How To Cook Basmati Rice

Basmati rice is an excellent complement that can be served with vegetable or meat dishes and make fantastic main dish, side dish or entrees perfectly. The grains of basmati rice are different from the ordinary rice in length and composition. They are longer and become more longer when cooked.

Since it contains more starch as compared to ordinary rice, they need to be soaked in water for more than an hour and rinsing well with water before being cooked. Rinsing them until the cloudy appearance of water is removed offered best results in terms of taste and quality. Since basmati rice offers more filling than ordinary rice, be sure to cook a little per person to avoid wastage.

Basmati rice differs in price depending on their quality. The best quality basmati rice is aged for years and gets better with age. There are certain important tips that has to be followed while cooking basmati rice like how to retain the fluffy texture of the rice, how much water is to be added, choosing the right pan and cooker, etc. the fluffy texture of your rice can be retained by stir frying the rice with little canola oil or ghee before cooking. A heavy cooking pan is best for cooking basmati as it offers the even distribution of heat. Electric rice cookers and microwave ovens are recommended for cooking basmati as the pressure retains the loss of nutrients in the rice.

Though the cooking process of basmati rice is little complex comparatively, they offer excellent taste and freshness when served hot. Cooking of basmati rice requires twice the amount of water wit rice. For instance, you will require 2 cups of water to cook one cup of dry rice that produces 3 cups of cooked rice. Cook the rice with clean water that remains an inch above the rice level in the pot.

While cooking, you can add liquid butter like ghee, or margarine for added flavor and taste. You can even squeeze one quarter of lemon juice into the rice and water for further flavor. Stir the rice once while the water begins to boil and cover it with a lid. Continuous stirring while cooking is not advised as it can become mushy and the cooking process may stand for 30 to 45 minutes. You should cook the rice until the boiling of the water and then turn down the simmer until the vanishing of water.

You can even change your cooking process in different ways so as to add up more flavors and spicing up with various ingredients. Adding cardamom seeds to the boiling rice or putting ghee while soaking the dry rice offers fantastic results in terms of flavor and taste. Fresh peas and brown onion chops also offer spicing up of your basmati rice with added taste.