I've made a lot of rice over the past few years of owning a griddle, and my goto method is to use the instant pot, as it has a "white rice" and a "brown rice" setting. I just add the rice and water (1.5 cups water to 1 cup rice), and then I hit the start button on the IP. For fried rice, I spread it out on a sheet pan and let it cool and dry in the garage fridge (kitchen fridge usually is crammed full of crap and doesn't have a clear shelf), then fry that night or next day.
I kinda alternate between jasmine and basmati when I buy rice. Or sometimes brown jasmine as SWMBO prefers brown rice as she considers it healthier.
I've used the Instant Pot a bunch to make my rice too. I do love that I can throw it in long before dinner and use the "Keep Warm" feature so it's not something I have to fuss with when I have a bunch of other things to cook.
I was lucky enough to do some communications work for a good Asian restaurant in Encinitas, CA years ago. When I finished he asked me what I wanted to eat on him. Having ate there before I developed a liking to thier rice. It had a bite or texture I enjoyed but could not duplicate. Instead of a meal I asked him to show me how they make their rice. It is a lot like how hoovarmin details except it uses a little less water for the cook. I find Uncle Ben's converted rice comes the closest to the texture of the rice they served. VERY YUMMY!
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My method is similar to what you describe, minus the soaking. I’m right at or just over 1:1 ratio - I start with the lid and let it hard simmer until I can’t see water then I turn off the heat and let it sit until everything else is ready. This works pretty good. My wife cooks it differently, no lid until a boil/simmer for a bit, then down to low until fully cooked. That works as well
But, I do have an Instapot, or my wife does rather, that I don’t know how to use but I like how some have mentioned the keep warm function. I’d like to do fried rice on the griddle and that may be the easy way of cooking during the day while working and letting it cool in the afternoon for a dinner cook.
hoovarmin - we buy the big bags of Jasmin from Costco and keep them in 5 gallon food grade buckets. We have a small bag of brown rice but I don’t know what brand that is.
Every now and then, I do like to cook Bomba Rice by Matiz - this is more of a paella or risotto short grained rice. But that’s not often. It’s good just as white rice but it’s usually for my paella.
Got a 20+ year old rice cooker I picked up at a garage sale. Rinse the rice in a mesh strainer, add it to the pot, and then fill to the proper line with store bought chicken stock. Homemade stock doesn't do the trick here. Add a pat of butter and a sprinkle of salt and push the white rice button.
When I remember to think about it I cook twice as much as I need and then use the leftovers for fried rice the next day or two.
My process is similar, but a little simpler than JoeSousa's approach. I use a simple rice cooker I picked up at Aldi a number of years ago. We use jasmine rice in a rice:water ratio of 1:1.25. Polish/rinse the rice in a strainer, add water, hit the lever and that's it. It's done when the little lever pops back to the 'warm' position. We might put a splash of oil to reduce foaming, but that is totally optional. Any seasoning is done after the fact, including salt. This leaves a blank canvas for us to season, sauce, or whatever with. It's perfect every time.
If I need some rice in a hurry, then I'll use my analog pressure cooker (IP is too fancy for me), which works fine, too.
hoovarmin you started me down a rabbit hole about rice prep and cooking. I found some interesting articles from Cooks Illustrated. As noted in other posts, the reason to wash white rice is to remove starch left over from milling. Otherwise the rice may stick together too much. Whole grain and brown rice will not benefit from rinsing beyond removing extraneous debris that should not be in the rice since the hull covers the grain.
What I found most interesting is an experiment where they tested 17 varieties of rice including white, brown, whole grain and black. To determine how much water each type of white rice absorbed, they essentially put them in sealed bags with water and cooked them with sous vide (200 degree water) every type absorbed an equal amount of water to rice in a 1:1 ratio when cooked properly. The difference in cooking on a stove top is the amount of water that is evaporated. Since white rice cooks more quickly than brown, less water evaporates. In their cooking set up (using a pot with a lid on a stove top burner) during cooking, one cup of rice evaporated 3/4 of a cup of water. Therefore when cooking they would add 1 and 3/4 a cup of water to one cup of white rice. The amount of extra water will depend on your particular pot and pressure and how well the top seals. Of interest, when doubling the amount of rice you don't need to double the whole amount of water. So, if cooking 2 cups of dried white rice, they would add 2 cups of water plus the same 3/4 cup of water and the rice would come out just fine.
Since brown rice takes longer to cook, more water will need to be added to allow for more evaporation. But in the end, one cup of brown rice still absorbs 1 cup of water to be cooked properly. The above doesn't drastically change how I cook rice but at least I understand it more. Now it is time to dig out of the rabbit hole before I get in trouble.
GolfGeezer that is exactly what the CI article said they found. However, the amount evaporating will depend on your particular set up. And just because you asked, I did an experiment tonight. I poured 1 3/4 cup of water into two sauce pans - a small and a medium-sized. Brought the water to boil and covered and simmered for 20 min on the lowest stove setting. After 20 min I measured the amount of water left. The medium pot evaporated almost 3/4 cp while the small pot only 1/3 cup.
SandPiper. Crazy! At least to my small brain, but can’t argue the results. Based on all this input, and the pots I use, I need to cut down on my 1 cup of Uncle Ben’s to their recommended 2.25 cups water. I struggle with “mushy” rice using their recommended quantities.
For everything white, except basmati, I don't rinse or soak. I put 1:1.5 rice:water in a pot just big enough to hold it. Bring to a boil uncovered. Turn down to bare simmer, cover pot. Cook 20 min. Rest 10 min. Perfectly fluffy every time.
hoovarmin I usually make fried rice with leftovers and the texture is very good. SWMBO just made kimchi fried rice last night with day-old long grain and it came out beautifully.
I tried the method originally posted hoovarmin Nothing scientific or some kind of comparison, just rice. Using jasmine rice and a rice cooker the rice came out great after soaking. Even better was the leftover rice the next day. It did not dry out or clump up together. It would have been perfect for fried rice. Unfortunately the rice was topped with leftovers not fried. Next time--if time, I will use this method for fried rice.
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Jasmine Rice .... 2 cups rice, 2 1/4 cups water, a pinch of salt. Throw it all in a 3 quart pot, cover, turn to high for 3 1/2-4 minutes. It should just come to a boil. Give the rice a quick stir, then cover, and turn down to low. Cook on low for 15 minutes, stirring once at the halfway mark. When the timer goes off, turn off the heat and leave it alone for 5 minutes. Don't even take the lid off to see if there's rice in the pot. At the end of 5 minutes, fluff the rice with a fork and serve.
Comes out like Chinese restaurant rice every time.
It's just me eating so too much rice is just too much. I do have affection for Minute Rice Cilantro & Lime in the pre-made cups. That with some mashed seasoned black beans makes a great burrito filling along with Pico and cheese.
My favorite rice is Lundberg Farms short grain brown rice. I don't make fried rice often, but I need to because of bumper crop of snow peas!
hoovarmin , coming back to the rice thing here. One technique I've seen for fried rice is to use day-old rice, or rice that is a little bit drier. One cook will leave rice uncovered in the fridge to dry it out. Regardless, I have found that leftover white rice works best for fried rice. But like most things, your mileage may vary.
Most of the time, when I make fried rice, it is with leftover rice that has dried out in the fridge. Every now and then I will make it with freshly cooked, but when I do I spread it on a sheet pan and put a fan on the counter top to blow on it.
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