Sep 2010 From students in studio flats to domestic goddesses, everybody needs to know how to make rice because it’s such an essential ingredient in many types of cooking. Whether it’s to be served with exotic dishes, saved and used cold in a salad, mixed to make a tasty stuffing for peppers and other vegetables or sushi, dished up in a Continental risotto, or baked to make a delicious dessert, you won’t get far as a cook unless you know how to make rice.
Nothing could be simpler than learning how to make rice and yet it poses a challenge even for experienced cooks if it sticks to the pan. The answer can be to follow the same steps you use when cooking pasta. Although recipes tell you how to make rice by adding a set quantity of water to rice, you can boil the rice in a larger quantity of water, stirring it so that it doesn’t stick together. If you use plenty of water it won’t stick to the pan and will be ready in 20 minutes and you can drain it with a colander. This is how to make rice the Italian way.
Once you know how to make rice you have the basis for many dishes and a great accompaniment for foods with sauce. It’s important to choose the right type of rice for the sort of dish you want to make, selecting longer grain rice like Basmati to accompany curries and savoury foods. If you need to know how to make rice for risottos you will need to start with a shorter grain risotto rice. Short grain rice is also used for desserts, such as rice-pudding and certain types of rice cake.
The best known recipe for how to make rice involves using 4 cups of boiling water into which you pour 2 cups of rice. Smooth the rice to make sure it’s covered in water, put on a lid, and simmer for 20 minutes, then leave it aside for 5 minutes still covered. The water will be absorbed, and this is how to make rice the traditional way. If you have difficulty with either method you can buy ready-cooked rice which can be heated in an oven or in a microwave and it will still taste delicious, so this is how to make rice when you want to bluff at a dinner party!
If you would like to know how to make rice pudding it’s very simple and can look lovely in individual dessert dishes. Wash and drain 100g of pudding rice and put it in a heatproof baking dish rubbed with butter. Add 50g sugar and 700ml milk , stir and sprinkle with a pinch of grated nutmeg. You can also add a bay leaf or a strip of lemon zest. Bake for 2 hours at 130 degrees C/gas mark 2 until it looks wobbly when shaken. This is how to make rice into a lovely pudding, and low fat milk makes it low calorie. Add fresh fruit in attractive dessert bowls to make it special.
