Cook 55 to 60 minutes
Cook 55 to 60 minutes.Mixed basmati and wild rice Typical supermarket mix. Cook 20 to 25 minutes.Easy-cook white basmati rice Slightly golden colour due to processing Some loss of aroma. Cook 18 to 20 minutes.Brown basmati rice Dense, chewy, nutty Whole-some. Cook 45 to 60 minutes.Carmargue rice Reddish-brown grain, earthy, tasty, chewy. Cook 45 to 60 minutes.Italian risotto rice Large, round rice, plump and tender when cooked, though a risotto should be al dente. Don’t wash it if making risotto, as the starch makes the runny sauce. There are four grades; superfino makes the best risotto (look for Arborio, Roma, Baldo); fino (Vialone, Razza, RB 265) semifino (Ardizzone, Maratello, Ribe, Europa, Loto) The last grade, commune, is your ordinary rice.
Most Italian rice cooks in 18 to 20 minutes, but add an extra 10 minutes when making risotto.White, round-grain Italian pudding rice Used as thickener in puddings Cook 15 minutes.Brown long-grain rice Hulled but not milled Chewy, nutty, bulky, filling Absorbs three to four times its volume in liquid. Cook 45 to 50 minutes.Easy-cook, brown long-grain rice Golden-brown, dense and chewy, high fibre. Needs 45 to 60 minutes cooking.Long-grain white rice Standard rice in the UK, rather bland taste. Cook for about 12 to 15 minutes.Easy-cook long-grain white rice Factory-processed by par-boiling. Chefs’ favourite as it cooks to perfection, with each grain separate. In spite of processing, it requires a longer cooking time: 20 to 25 minutes.COOKING RICEThe way rice is most often cooked in Indian restaurants is to boil it in a large, uncovered pan full of boiling water until it’s almost done (a critical moment).
Then, it’s drained and covered with foil and put in a low oven, where its own steam slowly completes the cooking.At home, though, the purist will probably prefer to cook rice in the precise amount of water which it will absorb. This can vary from one type of rice to another.The easy way to cook rice is by volume, using a cup or measuring jug, allowing one part rice to two parts water. Use less water for making sushi rice (one part rice to one-and-a-half of water) and more for risotto dishes (one part rice to three of water or stock) or paella (one part rice to four of water or stock). Alternatively, use the age-old method of putting washed rice in a saucepan and covering with water up to the depth of the first joint of your forefinger.In both volume methods, bring the water and rice to the boil, tightly cover (a layer of crinkled foil under the lid makes a tight seal), then lower the heat to a minimum and simmer for 12 minutes.
Raise the heat briefly, then turn it off and stand for another 12 to 20 minutes, allowing the steam to complete cooking Don’t lift the lid to see how it’s doing. (To avoid scorching the rice, it helps to use a heat diffuser.)WASHING RICEMost modern rices are so well cleaned that they don’t need washing. But in order to remove excess starch (which would leave rice sticky) many Indian cooks do wash rice, often in up to seven changes of water till it runs clear. You can get the same effect in a sieve under a jet of water from the cold tap, of course.