The Lemon Fool

Thankyou for all these interesting ideas. I will try them and experiment.

As an aside, I have read that it is better to boil rice in a large volume of water because rice contains 10-20 times the [expletive deleted] content of other cereals (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38910848). This article says it is better to soak the rice overnight, but we usually make the decision as to what to eat for dinner about midday, so it is not going to work for us.

Buy this stuff. https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/p ... /257582008 It takes 18 minutes to cook just use plenty of water. The grains are all nice a seperate. In another saucepan, as the rice is cooking I fry multi coloured sweet peppers, sugar snap peas, frozen peas and onion all chopped up very small. When tbe rice is cooked drain it in a colander and add the rice to the saucepan with the fried stuff. Its magic.

You wont need a rice cooker, you wont need to wash the rice before or after cooking and you will never look back.

Nimrod103 wrote:Thankyou for all these interesting ideas. I will try them and experiment.

As an aside, I have read that it is better to boil rice in a large volume of water because rice contains 10-20 times the [expletive deleted] content of other cereals (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38910848). This article says it is better to soak the rice overnight, but we usually make the decision as to what to eat for dinner about midday, so it is not going to work for us.

I was initially concerned about the [expletive deleted] levels in rice but after reading into it when the scare stories occurred it seemed that it should not be a problem for most of us in this country.

If you eat rice once or twice a week, as I do, then you will likely be getting more [expletive deleted] from the other grains you eat.

Studies show problems in children and in areas where the drinking water also contains high [expletive deleted] levels where rice is the staple diet.

I am over 60, I am going to die one day, the chances of my [expletive deleted] consumption via eating rice bringing that date forward significantly seem small.

John

Over the years I have used many methods of cooking rice and I think they all generally work the same.

A lot depends upon your rice, your method of heating and your pan/lid

However the "leave it for 10 minutes" part in many peoples posts got me interested and I added this stage to the rice I cooked on Monday and it really made a big improvement to the fluffiness.

so now my method is thus

1 part rice: 2 parts water
put on lid
heat on full heat until just starting to boil
reduce heat to minimum
leave to water absorbed
remove from heat and leave for 10 minutes without stirring

Paul

Okay I give up. Just what exactly is 'fluffy' rice and why do you want it to be 'fluffy'? It is a desire which seems to have passed me by!

Earlier in this thread I mentioned I used easy cook Morrison's basmati. I thought I did but I actually had the one sans easy bit. So I bought easy cook basmati because I thought that's what I already had, I was very happy with it.

So I admit, there are differences. Easy cookone smelled and tasted of cow manure. I cooked a second batch, same thing. Binned it all.

I am going to buy the expensive Tilda from now on.

midnightcatprowl wrote:Okay I give up. Just what exactly is 'fluffy' rice and why do you want it to be 'fluffy'? It is a desire which seems to have passed me by!

My understanding is that you get 'sticky' rice and 'fluffy' rice. 'Fluffy' rice is where it has a dry texture and the grains are more or less individual even after cooking. Many seem to like that. Most rice you will find in Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong for example is not in the least 'fluffy', not, as has been suggested because it is easier to eat with chopsticks but because they like it that way. As far as the average Cantonese is concerned there is only one way to eat rice from a rice bowl and that is bring the lip of the bowl to your mouth and push it in using the chopsticks, delicately or otherwise.

I confess not to be that fussed about whether it is 'fluffy' or otherwise, but I like Basmati rice boiled in water from cold fro about ten minutes, then I pour boiling water through it in a colander or something to remove the starch.

Dod

midnightcatprowl wrote:Okay I give up. Just what exactly is 'fluffy' rice and why do you want it to be 'fluffy'? It is a desire which seems to have passed me by!

fluffy = separate grains

If you cook long grain rice correctly you will end up with separate, fluffy, grains.

Sushi and Spanish rice are short grained and cooked correctly are softer and stickier.

11kg Tilda basmati sack for £9.50 at Morrisons. There is a difference. When I washed the rice there was already a very nice aroma. Very fluffy too.

Wow, lucky you. £9.50 for 5kg in my local Morrisons.

If you cook long grain rice correctly you will end up with separate, fluffy, grains

Oh okay. That's how my rice does end up i.e. separate and a pleasure to eat grains (at least when I cook Basmati, sometimes I cook different types for different reasons) but I've never thought of it as 'fluffy'. In fact I've never thought of any type of rice cooked any way as 'fluffy'.

N.B. I habitually use Traidcraft Fairtrade Basmati Rice and I habitually use brown rice rather than white - it just tastes so much better and is more satisfying at least to me. Traidcraft rice is not cheap so I can't get into the price comparison thing but being fortunate enough to have an adequate if not large income I'm able to spend more on food I really like and which is a pleasure to both cook and eat.

Imbiber wrote:Wow, lucky you. £9.50 for 5kg in my local Morrisons.

Sorry, 5kg it was, I stand corrected. Still a good deal I assume. They were selling 11kg bags at the local oriental shop, got my rices all mixed up.

Nimrod103 wrote:If anyone has the secret to cooking rice, producing that light fluffy texture, could they please share it?
We have a rice cooker, we have tried washing the rice beforehand or not, but it still tends to form a solid clump.
We usually use Sainsbury or Tesco Basmati rice - should we try something else?

I'm late to this one. I asked my wife, who cooks rice in a rice-cooker. She is from a household where a rice-cooker was used every day throughout her upbringing, and she still uses one now later perhaps twice a week. When presented with your OP, she suggested:

- rinse the rice, agitate it around with your hand but don't leave it for more than a minute or so.
- rinse again quickly and strain/drain.
- add to rice cooker with the quantity of water directed and cook
- when it's cooked and goes into 'Keep warm mode' open it and stir well. Lifting it all up from the base and turning it over, without breaking the grains. This let's off a lot of steam and and loosens up the grains. Then close the lid again until needed.

also:
- don't take the cooking instructions as gospel*; esp. if from the rice-cooker manual. For example one brand of basmati can cook and end up quite differently to another. So don't be afraid to ignore precise directions, but instead adjust them through trial and error until you get the result you want.


* An example of this cropped up last week. She cooked basmati the way it directed and I thought it was seriously over-cooked/claggy/texture-less. Last night she reduced the cooking time and it was waaay better.

@Dodd - yes, always interesting to witness people [esp in Europe] trying to eat rice with chopsticks and failing, without realising long-grain rice isn't eaten with chopsticks, it effectively can't be [QED].
Also interesting to see people in European restaurants demanding chop-sticks with their meal, 'so they eat it in the authentic way, because 'I've been to Asia and I can use chopsticks ok?''... Without realising the dishes they're trying to eat, in their countries of origin, are traditionally and properly eaten with an entirely practical fork+spoon.