perfect boil dry rice

There's a couple of secrets to getting perfect boil-dry rice. First the ratio of water to rice should be 1:2- 1 part rice to 2 parts water. For a guideline I would make 250ml rice to 500ml water for 4 people (around 2 cups rice to 4 cups water). Now you may need a little extra water depending on two things- The chalkiness of your rice and the hardness of your water, so you may need to play around with the recipe a couple of times if it doesn't work the first time. Worse case is you get rice that is slightly 'al-dente'. You also need a heavy saucepan and lid or a saucepan with a tight fitting lid. If you don't have this then one trick is to 'seal' the saucepan with tin foil before putting on the lid. Or keep the lid closed with a weight of some form. The most important thing is to make sure that the steam does not escape for the first half an hour of the cooking process. I normally use basmati rice but any long grain rice should work.

Boil water in a kettle.

Put your pan on high heat and throw a knob of butter in.

Once the butter has melted (and not browned) throw in the rice and stir around until the grains become slightly translucent (about 30 seconds) and then add the boiled/boiling water. Put on the lid straight away and drop the heat down to its lowest possible setting. If you are using gas you may need a diffuser. Leave for 30 minutes- Do not remove the lid during this time. After 30 minutes take the lid off, fluff the rice up and leave for a further 5 minutes (at least) before serving (you can leave the heat on during this time).

With thanks to Madhur Jaffrey for the original idea.

2 comments to this

sasha said on 26 Apr 2006 at 10:27:27:

Henrik Kiertzner's recipe (qv) for perfect rice is very similar.

hem said on 26 Apr 2006 at 11:19:08:

the difference would be that with mine you don't have to remember to switch off the heat after 13 minutes.