Do you salt the dry rice before adding the water? Do you salt the water before adding it? Something else? The reason I ask is that someone told me you should never stir rice. But how do you distribute the salt if you don’t stir?
You only don’t want to stir it after it starts boiling, because you have to take the top off and it lets the heat out, which messes up the rice. So put rice and water in pan, salt the water and Bob’s your uncle. No real need to stir at all, as the salt will just naturally dissolve in the hot water and after it starts to boil it’s roiling around mixing with the rice grains. To make the best rice, heat to boiling, turn down to just over a simmer, then remove from all heat when the water is almost all absorbed (look for the steam holes all over the surface of the rice) and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, then stir it up to loosen the grains. I also put a dab of olive or sesame oil into the water at the start, and usually a shake of fried garlic, too. It gets smooshy into the rice and tastes really rich and yummy.
Thanks, but Bob’s my uncle?
One more thing. You said to look for steam holes, but also not to take the top off. How do you accomplish that?
Just put the lid on, turn it to the lowest setting and cook for 15 minutes (white rice). It’ll be perfect.
I salt my rice with soy sauce.
You need to time the rice if you’re cooking in a pot. The whole thing about keeping the lid on is to ensure you’re not constantly popping it off to check. You get near the end of the timed cook, lift the lid to check the progress, and there you go. Lifting it once or twice isn’t going to ruin it.
You don’t stir rice during cooking because you’ll mush up the grain as it gets soft, you should stir it when it’s cold to make sure it’s mixed and separated.
You need a good pot, so the bottom doesn’t burn. You need to be able to control your heat to be at a simmer, not too hot or cold. You need to time it well and not forget about it. Get those three down, and rice is a cinch.
Okay, thanks. I’m almost up to snuff, but one more thing caught my attention. What would I cook it in if not a pot?
Rice cooker. They’re all the rage in places like Japan where rice is a staple, if you eat a lot of rice, it makes the process a lot easier, you just measure and hit the button.
Yes, this.
Also +1 to the guy who said soy sauce. I grew up eating rice every day (Mom is Vietnamese) and the idea of salting rice in the pot is totally (heh heh) foreign to me.
I grew up eating rice every day too (Korean), but the idea of putting soy sauce on rice is totally foreign to me. Do southeastern Asian people put soy sauce on their rice regularly? I thought that was a Western thing.
Our family would eat rice with some sort of “stuff” on top. “Stuff” might mean stir fry, fish stew, or something in a heavier sauce, like ginger chicken or pork. Depending on how dry or un-salty the rice was after putting on the “stuff,” we would add soy sauce, or not.
“Bob’s your uncle”, btw, is kind of a Britishism that means roughly, “You’re good to go,” or “Now yer cooking with gas.”
No idea whence comes that particular form.
I was loathe to buy another appliance, but I found that the $8 microwave rice/vegetable steamer works quite well. I got it at Target. It cooked my jasmine/wild rice to perfection and eliminates the likelihood that I will forget all about the rice and burn it.
Of course he is. There no shame to admit it.
From my experience, I find 20 minutes works better, at least for the rice I use. And no peaking!
Japanese guy I knew said he’d never put soy on rice. Furikake was ok, as was any other kind of meat or vegetable concoction, but no soy. YMMV.
Soy sauce is, of course, an asian concoction, originally made from, um, fermented fish parts that had been salted to prevent decay. The Romans made a similar substance, called garum that was very similar. Note that the difference between “fermented” and “spoiled” is mainly in the eye of the consumer.
Among other things, such a sauce would have been served with rice, probably with vegetables added.
OK, thank you. I guess I should clarify that in my Vietnamese home, the “soy sauce” we’d put on our rice was sometimes your Kikkoman stuff, but more often nuoc mam (can’t be bothered to find the Vietnamese diacriticals), which is fermented fish sauce. Whereas Kikkoman just tastes like salt, fish sauce has a world of flavor all its own. 
Three more ways to enjoy rice. Sprinkle a bit of rock salt on top of cooked rice (either when its in the pot or on your plate). Or fry garlic in butter and mix in cooked rice. Or add a few pandan leaves while its cooking in the pot.