One thing I forgot to mention - it's also important to rinse the rice before cooking to remove excess starch, which will help prevent the grains from clumping together. I discussed this in a bit more detail and showed my preferred rinsing method here: th-cam.com/video/2ogdB7D-WWY/w-d-xo.html.
Rinsing also removes a majority of the inorganic arsenic that rice is known to absorb from pollution, pesticides, etc. I recommend looking up the facts yourself, but it seems like brown rice has more arsenic while basmati has less. Other types of grains generally have less arsenic than rice too.
A South India lady taught me to replace half the water with coconut milk. Add a little turmeric, a cinnamon stick , half dozen whole cloves, few cardamom pods, and a handful of raw cashews. Makes the tastiest rice! Thank you for that recipe, Hema!
This is the type of cooking video I love to see. Instead of "here's how to cook a very specific rice recipe" this is "how to cook almost all rice and build your own recipes"
true, I'm trying to expand my cooking skills as a beginner, and I've been trying to stick to channels like these. another good one is Ethan Chlebowski, he's similar to these.
Hello! Korean here, I just wanted to let you know that Koreans use sesame oil more as a finishing touch or in sauces, scallion oil and lard are more common to start off dishes!
I'm from Brazil and until a few years ago I though that everywhere in the world they cooked rice like that. I was surprised there were people who cooked rice with only water, not even adding salt! Here we chop garlic and/or onions, fry them in oil until they are golden, add the water, the salt, the rice and cook it until soft and fluffy. Some people add black pepper, carrots and other ingredients, but that's the base recipe every brazilian uses. And to be clear we eat rice everyday.
I'm a Brazilian living abroad and when I found out how people cooked rice in so many different ways, I was surprised as well. So I also started trying new methods, but honestly, the Brazilian base recipe remains the best.
@@tamy_br brazilians are the master along pakistani, indians guys when we're talking about fluff, separate grains,. Now: creamy and stuff... Yeah, nobody beats Italians doing it.
@@szveszs no bad humour showing how you really love your country I love it too because i stay here (Sao Paulo - Brasil) But you have to try out Nigeria way of preparing rice and maybe you may need to re-edit your comment Hahahaha we are the king on this. not the Italian Not the Pakistani African is the origin of all We developed it all The chef The ingredients Everything come from us 😊
I only usually make plain white rice if it's going to be with a sauce. Like if I make curry i don't want the rice to clash with the curry sauce that I'm going to pour on it. I don't really know anyone who makes plain rice just to eat plain, they only season it afterward. Sometimes they do that bc they want to make rice one time but have it with 3 different meals. So make a big pot of rice, put it in 3 bowls and put 3 different types of seasonings in each one
I like to save chicken bones from drumsticks I eat for lunch, then boil them in water, and run through a strainer to make homemade broth. I then use this broth as a base for my rice. I then dehydrate the bones in my dehydrator. Finally, I grind the bones with my mortar and pestle into bone meal, which is an excellent soil amendment for my garden. The garden, of course, provides me with super fresh, delicious herbs and veggies to go into my rice dishes!
The one thing that I learned when I was young was to lightly 'fry' the rice in oil or butter (well, my dad used margarine but same-same) for like a minute or two and that unlocks SOOOOO much flavour and makes the texture of the rice so much better. I'm glad to see it was in your list -- well done sir :)
Me too. I bought this little fried rice kit when i was like 10 and the first direction was to fry the rice in oil. It's funny because it sounds weird and greasy but when you try it you go like OHHHHHH, that's why it's so good at restaurants 😩 Same thing with using peanut and sesame oil. I've had to just use regular vegetable oil for stir fry before bc i couldn't afford anything extra. But when you use peanut oil or add sesame oil (in the correct recipes lol) it's a totally different universe. You can taste it just by breathing in over your tongue lol. It's like "oh this is actual Chinese food cooked by someone who kind of knows what they're doing"
@@caramelpeacock5250yes, dry rice. You can rinse it first and still fry it uncooked. It's addressed in the video but i know this from cooking ricearoni lol
I moved to the middle east, where rice is a favorite basic food, served with all meat dishes. What I didn't know was, you have to SOAK the rice first. Basmati rice or Persian rice need that preload to cook up fluffy and tender. Alway wash and rinse the rice and then soak it for at least half an hour. Drain it in a sieve. Then add the drained rice to your fat and spices.
Washing rice used to be mandatory because rice was litterally dirty but in places like the US and Europe food industry standards have eliminated that concern. So now washing rice in many places is purely for aesthetic reasons and no longer for hygiene reasons. (Washing removes starch powder making rice less clumpy, but places like the US fortify rice by coating it in vitamin powder so washing will remove that fortification as well.) Personally i like my rice on the clumpy side, but its best to know the real food science when cooking so you can know why you are doing something a certain way. (Tradition is great and makes amazing food, but it doesn't always explain itself correctly)
@@jasonreed7522 in Persian cuisine salting rice before cooking is considered mandatory. we have two methods for cooking rice. in one method we briefly wash and salt the rice and let it sit for minutes or hours (depending on the freshness of rice) then we cook it until boiled with high temp then lover temp with closed lid. this keeps the starch in the rice. in this method oil is added at first to the rice with salt. the second method is way more complicated: salt water, put in boiling water until semi-cooked. then rinse, then put back in the pot with some kind of Tahdig, usually being a bread or potatoes. let it simmer for at least 20 mins until well cooked (don't try this. this recipe is not to replicate as is not accurate.) the objective in persian cuisine is to coock rice in either method in a way that: 1. the rice doesn't get broken and the grains keep their form. 2. the rice grains shouldn't stick together (exactly not like the video!) at the same time they should be well-cooked and not raw 3. getting a perfect Tahdig is a mastery level. with our standards, this rice in the video is not acceptable AKA not edible AKA rubbish :D
I prefer rice baked in oven with spon of butter.. Rise like this is light as cloud and vety good. Non sticky.... You just add water 1.5 x amount of rise and it is godly good.
An excellent method. I had this realisation a few years ago when I decided to guess how to make pilau rice at home to go with an Indian inspired meal. It was like a bolt out of the blue when I realised "wait, I can just add flavour to all of my rice". I don't think I've cooked any rice without adding at least a stock cube for the last couple of years now. Even something as simple as that makes a huge difference. With the additional bonus of bringing fried rice made with leftovers up to the next level. My friends and family were confounded when I told them about it, it's just something they'd never thought of doing without a recipe telling them to. I'm so pleased this sort of technique is reaching a wide audience. Definitely earned a subscribe, looking forward to more good ideas from this channel!
Actually you do need to simmer turmeric in some kind of fat a little bit for all its medicinal benefits to become bio available. The key here is to just simmer, not burn the turmeric as that will give a burt bitter taste to the final product. Simmering in ghee for about 10-12 seconds should do the trick.
I am a Chinese guy and I will tell you a little secret. I blend those 2 rises together rinse them off and I let them sit for an hour before I cook it and they come out wonderful but you gotta mix it half and really good when you wash it to make sure they're mixed well. Jasmine and basmati rice are a great mixture. Change ratio to Your taste. Do not forget to rinse your rice until it's almost clear. Get the arsenic out of it because American soil is not that good.
This is what I cooked for me and hubby when I first left home in the 70's. I would also add a bit of ground meat at the start and was our budget dinner most nights. Some nights Mexican flavour another night tomato and bacon, another curry and chicken. We called it "ricey mincey thing".
Thanks. I had been taught, way back to use 1 rice to 2 liquid. I experimented a bit, and ended up using 1 rice to 1.5 liquid, and the rice is so much better and less mushy. I normally use Basmati or Jasmine, and have no problem eating a meatless meal of flavored rice (which I learned to cook from an Indian cook) because the rice tastes so good by itself.
By weight or by volume? That's a key bit that was missing from the video! Personally I find a ratio of 2 parts liquid to 1 part dry rice by WEIGHT works perfectly. Measuring by weight is more precise than measuring by volume, especially for something like rice that can pack down to different degrees
As an Iranian, which eats rice everyday I was sceptic about this. But when I finished it I was impressed. I think you did an amazing job to cover so much information/recipes! And I am happy to hear you use a correct style of cooking basmati (the steaming is what makes it fluffy). Even though a rice cooker is nice, nothing will beat a classic rice from a (rice) pan.
