The ten-Second Restaurant Trick for Good Fluffy Rice Each Time

For one thing so seemingly easy, cooking actually good rice on the stovetop could be irritatingly laborious. It requires simply two components—rice and water—however getting ready it completely could be awfully elusive, with many inquiries to reply and issues to unravel—whether or not or to not soak the grains or rinse them earlier than cooking, whether or not to softly steam the rice or vigorously boil it, and lots of rice to water ratios to think about.

Whereas I really like sticky rice when it is meant to be sticky, after I’m cooking long-grain rice I need it to be fluffy and completely tender, with every particular person cooked grain distinct, not clumped collectively. Whereas I really like my rice cooker, my go-to weeknight rice routine is cooking rice on the stovetop, and I at all times use this one easy trick that I discovered nearly 20 years in the past after I was working in restaurant kitchens. 

To make sure gentle, separated grains of long-grain rice, I am going by way of all the correct steps: I at all times take away floor starch by soaking the uncooked grains in water after which rinsing and repeating the method till the water runs clear: I take advantage of the correct ratio by quantity of water to rice, relying on the kind of rice (a one-to-one ratio by quantity of water to rice for white rice and two-to-one for brown rice); and I prepare dinner the rice gently over low warmth to make sure evenly cooked grains and to stop extreme water evaporation. However all of this effort to prepare dinner rice completely is for naught if water pours from the lid onto the rice after I carry the lid off the pot after cooking—if that occurs all these grains that I labored so laborious to make fluffy are actually moist, clumped, and gummy.

However there’s a answer and it’s in all probability hanging in your kitchen proper now: A clear kitchen towel. I first discovered this kitchen towel trick for cooking rice after I was a line prepare dinner in restaurant kitchens nearly 20 years in the past, and I’ve been utilizing this system at residence ever since at any time when I prepare dinner rice on the stovetop. It ensures fluffy, completely cooked rice each time. 

The trick is to easily place a clear kitchen towel beneath the lid of a pot of cooked rice as quickly because it’s faraway from warmth. I then place the lid again on the pot proper over the towel and let the rice sit untouched for at the very least 10 minutes earlier than fluffing it with a fork. Because the rice finishes absorbing moisture and cooking off the warmth, the kitchen towel traps condensation from the steam, as an alternative of letting it pool contained in the lid and drip again onto the rice, thus stopping the rice from turning into sticky.

I actually like the additional insurance coverage coverage this kitchen towel trick offers me when cooking stovetop rice. And the tactic works effectively with extra than simply plain white rice. Use it with stovetop rice pilafs, arroz con pollo, brown rice, or some other rice dish during which you need to remove extra moisture. It’s a small further step, however an vital one to make sure completely cooked, effectively separated grains of rice which might be able to be fluffed and served.