Rice without a rice cooker

[steorra]

I keep encountering people who don't know how to make rice without a rice cooker. I grew up making rice in a pot, and have done it for many years, although I currently use a rice cooker that my roommate contributed to the household. I thought I'd post instructions for how to make rice in a pot, in case they're useful to anyone. It's really pretty easy. Here's a recipe for 1 cup of white rice (dry); it can be doubled or tripled or more if you need to make lots.

Put in pot:
1 cup white rice
2 cups water
1/2 t. salt (optional)

Don't put the lid on. Turn on high and bring to a boil.
When it boils, turn the heat down to low and put the lid on. (You might need to wait a minute or so before you can put the lid on without it trying to boil over.)
Set a timer for 20 minutes and leave it alone. Don't lift the lid.
When the timer rings, it should be done.

To make brown rice, cook for 40 minutes rather than 20 minutes. The amount of water may need to be adjusted slightly; I don't make brown rice as much as white rice so I can't give precise instructions.

Comments

[wallwalker]

In my experience it's the same with brown rice - two to one ratio of water to rice seems to do the trick. But you do have to be more careful to turn down the heat enough that the rice won't start sticking to the bottom of the pan. It seems to happen more with brown rice because of the longer cooking time.

[lassarina]

I only just recently got a rice cooker, and I love how easy it makes my life, but I made rice in a pot for fifteen years before that. XD

Helpful cooking tip: bouillon granules (1 tsp per cup of water) add delicious flavour in lieu of the salt, or you can use chicken broth in lieu of water and salt altogether. So nummy. (I really only make plain rice for stir-fry--if I'm serving it with non-stir-fry things, I almost always add chicken broth or flavouring. Mmmmmm.)

[redsnake05]

I love how foolproof it is to cook rice like this. I usually use a little less water and don't put the rice in until the water boils, then stir it once, then put the lid on. I also leave it to sit for ten minutes after taking it off the heat, but it's pretty much the same system and the rice is always so good.

[flamewarrior]

For brown rice I use a 1:3 / rice:water ratio.

[zdashamber]

My roommate whose parents were Chinese from Malaysia always rinsed the rice off before cooking it... I gather it has some sort of starchy covering and rinsing it means the rice will be less gloppy when cooked. The idea is to rinse it until the water runs clean, but I usually just rinse it 2-3 times.

[steorra]

Yeah, I've heard of that and for some particular recipes I do it, but I'm usually lazy and don't bother, and the rice still seems okay to me.

[tamouse]

People rave about their rice cookers, from the low tech to the ultra high tech, yet, can anything be as easy as making rice?