Cooking Indian Style Rice?

Hey don, a couple of us Toytowners are experimenting with Indian cuisine and we haven't been able to get the rice down like they make it in the Indian restaurants. What is the secret? How do they get it so fluffy and non-clumpy?

I don't know what rice they use at Indian restaurants - I use normal basmati that you can buy in the supermarket. They sell basmati at the Indian/Asian stores too, but they charge more for pretty much the same thing as you'll get in Tengelmann or wherever you normally shop.

Don't bother getting the yellow stuff. All they did is add spices or colouring to it, and you can easily do that yourself. Besides, if you get the normal stuff you can use it for other non-indian dishes too.

Here's how I do my rice:

Ingredients:
3/4 of a cup of rice per person. (beware: cup, not mug)
2tsp vegetable oil
1tsp salt
1/4tsp turmeric
3 green cardomon pods
2 cloves

1. Wash the rice thoroughly. Put it in a sieve and run cold tapwater over it, mixing it around with your fingers, till the water runs almost clear. (you can get proper rice washing machines, but they're really expensive).

2. Put it in a pan with the salt, cloves, cardomom pods and oil.

3. Add water to about 2 centimeters above the rice and bring it to the boil, stirring every so often. Don't cover it.

4. When the water has boiled, turn the heat down to the very minimum. Give the rice another good stir and cover it.

5. Leave it for about 15 minutes, and don't remove the lid unless it starts to boil over. If it starts to boil over, only remove the lid long enough to let the pressure out, then put it back ASAP.

6.1. After the 15 minutes, have a look in the pan, and if you can still see water, leave it on the heat (covered again) for another 3-4 minutes.

6.2. If the water has all boiled away remove the pan from the heat. Stir it, making sure to get the rice off the bottom of the pan. I sometimes wrap the pan in a towel (to make sure the lid doesn't come off) and give it a good shake around to fluff the rice up. Leave it to stand, off the heat and covered, for 10 minutes or so.

The timing is difficult, but if the rice is ready before the rest of the meal it doesn't matter. It will stay warm enough while the lid is on. If it gets too cold, just put it over the heat again for a couple of minutes.

Before you serve it, try to remove the cloves and cardomom pods, or tell the guests to beware of them...

Spud's right about the rice quality. Tilda rice used to be fantastic quality - used to really smell and taste wonderful - then they built up a name for themselves and now just sell the same as the rest, but cost more.

Its easier than that if you've got an electric stove - I was taught by an Indian geezer (he is as lazy as I am). As follows: Step 4. When water has boiled you can turn off the plate totally - you don't even need it on low! Wait 12-15 mins as the man sez for perfect non-stick rice. Also the good thing about turning off the plate is that it will never burn, nomatter how long you forget that the rice is on the stove, or if you started cooking the rice way too early.

Works only on electric (or ceramic) hobs of course...

Good tips Spud!

Good rice tips peeps.

Rice is really simple to cook and get the good fluffy quality. Cooking it like Spud (sounds like a good name for an album) or NoGo will work beauty.

Here's a recipe for that "yellow rice" stuff.

Wash the rice. Absolutely imperative. I just bung it in a sieve and run in under cold water, rubbing it between my fingers until the water is clear. This gets rid of any excess starch, and you can feel for impurities like bits of stone or grit. You won't get any in Tilda bags I don't think, but if you buy in massive sacks (worth it if you eat alot of the stuff) you may.
DO NOT EVER buy that bloody "Uncle Bens" long grain rubbish. Unusable rubbish, no flavour, insipid beige colo(u)r, and the 'boil in the bag' version is worse still. Also, forget ANY rice you see in shops with any german writing on it. Like their 'bread' it is likely to be wholegrain or worse. I have only ever used this to make food for my dog, and even he did not think alot of it. Crap. Basmati, or Jasmine are the ones to get. Jasmine is great stuff. Makes your house smell gooood.
I use a glass to measure my rice. You'll need about twice as much water as rice, so I measure my rice before rinsing. Adding water to 2cm above also works.

