Rice Experts On the Best Way to Cook Rice

If you love rice, or have the utmost love for rice, you’d probably have heard of Uncle Roger. The Malaysian man, who’s real name is Nigel Ng, became famous for criticizing BBC Food’s Hersha Patel’s way of cooking Chinese-style egg-fried rice. Uncle Roger looked helpless while watching Patel drained rice through a strainer. He loudly lamented, “This is rice, not pasta!” Follow his Instagram for more hilarious videos, if you’d like a laugh.

So, what is the right way to cook rice?

Most rice experts (i.e. people who consume rice regularly) agree that the only tool you need to cook fluffy, soft, delicious rice is with a rice cooker. There are rice cookers for the serious rice aficionados, home cooks on a budget, travelers, and those who prefer a multitasking kitchen device or programmable ones. Best of all, with a rice cooker, there would be no rice left stuck on the bottom and no burnt rice! A little note: Korean people love burnt rice (they call it Nurungji), which is a sticky, crispy with a little chew with a wholesome aroma. They make fried rice this way too. Personally I love the nurungji part of fried rice better than the original nurungji. It’s like having extra crispy fried rice. Yum!

Okay, before I stray too far, here are the steps to cooking delicious, fluffy, diet begone white rice:

- Use a rice cooker. I’ve never cooked rice without a rice cooker. Even when I lived in a dorm and the cafeteria downstairs only had Spanish rice, I made my own rice using a mini rice cooker. An Asian girl gotta have her rice!
- For the love of god, never wash rice with a strainer. Like Uncle Roger said, this is rice, not pasta! Use a deep bowl, or you could wash it in the rice cooker bowl itself. I’d recommend using a separate bowl because some rice cooker bowl has protective lining that could get scratched if you washed the rice in it. Something like this would be good:

Rice Washing Bowl with Side and Bottom Drainers

7. Fill the bowl with generous amount of water and use your hands to squeeze the rice grains. The purpose of this is to get some of the starch out. I like to wash it twice because I don’t like too much starch.

8. Put water in accordance to the cups of rice you are using. Two cups of rice, add two cups of water. Some rice grains need more water per cup, like the ones we use. You need to do some trials to see what amount of water is ideal for different kinds and brands of rice. Some people use filtered water (we do), but if you don’t have any, tap water is fine.

9. Cook rice according to the rice cooker’s instructions.

10. When it’s done, leave it be for 10 minutes. Then open the lid and fluff the rice around with a rice paddle. Don’t use a metal spoon to scoop rice, you’d scratch the rice cooker bowl. Enjoy!

>> More: Rice Expert Recommended Rice Cookers

Tip no 1: if you’re into eco-friendly living, use the rice strainer water to water your plants. It’s rich of nutrients your plants would love!

Tip no 2: if you’re a practical kind of person who thinks the steps are too difficult, just get these packed rice. You’d always have exceptional rice in just 2 minutes. Thank me later.

Instant Microwavable Packed Rice

You might also like:

From Noodles to Rice: Best Asian Cookbooks

How to Mix It Up a Little — Kitchen Edition

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