How to cook rice properly

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 392 g water
• 250 g basmati rice
• 3 g sea salt

Instructions

Working time approx. 15 minutes; Rest time approx. 40 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 10 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 5 minutes

Cooking rice properly is not as easy as the average consumer thinks.

First of all, you need a simple digital scale (2 kg, 1 g accuracy) and a plastic beaker with a capacity of about 1000 ml. First, you weigh the beaker. For the sake of example, we’ll assume it weighs 100 g. You pour the rice into the beaker and wash it thoroughly. It will become so cloudy and cloudy that you can hardly see the rice in the beaker. Then you rinse it repeatedly until the water in the beaker is completely clear again. You will need to rinse this about 5-10 times. This step ensures, among other things, that the finished rice doesn’t smell like hamsters or jute sacks. Now you dry the outside of the beaker and place it on the scale. The scale now shows a total weight of 650 g, for example. Since the total weight should be 742 g (392 g water + 250 g rice + 100 g beaker), we add water until this weight is exactly reached. Then we put everything in a pot with the largest possible diameter. First, however, you should sprinkle the salt into the pot if you haven’t weighed it, as this will allow you to correct any pouring errors. Rice weight * 1.57 = Water weight It is very important to maintain this ratio correctly, otherwise the rice will either be too dry or mushy. The rice must now rest in the pot for at least 30 minutes (it can be hours). This allows it to absorb some of the water and the rice grains to become longer. To cook the rice, set the stove to about 2/3 of its maximum setting. My stove has the following settings: 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0; I set the stove to 2.0. Once the water and rice mixture starts to boil and small mounds of rice have formed in the pot, I reduce the temperature to 0.5. After about five minutes, I turn off the heat and let the pot sit on the stovetop. It should rest for another 10 minutes. Maintaining the right temperature here is very important, otherwise the rice won’t cook properly or will overcook. So, first bring it to a boil a little more slowly, then cook it on low heat for a while, and finally let it rest. This all sounds a bit pedantic, but it’s really worth it.