How to cook rice: every method, and which to use when
Rice is the thing people are most likely to cook badly for years without realising there was a technique to learn. The usual failures are a sticky mass, a scorched base, or grains that are cooked outside and chalky inside.
There are four methods worth knowing. They are not interchangeable, and picking the wrong one for the dish is the most common mistake.
Rinse first, always
Rinse rice in cold water until the water runs nearly clear, usually three or four changes. You are washing off loose surface starch, which is what glues grains together.
For basmati, also soak for twenty to thirty minutes afterwards. Soaked basmati elongates rather than swelling sideways, which is the difference between biryani rice and porridge. Drain it properly before cooking or your water ratio is wrong before you start.
The absorption method
The default for everyday rice. All the water goes in at the start and all of it is absorbed, so nothing is poured away.
Ratios by volume, for rinsed rice: basmati soaked, 1 to 1.5. Basmati unsoaked, 1 to 1.75. Ordinary long grain, 1 to 2. Brown rice, 1 to 2.5.
Bring it to a boil uncovered, then the lowest possible heat, lid on, twelve minutes. Then take it off the heat and leave it, still covered, for ten minutes. That rest is part of the cooking, not a pause after it: the grains finish in their own steam and firm up. Fluff with a fork, never a spoon.
The draining method
Boil rice in a large pot of well-salted water like pasta, then drain. Use it when you want separate grains and do not care about losing a little starch, or when you are par-cooking rice for biryani.
For biryani you want it 70 per cent done, which means a grain should snap when pressed rather than bend. It finishes on dum, so rice that is fully cooked here will be mush on the plate.
This is also the forgiving method. If you are unsure about your rice, your pot or your stove, boil and drain and you will not produce anything inedible.
Pressure cooker and rice cooker
A cooker is fast and reliable for everyday rice: 1 to 1.5 water, two whistles, natural release. It is the wrong tool for basmati you want long and separate, because the pressure breaks grains.
An electric rice cooker is genuinely excellent and worth the counter space if you eat rice more than twice a week. Use slightly less water than the machine suggests for basmati.
Which rice for which dish
Buying one bag of rice for everything is the most common reason a dish does not come out as expected, because the varieties behave differently in ways no technique can compensate for.
Long-grain basmati stays separate and elongates, which is what you want for biryani, pulao and anything served alongside a curry. Short-grain sticky rice is the opposite and is correct for risotto, congee and rice pudding. Ordinary medium-grain sits in between and is fine for everyday eating.
Aged basmati costs more and is genuinely better: it absorbs more water and breaks less. If you make biryani more than occasionally, it is the upgrade worth paying for.
- Biryani, pulao, alongside curry: aged long-grain basmati
- Everyday rice with dal: any long or medium grain
- Fried rice: yesterday's cooked rice, cold, any variety
- Risotto, congee, kheer: short-grain or broken rice, which release starch deliberately
- Curd rice: slightly overcooked short or medium grain, mashed a little
Reheating without ruining it
Rice dries out in the fridge because the starch retrogrades, which is a real chemical process and not a matter of the container. Reheating fixes it if you add moisture back.
Sprinkle a tablespoon of water per cup, cover, and steam it gently on the hob or microwave it covered. Uncovered reheating produces hard grains at the edges and cold ones in the middle.
One genuine safety point: cooked rice left at room temperature for hours can grow bacillus cereus, which reheating does not make safe. Cool leftover rice quickly, refrigerate within an hour, and eat it within a day.
Fixing rice that has gone wrong
Too wet: take the lid off, put it on the lowest heat, and let the steam escape for five minutes. Do not stir.
Still hard with no water left: add a quarter cup of hot water, cover, five more minutes on low.
Scorched at the bottom: do not stir, it spreads the burnt taste through everything. Tip the unburnt rice out from the top into another pot and abandon the base.
Sticky and clumped: it is fixable only as fried rice. Spread it on a tray, cool it completely, refrigerate, then fry it hard the next day. Cold rice is what fried rice wants anyway.