The Quiet Art of Steaming Rice

There is no technique in the kitchen with a worse effort-to-reward reputation than steaming rice, and none where small corrections pay so quickly. Four decisions do almost all of the work.

The rinse

Two or three gentle changes of water, swirled with fingertips, remove loose surface starch that would otherwise cook into a gluey film. Stop when the water is nearly — not perfectly — clear. Over-washing rinses away flavour.

The ratio

Jasmine rice wants less water than most: one and a quarter cups to one of rice. It should finish soft and gently clinging, each grain distinct against the next. If your rice pools or slumps, the correction is water, not time.

The heat, and the rest

One boil to set the pot, then the lowest flame the stove will hold, lid on, untouched. And when the heat goes off, the rice is not done — the ten covered minutes that follow are where the texture forms. Lift the lid early and you let the finish escape as steam.

Great rice is mostly the discipline of leaving it alone.