When cooking rice, not everything is allowed. Sometimes it even takes just a small gesture to put a serious grain of sand (or basmati) into the machine…
When the whole family asks for rice with the fish for lunch, you don’t even think about it. You take out your packet of basmati, you take out your strainer to rinse your grains, then you throw them into a large pot of boiling salted water. In short, “cooked rice” in its simplest expression.
However, there are many other ways to tame rice so that it becomes devilishly tastier. When choosing a rice cooker, you can’t go wrong, the grains never stick (unless you read the instructions wrong, that happens). If you prefer to stick to your pot – that’s fine too – try our Italian friends’ risotto. The concept? Cook your rice in vegetable or poultry stock and add it ladle by ladle as it is absorbed. A creamy consistency as desired, with a final combination of butter and parmesan that gives it a new deliciousness.
And do you know rice pilaf? It is based on a special technique close to “smothered” cooking. There are several variations, in the oven or, for what interests us here, in the pan. Here, unlike risotto, we do not add the broth little by little, but pour it all at once over the previously rinsed and drained rice. Everything is then gently cooked covered over medium heat until the grains have drunk all the liquid. Then simply fluff the rice with a fork. We achieve airy and soft grains, which keep fantastically well over time. A very simple recipe…or almost.
Because there is one thing that can make it fail. Or more precisely a gesture. An almost mechanical tic, as long as you’re used to making cereal… or even cooking at all. A hint? Remember your good old cooked basmati rice (him again). What do you do while cooking? Yes, you stir it regularly with your wooden spoon… Well, the rice pilaf will not resist that!
As food blogger Edda Onorato explains in her article on the subject, if you accidentally discover it during cooking, all the steam will escape and there will no longer be sufficient moisture. Furthermore, mixing the rice risks breaking the grains during cooking.
So if you happen to try cooking pilaf, a word of advice: leave your wooden spoon in a double-locked drawer, put seals on your lid… or tie your hands behind your back. Your grains of rice and your hungry tribe will thank you!
