A little backstory is needed here, apologies to those who hate backstories.
I used to be able to cook a decent pot of rice: white, brown, basmati or jasmine. Heck, I even published a tip for perfect rice so I was definitely doing it right.
And then, a few months ago, something happened: my rice cooking skills suddenly disappeared. My rice started turning out mushy like gruel, watery like soup or tough and uncooked. Sabotage? I wish. Change of rice cooking pan? Not really. Lost rice mojo? Most probably though I have no idea what might have triggered it.
So what with the above, plus Kenji Lopez-Alt declaring in The Wok that the best method of cooking good rice is in a rice cooker, I went and bought one. So far, I haven’t looked back!
The brand I got is neither the cheapest, nor the cult/most expensive, and it isn’t one that uses the fuzzy-logic chip because those will only let you cook rice the Asian way, i.e. it will never get crispy at the bottom. And since crispy rice with tahdig, from the Persian/Middle Eastern cookery school, is one of life’s most delightful things, I wanted to be able to make it in my rice cooker. That’s my advice if you’re in the market: make sure the machine has a ‘crispy rice’ program.
So while the rice cooker is preparing the perfect side of rice, you can focus on your stir fries, meat and vegetable dishes to serve it with. Like moo shu pork, beef and asparagus or cabbage walnut casserole and cheesy sweet potato tray bake.
But I’m not going to be rice-cookist and discriminate against those who want to cook rice based dishes, with add-ons and ingredients cooked together with rice, which anyway cannot very well be done in the rice cooker (though research will ensue and watch this space).
So let me now give you a handful of foolproof recipes around rice, where cooking a fluffy bowlful of perfectly separate grains is not an issue.
Sweetcorn and chorizo paella-style dish is stupidly easy to cook. Persian rice with broad beans couldn’t be easier – and tastier. Mexican rice with tomatoes is cooked like pilaf, i.e. easy, and so is chicken rice pilaf, natch. You can bake rice in the oven, with mushrooms or brown shrimp, or mix it with lentils for Levantine mejadra. And there’s risotto, of course – especially fabulous when made with black rice!
More delicious rice recipes can be found in the Recipe Finder with ‘rice’ selected, or Content Pages.
And if you do have and use a rice cooker, make sure to turn the leftovers into delicious fried rice, be it prawn or vegetable. Happy rice cooking!