@@jelly.1899 that is an interesting question, usually the water rice ratio is 1:2, but it really depends on the basmati rice quality. Always wash your rice, add the rice and a ratio of 1:1,5 (reduced amount) of water to your pan, add salt, cook it on high heat until the water boils, reduce to the lowest setting and let it cook/steam for around 20 minutes with the lid on (until the rice visually looks fluffy). Then we remove the rice from the pan, add a layer of oil in the bottom, add the rice back to the pan and make sure that there is no space between the rice and the sides of the pan, creating a hill of rice. Poke holes in this hill. Turn the heat to max for a couple of minutes, and when the pan is hot you add the remaning liquid to the pan. The holes serve as ways to get the water to the bottom of the pan to create steam. Repeat the steaming for another 20 minutes until you are ready te serve. Traditionally you add butter to the rice before serving, but I personally do just a little bit of rice oil on top. This is the basics of iranian rice. You can add saffron, bread, or even potatoes to the bottom. For baghali polo you add dill and fava beans to your rice. For loobia polo you add gound meat, green beans, amd tomato paste. Etc.
I'm Mexican(male) and I cook pretty good but I've never made rice(yet). My mom and sisters always fried the rice in oil first(reason why I never bothered), but I really, really like the extra tips you've included here. I recently bought a (cheap) rice cooker and a new (smaller) crock pot. I now live alone(was a single dad, 3kids). I will definately venture to try your tips (on my stove). This is the best info I have seen to date. Thank you.
Don't know if it helps? But crock pot meals over rice saves TONS of energy and can be planned in advance? Plus there a lot of them? You can throw them in during the morning and come back to warm food, then you just need to make the rice! Or heat up leftover rice.
Bro followed the matpat advice and chose to save a ton of videos and post them as soon as he opened his channel as to create an identity fast and making the algorithm work in his favour, genius! I'm honestly really happy that this is working so well for you (I'm noticing a fairly fast growth in subs). This shows triumph in youtube isn't just luck and I expect you to get to the 100k mark relatively fast, godspeed bro!
Yeah it actually wasn't intentional haha but it's working out well so far! I've been moving these videos over from my other channel (The Regular Chef) because the majority of the subscribers over there were only interested in bread-baking content. So all of my non-bread baking content is being posted over here now. Anyways, I appreciate the kind words!
Here in Peru we eat a LOT of rice, with almost anything. Sometimes we add Palillo (I think is called Turmeric?) for colour, and some peas and carrots (I hate peas so I don't), or simply some corn (our corn is almost white or cream colored and way bigger and less sweet), and there's this fried rice variant called "Chaufa" which is rice with "cebolla china" which i think is called Spring onion, egg omelette cut into pieces and soy sauce, which is a main course on its own. And that was the most basic and simplest, "student budget" version of it. A total lifesaver and it usually uses old rice since we tend to have that around :)
My family's "old" rice recipe is a simple pilaf started with clarified butter and then cooked with bay leaf, clove, garlic and cracked pepper. It is tasty and works pretty well with most proteins.
I'm a fairly advanced at home cook, and I have to say that I really learned a lot from this video! For example, I always start just about anything I cook with some sort of fat in the pan but I never knew why....that's just how I learned to do it. Great information on the different types of rice as well. Subscribed!
Another easy way to pimp rice is just mix white rice with black rice in the ratio of 3-4 parts of white rice to one part of black rice and cook it as normal (i.e. 1 cup of rice + 2 cups of water). The black rice will loose its color to the water, but coloring the white rice. So, at the end your rice will have a purple color. The higher the amount of black rice in the blend, the darker the color.
I've been dreaming of a cooking channel that talks about the how and why of cooking and not just directions with little explanation. This is my dream, basically. Bless you. This is how Ive cook and bake for years.
One thing that short grain rice works well in is rice pudding. Otherwise whenever I make rice, I use 1.5 tablespoons of butter and swirl the rice around in that for a couple of minutes, then I add a teaspoon or so of Italian herbs. My long grain rice still turns out sticky and mushy, so I'm going to try a cup and a half of water instead of two next time. Once the water starts boiling I found that adding a tablespoon of chicken flavored 'Better Than Bouillon' gives it a nice touch. Great video, thanks!
I've been cooking long grain rice this way since the 1970s. Rinsing the rice helps in ensuring the grains separate at the end of cooking. I simmer the rice for 13 minutes and then let the residual heat finish the cooking for 10 minutes. I recently acquired an Instant Pot and the cook-time is 7 minutes and then 10 minutes finishing time. At the very least I add salt to the cooking water, but nearly always use chicken stock rather than plain water. Half and half water and coconut milk is really nice and goes especially well with Thai dishes and Mexican Chili con Carne.
I've found that when cooking plain white rice, adding a very small pinch of red pepper flakes and a teaspoon of rice vinegar helps keep the rice grains separate and the rice less mushy. Too much rice vinegar negatively affects the flavor profile tho.
I'm a CHamoru son (dad was born in Guam) and we got this cookbook where Achotti seeds are used in a lot of the recipes. They're like a seed that's meant to dye and sudtly flavor the water, there's a red rice that used the water from that and I'm super excited to try it.
I wish I saw it 20 years ago when I started cooking :D Baking rice instead of cooking on the stove is also a great option if you wanna add a nice texture
One of my favs, is extra long grain rice + neutral oil + salsa + tomato chickensoup stock cubes. IT makes no effort spanish rice. Extra onions can be added near the end as well but the salsa has enofe if you don't care for the crunch. It alos helps to let the rice burn a bit aka toast at the end.
@@mawlinzebrait came from Spain and many Hispanic/Latino countries use a very similar base whether from scratch or store bought so yeah, it's Spanish rice.
@@saintsocramnymaia5511 they don't make Spanish rice in Spain because it's not Spanish. They have their own recipe and it doesn't have tomatoes in the rice. Tell me which other latin American country besides Mexico makes red rice.
Holy cow, I'm stunned. I knew there are so many ways to cook rice but this video opened my eyes to new frontiers. As a gastronomy student, I'm sure your videos will be a strong resource to use in this carrer. Just subscribed!
Absolutely loved everything about this video. It's great seeing someone share simple explanations but also get at the why these things work the way they do. In Chile we often start with oil and onions with our cooking before toasting the rice, and then the water. But now I can experiment with even more flavors and seasonings before adding the rice. What a great video!
About rice I'd really appreciate it if you ever made a video about the steaming rice technique vs the boiling rice one, I've always used the boiling rice one and honestly I prefer it but people don't even consider it, here's my mom's recipe (my fav but I might be biased lol): -1 soak the rice: submerge the rice in water for at least 30 mins. -2 fry the vermicelli: fry the vermicelli until golden brown (I start it with cold oil) -3 boil the rice: add the rice to the pot with boiling water and add salt generously, as if it was pasta. -4 strain the rice: strain the rice thorugh a colander once it's around 90% cooked (around 6 minutes but may vary) -5 steam the rice: reduce the flame to the minimum, return the rice to the pot and close the lid, I add a generous amount of very hot neutral oil and move the rice around at least two times in a 10 minute period. I never tried a better rice tbh, and the oil makes a big difference, I prefer basmati. The times might be very different, I go by feeling so I might be very wrong hahaha
people mostly in SEA won't consider to cook rice like a pasta since it waste water much for straining the water just to attain fluffy rice when you can just do fluffy rice with the boiling rice technique, and in a rice cooker, it's just cook and forget method thus it's very convinient.
I think the reason people don't talk about "this method" is because of the terminology. I believe this method would be considered steaming rather than just boiling. I do a very similar technique, except for the vermicelli of course, and I don't touch/move the rice once the lid goes on. I learnt a while back that other people just call it steaming due to the slow cooking, lid on part. I got a lesson from a well regarded chef of a royal household in India and he basically used this method for plain rice. So I feel vindicated! It's a legit method! 😆
this video alone made me an instant subscriber and I already can't wait to watch more! As someone who loves to cook and cooks rice with meals about 2-3 times a week, I had no idea about anything you said in this video and I'm so happy to now know!!! Love your personality as well!! thanks again!
I'm a self-taught home cook with a good amount of experience, but this was really informative. By halfway through I've already subscribed and wishlisted Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.
Been eating/cooking plain white rice for a very long time. Appreciate new ideas. Will give your wonderful suggestions a go. Certain it will come out good.
I've been cooking rice since I was 7 years old and still found some new tips here. I'm brazilian and we eat rice twice or thrice a day, I'm gonna try some of these
This is a fantastic video. Super helpful and inspiring. I find that I tend to mess up rice on the stove so have started pressure cooking it in my instant pot. Definitely going to get more adventurous with the flavours now!
Wow, great eye opening video, Thanks for sharing these great rice idea's I only ever cooked white plain or Chinese fried rice, but you have shown me many new tricks to add flavour profiles I always wanted to be able to cook.