Anyhoo, then I fry up a finely chopped onion in a bit of oil, 1 clove of garlic, a couple of green cardamons, and maybe some cumin seeds, or black mustard seeds too. Then, chuck in a teaspoon or so or turmuric. It DOES actually have a flavour, its not only for colour. Then chuck in some salt. Stir turmeric into onions, and add rice. Turn through in the pan to coat the rice with oil and mix into onions. Add water, then bring to boil. When boiling, cover, and turn off heat (bloody good tip), or put it to very very low for about 15 minutes or so, shaking the pan from time to time if you have left heat on. When liquid gone, fluff the rice up with a fork to break down lumps, and leave UNCOVERED for 5 minutes or so (getting some time to plate up other dishes) then refluff with fork. Perfick.

For 'normal' steamed rice, I just wash my rice, put into pot with enough water and salt, and cook with evaporation method like above. Fork, fluff, serve.

If you wanna make fried rice for dishes like Nasi Goreng, cook some white steamed rice, and leave it to go cold on a large plate or tray. When cold, just fork it up again, and it will be really nice and loose. Perfect for frying.

Thai sticky rice is a bit more of a pain, for me at least. I just cannot accept that it is MEANT to be a gelatinous lump of stodge. weird. Its like TRYING to make a pig's ear of rice.

If you REALLY eat loads of rice, a rice cooker is an option. I used to think they were crazy, after all, why automate something as simple as boiling water, but loads of people in Asia have them, and seeing as they eat rice three or more times a day, they must be right! They are convenient, it must be said, and if you are prone to forgetting about things cooking and burning them, get a rice cooker.

Glad to hear you are expermenting with indian food Hoddy. I love indian flavours, and to me it is what I eat as comfort food too. I have never tried making much indian breads, but that is next up on my list of things to learn. Would love to work a few shifts in a good indian kitchen to learn a bit, but just too lazy to do it!

Salt with rice Don? From my experience Indians or Tai people would hang you upsidedown for that...

Why don't we just hire an indian guy (preferably pinch one of the guys from the Sitar) for a few hours. Then we can watch him cook and ask questions. Would be WELL worth it.

Thanks for the tips guys! Must get practicing as we are having a little curry cook off soon.

As far as getting any hints or clues from the good fellas at Sitar, forget about it! I swallowed my pride and begged them for the chili chicken recipe and they gave me some bogus list of ingredients. Not a spice one included. That kinda tipped me off

I think that 2x water to rice is way too much. Max 1.5 x water to rice, otherwise you'll just get a mush (chinese style maaaaan!).

Yeah, maybe. Depends on what you eat with the rice maybe, but think about all the rice dishes that have soy or fish sauce added. I think it needs seasoning personally, but hey, salt to taste.


Dunno, can be, especially if the rice is soaked. I often fry the rice a little first, dryin it a bit, and bring the water to the boil before covering. 2 x normally works OK for me, and then I leave it uncovered for a bit at the end, where it dries a little more, but yeah, 1.5 is probably 'nuff.

I agree with nogo, hiring an Indian chef for an hour would be ace.

Will arrange it when I get back from my hols in two weeks (even then: time permitting).

anyone interested in a VHS indian cooking course? Or one anywhere else, there are plenty around...
wonder if this link is connected to a session ID or not, kindof looks like it. So here's the path: Kurse » Alltag, Haushalt, Wohnen » Kochkultur und Weinkunde » Internationale Kochkultur » Indien

http://www.mvhs.de/contentserv/www.mvhs.de...BereichID=43026

Tchibo is doing rice cookers this week for 29€ (and seeing as they are now selling the UK, they have English intructions). Aldi/Lidl are doing one for 15€.
Might be worth a look if you eat rice a lot.
Now I really am off (to Berlin).
Have a nice weekend!
Katrina

Whats wrong with Uncle Bens Microwave rice?

Takes 2 minutes, so just as you serve the food, pop the Pouches in the Micro!!

G

Caution... Remember to open the pouch first... or else