How To Cook Long Grain Rice: Avoid The Traps

How To Cook Long Grain Rice

“I love experimenting with different cuisines, but I still haven’t figured out the ingredients to cook rice”, lampooned my friend, a self-confessed foodie. And despite following the cooking instructions to the ‘T’, her rice dishes were a shining example of relentless jousts with, what I refer to as, my source of sustenance.

On A Sticky Wicket

How to cook long grain rice is one question that most Americans treat with an ignominious mix of unawareness and trepidation. Forget about how to cook long grain brown rice, just about any variety is enough to raise the hackles. There’s aromatic Basmati and Thai jasmine rice, mouth-watering Biryani with its generous sprinkle of spices and saffron. It would be fatuous to assume that this aversion is restricted to succulent Oriental treats, as we seem to look askance at black forbidden rice, wild rice and other exotically steam cooked Mexican recipes. And the myopic few counting calories diligently, make sure this grain is obliterated completely from their grocery lists and their diets.

A Veritable Mosaic From The World Over

It’s not just in India, but in every nook and corner of the Asian continent that specializes in storage of bulk grain, that rice is the chief food crop. And so the explosion of delightful rice dishes does not come as a surprise. When cooked whole, rice is served with stir fries, curries and sauces. This apart, several varieties of milk, tea, cakes, vinegar, flour and noodles owe their existence to this venerable grain. It is categorized depending on the size of the grain. Long grain rice, as the name suggests, is elongated and slender, and hence each grain even in minute rice cups turns out to be fluffy once cooked, thus raising your side dish’s stock. You will also not find that inveterate tendency of grains sticking to each other in this variety, which is really the hallmark of short grain rice. Rounded in shape, these grains display a sticky and moist nature, making them ideal for puddings and salads. Somewhere in between these two varieties, exists the medium grain rice, a shorter and plumper version that is used to churn out heavenly risottos. There are other specialties too like Spanish rice, the key ingredient in paella, and glutinous rice that makes sumptuous rice balls.

Run-Of-The-Mill?

The different milling procedures lead to the creation of two distinct varieties- brown and white. Brown rice is sold with the bran and so retains a great deal of nutrition, as compared to their white counterparts that are extremely delicate, but are packed with lesser nourishment. These inadequacies can be countered rather fruitfully with the use of enriched white rice. Your selection does not end there. You can pick and choose from the beige-colored converted or parboiled rice that scores over white rice in the nutrition department and the steeply priced instant rice, which is nothing but pre-cooked, dehydrated white rice. Wild rice may boast of a nutty aroma and rubbery texture, but you must be nuts to believe that it cooks in a jiffy. Snack food addicts would love to bring home popcorn rice and needless to add, the health-conscious breed will gravitate naturally towards organic rice.

Your Taste Buds Will Love It

You may like to believe that I have spilt the beans on the massive assortment of rice species, but trust me, there’s more that’ll leave your tastebuds exasperated. They’ll find it hard to resist the delicate flavors of coconut rice and vivid colors of yellow lemon rice. It’s so hard to believe that a generic combination of rice and water in a pressure cooker has the infinite potential to create such an eclectic set of culinary delights.

Tenuous Contention

Your utter consternation while cooking rice may not be beyond reproach, after all. There are many that belong to this bandwidth, and find this rather rudimentary subject pretty intractable to deal with. But not anymore, because here are eight easy steps that make sure you never run out of steam:

Cleaning: The advances in the field of technology have thankfully put an end to the painfully cumbersome process of picking and cleaning the rice. No longer do dirt, chaff and gravel form an unpalatable part of your diet.
Washing: You cannot eschew this extremely important step, even if the rice is vitamin enriched. Rest assured, the water will wash away only a miniscule portion of the nutrients. Rinsing several times under cold running water in a saucepan is the time-tested way to wash off all the extra starch.
Soaking: Yet another of those traditions ingrained in our culinary system. The grain, particularly in Basmati rice, gets ample opportunity to expand completely and acquires a slightly harder character, and hence does not break that easily. You’ll also find that this process reduces the cooking time dramatically. Soaking for about 30 minutes prior to cooking is ideal, but just in case that’s not possible, make sure you drain all the water completely before starting the cooking process.
Cooking utensils: The use of a pot or pan with a heavy bottom ensures the blueprint for success. Copper makes the cut rather easily. Make sure the saucepan is large enough so that there’s adequate room for the steam to rise. The lid must fit snugly, so that the steam has no chance of escaping. Loosely fitting lids must be reinforced with a clean cloth between the lid and the pot.
Cooking time: This aspect tends to vary from one variety to another. Brown rice leads the pack in terms of length of time consumed. Similarly, old rice soaks up more water than a relatively new variety. I needn’t harp on how fresh rice must be while cooking.
Measuring water: Usually, a measured amount of water is used so that the entire quantity is soaked up by the end of the cooking process. Experts recommend 2 cups of water for every 1 cup of rice. Long grain rice requires more water as compared to the shorter variety. Increasing the water content results in a softer, but stickier output, whereas, lesser quantities lead to the grain to separate perfectly. The traditional Chinese method of adding water that covers the rice and the first line of your index finger also yields perfect results.
Adding Flavor: A modicum of salt, butter or olive oil can add a zing to the cooking process. Try it, the results are sure to be very pleasantly stimulating.
Cooking: Now that the ingredients are in place, it’s time to combine them and bring them to a boil on the burner. Once that’s complete, reduce the heat to the lowest setting, cover with a light lid and continue cooking for about 20 minutes. Thereafter, let the cooked rice stand for 5-30 minutes. This process ensures that the rice bears uniform texture at the top and bottom. But don’t let it go cold, keep the lid covered with a towel.

Damage Control Exercise

The results may not always be a dream come true, but there are ways to reach those pinnacles of excellence. In case the rice is wet, put a cloth between the lid and the pot to soak up all that extra moisture that threatens to ruin the party. Undercooked rice? No problem. Just add 1-2 tablespoons of water and repeat the cooking process for another 20 minutes. Voila! Your journey has turned into a blessed victory. So do you think it’s that high-octane a procedure that it’s made out to be. You may have to undergo the agony of a few feckless attempts, but thereafter, you’ll find the specters of rice cooking evaporating quickly into thin air.

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