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i have to make brown rice tomorrow....everytime i've made it in the past, i follow the directions but somehow it turns out disgustingly mushy! what am i doing wrong?. how do i follow the directions and it turns out so badly? any tips i'm unaware of to make it more dry fluffy?
junglekitte
Jan 30, 2007 08:38PM
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Sauté in butter or oil before adding water. Use less water than is called for in the directions. Don't cook it as long as called for. Cook it over a lower heat than is called for and let it sit covered for 10 minutes before serving. Switch to brown basmati rice.
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I short the water by a couple tablespoons, and cook it for a full hour with 10 minutes of resting time afterward.
before I made this adjustment I used to end up with either rice that wasn't done or else it was done but sitting in a puddle, which had to be drained. Either way was just wrong.
I have had pretty good luck with Bittman's rice pilaf using brown rice. Just increase the cooking time to around 50-60 minutes.
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for the last 30 seconds or so of cooking time move the lid so its got a slight opening and go full blast with the burner. this will help in evaporating any remaining water. then always remember to put the lid back firmly on, remove from heat and let sit for another 10 minutes at least. then remove the lid and fluff through with the tines of a fork. then put lid back and let it sit till youre ready to eat.
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"I just cook mine in the oven in a roasting pan at 375 leave lid off average pan about an hour or less.Just add one part rice two parts water(correction),fool proof"
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"I just cook mine in the oven in a roasting pan at 375 leave lid off average pan about an hour or less.Just add half water to rice,fool proof"
so you're saying (for example) 2c rice, 1c water?
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no 1 cup rice to 2 cups water and the cooking times for 1-1 pound bag sorry I explained wrong mabye its not foolproof =). if you want just slap your meat on top with your seasonings and vegis too oven rice is fool proof,but still comes out slightly sticky,for perfect rice there might be a better way.A rice cooker?Brown rice takes more time than white.I call my recipe nin·com·poop rice.
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"mabye its not foolproof =)."
Well, if there's a fool around who can screw up a "foolproof" recipe for anything, it's most likely me. Thanks for clarifing. :-)
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I have a rice cooker but I'm not sure how to do brown rice. Any ideas???
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I learned from some Caribbean friends & just get a big pot of boiling water, put in some salt & toss the rice in. I let it bubble with the top off. It usually takes about 35-40 mins depending how fresh it is. after a while I take a grain out & test it. Like pasta. When It's done I put it in a colander to strain. Always works, just like cooking pasta.
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Wow im gonna try that makes sense.
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If you eat it regularly find/buy an old school rice cooker, bare aluminum, by National. It makes things way easier and cooks it just right each time (25 mins +/-). Ironically some of the modern ones (nice looking ones) like Fujitronic or Zojirushi won't cook brown rice completely...although some of the very modern ones probably do ($200).
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I like to use brown basmati rice - I use twice as much water as rice, boil until the water has disappeared from the surface and you start seeing little holes on the surface. Turn down burner to as low as possible (I have gas), cover, and cook for about 15 minutes. Check to see if done and cook a little longer if needed. I end up with non mushy rice that is more the texture of white rice.
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I now use this method (baked) and get perfect brown rice every time.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recip...
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I've had great success with this baking technique (I got it from a version that was posted here about a year and a half ago). You can vary the seasonings, add herbs, use brown rice/wild rice mix, etc. I usually freeze part of it for later.
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I use Alton Brown's baking method as well. It works perfectly and is never mushy. For some odd reason, the recipe doesn't double. I like to freeze brown rice to have on hand for quick dinners so I end up putting 2 8x8 pans in the oven each time to make a really big batch.
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I have doubled and tripled it -- I find though, that if I do double-or-more it, an extra 15 minutes is needed. I use a 9x13 pyrex for multiples and a 8x6 for singles.
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Hate to go all brandname on you, but I have better luck with long grain varieties from Lundberg than I did with the cheap store brand short grain I was buying. Although I recently bought a store brand of long grain (I have to seek out the Lundberg and I can't always find it) that was definitely an improvement, maybe options are opening up with the whole grain trend.
http://www.lundberg.com/products/rice...
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After reading on this board that brown rice freezes well, I hauled my rice cooker out of the basement where it's lived ever since I bought it around 6 years ago. I made a huge batch of brown basmati rice purchased from a small Indian grocery. Following the directions in the booklet the rice but adding a little more water (final proportions about 1:2 rice:water) produced a bowl of very nicely cooked rice. My rice cooker isn't anything fancy, just a basic model which costed about $75 when I got it.
