Wednesday, 22 July 2009

• Basic Rice: Rice Cooking Basics and How to Choose a Rice Cooker

  
  Basic Rice
  Rice Cooking Basics and How to Choose a Rice Cooker
  

  
  

  
  

  
  We're starting this off with the most basic of rice -- simple white rice cooked in a rice cooker.  No frills.  Just rice.
  
  I have a confession.
  
  I didn't know how to cook rice until I was 18.
  
  This is particularly embarrassing, because I know children whose daily chores include preparing and cooking the rice, and they're like... five years old.  It was my little sister's job to make rice every day when we were kids.  Yes, I could take that cooked rice and turn it into great rice-based dishes, but I didn't know how to operate a rice cooker for an entire decade after I started rudimentary cooking.
  
  One night after dinner, I confessed that I didn't know how to make rice; and my mother was bewildered.  I probably just made some kind of Malaysian Nasi Goreng with Tiger Prawn, Bamboo Shoot and Cilantro Omelette. 
  
  

  In Guy Speak, this is like removing your Intake Manifold, Porting and Polishing it, Installing a Fuel Rail with 1300cc injectors with a new standalone EMS and then confessing to your buddy that you didn't know the first thing about how to change the oil (10W30... isn't that some kind of spray lubricant?).

  
  I was too afraid to ask.  At some point, it just became embarrassing.  I just made excuses for ten years.  Best to learn the fundamentals early.
  
  Mind you, this was before our great Internet age where one can *cough* look up "How To Cook Rice" and be presented with a wonderful blog with beautiful photo instructions and information about Amylose and Amylopectin starch ratios *cough* -- so I had to 'fess up and ask Mom.  I was leaving home, after all, and I'd have rather asked Mom than look like an idiot in front of a girl I was trying to impress.
  
  She went on to tell me that she didn't actually like the way we made rice at home; but we ate rice this way because it was the way my Dad and my Sister liked it.  But she was going to show me how her family made rice, so I could make rice that way too.  This was good because I didn't like the way my Dad and my Sister liked their rice either.
  
  Dad still likes his rice the old way.  Sis has been successfully converted.  I suppose it helps that she's a foodie now and can appreciate texture other than "mush".
  
  
  
  
  

  * * * * *
  

  
  
  
  
  The rice we're dealing with today is going to be a Long Grain Jasmine Rice -- my personal favorite for general consumption in Asian cooking. 
  
  It's still a little sticky, making it easy to pick up with chopsticks in clumps; but still low enough in starchiness so that it doesn't feel like you're eating mushy rice paste.  It also has a nice Jasmine fragrance and a medium-firm tooth to the bite, which I find pleasant.
  
  
  

  Generally speaking, cooking a single kind of rice has three variables:
  
  
  

  1)  Cooking Method
  2)  Rice to Liquid Ratio
  3)  Amount of times Rice has been washed and rinsed
  

  
  
  As for Cooking Method:  Because we are approaching this under controlled conditions; and because basic rice cookers are cheap (seriously, just go buy one).  In later CHOW: A Taste of Love entries, I will cover how to cook rice dishes in other more traditional methods, but for the sake of our basic rice-making today, we're going to go with the most fail-safe method.
  
  Let's talk Gear.
  
  In a rudimentary search of our world wide web (does anyone even call it that anymore?), I discovered pages ranging from giving decent rice-cooker purchasing advice to downright paranoid.  What I didn't find though, was advice from someone who uses a rice cooker every day, who has had rice cookers spanning the full range from cheapest to most expensive, who knows the science behind cooking rice, and who practices the art of cooking with that rice.
  
  *cough*
  
  There's a few options, but here's what you should know about getting a Rice Cooker:
  
  
  

  1)  Get one that has automatic self-turn off for the cooking cycle and a WARM setting to hold the rice for later.
  
  

  This kind of goes without saying, or your rice will overcook.  Plus if you forget about your rice, like the paranoid guy I mentioned earlier thinks, OMG your house will catch on fire and you will die.  And that's not Good Eats.  Most rice cookers have these nowadays.
  
  The WARM setting is very handy.  I cook rice as part of the morning routine, and at night I have rice to eat.  Plus, rice tastes best after it's cooked and left for a while on warm (instead of eating it right after the indicator light goes from COOK to WARM).
  

  
  2)  Get one with indicator lights.  At least COOK and WARM.
  
  

  Because if you don't know when your rice is done, that doesn't help you much.
  

  
  3)  Get one with a Non-stick rice pan/bowl inside.
  
  

  I don't think I've ever seen one without a non-stick bowl, but I guess there are some lurking out there somewhere waiting to ambush unsuspecting and unknowing rice-cooker buyers.  But you've been warned so you won't be caught up by the nefarious ploy of sticking rice cookery anymore.
  

  
  4)  Get one that's appropriate for how much Rice you'll be eating most of the time.
  
