Rice! Rice! Rice!

There's no better way to start a food blog other than introducing rice. As a Chinese rice has been a staple source of carbohydrate and also a good source of folic acid (source) which is a B-complex vitamin needed by the body to produce red blood cells.

Short to say, I looooove rice!! Even though I have moved from Malaysia to America, rice has been on my diet forever. While I have been shoving white rice into my mouth ever since I was able to consume solid food (not that I can remember exactly when) but overtime, like many other types of plants, there are many types of rice! I was simply amazed by the different variations of bags of rice sitting on the shelve during my trip at Whole Foods ;). I guess I will list them as I use them and not bore you with my musings.

For now, I will write about the basics of cooking rice as I learn and try to explain as much as I can in the beauty of cooking awesome rice (without spending more than 100 bucks on rice cookers Ouch!). According to Vah-chef there are 2 methods in cooking rice:
1. The Drain method,
This method employs boiling the rice and subsequently draining the water to remove the starch, a straightforward method to making the perfect rice. However, it requires the cook the stand in front of the cooking pot while carefully observing the "dance of the rice" as a few seconds could spell failure.

The advantage:
Allows you to manipulate the rice in case you would like to use to rice for other cooking purposes such as biryani (yum!).

First, rinse the rice to get rid of excess starch.
Then, the rice is to be soaked (15 to 20 minutes) prior to cooking to prevent the uneven cooking of rice and reduces cooking time.
Drain the rice.
Note: Do not handle the rice too roughly after soaking as they will break easily.
There are 2 things to do in order for rice to remain separate and have a fluffy presentation after cooking:
1. Add oil into the boiling water where you will cook your rice in.
2. Roast the rice prior to cooking.
Try to break the rice to make sure it is brittle to know if the rice have absorbed enough moisture.
Add the rice into the boiling water (4X amount of water per cup of rice) with oil, and mix them gently with a spatula to prevent rice from sticking to the bottom. Also, you can add salt.
When the rice is 95% done (ok this I cant tell, I would need to experiment myself), remove the rice through a colander, transfer into a pot and cover up with the lid. The steam generated from the rice will cook the rice until done. If larger amount of rice is used, cook until 90% done (more steam yo!).

Mix the rice again as it starts to boil.



2. The absorption method:
This method is done by simply using the rice cooker, pressure cooker or stove top cooking :p

The amount of water required to cook rice depends on the:
1. Type of rice
2. Age of rice, the older the more water it takes (less moisture) but always better.

Simple and reliable.
Simply combine rice and water and bring to a boil in a heavy base pot.
1 cup of rice = 1 1/2 cup of water.
If making a small batch, 1 cup of rice = 2 cups of water to allow for evaporation.
Cooking rice with cold water can cause the rice to stick to the bottom, so as usual mix the rice with a spatula (1 to 2 times) as it boils. Once it boils, cover the pot up with the lid. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.