Basmati is two types, Idk thier names in english but one is yellowish and less sensitive and one is whiter and is more sensitive. You have to wash basmati, soaking is optional but try it you might like it. One key advice, especially if you are using the white variety, is to not stir to hard while cooking so not to break grains. Another advice is to use a narrower pot for the quantities in the video and then when adding the rice let it boil on high (covered if you measured the water exactly and uncovered if you think there is extra water) . After the water starts boiling, all water above the rice should dry within 5 to 7 minute if faster you had too little water if slower you had too much. You should not se a pool of water at thie point. You should only holes the vapor scape through. When water is a little bit under the top of the rice(maybe 2-3 cm), close the led and let it cook on super low(not warm, super low, it should still be cooking) so maybe 3 or 2 in an electric with 1-10 and on the lowest on a gas stove. And leave it 12-15 for white variety and 15 -18 for yellow. This technique is easy but has a lot of subtleties, so you need to experiment to get the hang of it.
I made it, wow your method works great! No more mushy pasty awful rice coming out of my kitchen 🙏 Thank you so much, I used a bunch of spices and topped it at the end with butter drizzle and pan toasted hulled pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds for added nutritional punch and wow so delicious 😊
I don't often make flavored rice. It's just more convenient to have leftover plain rice that works with any dish I want to make later. I also toast my rice, but I do it for longer. Just a tiny splash of oil goes onto the rice and I cook it on high for 4-6 minutes while stirring to prevent burning on the bottom. The grains will go from translucent to opaque white. You can go longer if you want it to brown and get nutty. Either way, this prevents the surface starch from clumping so I end up with perfectly separate grains every time. Adding water will boil immediately, so be careful. But that also means some of the time spent toasting the rice is recovered.
@@kaiderhaiii You can do that, but like you said, it takes a while to dry before you can toast. I'll typically wash the rice after toasting. The heat seems to really pull a lot of stuff out, so I only do a single wash. It takes a little longer to boil after that, but the rice is still quite hot. Keep in mind you only need to rinse if your rice isn't enriched.
@@kaiderhaiii getting it as dry as possible is as easy as buying a cheesecloth to drain it in a colander, or a fine mesh strainer left over a bowl to drain after washing! The fine mesh strainer works the best.
@@jelly.1899 Thanks I will amend my previous reply. I'm actually using enriched rice, so I'm no actually skipping the rinse step now. So it's toast, boil, and serve pretty much.
one of the best videos on rice i have seen , well done , even added the chicken stock gem for cooking it , all i can suggest for this video is to teach them how to create individual grains and avoid sticky , starchy , clumpy and mushy rice results , this in my opinion is one of thee most important if not thee most important skillsets to learn when making almost any rish dish besides selective recipes where it calls for sticky rice. The indians use an amazing method of rinsing and soaking , in combination with the tips here , this will teach A LOT of wisdom to the viewer , as i mentioned , it is VITAL a person knows how to create individual grains and it is much more complex than it appears even for home cooks with a decade + in the kitchen. the video is Mint .
I am not surprised no Italians have written: "I am astonished" since we call this way of cooking "risottare" (verb from the word "riso"= rice). What I really appreciate is the thoroughness of the principles to be used in personal recipes
Well done. I've been doing this on my own for pilafs and felt like a crazy person to traditionalist and uve really refined it and included alot of methodology. Earned my sub.
This is a great video. I can tell you're a very experienced chef! When I was a kid, my mom would make rice with raisins or sultanas. I didn't like raisins back then, so I would always pick them out. These days though, it is so fun to find that burst of sweetness among all the spices. Rice really is a very versatile dish!
Cool video! One thing that I would be careful of is stirring the long grain rice too much before cooking as that will break the rice grains which is aesthetically less pleasing but also releases a lot of their starch into the dish which makes clumping easier (and the rice when slightly fried before cooking doesn't absorb as much water). Quick frying the rice with the spices can be still be useful so another way to do it is lower the heat so you don't have to stir vigorously and just fold the rice instead of stirring like in the video
I started cooking rice like this last week! Funny this video comes up. I also added some black beans during cooking and it was amazing. My base was olive oil, garlic, green chilli, green onions and garlic, and cumin
This is My Perfect Rice, I spent years getting this right, I'm excited to see the difference between mine and this version which I've not watched yet. If you're making fried rice, this is also the perfect rice to prepare the day before. My Perfect Rice: Ingredients 200ml of Basmati Rice (always measure rice by volume) A half teaspoon of salt. 1 to 2 tablespoon of Ground Nut Oil or Rapeseed Oil 400ml of boiling water Equipment 1 large glass lidded saute pan Method 1) Boil kettle 2) Measure 400ml boiling water in jug, add salt to water, stir and dissolve. The amount of salt you need will vary, on rice species and water hardness and preference. You'll need to practice to get it right for you. 3) Heat oil in pan until smoking hot (Max ring temperature) 4) Quickly tip dry rice into oil. First grains will turn white and opaque instantly. Gently mix oil into rice. Keep stirring every 5 to 10 seconds until translucent grains turn white and opaque. Be patient, they will turn opaque. This is the in most important step, be patient and brave, all grains must be white and opaque. Any grains that darken in colour just make it taste better and look fantastic. 5) Quickly poor water over rice, stir briskly 3 to 4 times. 6) Clap lid on, move on to small ring, turn to low (I use power 2 of 6 on mine). Maybe just turn it down if you're on a gas cooker instead of electric 7) Set timer for 14 minutes. 8) After time is up, lift and tip pan to see through glass lid if water has been absorbed. If not, repeat steps 7 & 8 but with 5 minutes instead of 14 minutes 9) Move rice off the heat, fluff up the rice with a plastic fork or spork, wrap lid in a clean tea towel and place on pan for 15 minutes.
I find Ground Nut Oil is the best oil for enhancing and complementing the natural flavour of the rice. It's suitable for every dish. I find it's a little hard to get hold of these days so highest quality Rape is almost as good.
In my entire adult culinary life, which has featured me learning a lot about cooking, I never thought to do this. I feel especially stupid because this is exactly how you make "Riceoroni". The directions have you toast the vermicelli in butter before adding the flavors and cooking in liquid. How did I never think to do this! Thank you.
Here in Brazil we eat rice everyday, we use the same process, we build flavor with garlic and sometimes onions and then fry the rice a little, pouring water in the end.
Great video, Charlie. I'm just very intrigued by the fact that you stir your rice so vigorously after adding water. I'm brazilian and my family always said that was a HUGE don't. Mind you, in brazilian ways, we like our rice very loose, with clear individual grains. But, tradition aside, is there a reason for the way you do it?
I’ve just tried your method. I made the Lebanes rice and added berberis berries, so a bit of Iranian influence. It is amazing! Thank you very much for sharing this! Greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱
I do what I call veggie rice. Celery, carrot, onion, asparagus, broccoli, green beans and garlic minced or diced depending on my mood and sauteed in olive oil. I often use broth. It can upgrade plain rice even if minced finely so it cooks the veggies faster. When the veggie bits are tiny I call it confetti rice. It's colorful with carrot and different shades and textures of green.
For the last step you can also add dried fruit like raisins or cranberry. I like crushed walnuts and chopped dates for a tomato flavoured rice with spices like cumin and cinnamon.
Just to add something you missed.. the purpose of fat is to transfer heat to induce the "maillard" effect of roasting/carmalizing ingredients which is a key essential of cooking.
Nice video, simple and useful. This kind of rice preparation (and other grains, too) is typical (with some minor differences) to risotto, paella and pilaf, to mention most popular dishes. Thanks!
This reminds me of one of those knoir rice packets but probably ALOT better. Definitely going to get that book you mentioned. I'm experimenting with using coconut oil as the fat for toasting the rice and have it in my instant pot right now.
One consideration for the instant pot is you don't get to stir it while its cooking so proper even mixing may not be ensured when making "fancier" rice.
As an OTR truck driver with one of those butane stoves, I learned to love me some Knorr rice mix packets! Made some outstanding meals while on the road. Knorr chicken bullion is found in the Spanish food section at my grocery & it's a MUST-HAVE ingredient for many of my favorite dishes
This was a great video. Not only is my rice much better now (I was using way too much water before, causing sticky rice), but you've inspired me to be more creative when making rice, and I've made some very tasty concoctions with this formula. Thanks a lot for this video Charlie.
All great advice. I disagree with classifying white rice as a beginner method, however. In different parts of the world, a plain white rice would be chosen because it best compliments the dish. Asia is a perfect example of this as the traditional dishes there are made with the utmost precision to ensure a specific result. In Latin America as well white rice is paired specifically with certain dishes. Both these regions also have very specific more advanced methods for cooking white rice (since before we had rice and pressure cookers which can make it more foolproof) and they come out very flavorful and beautifully support the other foods they are paired with. And I'm sure in other parts of the world where rice is a staple it is the same.
yes. spices are fragile. if you cook them even a little too long with the rice you lose a LOT of flavor from the spices, so cooking your other dish to pair with the rice the spices are the LAST thing you add, not one of the first things you add.
