Rice Cooking Tips to Help You Cook Up a Storm

Rice cooking can be an interesting hobby. It is always enjoyable to try and make a dish using freshly bought or roasting rice. If you have made a dozen stir fries in your favorite American pressure cooker you might not be getting the full nutritional value of the meal. Stir frying is one of my favorite methods of cooking rice because it does not use a lot of oil, calories, or time in cooking a dish. Here are a few simple but tasty rice cooking tips to help you get started.

Tips 1: Canned White Rice

The first of the rice cooking tips I will give you relates to buying cheap canned white rice instead of the more expensive whole rice. You can always cook regular or brown rice if you have it, but when you buy the cans it saves you quite a bit of money. A can of whole rice has only about 2% of its serving size so buy some of these cans whenever possible.

Tips 2: Rinse The Rice

Another of the rice cooking tips I will give you pertains to rinsing your rice. You should always rinse the rice before cooking it. When you put it in the pan to cook, you want to make sure that there is as little water on it as possible so it does not stick to the bottom. When you do rinse it, make sure you get out the loose water. You should also make sure you dry your hands before touching it with either side of the pan to avoid any messes.

Tips 3: Rice Cooker

The third of my tips concerns using a rice cooker. I think they are an underrated product. The advantage to a clay pot is that it absorbs a lot of extra water because it has a very deep bottom. This makes it very difficult for the steam to escape so the rice stays almost entirely dry. Most cooking books will recommend you cook the rice in a deeper pot with a larger depth of water.

Tips 4: Crockpot

My fourth tip concerns cooking white rice in a small crockpot. You should always stir your rice well when cooking it in a larger pot, but you can save yourself some trouble and avoid having to stir by opening the lid of the crockpot instead of the lid of the pot. Just be careful that you do not burn your mouth on the cooking white rice when lifting up the lid of the crockpot.

Tips 5: Easy No Need To Control

My fifth and final tip concerns cooking with a rice cooker. I like this type of cooking. Because you have no control over the cooking process, you can vary the dish you are cooking in terms of texture and taste. I find that these appliances can make cooking a whole meal easier. Instead of standing at the stove to watch the dish go through its cooking cycle, you can simply put the lid on the cooker, place the package of rice in the bottom, and let the machine do all the work.

Tips 6: Shorter Cook Time

These five cooking methods are easy to do and take just about thirty minutes total to complete. The brown rice cooker method takes about thirty minutes, but you can vary that time accordingly based on how long you want to cook your rice. Cooking a large meal in a crockpot takes about forty minutes, while brown rice in a wok takes only about thirty minutes. Another benefit of these cookers is that you can cook all three varieties of rice at the same time, which allows you to serve your guests a great meal and you don’t need to worry about whether they have the same rice as you do. Just make sure that you add the proper amounts of water for the specific type of rice you are cooking.

Finally, there is a fun and delicious dessert that you can make using these cookers that will keep you coming back for more. Cook your rice pudding according to manufacturer directions and set your crockpot to warm. While the rice pudding is cooking, add in the following ingredients: one tablespoon of molasses, a half cup of pate, two cups of sour cream, and two tablespoons of vanilla extract. Allow the mixture to simmer for approximately ten minutes before turning the side dish to let the rice pudding cool down. When it is completely cooled, remove it from the heat and enjoy!