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How to Wash Rice And Why?
Most of the people eat white rice daily. Rice grain is in the husk when
it grows on the rice plant Rice is brown rice when it is husked. Then it
is polished. When it is polished the rice bran is removed. The polished
rice is covered with the bran. As the rice with bran does not taste good.
It is washed to remove the bran.
How to wash rice?
In a big cooking bowl, measure and place as much rice as you want to cook.
Pour in generous cold water and stir. Discard the cloudy water and mix
the rice, rubbing, for 30 seconds. Add more cold water and stir. Discard
the milky white water. Mix, rubbing the rice for another 30 seconds. Add
and change the water a few more times until the water is clean. Rice washing
should be done as quickly as possible. Otherwise it absorbs water while
being washed. Drain the rice in a colander.
How much water?
It depends on how you like the rice to be. Japanese people eat rather
soft rice so they cook the rice in 120% water of rice. When they cook 3
cups of rice, they cook it in 3+3/5cups of water. The texture of the rice
cooked in this ratio is too soft to me. I personally prefer to firmer rice
so I usually cook rice in the same amount of water as the rice. Please
be careful when you measure the rice and water. You shoul use the same
cup for measuring both rice and water. It is ideal to wash the rice and
soak it in cold water for 2 hours prior to cooking. The rice will be cooked
through perfectly by soaking for 2 hours before cooking. 2 hours are common
soaking time among different amounts of rice.
Use a thick and heavy pan for cooking rice.
How to cook Rice?
Place the soaked rice with the soaking water in the pan. Start cooking
over medium-low heat. Cook until steam starts to rise. Raise the heat to
high and keep it for 10-20 seconds. Reduce the heat to very low right before
the rice overflows. Simmer for 20 minutes. Raise the heat to high again
for 10 seconds and turn off the heat.
Open the lid and insert a few paper towels or a cooking towel between
the pan and lid quickly.
This is done to avoid the water sticking on the lid from dropping on the
rice. Allow the rice to stand as it is for 20 minutes. This is an important
process to make the rice most flavorful.
About Rice Cooker
Most of the Japanese people use electric rice cookers. It is available
at any electric appliance shop in town.
For regular size family with 4 people, 5-10 cups rice cooker is convenient.
There is a big variety of brands with a few functions of rice cookers.
The rice cooker in Japan has a long history and any brand is more or less
the same.
The one of single function, just cooking rice, is the least expensive.
The computerized one with many functions and of superior materials costs
a lot. Except for the simplest cooker, most of the cookers are computerized
with the functions of timer, keeping the rice hot for some hours after
cooking and so on. The electric rice cooker is always accompanied with
a measuring cup and spatula. The inner cooker has graduations inside the
pan. When you cook 3 cups of rice, you can add the water to the graduation
3. This 3 means 20% more than 3 cups. If you like firm texture of rice,
I recommend you to reduce a little water. Some rice cookers are programmed
to cook some other rice dishes such as porridge of different consistencies,
sushi rice, mixed rice with vegetables and so forth. When you cook plain
rice choose the graduation section for hakumai.
If you use the simplest cooker without computerization, it is recommended
to allow the rice to stand for 20 minutes after cooking before serving.
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