  

  If you cook for One or Two like me, making rice in a 10-cup rice cooker is bad.  Lots of internal volume, small volume of rice and water makes for undercooked rice.  I actually have three rice cookers:  A 3-cup for myself, a 5-cup for cooking for 4, and a 10-cup for cooking for parties.  If you're cooking for One or Two people, a 3-cup cooker is best.
  

  
  5)  Get one with a Locking lid that has a Steam Vent.
  
  

  Don't worry about glass lids, you don't need to watch your rice cook.  That's like watching your slow cooker cook.  It's very boring.  Its not like an oven, where you want to watch the browning on your baked goods.  Your rice is not going to burst into flames.
  
  Locking lids and Steam Vents are important though, because otherwise, the steam will bubble out of the edges of the lid; making for an annoyingly noisy rice cooker clacking for half an hour, and uneven steam venting, plus a mess of rice goo all over the place.
  

  
  6)  Additional features might be cool, but are not necessary.
  
  

  If you have a lot of money and want to get the most awesome rice cooker ever, ok sure, go wild.  The whole Smart Rice Cooker thing is neat, but really, it's WTF Rice.  There are better kitchen gadgets to spend money on than a $300 dollar rice cooker that can sing Ella Fitzgerald to you while cooking your rice.  I'd pay that for a girl who would do that; but not for a rice cooker.
  
  Digital Displays, Multiple-Cooking Modes, built-in MP3 players, Dimensional Rippers, and Transwarp Drive are all cool, but really again, unnecessary.  Remember, if Mr. Scott's grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon.  Things like Steaming Trays are cool, but you can do that on the stovetop better (more on that later).  One handy thing that's kind of nice is a slot to keep your Rice Scooper on the side of the cooker though.
  

  
  

  
  I used to have an pretty awesome Zojirushi Induction Rice Cooker.  I think The Ex nabbed it when she took off.  Either that, or someone walked off with it while I was passed out drunk one night in the months following said taking-off.  Who knows.  To this day, I'm still not quite sure what's gone, and I'm still discovering that things are missing when I need them.  It's funny, yes -- but not so funny when you have a screaming hot cast iron pan burning at 600 degrees and no oven mitts in sight. 
  
  Anyway.
  
  If you can afford it and want a good rice cooker that will last you a long time, go for a Zojirushi unit.  I've been using a range of their various products for over fifteen years and don't have a single complaint.
  
  Here's what Amazon.com has:  Clicky clicky.
  
  
  
  
  

  * * * * *
  

  
  
  
  
  Ask five different people to make rice, and you will end up with five different bowls of rice.
  
  This is because no one sits around and tests rice technique, and instead learns how to make rice from Mom or Grandma or whoever.  Because Mom and Grandma grew up in different times with different gear and different rice, we end up with all sorts of rice cookery.
  
  Paternal Grandma liked super bland and mushy food all her life.  Thus, Paternal family tends to eat rice overly mushy.  Paternal family tends to not wash their rice much, and uses too much water to make a larger puff of mushy rice.  You see, Paternal family had a noble name but was poor growing up; and the bigger the rice grain when eaten, the more space it took up in the stomach, hence the fuller you were from less food.
  
  Maternal Grandma's family was ludicrously wealthy.  Like, hello welcome to our island(s) wealthy.  Like, we used to be a f*cking kingdom back in the day wealthy.  So they had all kinds of chefs hanging around who really knew what they were doing and had an unlimited budget doing their thing.
  
  Let's cover the other two main variables now:  Amount of Times Rice is Washed and Rice to Water Ratio.
  
  Washing your Rice:
  
  

  Back in the day, washing your rice was a necessity.  This was because unscrupulous rice merchants used to coat their rice with all sorts of toxic crap to make it look whiter and more appealing.  Stuff like, I don't know, rat poison.  Which repelled rats for sure, but I don't think goes over very well when eaten.  So older folk tend to wash their rice a lot.
  
  These days, merchants don't do that anymore.  At least not with rice sold in the US.  So these days, washing rice has less to do with cleansing the toxic stuff off of it than it does with controlling the level of starch on the surface of the rice.  You see, rice gets pulverized during processing and packaging, resulting in powdered rice starch coating your rice grains.
  
  
  
  The less you wash your rice, the stickier it will be because of the gelatinizing of the Amylopectin starch in the pulverized rice coating the whole grains.
  
  
  
  The more you wash your rice, the less sticky it will be, and the more the grains will separate after cooking.
  
  I tend to follow a c+1 (# of cups of rice +1) formula for washing rice:
  
  

  2 cups of rice = 3 times wash and rinse
  3 cups of rice = 4 times wash and rinse
  4 cups of rice = 5 times wash and rinse
  5 cups of rice = 6 times wash and rinse
  

   
  Or in plain English, wash the rice one more time than the number of cups of rice itself.  The water on the final rinse should be fairly clear.  This usually gives me the stickiness I like in my rice.  When a stickier rice using the same grain length is required, simply wash the rice less.  When a looser rice (for example, when making rice pilaf) using the same grain length is required, simply wash the rice more.
  

