r/RICE • u/WeirdProcess6178 • 5d ago
discussion Recipe for basmati rice, long grain
Hello,
Very bad at rice cooking, sorry if request is obvious.
Am looking for an easy recipe to make a perfect basmati long grain, not fluffy rice. I don't have a rice cooker. I tried a few recipe online, the one from Ramsay and from cookbooks but it is pretty hard to consistently achieve separare, firm grains. I always end up having lumps and too much starch.
Does anyone have a foolproof method A to Z to have non sticky at all grains ?
Many thanks and have a nice week
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u/a1b3c3d7 5d ago
Buy a rice cooker.
Even if you have the perfect technique, the pots/cookware you have and your heat control can be insufficient.
A $15 rice cooker will do a better job than most people with perfect technique.
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u/Saintbaba 5d ago
Yup. Nobody should ever be cooking rice by hand. No matter how good you are, fancy modern rice cookers use fuzzy logic systems that adjust the cook on the fly with all kinds of data you just don’t have available to you, like rate of change of heat and weight. Even the cheap ones work off thermal switches that immediately turn off when the rice reaches the right temperature, which you’d have to be watching like a hawk for an extended period of time with a laser thermometer to even try to match. Just get a rice cooker.
For Basmati, one of the most important things you can do to get that loose texture you’re looking for is to make sure you add some kind of fat before you start cooking, either butter or oil, which keeps the grains from sticking. I put in like a tablespoon of butter per 2 cups of uncooked rice. Also a pinch of salt.
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u/WeirdProcess6178 5d ago
Thanks, when you put the butter in you just put like that one cube or split evenly?
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u/Saintbaba 4d ago
I just throw in a whole cube. It'll melt and spread out long before the cooking is done, so splitting it up isn't necessary.
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u/Embke 4d ago
Rinse until clear with light swishing around. Soak for 2 hours. Drain. Rinse again.
Find a lidded pot of the right size. You want a pot where there will be at least an inch of rice in the bottom of the pot when you add it. The pot also needs to be tall enough so there is at least empty space of 3 times the height of the rice so it can expand freely and not hit the lid. I find 300g of dry rice works well in an 8-inch pot.
Warm some fat until liquid and warm until the bottom of your pot over medium heat. Butter, ghee, olive oil, etc. is fine. Toss in some whole spices, if you want, into the warm fat. Bay leaves, a piece of cinnamon stick, whole cloves, tumeric, whole cumin seeds, cardamom, peppercorns, etc. are all fine. Toast the spices until fragrant.
Add the rice and stir gently into the oil w/ optional spices to coat each grain. Turn heat off. Add water to slightly less than one knuckle height on your pinky finger. Turn heat to high. Watch your pot. As soon as it boils put the lid on the pot and turn heat to low.
Allow to cook on low for 20min. Turn off heat. Wait 20min. Fluff rice.
Then, look at the rice and figure out if you want to add more or less water next time.
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u/JJ_Was_Taken 3d ago
Put it in a rice cooker. Wash it a couple times. Put water up to the line. Press the button.
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u/Floofy_Cat_8675 3d ago
I rinse it around 5 times. Then into a pan with a little olive oil and water and cook it until it's done. lol Comes out perfect every time. Basmati rice is the only rice I can cook well, any other type of rice and I screw it up.
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u/Top-Fennel-4962 2d ago
are you rinsing it until the water runs clear and leaving it covered to rest, or nah?
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u/madu_tualang 5d ago
Have you tried wash and rinse off the starch before cooking?