How to cook white Rice
How to cook white Rice
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| How to cook white Rice |
We must know how to cook white rice, because. More than any other food, rice is the staple food for most people on this planet. It can be said that the majority of people in South Asia including India, China, and Bangladesh eat rice every day. So, after we've dealt with the thermodynamics of heat, the material science of ships, the extraordinary magic of water, and the effectiveness of pressure-cooking, it's vital that we look at this wonderful grain that grows on tall grass. With the right application of water, heat, and delicious aroma, this rice becomes the culinary masterpiece of the subcontinent, which we fondly call biryani.
Paddy
The structure of rice is such that it helps the production of next-generation rice plants. Much like an egg, all the nutrients are stored inside the egg to feed the next generation of chickens. Dormant embryos in rice are later baby rice plants. The bran is the protective layer against the roughness of the grain, it is inedible if the cow does not eat it, and although the bran is highly nutritious and contains protein and fat (the source of rice bran oil), it spoils quickly. This is why brown rice, which contains the husk and germ, has a short shelf life. So, if you buy brown rice, don't buy too much. If there is more than usual, then keep it in the refrigerator, the rice will stay good for a long time. When the bran on the rice is cleaned, we get white rice, which is good for a long time. And that's what we usually eat. White rice is just the starchy endosperm with no other nutrients, so the process of parboiling the whole grain is used to enrich the nutrients of the endosperm (or the rice that is drained before making rice). When the whole grain is partially parboiled, it releases a good amount of the beneficial nutrients from the bran and germ into the rice. This is why parboiled rice is almost as nutritious as brown rice.
White rice, like most starchy foods, contains two types of starch molecules: amylose and amylopectin. Amylose is a small, linear molecule, while amylopectin is large and branched. In uncooked starch, amylose molecules are found within concentric chains of amylopectin molecules. When water and heat are applied, the amylose breaks down to form a gel-like substance that we associate with cooked starch. The percentage of amylose and amylopectin determines whether a particular variety of rice will be sticky or have separate grains when cooked. Rice varieties with less than 20 percent amylose (80 percent amylopectin) become somewhat sticky after cooking, while varieties with more than 20 percent amylose have separate grains.
Name, type, and nutritional value of different types of rice
Rules for cooking rice, how heat is conducted during cooking rice?
When rice is cooked in hot water, a process called gelatinization occurs. This is where the starch molecules, which are made up of long sugar molecules, break down and form bonds with water molecules that create two types of texture—a hard and waxy texture from amylose and a sticky texture from amylopectin. So, in addition to the type of rice you use, your cooking methods will also come into play in determining whether your final product will be nicely separated and fluffy or sticky.
Common, fail-safe methods for cooking rice perfectly are:
01. Wash as much amylopectin as possible from the surface of the rice. It is the starch that turns sticky when cooked. Rinse the rice until the water runs clear.
02. Then add water to the rice and bring it to a futon. When the internal temperature of rice is 650C. , then the starch gelatinizes. Don't worry, you don't need to insert a thermometer into the pan to measure it accurately. Just let the water boil visibly and the moment it does you will know that all the starch in your rice has gelatinized.
03. When the water boils, put a lid on your cooking pot and reduce the heat to the lowest setting. At this point, we'll just let the gelatinized starches absorb the rest of the water in the pot. It lasts for about 15 minutes.
04. When all the water is absorbed take your pot off the stove and let it sit for another 10 minutes with the lid closed. At this point, a process called retrogradation occurs, where each grain separates and develops its own identity, much like a teenager reading Ayn Rand. When it's done, open the lid and lift the rice with a fork before serving.
Some misconceptions about cooking rice and their answers
Two questions arise here: How much water should you use? And isn't a pressure cooker a more convenient way to do it? Let's first talk about the complex issue of water. Everyone who tells you that you should use a 1:X ratio of water to rice is giving you partially correct information based on faulty reasoning. Perfectly cooked rice is rice that usually absorbs water in a 1:1 ratio by volume. If you let it cook with more water, it will continue to absorb water and become soft rice or jao rice. But if you add water in 1:1 ratio, your rice will be half cooked. Because when it boils, most of that water evaporates. Therefore, the amount of water that evaporates must be added in excess for evaporation. This is the most important step in cooking rice. The pot you use also depends a lot on your cookbook to estimate how much more water you need than a 1:1 ratio. Again this can be a matter of personal preference. For example, I grew up eating rice prepared in a ratio of 1:2, which helps in making rice soft and fluffy at the same time. Here the rule of using water equal to three fingers or marks on your grandmother's hand is good science.
Second question: why so much trouble? Isn't pressure-cooked rice more convenient? The answer is yes. If convenience is the primary concern, pressure-cooked rice is perfectly fine, but it won't be as flavorful and fluffy as your other method-cooked rice. With just an open pot and strategic application of high heat first and low heat at the end, you get perfectly cooked rice. Pressure cooking rice is still a very popular method.
Bottom Line
But at the end of the day, when you think about the painstaking process that such a small vegetable has gone through, from cultivation to harvesting, to processing, to your kitchen, you will definitely want to cook it in a way that maximizes everything from its nutritional value to its taste. You can enjoy it perfectly. And for that, you have to follow the above method.
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