Avajra John Presents: The Perfect Rice

By Travis Newbill

In order to clarify the confusion of all sentient beings attempting to make rice, we present another installment of Avajra John‘s pithy kitchen wisdom.

There are quite a few different approaches to making rice. Each of the different approaches works well. This can be confusing. There are some 40,000 varieties of rice from around the world. Short-grain and long-grain brown rice, basmati rice, jasmine rice, Arborio, and Koshihikari from Japan are some commonly available varieties. In each of these different rice cultures around the world, there are recipes for making perfect rice that is considered a high art within that culture. So let’s simplify this and start at square one:

• Cook the rice on the stove top or in the oven.
• Use a pot or pan with a good, tight-fitting cover.
• Use the proportion of one cup of rice to one and a half cups of water.
• Use cold water.
• Put the rice and the water together in the pot or pan and cover tightly.
• Bring the rice and water to a boil.
• Then turn down the heat to medium low.
• The white rice varieties will take 25 to 35 minutes to cook. The brown rice varieties will take longer usually 45 or 50 minutes.
• Try to keep the cover on the rice for the whole cooking duration (check it if you must, but keep this to a minimum).
• After cooking, let the rice rest with the cover on.
• Fluff the rice with a fork and serve.