Rice: Boil and Drain Method?

[Milagai]

And all rice is grass, not just wild rice ....

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Botanically speaking, yes.

I just meant to infer that wild rice is, in popular nomenclature, not a true rice.

SB (not a botanist, and didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night either )

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Ok, please help me understand this:

Botanically, all rices are grasses.

So why does popular perception keep separating wild rice

from "ordinary" rice and sees the latter as true rice?

Milagai

[GTO]

This is how I and my family have always cooked normal, long-grain rice and it works fine.

Boil the rice roughly 2:1 water:rice.

Then, as the rice nears doneness, boil a kettle of water, drain the rice into a seive and rinse thoughroughly with fresh boiling water.

[mhjoseph]

Boil, drain, heat oil in the pot and return the drained rice and steam is the method that my Persian wife uses. It produces a crust called tahdig which a big delicacy in that culture.

[demiglace]

...does everyone rinse their rice before cooking?

[Carlovski]

The only time I cook rice that way is if I'm cooking for a crowd - I'll do a few batches, drain it into a tray and keep warm in the oven.

It's also ok if you are going to let it cool and use it later (Shock it with cold water to stop t turning into ricey glue) - I can never seem to get it completely drained if I try and use it straight away - always stays soggy.

[Tjaart]

I have always washed my rice before cooking, and then, on the basis of several Indian and some Chinese recipes, started soaking my rice as well (this applies to Indian and Chinese rice only, not Arborio - which goes into the pan as is).

Rinsing removes any chance of sticky rice, unless you cook it in a lot of water and never rinse them.

The 'pasta' method is only one of many methods - vide Julie Sahni, Classic Indian Cooking, who gives this method as one of several. I haven't noticed any particular loss of flavour when using the 'pasta' method, which is very rarely.

Soaking the rice and throwing away the soaking water could probably also be accused of 'losing flavour and nutrients' but I dont believe that that actually happens.

In Chinese and Japanese restaurants the rice is often slightly 'sticky' which makes it just that much easier to eat with chopsticks.

'Fluffy' rice only works for me with good juicy stews (plenty of gravy) or curries, and not at all for small Japanese fried dishes, or even fairly juicy stir-fries, because I believe that these dishes are meant to help large amounts of rice 'go down' - that is, in the West we tend to use much too much 'food' to eat with our rice.

Ifeel the same about pasta - drowning pasta in sauce spoils the flavour of the pasta.

[titmfatied]

Boil, drain, heat oil in the pot and return the drained rice and steam is the method that my Persian wife uses. It produces a crust called tahdig which a big delicacy in that culture.

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That sounds delicious. I think I'll be trying that very soon. Is there a particular type of rice she uses? Could I trouble you to find out what kind of oil she uses as well?

[mhjoseph]

Boil, drain, heat oil in the pot and return the drained rice and steam is the method that my Persian wife uses. It produces a crust called tahdig which a big delicacy in that culture.

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That sounds delicious. I think I'll be trying that very soon. Is there a particular type of rice she uses? Could I trouble you to find out what kind of oil she uses as well?

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I'll gladly share the whole process. She uses basmati and soaks it anywhere from a few hours to overnight which will make the cooked rice grains bigger. You then drain off the water and add to a pot of salted boiling water and cook it like you would pasta until al dente. Drain off the water again using a colander, put the dry pot back on the fire and add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil such as canola. Put rice back in on top of the hot oil, mounding it towards the center and make a couple of holes in the mound with the handle of spoon. Cover and let it cook for 30-45 minutes until you have a crisp crust. When its done invert the pot on a serving platter and you should have the crust on top. You can put thin slices of potatoes or pita bread on the bottom also.

If you Google Persian rice you find more ideas and recipes.