Cool diagram, might be useful but here in Argentina and Uruguay almos all traditional food uses tallow as a component or a frying media, even sweet dishes. Olive oil is also traditional, don't get me wrong, but tallow has an equally prominent space.
Very good tips! I will try these out for sure. Also, I like to substitute chicken stock for water as well. I am ready for the pizza cheese blend video too. Hahaha!
Charlie; I love rice dishes and mostly use long grains of the types you mentioned. I soak and rinse my rice before toasting it in the aromatic compound. I noticed you use a fresh (green leaf) and said bayleaf. Do you grow your own. I believe bay trees only grow in very warm climates. I have never seen fresh in stores but in truth, I have never really looked for them. I use dried ones. Does fresh versus dried bayleaf make a taste difference. Thanks for a great show.
I did have a bay leaf plant at one point, but it died recently haha. I'm not exactly sure why, maybe I didn't have the right environment for it. But yes, I think the bay leaf I used in this video came from that plant which it why it looked fresher. I don't think that using fresh vs. dried makes any significant difference though - I would usually dry the leaves out before using them anyways.
Bay leaves come from a shrub/small tree called the bay laurel. It's frost hardy and mine grew to 3 m tall here in southern Tasmania. The climate's similar to Burgundy in France. Most people who grow bay prune the plant aggressively to keep it the size of a small shrub. You can even grow it in a large pot. You can propagate it by the technique known as aerial layering.
I really love this video. I'd like to see something about other, non-white types of rice, too, like red rice, brown (natural) rice or wild rice, since due to their stronger flavor they would probably behave differently too, be more suitable for some dishes, etc. Either way, I think I'm getting some very cool onion rice today :3
What I do wanna add is that while yes, you can give rice a lot more flavour using this method, plain rice also has it's times and dishes where it is preferrable. If I make an intense, flavor-packed dish like a curry for example, I want the rice to be neutral to balance things out, ill also never mix it beforehand to get that heterogenity with every spoon
Been cooking basmati rice for decades and never cooked over 12 minutes. I did forget to turn off the heat a few times and rice was too dry after that time frame. 15-18 min seems excessive, also considering the extra 5 min resting time. It also depends on the rice itself, not all basmati rice cook the same. Testing, as you clearly suggest in your videos , is key. Thanks for the flavour enhancing tips.
I’ve heard that at higher elevations you should add more liquid. So in Utah we are nearly at 4,500 feet (1,370 meters) above sea level so I do a ratio of 2:1 and it seems to workout okay. Should I be using less liquid?
@@brettmoore6781 That's awesome, it looks great! I often make a similar zucchini dish to pair with this Lebanese rice but I usually keep the zucchini raw - I'll have to try roasting it next time!
First video feedback I feel like I am watching Ethan Chlebowski Jr. which isn't this an insult because he has a good formula and has a successful channel. Not sure if his channel is one you've seen or have been influenced by or, not to say I am disinterested or don't think your content isn't good. Far from it you nailed production well everything is professional, but just sitting here the whole video felt like one of his the whole time. I am sure in time you find your step with style and flair that will set you 2 more apart, but maybe something to think about going forward.
I suggest you to try other Indian rice varieties as well. Basmati is only used to cook Biriyani in South India. For other dishes we use a different rice, which are more tasty but have less scent or flavour such as Sona Masuri, Ponni etc. There is also Red rice or fattier rice from Kerala which make you feel full quicker than Basmati or the others that I mentioned.
The one beautiful thing about rice is, while it’s the same ingredient across the board, the way cultures put life into it through seasoning is amazing. P.R has arroz con gandules, Jamaica rice n peas, Mexico red rice, Africans have jollof rice, Asians use sesame oil in their white rice, Indians use cloves and all spice in basmati rice. Just so many variations throughout the world, from this very process. 🙏🏼
Thanks for the tips. Have been trying to figure out a way to add more flavor to the rice dishes that I cook. Enjoyed the video as to the how you add the items to the pot, and that was a great example on how to do that.
Where my family is from, even when we make white rice, we toast it first with oil and salt and then add the water. That’s what produces the “pegao” or “concon” which is the best part of rice! (It’s the crunchy white rice that gets stuck to the bottom of the pan, which most Latinos will fight each other for!) I never even realized that most ppl cook white rice without doing the roasting step first!
Going to try it. In my country ppl never want anything but a few pinches of turmeric in their rice. The rice flavor packs & cubes failed miserably cause nobody bought them.
You should do some testing with the pasta method of rice cooking. It's less relevant here since the water would just dilute any seasonings you've applied, but for making rice that you either want plain or seasoned after the cooking, I've heard some great things.
I do the same thing to spaghetti when I cook it. Mix some oil (usually olive oil) and some butter for flavor. Also Salt & pepper to taste and some fresh garlic mixed in. It’s very good!
I loved that u acknowledged the differences between raw, slightly cooked and caramelized onion! The three of them have completely different flavours, and i dont usually see English speaking ppl understanding the different tecniques! Subscribed!
Poverty with a smartphone or computer, WiFi, and TH-cam access? Plus an education enough so you can read and write? Poverty isn’t what it used to be. 😂
I am turkish and we consume rice a lot. Most of the things you've pointed out we actually do in our kitchens everyday. I'm glad you shared this video. You can also add boiled lagoons and boiled chicken or meat to your rice. It will make a totally different dish.
One thing I forgot to mention - it's also important to rinse the rice before cooking to remove excess starch, which will help prevent the grains from clumping together. I discussed this in a bit more detail and showed my preferred rinsing method here: th-cam.com/video/2ogdB7D-WWY/w-d-xo.html.
How long will the leftover flavored oil stay? Should it be refridgerated?
Not all rices should be rinsed.
Did you wash the starch out the rice from the long grain?
Rinsing also removes a majority of the inorganic arsenic that rice is known to absorb from pollution, pesticides, etc. I recommend looking up the facts yourself, but it seems like brown rice has more arsenic while basmati has less. Other types of grains generally have less arsenic than rice too.
Basmati rice is polished so do wash it before cooking polish protects it from insects
A South India lady taught me to replace half the water with coconut milk. Add a little turmeric, a cinnamon stick , half dozen whole cloves, few cardamom pods, and a handful of raw cashews. Makes the tastiest rice! Thank you for that recipe, Hema!
Thanks for sharing
Cloves if garlic? Sounds great, btw.
@@tomaszt.4201 I’m thinking they mean whole cloves, like the spice / flower bud. Not cloves of garlic. 🙂
@@tomaszt.4201 prob cloves as in cloves
Although garlic would prob be great in it too
This is the type of cooking video I love to see. Instead of "here's how to cook a very specific rice recipe" this is "how to cook almost all rice and build your own recipes"
Great in-depth explanations too. Think he did a great job here and yeah, these are the most valuable vids
true, I'm trying to expand my cooking skills as a beginner, and I've been trying to stick to channels like these. another good one is Ethan Chlebowski, he's similar to these.
Hello! Korean here, I just wanted to let you know that Koreans use sesame oil more as a finishing touch or in sauces, scallion oil and lard are more common to start off dishes!
I'm from Brazil and until a few years ago I though that everywhere in the world they cooked rice like that. I was surprised there were people who cooked rice with only water, not even adding salt!
Here we chop garlic and/or onions, fry them in oil until they are golden, add the water, the salt, the rice and cook it until soft and fluffy. Some people add black pepper, carrots and other ingredients, but that's the base recipe every brazilian uses. And to be clear we eat rice everyday.
I'm a Brazilian living abroad and when I found out how people cooked rice in so many different ways, I was surprised as well. So I also started trying new methods, but honestly, the Brazilian base recipe remains the best.
@@tamy_br brazilians are the master along pakistani, indians guys when we're talking about fluff, separate grains,. Now: creamy and stuff... Yeah, nobody beats Italians doing it.
@@tamy_br let’s hear it, don’t deprive us!
@@szveszs no bad humour showing how you really love your country I love it too because i stay here (Sao Paulo - Brasil)
But you have to try out Nigeria way of preparing rice and maybe you may need to re-edit your comment
Hahahaha we are the king on this. not the Italian
Not the Pakistani
African is the origin of all
We developed it all
The chef
The ingredients
Everything come from us
😊
I only usually make plain white rice if it's going to be with a sauce. Like if I make curry i don't want the rice to clash with the curry sauce that I'm going to pour on it. I don't really know anyone who makes plain rice just to eat plain, they only season it afterward. Sometimes they do that bc they want to make rice one time but have it with 3 different meals. So make a big pot of rice, put it in 3 bowls and put 3 different types of seasonings in each one
I like to save chicken bones from drumsticks I eat for lunch, then boil them in water, and run through a strainer to make homemade broth. I then use this broth as a base for my rice. I then dehydrate the bones in my dehydrator. Finally, I grind the bones with my mortar and pestle into bone meal, which is an excellent soil amendment for my garden. The garden, of course, provides me with super fresh, delicious herbs and veggies to go into my rice dishes!
