Meals Matter

Contributed By: odonata
Experimentation ^-^

I don't like my rice fluffy. Not only is it harder to eat with chopsticks, but it just doesn't have the same texture -- my father always made rice sticky, so now I prefer it that way ^-^ When I learned to make rice, I played around with different types of rice, proportions, and timing, until it worked just right.

Ingredients

1 cup Medium grain rice (various brands work fine -- I'm very fond of Calrose, but our regional grocery store brand works well, too)

2 cups Water (approximate)

Preparation

1. Pour rice into appropriately-sized saucepan (this recipe is highly scalable, so the size of the saucepan should be determined by the number of servings to be prepared).

2. Add cold water -- some rice may float; I've never found this to mean anything. Experiment with the volume of water, as humidity will affect it -- you'll need more water on dry days; less on humid ones. Generally, however, the amount of water can be determined by sight: it should be 2 to 2.5 times as deep as the rice (meaning the rice will come about halfway to the top of the water).

3. Stirring occasionally, bring to a boil *uncovered* over medium-high to high heat (how long this takes will depend on your stove -- gas vs. electric, etc.).

4. Once a rolling boil is established, immediately cover the rice and reduce heat to low.

5. Simmer covered for 20 minutes. You may stir briefly once or twice, but not more, as the point is to keep the steam in.

6. Remove from heat, and let stand for 5-15 minutes (again, this will vary with humidity and air temperature). Do *not* fluff before serving (that would defeat the point, after all! ^-^)

Cook's Notes

This may sound complicated, but it really isn't. Both my parents had rice cookers when I was growing up, so I thought cooking rice on the stove was the most intimidating thing in the world. It's really very simple, extremely scalable, and requires no skill beyond that needed to bring water to a boil ^-^ I recommend serving rice cooked this way using a wooden spoon or rice paddle; I'm not sure why it makes a difference to the behavior of the rice, but it does. Starting with cold water also seems to make a difference -- perhaps this is related to the difference water temperature makes in brewing tea (if you use warm water from the tap, it's already lost some of its oxygen before you begin boiling it, which later affects the flavor of the tea). The most important factors, however, are the type of rice (long grain doesn't work as well, but you can use short-grain if you prefer it to medium) and the proportion of water to rice (higher than that required to make "fluffy" rice). I also use this rice as a base for onigiri. My friends seem to find sticky rice addictive, so consider yourself warned ^_^ The nutritional information here is based on a "serving" equal to 1/4 cup uncooked rice.

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