How to Cook Basic White Rice from Scratch

December 15, 2018 Odiraa

Rice is a common worldwide food that can be eaten with almost any food. We have different kinds of rice. For the purpose of this article, I will be talking about white rice and how to cook it from scratch. I can assure you that after reading this article you will not cook sticky rice, dry, overcooked rice or under cooked rice again.

White rice is the leftovers after discarding the bran, husk and germ or embryo. That is to say that white rice is the endosperm that has been polished. You can prepare this type of rice without any added ingredient other than salt which is still optional to some people. Very easy to cook, the first two simple foods that I learned how to prepare as a child were white rice and Eba/Garri (fried grated cassava flour). There is always stew or soup, so I either prepare rice or make eba for my younger siblings whenever we come back from school.

Nigerians find eating any rice recipe irresistible. be it fried or jollof rice, Concoction Rice, rice and beans or plain White Rice with stew or sauce. Below is my guideline on how to prepare perfect white rice.

HOW TO COOK WHITE RICE

You will need:

1 milk cup of white rice
2 milk cups of water (to parboil the rice)
2 milk cups of water (to cook the rice)
½ teaspoon Salt (optional)

The first stage in cooking white rice is by parboiling the rice.

How to Cook Parboil Rice

How to make parboil rice is very easy. Simply follow the steps below on how to parboil rice:

First, rinse and drain the clean white rice and put in a pot.
Then, pour in the 2 milk cups of water and leave to boil. The water should cover the rice very well (the ratio of water to rice should be 2 to 1. That is 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice).
Thirdly, do not remove the rice immediately when it starts to boil, wait for 3-5 minutes before pouring it in a sieve.
Fourthly, pour the rice in a bowl of cold water and rinse. The extent of rinsing at times depends on the type of rice. Transfer to sieve once you are ready.
Finally, allow the rice in the sieve to drain off all the water. At this stage, the rice is ready for second cooking and what you have is PARBOILED RICE. This half precook rice is used in cooking coconut rice, jollof rice or fried rice.

What Is Parboiled Rice?

Parboiled rice simply means half cooked/precooked rice.

SECOND STAGE

First, pour the parboiled rice and mix with ½ teaspoon of salt (optional) in a pot.
Then, pour the 2 cups of water to the mixture and let it boil. Ensure that the water level is at the same level as the rice.
After that, check whether the rice is ready for eating if the water is about drying up. This is because you do not want the rice to get burnt. If not add little water and keep cooking until the rice becomes tender.
Finally, leave the rice to completely dry, and that’s it. Your white rice is ready.