How do you cook perfect rice?
Tell me the details like what makes yours perfect, why, and your cultural influence if any. I mean, rice is totally different with Mexican, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Persian food just to name a few. It is not just the spices or sauces I'm mostly interested in. These matter too. I am really interested in the grain variety and specifically how you prep, cook, and absolutely anything you do after. Don't skip the cultural details that you might otherwise presume everyone does. Do you know why some brand or region produces better ingredients, say so. I know it seems simple and mundane but it really is not. I want to master your rice as you make it in your culture. Please tell me how.
So, how do you do rice?
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Filipino here. Rice is a staple of our diet, and traditionally we've mostly eaten Dinorado or Sinandomeng rice. I'd say in the past 20-30 years though Jasmine and Basmati rice have also gained popularity in our dishes. I've always been taught this method:
What is your cultural fancy rice? Like when you want to make something flavorful, different, special, or you are just mixing up some leftovers what do you do in these situations?
I forgot about that. We usually put pandan leaves in there from time to time to make it more fragrant. But otherwise, it's mostly plain rice. Our dishes usually have either a tomato-based sauce or broth anyway, so that takes care of additional flavor.
We call leftover, day-old rice "bahaw", and is usually made into "sinangag", which is literally garlic fried rice, and is usually cooked during the following day's breakfast.
Here's a nice blog post with pictures that made me hungry: https://www.kawalingpinoy.com/sinangag/
There is a lot! One of the simplest ways to do this is to mix in the soup of a dish. We have a lot of soupy dishes (I've always wondered if this has something to do with how well they keep) - Adobo, Sinigang, Bicol Express, Tinola, etc. - and the simplest way to make a flavorful rice is to take the soup of these after cooking and put it over the rice. Generally you do this while eating that dish, but you'll often see this done even when the original dish is already eaten - one of my favourites is to put pork sisig over sinigang rice. Adobo in particular is great because that soy sauce based soup (and its coconut-added variety) is sooo flavorful.
Another way you'll often see a spruced up rice is in the form of sinangag, which is essentially like our "fried rice". You take day-old or refrigerated rice and fry it up with some minced garlic that's also fried until it's very crispy. The garlic gives you a little crunch while you're eating but also introduces a ton of aroma. Sometimes you'll see this done with butter instead of just cooking oil, or with magic sarap (which is MSG and other seasonings). Not gonna lie, it's delicious but maybe a bit much.
Other than that, people do actually just fry up rice with bits of meat/egg/veggies on it. Whatever they have on hand. Anything that has leftovers. Afaik, it's not really called anything here, just something that people do.
You dont fluff up your rice with a fork or something and let it sit after that covered for 10 minutes or so?
Haha, sometimes I do that, but when I'm cooking for myself, often no. I think most other households do though, since we (Pinoys in general) often serve rice on a separate plate and not straight from the pot, so that takes care of the fluffing part.
That makes sense thank you. I'm currently in a battle with rice - my pressure cooker recipe keeps failing me and I'm really unhappy with the results. Maybe I'll just return to using a pot.
Instant pot rice:
-Wash rice several times, more if you want to avoid the rice all sticking together. Drain thoroughly after each wash.
-For rice that typically uses 2 cups of water per cup of rice, like long grain rice or basmati rice, add 1 1/4 cups (1.25 cups) of water per cup of rice.
-Pressure cook for six minutes.
-Natural release for at least ten minutes, more is also okay.
-Fluff rice before serving.
This works perfectly every time for me and is just as good as the fancy rice maker I used to have. I haven't made rice on the stove in years. Even when I was making it on the stove, it was never this good, and definitely never this consistent.
Max pressure? Mine goes from 1-6. It's an electronic one so I assume even at its highest it's not as that high of a pressure.
Yes, max pressure. My model instant pot doesn't have different pressure settings and it comes out great.
I feel like I'm tossing my cooker if your recipe doesn't work lol.
absolutely never. it is not needed. just cook until done and serve hot
Do you open the pot after you turn the heat down?
I usually leave the lid on, but not fully covering the pot so I can keep an eye on it.
Uy kababayan! Sometimes, my dad would get a sack of Maharlika rice from his work and I always thought that it tasted a little sweeter than Sinandomeng and Dinorado. I feel like cooking rice is a coming of age task back at home because the elderly finally trust you around the stove.
For sure! It's a rite of passage into the world of... even more chores and responsibilities lol
Interesting how close and different this is to Arroz blanco. The difference with the puerto rican(and I imagine other latin american) style is you let it boil until the water goes just below rice level so that its just like little bubbles blowing out looking like little crab holes on a beach, and then you cover keep the heat super low and it steams.