FWIW, despite my lengthy post, I happen to like a rice cooker as well. I don’t care to use it for anything other than the standard cooking of rice so the generic $15 model works perfectly for anything I want to do. Note that with the cheap models the pan isn’t very sturdy and certain over enthusiastic dish washers (human, not automatic) have dented the pan so that it doesn’t come into contact with the sensor in the cooker propperly but I have managed to bang it out again. It’s worked perfectly well for the variety of rices I’ve put into it, though it doesn’t automatically do porrage so I guess I’m out of luck there.
Someone gave me a steamer with the intention that it be used for rice but it takes fourty-five minutes to make rice and I can do it in ten to fifteen on the stove top or about twenty in a cooker so I don’t bother with it much.
Don’t bother putting butter or oil into whatever you’re cooking your rice in. It’s like pasta; the oil just floats there on the surface and doesn’t do anything for the food.
Depending on what you’re aiming for, I’ve found that reflexively adding salt before cooking to rice isn’t always the best thing to do either (it’s definately a no no for when you’re heading towards the porridge end of the scale, but that’s another issue). It’s definately easier to add it at the beggining, but it’s also harder to control the final outcome: and salt level is the key to perfect seasoning.
Add water - the quantity is relative, but most tradition asian cooks will tell you to, “…add water to the first knuckle.” This means you level off the rice in the pot, put the tip of your index finger in the pot so it’s JUST touching the rice and your hand is vertical. Then add water until the water level comes to the first knuckle on your finger.
Hi, Opal!
Put pot on burner over HIGH heat
When the water level has dropped so you can see bubbles coming up through holes in the rice, drop the heat to LOW, and put the lid on.
After 20 minutes, you got yerself a pot o’ cooked rice. If you’re very lucky, you have a little layer of koge on the bottom, too.
As far as I know, steamed rice in the Asian style is supposed to be sticky. (This solves the mystery of how the heck you’re supposed to be able to eat rice with chopsticks.) Some brands of rice will be expressly sold as sticky rice.
I’m not sure how you’d go about making rice not-sticky. Most of what I cook with rice I end up eating with chopsticks, and I like it sticky. Rinsing it (not soaking it) sounds logical, because it’ll get all the starchy dust off it that would otherwise act like glue while cooking.
—I’m not sure how you’d go about making rice not-sticky.—
For starters, just use longer grains. Long grain Basmati rice cooks fast, and isn’t sticky at all. Americans have traditioanlly liked their rice nonsticky and very buttery, for some odd reason.