The one thing that I learned when I was young was to lightly 'fry' the rice in oil or butter (well, my dad used margarine but same-same) for like a minute or two and that unlocks SOOOOO much flavour and makes the texture of the rice so much better. I'm glad to see it was in your list -- well done sir :)
Me too. I bought this little fried rice kit when i was like 10 and the first direction was to fry the rice in oil. It's funny because it sounds weird and greasy but when you try it you go like OHHHHHH, that's why it's so good at restaurants 😩 Same thing with using peanut and sesame oil. I've had to just use regular vegetable oil for stir fry before bc i couldn't afford anything extra. But when you use peanut oil or add sesame oil (in the correct recipes lol) it's a totally different universe. You can taste it just by breathing in over your tongue lol. It's like "oh this is actual Chinese food cooked by someone who kind of knows what they're doing"
Do you, like, throw in DRY rice to fry it up a bit first? But aren't you supposed to always rinse rice thoroughly so it's not sticky when it's done? 🤔
Margarine is 99.99% plastic. Not same same.
@@caramelpeacock5250yes, dry rice. You can rinse it first and still fry it uncooked. It's addressed in the video but i know this from cooking ricearoni lol
I moved to the middle east, where rice is a favorite basic food, served with all meat dishes. What I didn't know was, you have to SOAK the rice first. Basmati rice or Persian rice need that preload to cook up fluffy and tender. Alway wash and rinse the rice and then soak it for at least half an hour. Drain it in a sieve. Then add the drained rice to your fat and spices.
Washing rice used to be mandatory because rice was litterally dirty but in places like the US and Europe food industry standards have eliminated that concern. So now washing rice in many places is purely for aesthetic reasons and no longer for hygiene reasons. (Washing removes starch powder making rice less clumpy, but places like the US fortify rice by coating it in vitamin powder so washing will remove that fortification as well.) Personally i like my rice on the clumpy side, but its best to know the real food science when cooking so you can know why you are doing something a certain way. (Tradition is great and makes amazing food, but it doesn't always explain itself correctly)
@@jasonreed7522 in Persian cuisine salting rice before cooking is considered mandatory. we have two methods for cooking rice. in one method we briefly wash and salt the rice and let it sit for minutes or hours (depending on the freshness of rice) then we cook it until boiled with high temp then lover temp with closed lid. this keeps the starch in the rice. in this method oil is added at first to the rice with salt.
the second method is way more complicated: salt water, put in boiling water until semi-cooked. then rinse, then put back in the pot with some kind of Tahdig, usually being a bread or potatoes. let it simmer for at least 20 mins until well cooked (don't try this. this recipe is not to replicate as is not accurate.)
the objective in persian cuisine is to coock rice in either method in a way that:
1. the rice doesn't get broken and the grains keep their form.
2. the rice grains shouldn't stick together (exactly not like the video!) at the same time they should be well-cooked and not raw
3. getting a perfect Tahdig is a mastery level.
with our standards, this rice in the video is not acceptable AKA not edible AKA rubbish :D
@@jasonreed7522 rice is contaminated with arsenic and rinsing it gets rid of some of it.
Thank you, very educational video!
@@jasonreed7522 You don't want clumpy rice when making Indonesian nasi goreng. So it all depends on what kind of dish you're making.
I’m honestly blown away… at the level of quality that was put into this video editing and the thoroughness of the content.
Very well made.
I prefer rice baked in oven with spon of butter.. Rise like this is light as cloud and vety good. Non sticky....
You just add water 1.5 x amount of rise and it is godly good.
An excellent method. I had this realisation a few years ago when I decided to guess how to make pilau rice at home to go with an Indian inspired meal. It was like a bolt out of the blue when I realised "wait, I can just add flavour to all of my rice".
I don't think I've cooked any rice without adding at least a stock cube for the last couple of years now. Even something as simple as that makes a huge difference. With the additional bonus of bringing fried rice made with leftovers up to the next level.
My friends and family were confounded when I told them about it, it's just something they'd never thought of doing without a recipe telling them to. I'm so pleased this sort of technique is reaching a wide audience. Definitely earned a subscribe, looking forward to more good ideas from this channel!
For those looking to avoid any bitterness, don’t ever toast turmeric. Instead add it when you’re adding the liquid!
Thanks
no wonder my curry tastes weird sometimes, thanks 🙏
Awesome tip, I didn't know that
Actually you do need to simmer turmeric in some kind of fat a little bit for all its medicinal benefits to become bio available. The key here is to just simmer, not burn the turmeric as that will give a burt bitter taste to the final product. Simmering in ghee for about 10-12 seconds should do the trick.
@@ShwetaGupta-hd6yk also for taste...turmeric is supposed to be cooked not eaten raw
I am a Chinese guy and I will tell you a little secret. I blend those 2 rises together rinse them off and I let them sit for an hour before I cook it and they come out wonderful but you gotta mix it half and really good when you wash it to make sure they're mixed well. Jasmine and basmati rice are a great mixture. Change ratio to Your taste. Do not forget to rinse your rice until it's almost clear. Get the arsenic out of it because American soil is not that good.
Thanks for the tip!
@@joshelguapo5563 I hope you try it. Mix the ratio for your preferences.
谢谢你🙏🏾
Thank you for sharing!
@@kikataye6293 enjoy
This is what I cooked for me and hubby when I first left home in the 70's. I would also add a bit of ground meat at the start and was our budget dinner most nights. Some nights Mexican flavour another night tomato and bacon, another curry and chicken.
We called it "ricey mincey thing".
Thanks. I had been taught, way back to use 1 rice to 2 liquid. I experimented a bit, and ended up using 1 rice to 1.5 liquid, and the rice is so much better and less mushy. I normally use Basmati or Jasmine, and have no problem eating a meatless meal of flavored rice (which I learned to cook from an Indian cook) because the rice tastes so good by itself.
By weight or by volume? That's a key bit that was missing from the video! Personally I find a ratio of 2 parts liquid to 1 part dry rice by WEIGHT works perfectly. Measuring by weight is more precise than measuring by volume, especially for something like rice that can pack down to different degrees
As an Iranian, which eats rice everyday I was sceptic about this. But when I finished it I was impressed. I think you did an amazing job to cover so much information/recipes! And I am happy to hear you use a correct style of cooking basmati (the steaming is what makes it fluffy). Even though a rice cooker is nice, nothing will beat a classic rice from a (rice) pan.
Please explain your perfect method of cooking rice in a pan. 🙂 How much water, what how much fat, how long...
Especially tahdig! I’m Persian too and there are so many ways we prepare our rice.
@@AZ-gs6hj please explain
@@jelly.1899 that is an interesting question, usually the water rice ratio is 1:2, but it really depends on the basmati rice quality. Always wash your rice, add the rice and a ratio of 1:1,5 (reduced amount) of water to your pan, add salt, cook it on high heat until the water boils, reduce to the lowest setting and let it cook/steam for around 20 minutes with the lid on (until the rice visually looks fluffy). Then we remove the rice from the pan, add a layer of oil in the bottom, add the rice back to the pan and make sure that there is no space between the rice and the sides of the pan, creating a hill of rice. Poke holes in this hill. Turn the heat to max for a couple of minutes, and when the pan is hot you add the remaning liquid to the pan. The holes serve as ways to get the water to the bottom of the pan to create steam. Repeat the steaming for another 20 minutes until you are ready te serve. Traditionally you add butter to the rice before serving, but I personally do just a little bit of rice oil on top. This is the basics of iranian rice. You can add saffron, bread, or even potatoes to the bottom. For baghali polo you add dill and fava beans to your rice. For loobia polo you add gound meat, green beans, amd tomato paste. Etc.
@@funnyboyxxl much appreciated 👍👍👍🙂
I'm Mexican(male) and I cook pretty good but I've never made rice(yet). My mom and sisters always fried the rice in oil first(reason why I never bothered), but I really, really like the extra tips you've included here. I recently bought a (cheap) rice cooker and a new (smaller) crock pot. I now live alone(was a single dad, 3kids). I will definately venture to try your tips (on my stove). This is the best info I have seen to date. Thank you.
Don't know if it helps? But crock pot meals over rice saves TONS of energy and can be planned in advance? Plus there a lot of them? You can throw them in during the morning and come back to warm food, then you just need to make the rice! Or heat up leftover rice.
(my man loves parenthesis)
@@camilincamilero I'm worse when I talk in person with my side notes(ha ha).
Bro followed the matpat advice and chose to save a ton of videos and post them as soon as he opened his channel as to create an identity fast and making the algorithm work in his favour, genius!
I'm honestly really happy that this is working so well for you (I'm noticing a fairly fast growth in subs).
This shows triumph in youtube isn't just luck and I expect you to get to the 100k mark relatively fast, godspeed bro!
Yeah it actually wasn't intentional haha but it's working out well so far! I've been moving these videos over from my other channel (The Regular Chef) because the majority of the subscribers over there were only interested in bread-baking content. So all of my non-bread baking content is being posted over here now.
Anyways, I appreciate the kind words!
Where can I see more about that? I searched a bit but can't find exactly what you're talking about. Thanks!
Here in Peru we eat a LOT of rice, with almost anything. Sometimes we add Palillo (I think is called Turmeric?) for colour, and some peas and carrots (I hate peas so I don't), or simply some corn (our corn is almost white or cream colored and way bigger and less sweet), and there's this fried rice variant called "Chaufa" which is rice with "cebolla china" which i think is called Spring onion, egg omelette cut into pieces and soy sauce, which is a main course on its own. And that was the most basic and simplest, "student budget" version of it. A total lifesaver and it usually uses old rice since we tend to have that around :)
My family's "old" rice recipe is a simple pilaf started with clarified butter and then cooked with bay leaf, clove, garlic and cracked pepper. It is tasty and works pretty well with most proteins.
I always make it like this! It's lovely. I usually add onion though.
I'm a fairly advanced at home cook, and I have to say that I really learned a lot from this video! For example, I always start just about anything I cook with some sort of fat in the pan but I never knew why....that's just how I learned to do it. Great information on the different types of rice as well. Subscribed!
I thought the same thing. One of the most informative and helpful videos I’ve come across.
Same! Subbed too.
sure u are, Betty Crocker! Like ramen noodles with weenies and ketchup
Another easy way to pimp rice is just mix white rice with black rice in the ratio of 3-4 parts of white rice to one part of black rice and cook it as normal (i.e. 1 cup of rice + 2 cups of water).
The black rice will loose its color to the water, but coloring the white rice. So, at the end your rice will have a purple color. The higher the amount of black rice in the blend, the darker the color.
I've been dreaming of a cooking channel that talks about the how and why of cooking and not just directions with little explanation. This is my dream, basically. Bless you. This is how Ive cook and bake for years.
Look up Alton Brown 😊
@@lstj2979 bless you kind stranger
One thing that short grain rice works well in is rice pudding. Otherwise whenever I make rice, I use 1.5 tablespoons of butter and swirl the rice around in that for a couple of minutes, then I add a teaspoon or so of Italian herbs. My long grain rice still turns out sticky and mushy, so I'm going to try a cup and a half of water instead of two next time. Once the water starts boiling I found that adding a tablespoon of chicken flavored 'Better Than Bouillon' gives it a nice touch. Great video, thanks!
I've been cooking long grain rice this way since the 1970s. Rinsing the rice helps in ensuring the grains separate at the end of cooking. I simmer the rice for 13 minutes and then let the residual heat finish the cooking for 10 minutes. I recently acquired an Instant Pot and the cook-time is 7 minutes and then 10 minutes finishing time. At the very least I add salt to the cooking water, but nearly always use chicken stock rather than plain water. Half and half water and coconut milk is really nice and goes especially well with Thai dishes and Mexican Chili con Carne.
I've found that when cooking plain white rice, adding a very small pinch of red pepper flakes and a teaspoon of rice vinegar helps keep the rice grains separate and the rice less mushy.
Too much rice vinegar negatively affects the flavor profile tho.
I'm a CHamoru son (dad was born in Guam) and we got this cookbook where Achotti seeds are used in a lot of the recipes. They're like a seed that's meant to dye and sudtly flavor the water, there's a red rice that used the water from that and I'm super excited to try it.
😮
It is also known as Anato
That's used in a lot of Latin American rice too! In Spanish it's Achiote :)
I wish I saw it 20 years ago when I started cooking :D Baking rice instead of cooking on the stove is also a great option if you wanna add a nice texture
I JUST LEARNED ABOUT THAT AND I COULDN'T AGREE MORE!👌🏿😊
One of my favs, is extra long grain rice + neutral oil + salsa + tomato chickensoup stock cubes. IT makes no effort spanish rice. Extra onions can be added near the end as well but the salsa has enofe if you don't care for the crunch. It alos helps to let the rice burn a bit aka toast at the end.
Gotta stop calling it Spanish rice
Where do you get the tomato chicken soup stock cubes?
@@mawlinzebrait came from Spain and many Hispanic/Latino countries use a very similar base whether from scratch or store bought so yeah, it's Spanish rice.
@@saintsocramnymaia5511 they don't make Spanish rice in Spain because it's not Spanish. They have their own recipe and it doesn't have tomatoes in the rice. Tell me which other latin American country besides Mexico makes red rice.
Holy cow, I'm stunned. I knew there are so many ways to cook rice but this video opened my eyes to new frontiers. As a gastronomy student, I'm sure your videos will be a strong resource to use in this carrer.
Just subscribed!
Absolutely loved everything about this video. It's great seeing someone share simple explanations but also get at the why these things work the way they do. In Chile we often start with oil and onions with our cooking before toasting the rice, and then the water. But now I can experiment with even more flavors and seasonings before adding the rice. What a great video!
Have just tried your recipe on yellow hallal rice and it is fårking awesome. Your video is one of the greatest additions to my cooking in years!
About rice I'd really appreciate it if you ever made a video about the steaming rice technique vs the boiling rice one, I've always used the boiling rice one and honestly I prefer it but people don't even consider it, here's my mom's recipe (my fav but I might be biased lol):
-1 soak the rice: submerge the rice in water for at least 30 mins.
-2 fry the vermicelli: fry the vermicelli until golden brown (I start it with cold oil)
-3 boil the rice: add the rice to the pot with boiling water and add salt generously, as if it was pasta.
-4 strain the rice: strain the rice thorugh a colander once it's around 90% cooked (around 6 minutes but may vary)
-5 steam the rice: reduce the flame to the minimum, return the rice to the pot and close the lid, I add a generous amount of very hot neutral oil and move the rice around at least two times in a 10 minute period.
I never tried a better rice tbh, and the oil makes a big difference, I prefer basmati.
The times might be very different, I go by feeling so I might be very wrong hahaha
Interesting, I've never actually tried that method but I'll have to give it a shot!
You mentioned vermicelli in your mom's recipe in the beginning...if you could tell where exactly it is used in rice recipe?
@@learnrobo oh sorry, I fry them in the pot and in step 3 I add the rice and boiling water to the same pot
people mostly in SEA won't consider to cook rice like a pasta since it waste water much for straining the water just to attain fluffy rice when you can just do fluffy rice with the boiling rice technique, and in a rice cooker, it's just cook and forget method thus it's very convinient.
I think the reason people don't talk about "this method" is because of the terminology. I believe this method would be considered steaming rather than just boiling. I do a very similar technique, except for the vermicelli of course, and I don't touch/move the rice once the lid goes on.
I learnt a while back that other people just call it steaming due to the slow cooking, lid on part.
I got a lesson from a well regarded chef of a royal household in India and he basically used this method for plain rice. So I feel vindicated! It's a legit method! 😆
this video alone made me an instant subscriber and I already can't wait to watch more! As someone who loves to cook and cooks rice with meals about 2-3 times a week, I had no idea about anything you said in this video and I'm so happy to now know!!! Love your personality as well!! thanks again!
I'm a self-taught home cook with a good amount of experience, but this was really informative. By halfway through I've already subscribed and wishlisted Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.
Been eating/cooking plain white rice for a very long time.
Appreciate new ideas. Will give your wonderful suggestions a go.
Certain it will come out good.
I have a batch of basmati rice cooking in my kitchen literally right now. The timing of this video is eerily right on time
Thank you!
Thank you, I'm glad you found the video helpful!
Just shocked I found this relatively small channel that’s so professional! Love it man! For sure new sub!!
I've been cooking rice since I was 7 years old and still found some new tips here. I'm brazilian and we eat rice twice or thrice a day, I'm gonna try some of these
This is a fantastic video. Super helpful and inspiring.
I find that I tend to mess up rice on the stove so have started pressure cooking it in my instant pot. Definitely going to get more adventurous with the flavours now!
Wow, great eye opening video, Thanks for sharing these great rice idea's I only ever cooked white plain or Chinese fried rice, but you have shown me many new tricks to add flavour profiles I always wanted to be able to cook.
Basmati is two types,
Idk thier names in english but one is yellowish and less sensitive and one is whiter and is more sensitive.
