Steamed Short-Grain Rice

Rice and water and nothing else, soaked before it cooks and left under the lid for a full ten minutes after the heat goes off.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 400 g Korean or Japanese short-grain rice
• 440 ml water, plus more for washing

Method

1. THERE IS NO SALT AND NO SEASONING IN IT AT ALL. Not a pinch. This rice is eaten with things that are heavily seasoned -- stews, grilled meat, a dozen salted side dishes -- and it is the plain thing they are measured against. Salted, it stops being the neutral centre of the meal and starts competing with everything on the table. This is also what separates it from the sushi rice on this site, which is dressed with vinegar, sugar and salt and could not stand in for it.
2. THE LID NEVER COMES OFF, and that includes the ten minutes after the heat is switched off. The rice is not finished when the water has gone; it finishes in its own steam, and lifting the lid to look lets that out and leaves the top layer chalky and the bottom wet. There is nothing to see in there and no decision to make.
3. IT IS SOAKED THIRTY MINUTES FIRST. Dry grains cook from the outside in, so the surface turns to paste before the centre softens. Soaked, every grain is already hydrated and they cook evenly. This is the step that most decides the texture and it costs nothing but waiting.
4. AND THE WATER IS ROUGHLY EQUAL TO THE RICE BY WEIGHT, which is less than most packet instructions say -- because the soaking has already put water into the grain. Measure it rather than guessing by eye.
5. Rice put in a bowl and covered with cold water. Rubbed gently between the hands and the cloudy water poured off.
6. Repeated 3 or 4 times until the water runs almost clear.
7. Covered with fresh cold water and SOAKED 30 MINUTES, then drained in a sieve for 10 minutes.
8. Into a heavy pan with the measured 440 ml of water. Levelled with a spoon.
9. Brought to the boil UNCOVERED over a high heat, which takes 3 or 4 minutes and is the only time the pan is open.
10. The lid on and the heat to its lowest setting for 12 MINUTES.
11. The heat off and the pan LEFT ALONE, lid on, 10 MINUTES.
12. The lid lifted and the rice turned over gently from the bottom with a flat spoon or paddle, to let the steam out evenly and separate the grains. Not stirred, which crushes them.
13. Served at once. It holds in the covered pan for about an hour and should not be refrigerated -- cold rice goes hard and dry, and it is better used for a fried rice the next day than reheated plain.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes