Recipe: Basmati Rice

Total time

15 mins

Ingredients

  • 1/2 a cup of rice per person - note: there's no need to wash supermarket rice
  • a few tbsp of vegetable oil, e.g. sunflower - don't worry about the calories, most of this is washed off
  • water
  • your choice of spices (optional)
  • salt

For plain rice: omit the spices.

For pilau rice: use a tsp of turmeric, 2 tsp of garam massala, a peeled clove of garlic and a couple of cardamom pods. Remove the garlic and cardamoms before serving.

Method

  1. Boil a kettle of cold tap water.
  2. Choose a saucepan large enough to hold four times that volume of rice you're cooking (but don't add it yet).
  3. Add the oil to the empty saucepan and put on a medium-low heat.
  4. When the oil is hot, add the spices (if using) and 30 seconds later add the rice. Use a spatula to turn the rice in the oil, coating each grain.
  5. Add the boiling water (careful - the pan will be hot enough to turn some of it to steam on contact) and stir once.
  6. Bring the pan to the boil, then turn down to a gentle simmer.
  7. Leave the rice alone for 10-12 mins.
  8. Boil another kettle of water for washing the rice.
  9. You can tell if the rice is done by its appearance (it will have puffed up and now occupy most of the pan), by trying a few grains or by giving it a gentle stir with a teaspoon - if its done the resistance will feel soft.
  10. Put the cooked rice into a sieve, hold over the sink and pour boiling water over.
  11. Serve, fluffing up with a fork and adding a little salt.

  12. You can keep the rice for 20 minutes before serving - just put it back in a pan after washing and cover with a tea-towel.

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