You have to wash basmati, soaking is optional but try it you might like it. One key advice, especially if you are using the white variety, is to not stir to hard while cooking so not to break grains. Another advice is to use a narrower pot for the quantities in the video and then when adding the rice let it boil on high (covered if you measured the water exactly and uncovered if you think there is extra water) .
After the water starts boiling, all water above the rice should dry within 5 to 7 minute if faster you had too little water if slower you had too much.
You should not se a pool of water at thie point. You should only holes the vapor scape through. When water is a little bit under the top of the rice(maybe 2-3 cm), close the led and let it cook on super low(not warm, super low, it should still be cooking) so maybe 3 or 2 in an electric with 1-10 and on the lowest on a gas stove. And leave it 12-15 for white variety and 15 -18 for yellow.
This technique is easy but has a lot of subtleties, so you need to experiment to get the hang of it.
I made it, wow your method works great! No more mushy pasty awful rice coming out of my kitchen 🙏 Thank you so much, I used a bunch of spices and topped it at the end with butter drizzle and pan toasted hulled pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds for added nutritional punch and wow so delicious 😊
I don't often make flavored rice. It's just more convenient to have leftover plain rice that works with any dish I want to make later.
I also toast my rice, but I do it for longer. Just a tiny splash of oil goes onto the rice and I cook it on high for 4-6 minutes while stirring to prevent burning on the bottom. The grains will go from translucent to opaque white. You can go longer if you want it to brown and get nutty. Either way, this prevents the surface starch from clumping so I end up with perfectly separate grains every time.
Adding water will boil immediately, so be careful. But that also means some of the time spent toasting the rice is recovered.
do you rinse it beforehand/at all? getting it dry after rinsing is almost impossible to me
@@kaiderhaiii You can do that, but like you said, it takes a while to dry before you can toast. I'll typically wash the rice after toasting. The heat seems to really pull a lot of stuff out, so I only do a single wash. It takes a little longer to boil after that, but the rice is still quite hot. Keep in mind you only need to rinse if your rice isn't enriched.
@@kaiderhaiii getting it as dry as possible is as easy as buying a cheesecloth to drain it in a colander, or a fine mesh strainer left over a bowl to drain after washing! The fine mesh strainer works the best.
Wait, you toast your rice and then rinse it, and then favour it, and then add hot water. Why not adding the water after toasting?
@@jelly.1899 Thanks I will amend my previous reply. I'm actually using enriched rice, so I'm no actually skipping the rinse step now. So it's toast, boil, and serve pretty much.
one of the best videos on rice i have seen , well done , even added the chicken stock gem for cooking it , all i can suggest for this video is to teach them how to create individual grains and avoid sticky , starchy , clumpy and mushy rice results , this in my opinion is one of thee most important if not thee most important skillsets to learn when making almost any rish dish besides selective recipes where it calls for sticky rice. The indians use an amazing method of rinsing and soaking , in combination with the tips here , this will teach A LOT of wisdom to the viewer , as i mentioned , it is VITAL a person knows how to create individual grains and it is much more complex than it appears even for home cooks with a decade + in the kitchen.
the video is Mint .
I am not surprised no Italians have written: "I am astonished" since we call this way of cooking "risottare" (verb from the word "riso"= rice).
What I really appreciate is the thoroughness of the principles to be used in personal recipes
Well done. I've been doing this on my own for pilafs and felt like a crazy person to traditionalist and uve really refined it and included alot of methodology. Earned my sub.
This is a great video. I can tell you're a very experienced chef!
When I was a kid, my mom would make rice with raisins or sultanas. I didn't like raisins back then, so I would always pick them out. These days though, it is so fun to find that burst of sweetness among all the spices. Rice really is a very versatile dish!
Cool video! One thing that I would be careful of is stirring the long grain rice too much before cooking as that will break the rice grains which is aesthetically less pleasing but also releases a lot of their starch into the dish which makes clumping easier (and the rice when slightly fried before cooking doesn't absorb as much water). Quick frying the rice with the spices can be still be useful so another way to do it is lower the heat so you don't have to stir vigorously and just fold the rice instead of stirring like in the video
I started cooking rice like this last week! Funny this video comes up. I also added some black beans during cooking and it was amazing. My base was olive oil, garlic, green chilli, green onions and garlic, and cumin
I think I used 2 parts liquid to 1 parts rice.
This is My Perfect Rice, I spent years getting this right, I'm excited to see the difference between mine and this version which I've not watched yet.
If you're making fried rice, this is also the perfect rice to prepare the day before.
My Perfect Rice:
Ingredients
200ml of Basmati Rice (always measure rice by volume)
A half teaspoon of salt.
1 to 2 tablespoon of Ground Nut Oil or Rapeseed Oil
400ml of boiling water
Equipment
1 large glass lidded saute pan
Method
1) Boil kettle
2) Measure 400ml boiling water in jug, add salt to water, stir and dissolve. The amount of salt you need will vary, on rice species and water hardness and preference. You'll need to practice to get it right for you.
3) Heat oil in pan until smoking hot (Max ring temperature)
4) Quickly tip dry rice into oil. First grains will turn white and opaque instantly. Gently mix oil into rice. Keep stirring every 5 to 10 seconds until translucent grains turn white and opaque. Be patient, they will turn opaque. This is the in most important step, be patient and brave, all grains must be white and opaque. Any grains that darken in colour just make it taste better and look fantastic.
5) Quickly poor water over rice, stir briskly 3 to 4 times.
6) Clap lid on, move on to small ring, turn to low (I use power 2 of 6 on mine). Maybe just turn it down if you're on a gas cooker instead of electric
7) Set timer for 14 minutes.
8) After time is up, lift and tip pan to see through glass lid if water has been absorbed. If not, repeat steps 7 & 8 but with 5 minutes instead of 14 minutes
9) Move rice off the heat, fluff up the rice with a plastic fork or spork, wrap lid in a clean tea towel and place on pan for 15 minutes.
I find Ground Nut Oil is the best oil for enhancing and complementing the natural flavour of the rice.
It's suitable for every dish.
I find it's a little hard to get hold of these days so highest quality Rape is almost as good.
Interesting, very different water ratio and a lot less 'toasting' in yours
One of the best homecooking channels. Keep up the good work you are for sure going to blow up!
I appreciate it!
In my entire adult culinary life, which has featured me learning a lot about cooking, I never thought to do this. I feel especially stupid because this is exactly how you make "Riceoroni". The directions have you toast the vermicelli in butter before adding the flavors and cooking in liquid. How did I never think to do this! Thank you.
Here in Brazil we eat rice everyday, we use the same process, we build flavor with garlic and sometimes onions and then fry the rice a little, pouring water in the end.
The same can be applied for beans. They'll taste delicious with garlic.
@@Matheus30845 wow I never thought of it with beans and I'm going to try that thank you🙂.....Luke 21,36 KJV
This makes me realize rice-a-roni was really a gem! Amazing video, tons of info thanks!
Great video, Charlie.
I'm just very intrigued by the fact that you stir your rice so vigorously after adding water.
I'm brazilian and my family always said that was a HUGE don't. Mind you, in brazilian ways, we like our rice very loose, with clear individual grains. But, tradition aside, is there a reason for the way you do it?
I’ve just tried your method. I made the Lebanes rice and added berberis berries, so a bit of Iranian influence. It is amazing! Thank you very much for sharing this! Greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱
I do what I call veggie rice. Celery, carrot, onion, asparagus, broccoli, green beans and garlic minced or diced depending on my mood and sauteed in olive oil. I often use broth. It can upgrade plain rice even if minced finely so it cooks the veggies faster. When the veggie bits are tiny I call it confetti rice. It's colorful with carrot and different shades and textures of green.
Me too Wendy!👌🏿
Easily one of the best cooking videos I've ever seen.
For the last step you can also add dried fruit like raisins or cranberry. I like crushed walnuts and chopped dates for a tomato flavoured rice with spices like cumin and cinnamon.
Gotta try this, kinda imagined the tomato walnut and the spices combination and it seems so tasty
Just to add something you missed.. the purpose of fat is to transfer heat to induce the "maillard" effect of roasting/carmalizing ingredients which is a key essential of cooking.
youre definitely gonna blow up the production and content is *chef's kiss*
Thank you, I'm glad you like it!
Nice video, simple and useful. This kind of rice preparation (and other grains, too) is typical (with some minor differences) to risotto, paella and pilaf, to mention most popular dishes. Thanks!
This reminds me of one of those knoir rice packets but probably ALOT better. Definitely going to get that book you mentioned. I'm experimenting with using coconut oil as the fat for toasting the rice and have it in my instant pot right now.
can you tell me how that went? sounds kinda nice, maybe even boiling in coconut water/milk for some creaminess
One consideration for the instant pot is you don't get to stir it while its cooking so proper even mixing may not be ensured when making "fancier" rice.
