How to Cook Rice With or Without a Rice Cooker

Rice is an essential dish in Asian cuisine. Rice is eaten nearly everyday so to be able to cook soft and fluffy rice is an important skill to master.

You can use a regular saucepan cooking on the stove or you can use a electric rice cooker. Whichever the way the objective is to dish out a bowl of fluffy rice.

With the invention of the rice cooker, cooking rice is easy. You don't have to worry about when the it is cooked and it will automatically switch to warm mode once the rice is cooked.

If you like to cook different types of rice you might want to invest in a micro computerised gadgets with its multi-functional settings like the Zojirushi Rice Cooker.

The electric rice cooker has made the art of rice cooking much easier. Once you have worked out the best combination of rice and water, you have a virtually fool proof way of cooking perfect rice every time.

1. Measure out the rice with the measuring cup provided. 1 cup of raw rice will make 3 cups of cooked rice.

2. Wash the rice in clean water using a separate bowl. This is to avoid scratching the inner sides of the rice cooker bowl. Rub the rice grains gently between your hands. Discard the water and rinse again. Two times ( when you see clear water rather than cloudy water ) should be sufficient to remove the starch from the granules so that you don't have sticky cooked rice.

Discard as much of the water as possible leaving only the wet rice grains.

Please note that if you are using American rice where it is stated that vitamins and minerals have been added as a coating then omit the washing as it will only remove these nutrients.

3. Place the rice in the inner pot of the rice cooker.Then add clean water to the rice depending on how many cups of rice used.

Below is a rough guide of the equivalent cups of water per cup of raw rice grain.

1 cup rice - 1 1/2 cup water

2 cup rice - 3 cup water

3 cup rice - 4 1/2 cup water

4 cup rice - 6 cup water

5 cup rice - 7 1/2 cup water

6 cup rice - 9 cup water

4. Close the lid, switch on the rice cooker and depress the "on" button.

5. When the cooking process is completed the rice cooker will automatically switch to the keep-warm mode.

6. You can switch off the main switch anytime as the rice will be kept quite warm for up to one hour

There are times when you may need to cook rice in a pot even though you have an electric rice cooker. This could be due to electric disruptions or when I only want to cook a small amount, you can still cook rice to perfection.

1. Measure the amount of rice grains you need.

2. Wash the rice grains as you would for cooking rice in the rice cooker.

3. Place the rice grains in a medium size sauce pan. Add water to the rice, about twice the level of the rice grains.

( Don't worry that there is too much water as it will be discarded later )

4. Cook the rice on the stove at a high flame. Watch out that it does not boil over. Once it is boiling lower the flame to medium.

5. Boil the rice until you see the raw grains turn into rice. The shiny grain has disappeared and has now become uncooked rice ( about 12-15 minutes.)

6. When the rice is half cooked, discard the water. You do not need to completely remove all the water.

7. Place the pan back on the stove on a low flame. Cover the lid tightly and allow the rice to continue cooking in its own steam for about 2-3 mins.

8. Switch off the flame and do not open the lid ad the rice will continue to absorb moisture.

9 The rice should be ready for eating in 30 minutes.

According to the Canadian Diabetes Association, basmati rice has a medium glycemic index ( between 56 and 69 ). This makes it a suitable rice for diabetics compared to other long grain white rice.

I love basmati rice as the rice grains are quite firm. The ratio of water to rice is about one-to-one though just a bit more water will make it slightly more fluffy.

If you only have rice occasionally and don't want the hassle of cooking from scratch, then a bowl of cooked rice may be for you. You can either heat it up in the microwave or cook it on the stove top. Either way, it takes only a few minutes to produce a bowl of steaming brown rice.