Confession: I am nervous every time I make rice.
It doesn’t matter that I’ve been making it since I was ten in my father’s kitchen. It doesn’t matter than I’ve made it many MANY times as an adult in my own kitchen. Every time I make it, I second-guess myself and have to look up rice ratios and time tables online. I debate how much to salt the water. And I hover over the pot, trying to peer through the steamed-up lid, and stress over whether or not it’s cooked.
This post is designed to help me tackle my nerves head-on. If you’ve ever questioned yourself when standing in front of a pot of boiling (hopefully salted!) water, I hope it will calm your anxiety too.
While there are many different methods for cooking and flavoring rice, I have chosen to focus on four specific techniques in this post. The first two, steaming and boiling, are simple methods for how to effectively cook plain rice. The last two, pilaf and risotto, focus on techniques for developing flavor in the rice during cooking. For each method or technique, I have included some quick facts and tips, as well as links to recipes on my blog that utilize that particular method. Read straight through or skip around and use as a reference as you please!
Steaming
Steaming is one of the most common ways to cook rice. It can also be the most intimidating. A precise amount of rice is stirred into a precise amount of boiling water. The pot is then covered and left to simmer for a precise amount of time . . . and you’re not allowed to lift the lid to check on it.
Nerve-wracking.
Some people buy a rice cooker just so they don’t have to do this process on their own. I, however, do not have room on my tiny NYC apartment counter for a unitasker, so I steam my rice the old-fashioned way: in a pot on the stove.
Here are some tips that I’ve picked up on my rice-steaming journeys so far. They do not guarantee your rice will be perfect every time, but they will increase your chances of getting a tastier, better-cooked result.
Start with the right amount of water. I’ve read a wide range of water to rice ratios online, but the ratios that always work for me are 1 ½ cups water for 1 cup white rice and 2 cups water for 1 cup brown rice.
Salt that water! Rice can be so bland, so don’t waste this critical opportunity to give it flavor! If the cooking water isn’t salted, no amount of seasoning after the fact will make up for it! I like to add a three-finger pinch for every ½ cup of rice I am cooking, and I always add it into the pot as the water is coming up to temperature, so the salt has time to dissolve in the water before the rice goes in.
Drop the heat and start the timer. Once the salted water is boiling, add the rice and stir to evenly distribute around the pot. The rice will have lowered the water’s temperature, but as soon as it begins boiling again, drop the burner heat to low, cover the pot, and start the timer. I use 15 minutes for short-grained white rice and 35 minutes for medium-grain brown rice. Note: all stove burners are different, and sometimes their strength varies from burner to burner. If you don’t know your stove well, keep an eye on the pot for the first five minutes. You should be able to see a gentle simmer. If the water appears to be rapidly boiling, turn the heat down! If you don’t see any simmering at all, turn it up.
Just check it. When the timer goes off, you need to check that rice, regardless of whether there appears to be water left in the pot. Remove the lid and taste a few grains. The rice should be al dente, but not hard.
Don’t be precious. If the rice is not done at this point, don’t freak out. If there’s still water in the pot, bring the rice back up to a simmer and leave it for another five minutes. If there isn’t, add a little more water to continue the cooking. I am aware that this is probably culinary-school heresy. No chef in a 5-star restaurant would dream of doing this, HOWEVER, we’re at home. It will be fine.
Collect leftover moisture. Once the rice is fully cooked, turn off the heat and insert a piece of paper towel between the lid and the pot. Let the rice sit off the heat for 10 minutes. The paper towel will absorb any residual moisture, leaving the rice nice and fluffy!
Boiling
Yes, you can cook rice just like you cook pasta. This method is quicker and more stress-free because you don’t have worry about water ratios (you’re going to drain the rice once it’s cooked anyway) and the rice cooks without the lid, so there are no steamed-up pot covers to peer anxiously through.
Again, this method should be fairly self-explanatory for anyone who has cooked pasta before . . . but then again, I had lots of questions the first time I did it. Here are some fast and easy tips.
Salt the water! Can you hear a theme coming through? Just like pasta-cooking water, the rice-cooking water should be as salty as the sea!
Boil uncovered. Once the water is boiling, add the water and bring back up to a boil, then drop the heat to medium. Maintain the boil while the rice is cooking.
Taste to check for doneness! While rice should take between 8 and 10 minutes, while brown rice will take between 25-30 minutes. That being said, those are wide time-ranges, and timings can vary based on a number of factors, so if you think your rice is done, just taste it! There’s no pot lid between you, so check as often as you want.
Get rid of excess moisture. When the rice is cooked, drain it. Then, put the rice back into the pot and leave it on the burner—set to the lowest heat possible—for about five minutes, just to evaporate the last of the moisture. After that, fluff it with a fork and it should be good to go!
Rice Pilaf
I love using the pilaf method to make rice! Sauteing the uncooked rice lightly browns the grains, imparting a nutty quality and a pleasant crunch to the rice once it’s cooked. And steaming the rice along with all the aromatics and spices already cooked out in the pan contributes a lot of nuance that boosts the flavor of the finished product.