  
  
  Rice to Water Ratio:
  
  

  People have all kinds of ratios to use, mostly learned from Mom or Grandma who made rice in a pot; with varying levels of sealing/ venting, varying levels of heat BTU's coming into the pot, and varying types of rice and rice washing techniques.
  
  I ballpark it with just a little more water than the amount of rice.  What this gives me is rice that is "Al Dente"; with just the right amount of tooth to the bite. 
  
  For example, for 2 cups of rice, I use 2-1/8 cups of water.  For 4 cups of rice, I use 5-1/4 cups of water.  A mistake a lot of of people make when trying to get rice less sticky and mushy is to use less water.  I've seen people use 2-1/2 cups of water for 3 cups of rice.  This makes your rice less sticky, but also gives you undercooked rice. 
  

  
  
  Here's a few more tips for making good rice:
  
  

  1)  Soak your rice first, before you cook it.  Thirty minutes is usually enough.  This allows for the grain to hydrate before cooking, so you end up with more evenly cooked rice texture.  It's not necessary but helps.
  
  2)  Make sure the rice has time to rest and fluff.  Rice might be technically 'done' in twenty five minutes, but it needs to sit in the cooker for another half an hour or so before it's best to eat.  This is why the "warm" function is handy -- you can cook it during the day, and let it rest while you're not home.  Again, it's not necessary but makes for better rice.
  
  3)  Don't make less than 2 cups of rice at once.  It just doesn't come out right (having to do with the internal volume of the rice cooker vs. volume of rice/ water being cooked).
  
  4)  If you want some interesting flavor in the rice, add some butter and/or chicken stock.
  

  
  
  
  
  

  * * * * *
  

  
  
  
  
  And now, for the most un-necessary picture instructions for cooking something, ever.
  
  INGREDIENTS:
  
  

  1.000 qty. Long Grain Jasmine Rice
  1.167 qty. Water
  

  
  PROCEDURE:
  
  
  

  
  

  
  If you can find one of these washy tubs, they're great.  I use it not only for washing rice, but for washing fruits and vegetables.  It keeps the food in the bowl while you can strain the water out the side between wash cycles.
  
  
  

  
  

  
  Pour your rice into your wash bowl (or the rice pot).  Swirl it around with your hand.  Don't grab it and crush it or grind it -- that only produces broken grains and more loose Amylopectin starch.  Wash your rice one time more than the amount of cups of rice you are making.
  
  
  

  
  

  
  Add the washed grains into your rice pot.  If you're washing in the rice pot, nevermind.
  
  
  

  
  

  
  Add a smidgen more water than cups of rice you're cooking.  For 2 cups, I use 2 1/8 cups of water.  For 4 cups, I use 4 1/4 cups of water.
  
  
  

  
  

  
  The water should roughly come up to your first knuckle when plunging your hand into the pot, while executing the Dim Mak against it.  Put the rice pot into the rice cooker.
  
  
  

  
  

  
  Very important:  Remember to tell the rice cooker to actually cook the rice.  I don't know how many times I've just put the rice pot in the rice cooker and forgot to turn it on. 
  
  Durrr.
  
  Come back in about half an hour or when the COOK light goes to WARM.  Or stand there and stare at the rice cooker for half an hour.
  
  
  

  
  

  
  Yay!  We've cooked rice!  Give yourself a Star!
  
  
  

  

  
  

  Plate and Serve.
  

  
  
  
  
  

  * * * * *
  

  
  
  
  
  I know I make fun of making basic rice, but mastering the fundamentals is necessary to build a strong foundation in anything -- not only cooking, but in any and every thing we do.
  
  Longtime readers know me for two things:  I cook and I fight.
  
  I don't care if you can do all sorts of fancy moves or a series of flying spinning moves through the air that look really cool.  If you don't have the fundamentals in balance, power transfer, and focusing rotational energy into a single aimed striking point, IF your strike even lands, it's not going to do much.
  
  A Chinese Martial Arts Proverb says: 
  
  

  I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times

  
  There are noodle shops I go to every single time I visit a city, not because the old man making the noodles knows how to make 10,000 kinds of noodles; but because he makes ONE kind of incredible, mind-blowing noodle.  Every city and every culinary culture can relate to this; whether it be Sushi that makes your brain go blank when you eat it, or a Moussaka that people drive a hundred miles for, or something as simple as the best Baguette on the planet (which, btw, is made by a guy named Jean-Pierre Cohier in Paris).
  
  I would rather fight the fancy spinning guy with the elaborate hand movements who doesn't really know what he's doing than the guy that stands there, waits for you and then counterstrikes you straight through your guard with a left cross so devastating and precise that you don't even remember getting hit when you eventually wake up.  It's shots like that which end fights quick.
  
  No, we won't be winning any awards for making really good rice; but it's a good place to start.  You never know, maybe one of these dishes we make together, or some of the techniques you learn here will be developed into a powerhouse, winning dish of your own someday.
  
  Let's start here, with the basics, and let's do it right this time.
  
  My Love and Aloha, as always.
  -MC
  

  

  • 9:20 PM
  • 258 Views
  • 14 eProps
  • 10 Comments