Cooking Perfect White Basmati Rice

At our house, the favorite rice is Indian grown basmati rice; its nutty flavor, fluffiness and chew is miles above Uncle Bens (you must use real Indian grown rice).  The only problem with it is that for seemingly no reason, a layer of rice will stick to the bottom of the pot like cement and just as palatable. We have tried adding more water, olive oil and more water but it stubbornly hung on, thwarting all efforts to make it release.

As I was reading an old issue of Cooks Illustrated magazine, I found a recipe for basmati rice. Interestingly,  the recipe called for a 1 1/2 to 1 ratio of water to rice compared with the regular recipe of 2 to 1! I told mom about it as we were about to make rice for dinner and she was, to say the least, a bit skeptical and did not want to try it.  However, next time I made rice, I made the new recipe without her knowing. Twenty sweaty minutes later, the timer went off and I checked to see if it stuck. Amazingly, it did not stick and the rice tasted better than ever!

One question remained.  How did less water equal less sticking? The answer was easy to figure out.  Basmati rice is an extra long and thin grain rice which releases its starch easier than shorter, thicker varieties. Therefore, when you add too much water, it releases too much starch, and as the waterline recedes, it deposits the extra starch on the bottom of the pot, along with a layer of rice.

By the way, even though Mom will probably kill me for a fat-makes-it-better philosophy, the best way to make basmati rice is to add a tablespoon of butter and a clove of garlic for every two cups of rice (if your heart skips a beat at the sheer mention of butter, you can omit it or replace with olive oil). So say goodbye to your hammer and chisel and instead spend that time getting another helping of the fluffy, tasty, buttery rice–I normally do.

- Ted