I am an above average cook (but not great by any means) but apparently I can’t do this. It *always * comes out too soggy. Rice cooker? Fine. Comes out beautifully. Stovetop? Forget it.
So help me. I have followed recipes exactly but somehow I still must be putting too much water. Waa!
This is so easy, just add first however much rice you want. Then add water until it covers a depth of double the depth of the rice. Cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for another 20 minutes. Voila.
FWIW, I use my finger and thumb to gauge the depths.
Uncle Ben’s rice. 2 cups of water, 1 tbs butter, 1 tsp salt. Bring to a boil. Add 1 cup of rice. Stir. Turn the temp down to extreme low. Cover. Set your timer for 20 minutes. When it beeps, take the rice off the heat. Let “rest” for 5 minutes. Ready to eat.
Take a cup of long-grain white rice. Rinse it with water. Drain as much as you can.
Put on stove, add one and 3/4 cup water.
Turn on high until water starts to bubble. Then put a heavy lid on the pan, and turn it on LOW, just about a simmer.
Leave it strictly alone for twenty minutes.
Take it off the burner, take off the lid, and fluff with a fork. Then you can put the lid back on and let it sit for however long you want, just not over half an hour. The longer it sits, the drier the rice gets cause it’s still cooking.
That’s my fool-proof recipe 
Sometimes it takes a couple of tries to get the temperature of the stove just above a simmer, perfectly. Each stove is different.
:eek: :eek: :eek:
You ought to be ashamed of yourself for even suggesting this. Long grain basmati rice in my house, ONLY, please.
Put rice in pot, put water in pot, boil on medium heat until rice is soft and tender.
I like a dash or two of soya sauce with mine, IMHO.
The single hardest thing to get right in cooking. It varies from brand to brand and between different rices from the same brand. Find what works for one variety and stick to it. Of the rices I use I don’t cook one, use the microwave for another and the stovetop for the last. I know the proportions of water to rice, cooking times and standing time for each.
Good general principles are:
soak the rice for a while (up to an hour say) before cooking - it cooks quicker and restores dehydrated older rice that has been sitting around.
rinse the rice to rid it of excess starch (unless you want it sticky)
find the slowest cooking method that works (I use an amount of water that I think the rice will absorb, between 1 1/2 and 2 1/4 cups per cup, cook the rice for less time than recommended and let it sit and absorb the remaining water)
don’t use salt
I generally mix through a tablespoon of butter before serving but most cooks don’t think this is a good idea. I just like the glossy look and the separation it provides.
long grain rice is easier and more reliable
We alternate. With one Chinese guy andone E. Indian girl, rice is consumed a LOT but we have very different standards on what to put on it. Not to mention that he’ll eat it plain. Boooooring.
I knew this one wasn’t going to fly. Hint: Elenia’s family is Indian. FWIW in our house it’s usually, but not restricted to, jasmine rice. Sometimes we make sticky rice, which is heavenly but tons of work. Occasionally other breeds drift in. And we usually buy rice in 50 lb. bags.
Pfffft. Soya sauce (and occasionally a few mixed spices) is the only way to go!
The rule of thumb for rice is to use twice as much liquid as rice. So this is what I usually do:
In a medium saucepan (that has a lid), I put 2 cups chicken broth, about 1-2 teaspoons of sesame oil, and a few shakes of onion flakes, Lawry’s seasoned salt, and some dried herbs (basil, parsley, Italian blend, whatever). I bring that to a boil over medium heat, and then stir in 1 cup jasmine rice. Bring it back to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and let simmer for (theoretically) 20 minutes.
Now, I have an electric stove, and I have a problem with keeping it simmering but not boiling. So I check it a couple of times, and usually end up cooking it a little bit longer, until it’s the right consistency. It’s really yummy, if I do say so myself. Good luck!
This is almost exactly the method I use. I measure 2:1 by volume water-to-rice. No pre-soak, no rinsing, no nothing. (Depending on the age and type of rice, the amount of water may vary. I find myself usually using more like 1 3/4 cup of water to 1 cup or rice, but YMMV). Bring to boil. Immediately reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
There’s a Mexican variation which includes rinsing the rice and frying it briefly in oil before adding the water, but if all you want is good rice, Shibb’s method should work perfectly.
