I am new to cooking and want to ask all you experts out there to kindly guide me how rice can be cooked perfectly. I have no problems with boiled rice because at a certain stage when i feel that the rice are done i throw out the water but when i cook matar pulao or yakhni pulao, it becomes difficult for me to judge the amount of water… my mom has told me that the water should be lil bit above the rice while my chachi was telling me that is should be below the rice…confusing this is
may chawal kaise pakaun k ek ek dana alag rahey aur sakht bhi na ho
plz help me
I usually soak rice for about 20 mins, then use double the amount of water per cup, but less one. i.e. 2 cups rice = 3 cups water, 3 cups rice = 5 cups water, 4 cups rice = 7 cups water etc
Measure the yakhni. Always have the yakhni boiling hot when you pour the rice in it. The heat should be high so water evaporates quickly without cooking too much rice. Never ever cover it. Then when the water almost evaporates. Fold the rice once. Sprinkle some oil. Oil makes a huge difference. Lower the heat at extreme low. Cover properly & cook it.
Its not just the water that you need to be careful of when you want perfect rice ... Cook them on low fire ... so that they get cooked properly , otherwise the water evaporates quickly and you are left with over cooked rice.
To be on the safer side , use one and a half cup water for every cup of rice. If you feel towards the end that the rice is not fully done but the water is gone .. add half a cup of water and cover the pot and let it cook on dum.
but hey again there is a confusion chicken biryani suggested to cook rice on low flame and bint-e-nadeem recommended to cook it on high flame
i am still confused
awww , I dunno , In my experience when ever I have cooked rice on high flame , I have always screwed them up .. either the water balance gets wrong and water gets dried out not cooking the rice enough.. or rice becomes halwa.
so I always cook it on slow heat .. and only increase it towards the end of the process for a minute or two for extra water ( if any) to evaporate.
Lol see with me if I cook them on low flame then they end up getting all mushy. I used to have problem too while cooking rice in yakhni. My mom gave me these tips. Basically high flame will help the extra water to evaporate & then when you cover it properly & put it on low flame it cooks with the steam & your rice wont stick in the pan either. Make sure the flame is really low. The "dum" comes out so good. Rice is all evenly cooked.
When I make pulao, I make sure the ratio of rice and water is 1:2(1 cup rice = 2 cup water). I also make sure I use the same cup/glass to measure both the rice and water. I cook them on medium low heat, when there is really little water left, I turn down the heat and after 5 mins or so I leave them on dum for a good 10-15 mins on low heat.
ya the water should be 2.5 cups to every cup of rice as stated previously by bint_e_naeem.
rice doesn't need to be washed because it is cleaned at the milling stage.
the water should be boiled first on its own then add the uncooked rice.
stir once only as you don't want to break the grains unless you want sticky rice, stirring will release the starch.
add the lid and leave for 15 minutes on very low heat setting (white rice).
the rice should now be cooked, if not (depending of variety of rice) adjust timing a few minutes, you can check if all the water is absorbed by tilting the pan and seeing if any water is left.
