other methods and I always go back to this one, it's easy enough, healthy and tastes good to me.