Rice is the staple food of so many countries like India, China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and many more. Unlike wheat, an allergy to rice is rare and it has the added benefits of being rich in complex carbohydrates and low in salts and fats.

Rub a few grains of rice between your palms for few seconds and then smell. If you get a sweet, husky smell and the rice is also a little moist, you are smelling one of my favourite rices - Basmati. It’s a Hindi word (bas means fragrant and mati means queen). Basmati is long grain rice and mainly used in savoury dishes. There are many other varieties of rice and in my local store in Bangalore, there are over twenty varieties from which to choose.

One serving of rice should be about 100 gm of raw rice - it doubles in volume after cooking

There are two main ways to cook basmati rice on the stove:

Absorption method

This is so called because all the water is absorbed by the rice. The rice does need to be soaked for an hour prior to cooking. Use double the amount of water to rice.

Wash rice thoroughly and then soak it. Use a thick bottomed pan with a tight lid. Add 1 T salt and 2 T ghee to the water, along with a cinnamon stick and a couple of cardamon pods. Bring water to the boil, then add the strained raw rice. Stir after five minutes. Turn down the heat to a gentle simmer, fit the lid and then turn off the heat. Leave it to steam cook for at least five minutes but for up to fifteen minutes. Your rice should be perfectly cooked.

Drain method

This uses much more water but the proportion is not so critical – seven litres of water to 1kg of rice, and the rice does not need to soak. Bring the water to the boil and add the rice. Stir regularly. Test after twelve minutes, when it should be done. Strain and serve.

Some of the famous Indian rice preparations are –hyderabadi biryani, lucknowi biryani, pulao , navratan pulao, bisibella bath, tomato rice, curd rice , khichdi, pongal , kheer and shrikhand.


Happy cooking!!! And let me know which method you prefer!