Thank you, sweetheart. However, if my family’s Indian, so am I. 
Our rice is also 50-lb bags, for like $11.00. We have a rice bucket (I know you have one of these).
And we love rice. We’re both Asian! I joke about how much rice we eat. But I cannot make it on the stovetop. I will try again, though.
My boyfriend is no cook, he should have been a chef, he’s so good. I ask him, too, but every time I do it alone I screw it up. And like I said, i can cook fairly well.
I prepare it following the recipe on the back of a bag of basmati rice I once purchased. This process works so well, I’ve never bothered to purchase a rice cooker.
First clean the rice by rinsing it in cool water until the water runs clear and then drain it.
Next, put the rice in a small saucepan, along with half again as much water. (So that when I’m making a single portion, this will be four ounces of rice and six ounces of water.)
Put the stove on high and bring it to a boil.
Stir the rice once, reduce the heat to low, cover with a tight-fitting lid and leave it for ten minutes.
Next, take the pan off the burner and leave it covered for five minutes.
I make a perfect pot of rice every time. Without fail.
I bring to boil 2 cups of water and a bit of salt. Sometimes I add a little butter or olive oil or a few strands of saffron, sometimes I don’t. When the water boils, I add one and a quarter cup of rice (basmati or jasmine only), stir, cover and set the burner to low. I immediately set my timer for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes later, presto, I’ve a perfect pot of rice.
I haven’t ruined a pot of rice in, goodness, every bit of seven years or so.
Actually, no rice bucket here. Rice goes in some tupperware like contraption and/or in the freezer. This is purely to prevent rice weevils. Sometimes it’s left in the original bag for a while if we have no other space and then we deal with critters later. We do have all sorts of other strange rice contraptions, including the large pot looking thing for making sticky rice and a bamboo sifter that is somehow involved in that process. We also have little bamboo cylinders with lids that are sort of a Thai lunchbox for carrying rice, although these are rarely used.
As for you being Indian, I knew that was attempting to be indirect in my inclusion. Since you live in NY, I presume you might Indian-American or just plain American. My kids are American since their mom is Thai but ethnically Chinese and I’m a straight out Heinz 57 mutt. It’s easier than Thai/Chinese/Mexican/Norwegian/Basque/etc-American.
I can give you the standard Iranian recipe.
Rinse and soak the rice, at least half an hour. It’s best to let it sit for an hour or two though. Using a large pot half full, bring water to a rapid boil. Add salt (not sure how much, about a tbsp or two).
Drain most of the water from the soaking rice. Add the rice. Boil for about 5-7 minutes. This is the tricky part. If you boil it for too long the rice gets soggy and sticky. Check it for length and firmness. If it’s doubled in size it’s probably ready. I double check by biting into a few grains to see if it’s almost soft.
Drain the rice. Turn the heat down to med-low to low. Coat the bottom of the pan in oil and a little bit of water. Put the rice back into the pot. Take a kitchen towel and wrap the lid. Cover the rice and let it sit for about 20-30 minutes.
When it’s done there should be a crunchy brown layer. It’s the best part.
Again, these aren’t exact instructions. It takes a bit of practice, but you get the feel for it.
Basmati rice is hands-down the best rice available. It’s sweet and aromatic; I think the translation of ‘basmati’ is ‘beautiful’, and aptly named. It is also nearly foolproof to cook, and takes less time than most other rices. Follow the rinse and cook methods described already, but only cook for about 12-15 minutes.
We have a large ex-popcorn tin…it’s probably two feet tall. We double-bag it and use it for rice, and hten we have a small tupperware container which is for “current” use, if you see what I mean.
ANd I was just teasing about the other. I am American, if you ask me directly, but that doesn’t mean I’ve somehow stopped being Indian.
Yeah, that makes sense. I think we might have had something like that once but it may have been lost in a move.