Here are some tips for how to make your pilaf amazing.
There are no limits. You can use whatever vegetables, aromatics, and spices you want to make the base of your pilaf. You can also throw in whatever nuts, dried fruit, or herbs you’d like after the rice has finished cooking. I would suggest waiting to add these finishing ingredients until after the cooking, though: the delicate herbs flavors will be muted during steaming, and no one really loves boiled nuts or raisins (at least not in this context!)
Cook out the pilaf base. Sweat out all vegetables (onions, celery, garlic, etc) before adding your rice. Heat a little vegetable oil in your pot on medium heat, then add the diced vegetables with a three-finger pinch of salt and cook gently until softened. You don’t want the vegetables to brown at all, just release their water and cook down. After the base has softened, you can add any powdered spices in to bloom as the rice toasts.
Let the rice be! It’s tempting to stand over the toasting rice and stir like crazy. But this isn’t risotto. The rice needs to be in contact with the pan for at least a few minutes without being touched in order to toast properly. So once the rice is thoroughly stirred into the pilaf base, make sure the burner is set to medium and the rice is evenly distributed around the pot, and then let it be for at least two minutes before stirring again! Set a timer if you have to.
Don’t over-toast it. This is not rice char. It’s rice pilaf. The rice should be just turning golden brown and starting to smell toasty before you had the water. Don’t forget to salt the water as it goes in!
Steaming rules still apply. When the water goes in, follow the same method for regular steamed rice.
Risotto
Competition food shows like Chopped or Hell’s Kitchen have taught us that risotto is a difficult, temperamental process, and that we should never attempt it in our own kitchens. I disagree. As someone who has been making risotto for the past three years—the first time I made it, I was still a cooking novice—I can attest that it’s not that difficult, nor is it particularly temperamental. It does, however, require you to be present for the entire process. You can’t just walk away and let it do its thing.
Many people in our 21st century culture would say they don’t have time for something like this. They want quick and easy meals that require very little supervision. That’s why food marketing is currently pushing the set-it-and-forget-it meals. That’s why the insta-pot is so big right now. However, in the midst of all that, I still believe that some dishes are worth a little more attention for their sheer yumminess. More importantly, it’s both healthy and therapeutic to take some time out once in a while and fully engage with the ingredients we are cooking with.
Making risotto is a beautiful interactive cooking process that will require you to be truly present with the dish you are cooking. And sure, maybe some nights you don’t have the time or the desire to stand over a saute pan for 35 minutes. Risotto isn’t an every-night thing. But that’s what makes it special.
Use arborio rice. Period. I’m not going to go into the science of it (nor do I know it all, if I’m being completely honest) but the starch in arborio rice and the way it cooks out will help the risotto achieve a perfectly creamy texture.
Like a pilaf. Risotto starts off just like a pilaf: a base of vegetables and aromatics is sweated down in a saute pan with a little oil and salt. Once those ingredients have been softened, the rice is poured into the pan and toasted until it is golden brown.
Deglaze. Unlike pilaf, risotto adds the additional step of deglazing the pan before the primary liquid is added. White wine seems to be the preferred liquid of choice. Basically, when the wine is poured into the sizzling pan, it gets under all the delicious browned bits on the bottom of the pan and concentrates their flavor into the rest of the ingredients. Flavor development gold!
Heat your stock. Also unlike pilaf, risotto involves cooking the rice in some type of stock, which is added one ladleful at a time and then stirred into the risotto until the rice has absorbed the liquid. The most critical thing here is that the stock should be already simmering when it is added to the rice (cold stock will shock the rice and mess with the cooking process). When I make risotto, I usually keep the stock in a separate pot on a back burner and heat it while I’m sweating the aromatics and vegetables, so it’s ready when I need it.
Don’t rush the stock! As impatient as you may feel, you shouldn’t add more than a ladleful at a time. Too much stock at once will, again, mess with the cooking process. Also, risotto-making isn’t an exact science and it’s difficult to know exactly how much stock a risotto will need before it’s fully cooked. If too much stock is added and the rice can’t absorb all of it, you’ll end up with watery risotto.
Garnish with something creamy. Once the rice is fully cooked, the risotto is technically finished. You could serve it just like that. But it’s super delicious to add a few tablespoons of crème fraiche or mascarpone cheese—the creamy freshness both lightens and rounds out the risotto.
Other garnishes! You can garnish your risotto with other things too: blanched asparagus, sautéed mushrooms, tiny cooked shrimp. Just make sure that whatever you add pairs well with the base vegetables and stock you have already used. Think seasonally. If you’ve used onions, garlic, and pancetta in your base and beef broth as the liquid, mushrooms might be a good option. Whatever you do, though, don’t complicate it. These are garnishes. The rice is still the star.
Originally posted September 6, 2019.
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