How to properly cook rice in a gas steamer?

How to cook rice well

There are dozens of varieties of rice on Earth, all of them are different in the shape of the grains, color, smell, taste, but for the cook, the difficulty is reaching the ideal degree of readiness of any of the varieties that fall into their hands. It is necessary to prepare it so that it is not dry inside, does not creep into a mess, is crumbly, but sticks together a little. Throughout the East, from the Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean, if a wife cannot cook rice like that, then this is a serious reason for divorce. Russian husbands may not be so categorical, but they will also be happy to taste well-cooked rice. The problem is that each type of rice absorbs a different amount of water, swelling in different ways. The spread is large: from 2 to 10 times. Therefore, it is difficult to guess how much water is needed for this variety, and how long to cook.

The solution is very simple - soaking the rice. Not just rinsing off rice flour, as our cookbooks say, but soaking (with rinsing, of course). In the Central Asian republics, rice is soaked for half an hour - an hour in cold, slightly salted water, washed, drained and boiled, continuously tasting and adding water as needed. The results are excellent, but I don't cook like that myself, so I can't say anything about the process. I use the Chinese method: soaking in boiling water, twice for 5 minutes, then cooking. After 10 min. while in boiling water, the rice is already swollen and half cooked. The whole preparation takes 30 minutes, no more than frying potatoes. So it's dinner time, but there is no dinner, no time, only frozen burgers and soy sauce. In this case, your actions are thought out, precise and swift. Dinner for two - that means we take 4 handfuls of rice, pour it onto a flat dish and look through it, picking and throwing out the pebbles with the right hand. At this time, the left hand puts a saucepan on the gas and pours half a liter of water into it: gas at max.

We sorted out the rice, pour it into a deep cup, fill it with boiling water and start stirring with a spoon so that it does not settle and stick together. The left hand repeats the procedure with gas, a saucepan and water, but more water must be poured: about a liter. Five minutes have passed, we do not interfere with the rice for a few seconds, let it settle and pour out the white solution of rice flour (not necessarily into the sink, since this is medicine for those who want to lose weight!). Fill the rice again, time it, stir it again, but you can stir it less often, the rice does not stick together.Now it's time to put the cutlets in the microwave. 5 minutes have passed, we drain the water, and put the rice into an empty saucepan. We take the remains of boiled water (from 1 liter), add turmeric (orange dye) half a teaspoon. and pour the rice flush with the topmost rice. You can put a piece of butter on top. The fire is the smallest, the lid is ajar.

Do not touch rice! Do not stir! Otherwise there will be a mess! I'll chop off my fingers! After 12-15 minutes. the rice is ready, a slight crackling is heard - all the water has been absorbed and evaporated, the oil has sunk to the bottom, frying has begun, you can remove from the heat. Net time 24 ... 27 min.

Those chefs who are capable of more complex physical actions, such as: baking pancakes at the same time in 4 pans, can in the same 30 minutes. cook a full-fledged pilaf. While there is a whirlwind with steaming rice, you, without being distracted by heating cutlets, cook "zirak" in a frying pan. It is a refried mixture of onions, carrots, minced meat and barberry. Vegetable oil is taken, high-temperature: cottonseed, soybean, olive.

Fry for no more than 7 minutes, then put the steamed rice on this mixture, pour the same amount of water, that is, level and after 15 minutes. pilaf is ready. When the rice is already in the pan, then they also do not touch it until it is fully cooked. Any kind of rice cooked in this way is always crumbly, does not crunch, sticks slightly. The best rice is round, not polished needles that rattle and don't stick together.

Note: in the East, rice is not salted, no one ever. First, it tastes of its own, if not clogged with salt. Secondly, you can add soy sauce, which is slightly salty. Thirdly, there are a lot of very spicy dishes on the table and unleavened rice is good because it sets them off and gives a break to the burnt mouth.

Rice is not always tinted with turmeric, sometimes it is left white. But more often ⅔ is painted, and 1/3 is not, and spread on the dish in layers, on top of meat and greens along the perimeter.

V. V. Kuznetsov
Master blacksmith, smelter Bulat
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