How to make perfect rice every time

A hot, tenderly cooked heap of rice is comfort food, just the way it is. There are so many ways to define a perfect batch, and as many ways to achieve it, whether you look to musical rice cookers, pressure cookers, bamboo steamers or tightly compressed banana leaves. But cooking rice on the stovetop is arguably the most versatile method. Once you’ve learned how, you’ll be able to make delicious rice anywhere, anytime, without any special equipment. Though water ratios and cook times can be adjusted to taste, understanding the basic steps — rinse, cook, rest and fluff — will help you cook rice perfectly every time.

Rinse, cook, rest, fluff

The foundation of successful rice is a rinse. Some cooks skip it entirely, but washing dry rice gets rid of the extra starch, which can cause an overly sticky, clumpy or mushy batch.

There are many ways to rinse, but our preferred method uses just fingers and a bowl. (You can also use a strainer set inside a bowl to lift the rice up out of the starchy water.) You’ll have to run water through the rice more than you think you do: anywhere from two to six times, depending on the type and what you’ll be using it for, until the water you’re tipping out runs almost clear. Now, the rice is ready to cook.

Water requirements and cook times vary according to grain type, when the rice was harvested and whether it’s been parboiled. So before you start, you’ll want to check the packaging on the rice.

Once you’ve finished cooking the rice, resting it for a little while is crucial. As it sits, covered, off the heat, its starches cool down slightly, which means the grains firm up. After 10 to 15 minutes, you can use a flexible rubber spatula to fluff the still-hot rice if you like, stirring it gently, creating some volume in the pot without squishing the rice. This is also the moment to taste, and to season with a little more salt. The rice is ready. Just keep it covered until you’re ready to eat.

Troubleshooting

It’s easy to figure out where a batch of rice went wrong, and to adjust the next one. And if you’re working on the stovetop, you’re in control: You can adapt the rice as you go along, adding water and cooking for longer if the grains seems dry, or letting excess water evaporate for a few minutes with the lid off if the bottom of the pot is sodden.

The rice is squishy and clumpy. This might be from excess water in the pan, but it could also be the result of skipping two crucial steps: rinsing and resting. Rinsing gets rid of the excess starch that can be responsible for overly sticky rice, and resting is important for the starchy grains, which need time to get back together and firm up after reaching such a high temperature.

Too wet. Some rice varieties, along with rice that has been recently harvested, require less water to cook through. You can reduce the amount of water you use the next time, but you can improvise right now, cooking it for a few extra minutes with the lid off, so as to evaporate as much water as possible. If this happens, and it seems far too wet to eat, you can always make congee.

Scorched at the bottom. A layer of blackened, crisp grains at the bottom of your pan usually means two things: The heat is too high, or the pan’s bottom is too thin. Once the water comes up to a boil, stir the rice well, put the lid on and turn the heat way down to the lowest setting.

Stuck and starchy. Did you rinse? Okay. Then a bit of athletic stirring with a spatula or wooden spoon, when the rice first comes up to a boil, should help release all the grains sticking to the bottom of the pot early on.

Adding mix-ins

Once you’ve learned the foundations of successful stovetop rice, you can make a whole universe of dishes by tweaking the technique, or experimenting with mix-ins.

Adding a few ingredients after the rice is cooked can elevate a pot of rice into a dish, or even a meal. You could roast cherry tomatoes with olive oil and salt, until they burst and the liquid reduces slightly, then mix them into the rice with grated Pecorino, black pepper, ripped up basil leaves and a drizzle of good vinegar. Or, better still, supreme a couple of blood oranges, chop some green olives and mix them into the rice with a little thinly sliced red onion.

You don’t really need a recipe. Just think about a main ingredient and build around it with a supporting ingredient or two and some fresh herbs. No matter what you mix in, add ingredients that are warm, or room temperature, so they can meld nicely with the warm rice.

Using the leftovers

If you end up with rice that’s a little undercooked or overcooked, or just have some left over from a batch that has turned out well, you can always turn it into something else. Portion and freeze it, reheating it a minute at a time in the microwave. Or keep it in the fridge to be used as quickly possible (less than three days). But definitely use it: Leftover rice is a gift.

You can toss it with fresh herbs and drizzle it with yogurt sauce. Saute it in butter with sliced onion and kimchi to make fried rice, or stir in an egg and shape it into patties to crisp in a hot pan. You can also make a Thai-style rice salad by mixing ? cup sliced Thai fermented pork sausage (or other cooked pork sausage) with 1 thinly sliced shallot, 1 thinly sliced bird’s-eye chili, 1 tablespoon julienned ginger, 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice and 1 tablespoon fish sauce. Use your hands to coat about 2 cups of leftover rice with 1 heaped tablespoon red curry paste and 2 tablespoons rice flour. Pan-fry rice in neutral oil until it forms golden, crisp clumps, then toss into the sausage mixture with 1 tablespoon crushed peanuts and a handful of cilantro leaves.

Cook congee by adding about 4 cups stock to 1 to 2 cups leftover cooked rice, and simmering it until the mixture is thick and reduced, somewhere between soup and porridge. Season to taste with soy sauce, then ladle into bowls and top each with a poached egg, 1 teaspoon crushed cashew nuts, 1 teaspoon sliced scallions and a drizzle each of sesame oil and chili oil.

Or, try fried rice. Separate 2 cups of leftover rice with your hands and saute it in batches in a large, hot pan coated with neutral oil. Remove from pan and saute 1 heaped cup of mixed, chopped vegetables until tender. Push the vegetables to the side of the pan so you have space to scramble 2 eggs, then add the rice back to the pan and mix well along with ¼ cup chopped scallions. Season with soy sauce.

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