I have forgotten the trick for cooking rice......ABSENT

I use my microwave rice cooker, glass, but is it not 2 cups of water to a cup of rice....or is that porridge....?

Thats what I thought green but it's not right maybe it is porridge!!!

green the microwave rice cooker is not big enough for us all, sometimes think I am feeding China.

Double volume of water to rice if it's white rice.

Oh, I was right after all, then!

My hand must have slipped then

Sorry glass I've only just seen this. Most unhelpfully, it rather depends on the type of rice.

White basmati: allow 11/2 cups water to 1 cup rice and cook for only 10 minutes in a covered pan (absorption method), providing you have rinsed it well before cooking and, preferably, then left to soak for 10 minutes in cold water. Brown basmati should be prepared in the same way, but cooked for 25 minutes.

Other white long-grain rices are best cooked in an open pan. In other words, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the rice, bring back to the boil and cook for 12–15 minutes (white) or 30–40 minutes (brown/wholegrain). Drain well and rinse with boiling water.

Thai fragrant rice: Allow 11/4 cups water to 1 cup rice and cook by the covered absorption method. Do not add salt. Thai rice takes a little less time than basmati.

Thank you absent it was white basmati and I do the absorption method but I had put 2 to 1, thats probably why it was ploppy.

Take one packet of frozen rice. Place in microwave for one minute. Put on Plate. Eat.

mishap

glass I always soak for 1/2hr and put 1 x cup rice to 2 1/2 cup of boiling water,the soaking stops it going all gloopy when I have drained it I rinse again with boiling water and leave to drain.oh I use basmati also. Strange how stuff we do on a regular basis gets us stumped sometimes I had this last week with pastry measures.

Mishap, the frozen rice I use (four individual portions in a bag) would still be rock-hard if I only microwaved it for one minute!

Madhur Jaffrey recommended 3 parts rice to 4 parts water. Put foil over top of pan and then the lid. I think it was about 11 minutes on low flame. I use a microwave rice steamer.

I use the foil packs of Tilda or similar, as 1/2 pack is enough for one meal for me, and I freeze the remainder for next time.

I always soak rice (Basmati) in cold water for between two and three hours before using. Then rinse under cold tap, plunge into lots of boiling water (with a pinch or two of salt), cook for no more than five minutes, then drain immediately and allow to steam on its own for a bit (at this stage the rice probably carries on cooking), fluff up gently with a fork, serve. If not using immediately, put rice in a casserole or Pyrex dish with a few knobs of butter and some ground pepper, cover, and heat gently in oven ten minutes before needed. Perfect every time!

I've forgotten too, also all other forms of cooking! DH took over about 18 months ago so I never get involved any more. I have selectively forgotton in the same way as he has selective deafness!

Blimey! I never wash or soak rice and it's always fine! I often cook it in home-made chicken stock, in a covered dish, in the oven.

Why is one supposed to wash it anyway? I could understand a rinse if it was coming out of a grubby sack, but in the cellophane packets or boxes it usually comes in I wouldn't have thought there was any need.

Those of you who soak it, do you then cook it in the same water?

I don't soak it but I do rinse it before cooking. A lot of dust gets washed off, even when it was in a cellophane packet, which would have made it sticky if it had been left.

Soaking isn't the same as washing. By soaking the rice you get rid of some of the starch - hence the shortened cooking time and the best results. And no, Bags, I don't cook the rice in the soaking water. That would defeat the object!

But if you wash off some of the starch, aren't you just washing away some of the food value? And most of the food value of white rice is starch (carbohydrate).

The Japanese like their rice as sticky as possible, apparently.

As said, depends very much on the type of rice. I only use basmati, wash it to get rid of starch and cook it as 'al dente' as possible, 1 cup of rice for 2 of water - boilf for about 5 mins with lid on, no stirring- then switch off and leave to steam finish.

I have Type 2 diabetes and try to eat low GI foods. (glycemic index = which indicates how quickly or slowly the starch turns into sugar).

Sticky rice as a very high GI, but basmati al dente a low one. Just like baked (older) potatoes has high GI, and new pots low. It's all to do with the starch content, not the sugar actually. Another reason why I have porridge made with big rolled out, not the small mushy starchy ones.

Thanks, jura. I tend to use wholegrain basmati rice. I suppose the glycemic index of that will be lower than for white rice, plus you get some fibre. DH cooks rice the same way as you do except that he rarely cooks.