How to get rice "right"?

Puggles

Puggles

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I follow a basic recipe that is a 2:1 ratio of water to rice. Put in pot, bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25 minutes. That "works" however, my rice is never fluffy, its more like "sushi rice", sticky and easy to form into shapes. How do I get fluffy rice, like when you go to a restaurant?
 
I know very little about rice, as I don’t cook it much, but I do thoroughly rinse my rice before I cook it and that seems to help quite a bit with the stickiness.
 
TastyReuben said:
I know very little about rice, as I don’t cook it much, but I do thoroughly rinse my rice before I cook it and that seems to help quite a bit with the stickiness.
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I do that too, unfortunately it didn't make a difference for me.
 
It really depends on the rice, as mentioned by CookieMonster . I rarely get sticky rice or anything like sushi rice as my result, but I rarely use Jasmine or another glutinous rice. My main rice are either brown basmati or a medium grained brown rice. Neither require soaking and I don't soak them. Just boil in water and drain when the allotted time is up.

90926


90927


I do have some red rice, and some black forbidden rice, plus arborio rice as well, but they are used much less often.

I am careful not to overcook rice and do drain my rice rather than use the absorption method which tends to result in wet rice is you're not careful. I don't steam rice, never have done and don't have a rice cooker either.

I also have a variety of rice (red glutinous) that is solely for rice rolls. That does need soaking overnight and requires much longer coking times, but it is meant to stick together and does!
 
Puggles - check out this recent discussion, which delved into the technique of boiling rice (like how pasta is boiled) versus the absorption method:

Ever boiled your rice like pasta?

You may want to try that (there’s a link to boiling brown rice in one of my responses). I did try it and reported that the rice was much less sticky, and several others in that topic said they boiled their rice as well and got fluffy results.
 
I would think you could fluff it with a fork and that would help, but I read that you're not supposed to take the lid off. 🤷‍♂️ I don't wanna get a rice cooker because u don't make rice that much to justify buying one and it will be yet ANOTHER appliance in my impossibly small kitchen. My kitchen is so small, I have to leave the room just to change my mind.
 
the 2 parts water to 1 part rice is defined by _weight_ not volume
in small volume quantities it "works" reasonably well.
amounts greater than one-half cup - 118 ml water - it does not work out so well.

I do the Alton Brown method:
2:1 - water:rice
for "brown" rice, add 10% water
bring the pot of water to a boil
add rice (salt/butter...)
when that comes back to a boil,
cover
put in (preheated aka already hot) oven at anything from 350'F/175'C to 425'F/218''C

small batch . . . 15 minutes in oven with 10 minute covered cool down
large batch . . . 20 minutes in oven with 10 minutes covered cool down.

do not uncover in or after oven
fluff up with fork immediately prior to serving.

dead nuts simple, works everytime for the last 15 years
 
CookieMonster said:
the 2 parts water to 1 part rice is defined by _weight_ not volume
in small volume quantities it "works" reasonably well.
amounts greater than one-half cup - 118 ml water - it does not work out so well.

I do the Alton Brown method:
2:1 - water:rice
for "brown" rice, add 10% water
bring the pot of water to a boil
add rice (salt/butter...)
when that comes back to a boil,
cover
put in (preheated aka already hot) oven at anything from 350'F/175'C to 425'F/218''C

small batch . . . 15 minutes in oven with 10 minute covered cool down
large batch . . . 20 minutes in oven with 10 minutes covered cool down.

do not uncover in or after oven
fluff up with fork immediately prior to serving.

dead nuts simple, works everytime for the last 15 years
Click to expand...
I have to say that with the rising costs of electricity and/or gas, the idea of boiling rice and then putting it into the oven for an additional amount of time strikes me as a waste of electricity and money.

If I need rice drier, it just gets returned to the hot saucepan it came from and put back on to the hot ring (hot but not turned on) and the lid put back on to the saucepan and it sits using residual heat. Same with any veg that's been boiled or streamed and needs to 'dry' or be kept warm.
 
actually, most times the oven is already hot for some other thing - in my house. yours may differ.
 
CookieMonster said:
the 2 parts water to 1 part rice is defined by _weight_ not volume
in small volume quantities it "works" reasonably well.
amounts greater than one-half cup - 118 ml water - it does not work out so well.

I do the Alton Brown method:
2:1 - water:rice
for "brown" rice, add 10% water
bring the pot of water to a boil
add rice (salt/butter...)
when that comes back to a boil,
cover
put in (preheated aka already hot) oven at anything from 350'F/175'C to 425'F/218''C

small batch . . . 15 minutes in oven with 10 minute covered cool down
large batch . . . 20 minutes in oven with 10 minutes covered cool down.

do not uncover in or after oven
fluff up with fork immediately prior to serving.

dead nuts simple, works everytime for the last 15 years
Click to expand...
If there's anyone I trust implicitly, it's Alton Brown.
 
Puggles said:
I don't wanna get a rice cooker
Click to expand...
I have a rice cooker and regardless of the type of rice I make in it, it rarely comes out fluffy. After several years, I’ve finally decided to donate it, as I have better luck with rice on the cooktop.
 
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