Jasmine Rice

[awbrig]

Why do you have to rinse it but not other rices?

Also, can you add Saffron to Jasmine or is there a much better rice variety for this? THX...

[Matt Seeber]

my understanding of the rinsing is that it removes excess starch before cooking. you want the rice to be as light and airy as possible. also of great importance with jasmine rice is the aroma. some say if you don't rinse it, the aromas are masked.

[Matt Seeber]

there are also differences of opinion regarding how quickly the rice should be served...

some say immediately upon completion of steaming and others insist it should sit uncovered for 10 minutes, allowing excess steam to escape. the second approach apparantly results in a lighter, fluffier style rice

[awbrig]

thx Matt, very helpful

[Adam Balic]

What Matt said and there are different grades of Jasmine rice, some of these will have been washed etc some not. I buy ten kilo bags from the Asian Market and don't bother washing, as the rice I buy doesn't need it.

You can add saffron if you wish, but this will mask the flavour of the rice. Maybe use basmati instead.

[jawbone]

I buy premium brands of jasmine at the local Asian market and have never felt the need to wash it (I have tried several times but it didn't seem to make much difference). I do find, however, that unwashed rice stickes together more when bringing it to a boil before covering it -- a few stirs takes care of that. I guess washing it just doesn't seem to be worth the effort.

I think fluffiness is more a property of the right water/rice ratio (i.e. too much water makes it soggy and therefore not fluffy). Also, Matt mentioned letting it stand uncovered for 10 minutes. I think that might cool it down more than I want and could lead to the top layer of rice getting a bit "crusty." I do leave the rice to stand for 10 minutes but covered. I suppose if one was worried about steam one could just put kitchen towel over the pot and then cover it again -- the towel would absorb the steam but the potential problems mentioned above would be avoided.

I think washing Basmati is more important, primarily because it often has a dusty, stored-in-canvas-bag-too-long taste/smell that washing takes care of (I have found this even with premium Derha Dun brands).

[torakris]

The bags of Jasmine rice that I buy have instructions that say just to rinse the rice once.

I recently bought a bag labeled Thai rice, that I assumed was jasmine, based on the assumption I had that all Thai rice=jasmine rice. however when i opened the bag I knew it was different becasue of the lack of smell. It is just a plain (boring) long grain rice with out even the nuttiness of basmati. I think we are going to be having a lot of fried rice while I try to use this up.

[Matt Seeber]

the right water/rice ratio

for jasmine rice the ratio is "about" 1 part rice to 1.5 parts water. the variance comes into play if the rice is from a fresh crop and has a higher moisture content, therefore needing less water.

in contrast, when cooking with uncle ben's, the product will be exactly the same 99% of the time with no variance in moisture content.

[snowangel]

Growing up in Thailand (and daughter of a leading expert of Thai rice). It has to be jasmine. I ask the merchant to slit the bottom of the bag so I have an idea of the percentage of broken kernels (any good Thai would insist on an extremely low percentage of brokens).

I learned to rinse it in cool water at least 5 times, preferably 7 (an auspicious number).

And, most Thais (at least in Thailand) do not necessarily serve rice hot. The pot is most often cooked in the a.m., and kept covered (to prevent drying out). It is not reheated before serving for dinner.

I cook my rice in a circa 1970 National rice cooker that still does a great job.