As an OTR truck driver with one of those butane stoves, I learned to love me some Knorr rice mix packets! Made some outstanding meals while on the road.
Knorr chicken bullion is found in the Spanish food section at my grocery & it's a MUST-HAVE ingredient for many of my favorite dishes
This video is incredible. So clear. So well planned. Thank you for this!
This was a great video. Not only is my rice much better now (I was using way too much water before, causing sticky rice), but you've inspired me to be more creative when making rice, and I've made some very tasty concoctions with this formula. Thanks a lot for this video Charlie.
Excellent video, this. I always like to understand the "why" of cooking, as opposed to just the "how"
All great advice. I disagree with classifying white rice as a beginner method, however. In different parts of the world, a plain white rice would be chosen because it best compliments the dish. Asia is a perfect example of this as the traditional dishes there are made with the utmost precision to ensure a specific result. In Latin America as well white rice is paired specifically with certain dishes. Both these regions also have very specific more advanced methods for cooking white rice (since before we had rice and pressure cookers which can make it more foolproof) and they come out very flavorful and beautifully support the other foods they are paired with. And I'm sure in other parts of the world where rice is a staple it is the same.
yes. spices are fragile. if you cook them even a little too long with the rice you lose a LOT of flavor from the spices, so cooking your other dish to pair with the rice the spices are the LAST thing you add, not one of the first things you add.
this was great, you're great and I can't wait to try this tomorrow. you're my new favorite cooking channel! superb job👏
You're a great teacher and helped me to discover some of my mom's cooking secrets, primarily the order of the various ingredients. Thanks!
Cool diagram, might be useful but here in Argentina and Uruguay almos all traditional food uses tallow as a component or a frying media, even sweet dishes.
Olive oil is also traditional, don't get me wrong, but tallow has an equally prominent space.
Very good tips! I will try these out for sure. Also, I like to substitute chicken stock for water as well.
I am ready for the pizza cheese blend video too. Hahaha!
Haha that one will be coming soon! I'm currently planning for Wednesday (11/23).
Charlie; I love rice dishes and mostly use long grains of the types you mentioned. I soak and rinse my rice before toasting it in the aromatic compound. I noticed you use a fresh (green leaf) and said bayleaf. Do you grow your own. I believe bay trees only grow in very warm climates. I have never seen fresh in stores but in truth, I have never really looked for them. I use dried ones. Does fresh versus dried bayleaf make a taste difference. Thanks for a great show.
I did have a bay leaf plant at one point, but it died recently haha. I'm not exactly sure why, maybe I didn't have the right environment for it. But yes, I think the bay leaf I used in this video came from that plant which it why it looked fresher. I don't think that using fresh vs. dried makes any significant difference though - I would usually dry the leaves out before using them anyways.
Bay leaves come from a shrub/small tree called the bay laurel. It's frost hardy and mine grew to 3 m tall here in southern Tasmania. The climate's similar to Burgundy in France. Most people who grow bay prune the plant aggressively to keep it the size of a small shrub. You can even grow it in a large pot. You can propagate it by the technique known as aerial layering.
I really love this video. I'd like to see something about other, non-white types of rice, too, like red rice, brown (natural) rice or wild rice, since due to their stronger flavor they would probably behave differently too, be more suitable for some dishes, etc. Either way, I think I'm getting some very cool onion rice today :3
Love the analytical way in which you break the process down! Thanks for this.
What I do wanna add is that while yes, you can give rice a lot more flavour using this method, plain rice also has it's times and dishes where it is preferrable. If I make an intense, flavor-packed dish like a curry for example, I want the rice to be neutral to balance things out, ill also never mix it beforehand to get that heterogenity with every spoon
0:33 I mean, you only had to watch the video for 30 seconds..
At last the video I've been looking for!! Very well explained and concise. Well done geezer!!!
Been cooking basmati rice for decades and never cooked over 12 minutes. I did forget to turn off the heat a few times and rice was too dry after that time frame. 15-18 min seems excessive, also considering the extra 5 min resting time. It also depends on the rice itself, not all basmati rice cook the same. Testing, as you clearly suggest in your videos , is key. Thanks for the flavour enhancing tips.
I’ve heard that at higher elevations you should add more liquid. So in Utah we are nearly at 4,500 feet (1,370 meters) above sea level so I do a ratio of 2:1 and it seems to workout okay. Should I be using less liquid?
your content is consistently 🔥and entertaining. I've been using several of your techniques lately. Thanks for continuing to put out quality content!
Thank you, I'm glad you've found it helpful!
@@CharlieAndersonCooking yea I even made some rice today from this vid and tagged you in the Instagram reel!
@@brettmoore6781 That's awesome, it looks great! I often make a similar zucchini dish to pair with this Lebanese rice but I usually keep the zucchini raw - I'll have to try roasting it next time!
@@CharlieAndersonCooking thanks, it was delicious! Do you usually rinse your rice before toasting or no?
Most detailed and informative cooking video I've seen. Love it!
Da king is back baby he neva miss
KING CHARLIE HES TAKING THE THRONE
Would you advise using a rice cooker after the flavoring phase?
First video feedback I feel like I am watching Ethan Chlebowski Jr. which isn't this an insult because he has a good formula and has a successful channel. Not sure if his channel is one you've seen or have been influenced by or, not to say I am disinterested or don't think your content isn't good. Far from it you nailed production well everything is professional, but just sitting here the whole video felt like one of his the whole time. I am sure in time you find your step with style and flair that will set you 2 more apart, but maybe something to think about going forward.
Great rice cooking presentation
I suggest you to try other Indian rice varieties as well. Basmati is only used to cook Biriyani in South India. For other dishes we use a different rice, which are more tasty but have less scent or flavour such as Sona Masuri, Ponni etc.
There is also Red rice or fattier rice from Kerala which make you feel full quicker than Basmati or the others that I mentioned.
What North Indian use in biryani?
Clear, concise and full of information. Thank you
The one beautiful thing about rice is, while it’s the same ingredient across the board, the way cultures put life into it through seasoning is amazing. P.R has arroz con gandules, Jamaica rice n peas, Mexico red rice, Africans have jollof rice, Asians use sesame oil in their white rice, Indians use cloves and all spice in basmati rice. Just so many variations throughout the world, from this very process. 🙏🏼
Thanks for the tips. Have been trying to figure out a way to add more flavor to the rice dishes that I cook. Enjoyed the video as to the how you add the items to the pot, and that was a great example on how to do that.
youre like that ethan guy but you dont take 50 years explaining science and psychology for food, thanks bro
=D thats what i thought hahahaha
Well some of us like learning. Makes you a better person. Makes your understand history, context. Makes you use your mind.
Where my family is from, even when we make white rice, we toast it first with oil and salt and then add the water. That’s what produces the “pegao” or “concon” which is the best part of rice! (It’s the crunchy white rice that gets stuck to the bottom of the pan, which most Latinos will fight each other for!) I never even realized that most ppl cook white rice without doing the roasting step first!
Going to try it. In my country ppl never want anything but a few pinches of turmeric in their rice. The rice flavor packs & cubes failed miserably cause nobody bought them.
You should do some testing with the pasta method of rice cooking. It's less relevant here since the water would just dilute any seasonings you've applied, but for making rice that you either want plain or seasoned after the cooking, I've heard some great things.
Best rice cooking video I've seen. So noted and thank you!
I do the same thing to spaghetti when I cook it. Mix some oil (usually olive oil) and some butter for flavor. Also Salt & pepper to taste and some fresh garlic mixed in. It’s very good!
If you rinse your rice, should you account for that moisture in the amount of water you use to cook it, or is it negligible?
I loved that u acknowledged the differences between raw, slightly cooked and caramelized onion! The three of them have completely different flavours, and i dont usually see English speaking ppl understanding the different tecniques! Subscribed!
?? carmelized onions are a staple in the US. idk what youre talking about lol
this was so much more helpful than just watching a recipes video.
thank you so much!!
poverty has brought me here
For real..
😂😂😂😂😂 factz
Poverty with a smartphone or computer, WiFi, and TH-cam access? Plus an education enough so you can read and write? Poverty isn’t what it used to be. 😂
😂😂
😂❤
You sugested a ratio of one & a quqrter rice to one and a half of water.
Is that by weight or volume?
I am turkish and we consume rice a lot. Most of the things you've pointed out we actually do in our kitchens everyday. I'm glad you shared this video. You can also add boiled lagoons and boiled chicken or meat to your rice. It will make a totally different dish.
Thank you for the tips. I am always looking to add to my cooking variety, and this is a big PLUS!