posted by: sceana
Ask five different people to make rice, and you will get five different bowls of rice.
There are dozens of varieties of rice around the world, but to cover them all would be foolish. I’m only going to cover the three major types that Asian families eat, since the problem I see is mostly an Asian family problem.
- Long-grain rice is often preferred by Chinese and Southeast Asians.
- Medium-grain rice is often preferred by Japanese and Koreans.
- Short-grain rice is used by all Asian cultures, but for specialty purposes.
The shorter the grain, the more starch the rice has. The more starch the rice has, the stickier the rice will be.
This is why short-grained Arborio rice is used for Risotto — the high starch value allows for the Risotto’s creamy texture. In Asian cultures, short-grained rice is used for making dishes that require a very glutinous, sticky rice.
The stickiness of the rice is directly proportional to the starch level of the rice. When you wash your rice, you are removing the starch that coats the rice (caused by powdered rice kernels). Water has a limited capability to hold starch. After the threhold is reached, the rice will be really sticky. This means:
If you take any given rice, the less you wash it, the stickier it will be. The more you wash it, the looser-grained it will be.
I tend to wash the rice according to (t=c+1) where t is the times washed and c is the number of cups — or see the following chart:
Cups of rice vs. Times to wash
1 cup of rice = 2 times wash and rinse
2 cup of rice = 3 times wash and rinse
3 cup of rice = 4 times wash and rinse
4 cup of rice = 5 times wash and rinse
5 cup of rice = 6 times wash and rinse
This usually gives me the stickiness I like in my rice. When a stickier rice using the same grain length is required, simply wash the rice less. When a looser rice (for example, when making rice pilaf) using the same grain length is required, simply wash the rice more.
When washing rice, put the rice in your cooker bowl and place it under the sink. Use plenty of water. Swirl it around for about ten seconds. Drain the cloudy water. Add more water, and repeat.
When making rice just as rice, use a rice cooker. The reason the rice cooker works is because the rice cooker maintains a constant, exact temperature and knows exactly when to turn the heat off. Rice cookers know exactly when the internal temperature of the rice cooker pot exceeds 100°C (212°F) and shuts it down (this is what happens when the rice is cooked).
The mistake a lof of people make when trying to get rice that isn’t so sticky and mushy is to use less water. I’ve seen people use 2.5 cups of water for 3 cups of rice. This makes your rice less sticky, but it’s also undercooked. If you use the t=c+1 formula for washing rice, you can add 1/4 cup of water more water than rice for amounts up to 3 cups, and 1/2 cup up to 6 cups — meaning 3 cups of rice would get 3 1/4 cups of water; and 6 cups of rice would get 6 1/2 cups of water.
These are rough guidelines to use. This is how I like my rice, personally. If you know the basics and what actions you take determine what results you end up with, you can adjust the washing and the amount of water to suit your personal tastes.
Another important thing is to make sure the rice has time to rest and fluff. Rice might be technically ‘done’ in twenty five minutes, but it needs to sit in the cooker for another half an hour or so before it’s ready to eat.
There are times when you should make rice in a pot, and times when a rice dish is best when made in a clay or iron pot. There are times when a rice should be made in a skillet, and there are times when rice should be made in a bamboo steamer. But these are for other times.
This concludes Lesson One in our Ten-Part “Rice Techniques” Series.
The ojinugh bokkeum I had once at KumGangSan is actually pretty good - much spicier. This is why I have to cook at home – no one makes anything spicy enough! I also don’t like udon noodles so I ask them to replace it with regular gooksoo, but not during the dinner rush because they’re so busy.
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