Steamed Rice

Method

1. Rinse the rice until the water runs almost clear. Put it in a bowl, cover with cold water, swirl vigorously with your hand, and pour off the cloudy water. Repeat four or five times. What you are washing away is loose surface starch, and it is the single biggest cause of sticky, clumped rice.
2. Drain it well in a sieve for a minute so you are not adding unmeasured water to the pot.
3. Combine and bring to a boil. Put the rice and the measured cold water in a pot with a tight lid. The ratio is 1.4 parts water to 1 part rice by weight, which is a little less than most packets suggest and is right for rice that has been rinsed. Bring to a boil uncovered over high heat.
4. Cover and drop the heat right down. As soon as it boils, put the lid on and turn the heat to the lowest setting your hob will hold. Cook 12 minutes without lifting the lid. Every peek releases the steam that is doing the cooking.
5. Rest 10 minutes off the heat, lid still on. This is not optional and it is not the same as leaving it a couple of minutes. The grains redistribute moisture and firm up; rice served straight from the boil is wet at the bottom and dry on top.
6. Fluff with a fork, cutting down through the rice and lifting rather than stirring, which mashes the grains.

Notes

• Long grain, not short. Jasmine is ideal for this shelf. Basmati works and is drier and more separate. Short grain and risotto rices are bred to be sticky and cannot be made fluffy.
• Cook it a day ahead for fried rice. Spread it on a tray, cool quickly, and refrigerate uncovered for an hour before covering. Cold, dry, day-old rice is the one non-negotiable in fried rice.
• The lid matters more than the pot. A loose lid lets steam escape and leaves you with crunchy rice and a wet base. If yours is loose, lay a clean tea towel under it, keeping the edges well away from the flame.
• Do not salt it. Rice on a Chinese table is deliberately plain, and it is the neutral thing that everything else is eaten against.
• Keeps 3 days refrigerated and freezes well in portions.

Ingredient substitutions

• Brown rice needs roughly 550 ml water and 35 minutes, plus the same 10 minute rest. It never becomes as light and does not make good fried rice.
• A rice cooker does all of this correctly and unattended. Use the same rinsing routine and the manufacturer’s water line, and still let it rest 10 minutes after it clicks off.