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My favorite technique involves a pressure cooker. First I saute a little onion and garlic in the cooker. Then I add the rinsed brown rice and toast for a couple off minutes. Then I add water or (preferably) chicken broth in a 2:1 ratio to rice. I seal the cooker, bring up to pressure and cook for about 30 minutes. Comes out fluffy, with a nice layer of seared, crispy rice on the bottom. Delicious and fast! If no pressure cooker, recommend beginning on the stovetop, then finishing in a casserole dish in the oven.
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I also use a pressure cooker to cook brown rice, but because I serve the rice with Chinese, Indian, or Thai food, I use a more basic recipe:
Boil 3 1/2 cups of water in the pressure cooker, but don't lock the lid yet. Add 2 cups of Jasmin brown rice and 1 tsp of olive oil. Lock the lid. Cook under high pressure for 15 min.; turn off the stove; then let the pressure drop naturally for at least 10 min. The rice comes out perfectly cooked but there won't be a bottom layer of crispy rice. (I personally don't like a bottom layer of crispy rice for the type of cooking I do.)
Here's a chart with the proportions for other amounts:
Water : Brown Rice
1 3/4 cups : 1 cup
2 1/2 cups : 1 1/2 cups
3 1/2 cups : 2 cups
5 cups : 3 cups
6 1/2 cups : 4 cups
I also used to cook brown rice in the microwave with a special microwave rice cooker you can buy in most kitchenware stores. I think I used a 2:1 water to rice ratio and it took about 35 min. in the microwave. Rice was cooked perfectly but I got nervous from the bad press about microwaving food in plastic containers.
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--How to cook brown rice--
I have been using this method almost weekly for 8 years.
1 mesure brown rice
2 mesures water
1 pinch of salt per !/4 cuo pf rice (4 pinches per cup of rice)
Soak over night (optional)
Bring to high boil
Lower heat to low boil
Set timer for 20 minutes
Check and set timer for 10 mines.
When the water is below the top of the rice, check more often. What you are looking for is to cook out all the water. Take a spoon and make a hole in the center of the rice so that you can see the botton of the pan and the liquid that is there. When there is lots of water left the hole will fill in. Near the end, the whole will remain and you can see the bottom of the pan and the remaining liquid. When the rice is almost done, the liquid will look thick and milky and will soon dissapear. When there is no liquid at the botton of the hole, turn off the heat and cover for 10 minutes. When you take the rice out of the pan, stir the surface with a fork to get fluffy rice. Vola!
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Do not salt brown rice (or other whole grains) until it is nearly finished cooking, as the salt will delay the tenderizing of the hull.
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i have always used the "pasta" method with brown rice. lots of boiling salted water, throw in the rice and test it after 20 min. seems to work out fine every time
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I just had a very nice lunch at "Toyoda" in Ginza. The chef is friendly and shares cooking tips. I asked about cooking brown rice and his suggestion was to combine it (70/30) with some mochi gome (sticky rice) and then to cook it with some julienned ginger.
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Mochi gome, as in regular old Japanese white sticky rice? I've had good luck combining brown rice with hatomugi or Job's Tears.
I usually make brown rice in the rice cooker because making it on the stove or in a pressure cooker resulted in inedible rice. It comes out edible in the rice cooker, but it is still not perfect rice. I will try some of the techniques listed here.
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wow so many methods. thanks to everyone who posted.
i bought the brown basmati rice as suggested and i put a little less water and cooked it for 50 minutes in a regular pot/lid on the stove.
perfect!
i will definitely try the other methods in the future. thanks again!
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It's far simpler than all of these suggestions, I have to say. :/ If you're using the cheap stuff(Comet, I love it!), the easiest way is to put in one cup of rice, two cups of water, a bit of salt or whatever seasonings you like, and a little butter or oil or whatever you like... I use olive oil because a little healthy step whereever you can put it is good. :D Anyway, just stir it all together, heat to high, then turn it down to the lowest setting, cover tightly and cook for fifty minutes. Slow, low-heat cooking brings out all of rice's natural yummyness. The important part is that after all the water is absorbed you let it -sit- for a cook twenty to twentyfive minutes covered so that the starches can disentangle themselves. If you try to fluff before letting it set, it'll just well... get all icky and porridgey. Sure it takes a while, but using the oven for rice is a total waste of energy, and it heats your house up a lot... and if you like saving a few extra bucks, well, that -does- contribute to energy bills, especially in the Summer. Besides, a hot oven is a lot less comfortable than a hot stove. ;) (Add a little turmeric at the beginning and you have whole-grain yellow rice! Neat stuff! For St. Patty's day, try Green Tea rice; steep the water in a few green teabags before adding the rice. Yummy, and a good way to add all the health benefits of tea to your food!)
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