How do you cook rice?

Open box of boil in bag. 1 bag usually serves two in our house. Put bag into pan of boiling water. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Get husband to drain bag, cut open and serve.

I can't cook rice unless it's in the bag. I cook too much, and it goes stodgy.

Buy one of these

Wash the rice. 1 cup of rice to 1 1/4 cups of water (ish, depends on your rice). 14 mins on high.

We use the excess water method.

Take a nice big pan, add rice (unwashed basmati) and salt, then top up with boiling water to about an inch or two from the rim.

Simmer for about 12 minutes, but be sure to test the rice after about 10 to see how far along it is.

Drain well.

Lovely fluffy, separate grains every time.

I use the boxes of UBs and use the portion guide for rice. I never measure the water just throw some in and if it seems to disappear quickly, I add some more water and find it turns out grand for boiled rice

One cup of rice in pan.

2 cups cold water in pan

1/2 tsp of salt in pan.

lid on, heat on high. 10 mins or until all the water's gone. thats it. there s no more too it than that (assuming normal long grain).

I do the old Delia way. Melt a little butter in a large shallow pan with a lid. Measure the rice in measuring jug and put in pan and give a quick stir. Measure boiling water in jug so that it's exactly double the amount of rice. Add to pan and add a little salt and stir. Put the lid on and turn hob to the lowest it will go and cook for 15 mins. Don't lift the lid until the time is up.

I always do rice like this and its always nice and fluffy. I never rinse the rice and I tend to use basmati as I think it tastes better.

What the Pieman said. Although I was basmati rice (don't bother with wild or long grain rice though).

I have no idea what method mr v uses but he can never get it right (and he's otherwise a far better cook than me)

I do exactly what NickJ says, but mine always goes gloopy. My dad made some ace non-sticky rice this weekend, so I asked him what he does. He puts lots of water in the pan with the rice and then "half cooks" it in his words, ie cook it until it is not quite done. He then rinses it in boiling water and puts it in an ovenproof dish covered in foil and puts it in a low oven for 5 mins or so. Labour intensive but the nicest rice I've had for ages.

I also do excess water as I cannot get absorption right- it always results in undercooked or burned rice or at times both!

What Nick said, plus after the water has gone and heat is off I leave it for 5 mins more with lid on and it is perfect every time. And this is using basmati.

I do the same as P&aP - never a problem.

Now that really is a faff ! ?

Whatever you do, if you decide to try the 'total absorption' method (which is the one with a measured amount of rice and a measured amount of water and a basic method of 'boil till the water is gone'), make sure your husband knows what you're doing.

The one time I tried the total absorption method, I cooked the rice for about half an hour, when it was only supposed to take 10 minutes. I couldn't understand it, as I was popping into the kitchen every couple of minutes to check, and there was always plenty of water in there.

My husband kept saying "Isn't that rice done yet?!" and getting very bad tempered, as the curry was starting to dry out, and I had to keep telling him that no, the rice wasn't done...

Then I caught him topping up the rice with water from the kettle. ?

When I asked him what he thought he was doing, he said "Well, the water was boiling away - I've been topping it up for 20 minutes"

Nowadays I just follow the 'excess water' instructions on the packet, and allow 125g of rice for 2 people - that way I get 4 meals out of a 500g packet of rice.

Thanks everyone.

Having tried to measure the water to rice in the past I'm going with the Pie Man's method. If it's not fluffy then I'm going to rinse it in boiling water and chuck it in the oven like Mrs Pips dad.

Failing that Mr M will be having rice all week until I get it right. ?

RachelHS ?? Thankfully Mr M is even more useless in the kitchen so doesn't attempt to help out.

Buy Tesco's microwaveable rice. Rip top a bit. Microwave for 2 minutes. Serve.

Micro rice is vile!

i was always taught the 1:2 method rice to water. 1 part rice, 2 parts water. Boild hard until most of water is absorbed and you see little holes in the rice. Turn right down to low and cover so it steams for about 5 mins. That's it, fluffy every time. Ive never understood the excess water method, just doesn't seem right!

I always use the excess water method but when draining I have a boiling kettle ready and just pour it over it in the seive and serve immediately - mine's never stuck together and doesn't (imo) need to go in the oven.

I use the excess water method too, it's a piece of piss and gives me fluffy, separated rice every time, I use long grain or basmati.

I used to use boil in the bag but it always ended up claggy and was more hassle than cooking rice in the pan.

I shove it in a pan with cold water and leave to sit for about 1/2 an hour. Then rinse thoroughly under a cold running tap. This washes most of the starch out that makes it clump together.

Then put fresh water in the pan, simmer until cooked. Avoid strring and make sure the pan doesn't dry out. Drain and rinse with fresh boiling water.

Vile to you, fine to me!

I was always awful at cooking rice but my dad then showed me the 'Madhur Jaffrey' way.

Fry one cup of rice in a table spoon of olive oil in the pan for 1 minute or so (while the kettle is boiling). As soon as kettle boiled, add one cup of boiling water. Stir round once, cover and cook on the lowest heat for 13 minutes. Fork through before serving.

I do find a layer sticks to the bottom of the pan but I just put cold water in and leave it while we eat. It's never actually burned to the pan. It's the consistence of chinese take-away rice which I like as it's slightly drier.

I wash a cup and a half of rice and put some olive oil in the saucepan. Then boil the kettle and stick the rice in the pan and fry until the kettle is boiled. Put 3 cups of boiling water in (use the same cup!), turn the heat down to simmer and stick the lid on.

Great rice each time! Just give it a stir every now and then so the bits don't get stuck to the bottom.

If you have the space and the money, and eat rice often enough, I'd get an electric rice cooker... I don't think my family would easily work out how to cook rice without one (rubbish icon).

Or is that a cop out?

I don't think it's a cop-out. It's a standard bit of kit in most asian households where rice is an everyday staple. Much easier, or that microwave one that I linked to earlier.

Tbh, I don't get this all-individual-grains-of-rice thing. It feels a bit school dinners, but then I grew up with asian slightly sticky rice, so I guess it's the rice version of deep pan pizzas to me.

Wasn't going to bring that in the conversation but being from that part of the world, I agree... I've not met anyone who hasn't got a rice cooker.

And about the rice - on top of separate grains, what about the salt and the butter? They all sound wrong to me ?

We have a rice ball which is a bit like two small collanders (sp?) put together to make a ball with a hinge and clip iyswim - this way you just dunk into a pan of boiling water for about 10 minutes and it drains itself.

A bit like this - got it from Debenhams

I've got to disagree, there's nothing worse than sticky rice (well there is, but you know what I mean). I grew up with individual grains of fluffy rice coated with a knob of butter and seasoned with salt. If my mum's rice was sticky then it wasn't done properly and she'd get complaints from the whole family! In my household the sticky stuff is known as the 'no chewing required' rice! Having said that I still haven't mastered the art of making proper rice as I'm sat here eating slightly underdone rice with my curry.

No, I don't mean overdone rice, just a bit sticky. Maybe it's the difference between se asian and asian aisan

Definitely a difference between East Asian and South Asian rice cooking methods. Being from East Asia I'm more used to rice being slightly softer than what you'd expect basmati would be, for example.

I cook basmati rice using this method:

1 cup of rice = 1 cup of water

a little salt, bring to the boil and then turn down to lowest heat and cook for 15mins or so, or until all the water has been absorbed. I then normally spoon through a knob of butter which really brings out the flavour. This is the way I mum taught me and she learnt how to cook rice in the middle east. It hasn't failed me yet