I like to make stir-fry as a quick, easy, tasty, and fairly healthy meal. Usually I use some sort of pre-packaged rice that’s already divided in to servings, but this time I bought some bulk short grain brown rice. How much rice should I cook for myself for one stir fry meal, measured in cups? Usually I will eat 2 serving sizes of rice with stir fry, since 1 serving size is more for a side dish. Also, how much water should I add to cook it in?
The classic ratio is 1 part rice to 2 parts water. So, if you use a cup of rice and 2 cups of water, you’ll get 3 cups rice. Bring water and salt to a boil. Add rice, cover, and immediately lower heat to simmer. For white rice, simmer 20 minutes. For brown rice, 40 to 50. The trick is getting the right temp for the simmer. I find that I usually have to make 2 or 3 batches on a given stove to learn the appropriate simmer setting.
Many people boil rice like pasta now, though. It’s a perfectly acceptable method, but I haven’t done it, so I don’t know if it changes the timing. You’ll still probably get about 3 times more rice than you started with.
How much do you need to cook? How hungry are you? For me 1 cup of cooked rice is usually enough as the bed for a stirfry, but YMMV. The good thing is that leftover rice refrigerates or freezes well. I usually make more than I need for one meal so I can have more for another meal. Also, fried rice is always made with leftover rice – you want it cold and a little dry.
Yep, 1 cup rice to 2 cups water worked quite well, and 3 cups cooked rice turned in to 2 stir fry dinners.
I have an electric stove (cools slowly), and my Calphalon tri-ply cookware is heavy (retains heat well). My method is to put white long-grain rice and water (1:2 ratio, as already posted), bring the water to the boil, and cover the pot. Then I turn off the element and let it sit 20 minutes. It comes out right every time.
Piss on that. For one, I use about a cup of rice to 1.5 cups of water. Fry the rice either dry or in a small amount of fat. This is on high heat. When it’s coated or translucent or both, dump the water in (salt should go in prior to the water – a crack theory I have is that it helps extract moisture from the rice, but I think that’s just a fantasy), let rise to a boil, then reduce heat (without touching the pot – it wants heat) to about low. Let it go for fifteen minutes or twenty, then you’re fine.
It all depends on your range heat and the pot you have, IME. Also, 1.5W->1R isn’t a fast rule – you need less water the more rice you have. I don’t use formulae, just eyeball it, like Marty Feldman would have in “Silent Movie.”
I’ve had excellent results with basmati rice in the microwave: Two cups water, one rice, in a plastic basin, cover and nuke on high for 2 minutes, then 15 on defrost. Doesn’t need a thing doing to it, comes out light and fluffy with all the water just gone, and ridiculously easy to clean up.