I’d like to start by saying that I am a great fan of Indian food, specially north Indian styles, such as Mughlai, Awadhi, Kashmiri, etc. I am lucky enough to live in a city which has lots of Indian restaurants, so it’s not hard to get Indian food. But since I also enjoy cooking, I don’t eat out that often, and prefer to make the same things at home.
North Indian rice is my favorite kind of rice – very long grains, not sticky or mushy, with a slightly nutty flavor. It goes well with almost any Indian curry, dals (lentils), or in rice dishes like biryani or pilaf. And it is so easy to make, but I see a lot of people mess it up for some reason, and end up with a mushy goo that looks and tastes horrible.
There is no single “right” way to cook north Indian style rice. Some people pre-soak, some don’t. Some add the rice to boiling water, some add cold water to the rice and let it all heat up together. Some people parboil the rice instead. Some start it off on the stovetop and finish it in the oven. All of these methods can produce excellent cooked rice, if done properly.
However, most of the time I use the method described below, because in my opinion it’s the easiest and it’s very hard to make mistakes when you use it. So here, without further ado, is how to cook north Indian rice.
Step One – Get the Right Kind of Indian Rice
There are dozens of varieties of rice eaten in India. For north Indian style cooking, you need to get Basmati rice, nothing else will do. You can apply these methods to other kinds of rice, as I mention later, but for now please forget that and just get Basmati rice.
Basmati is an extra-long grain fragrant rice with a slight nutty aroma, that comes from India. The best Basmati is from the foothills of the Himalayas (such as rice from Dehradun). Punjabi Basmati is also good. If you can, try to avoid American Basmati (Texmati), at least until you have tried Indian Basmati and can tell the difference in flavors.
Basmati comes in white grains (white Basmati) or golden – brownish grains (golden Basmati). White Basmati has more of the hull removed, and cooks faster. Again, if you’re new to cooking rice, stick to white Basmati, until you know how to cook it properly. Brown basmati is the same, except it takes longer to cook. I prefer white Basmati.
The better kinds of Basmati are aged. Aging decreases the moisture content of the grain, and improves the taste. Aging 1 – 2 years is typical for Basmati. This cooking method works for both aged and un-aged Basmati, with a slight difference which I’ll mention below.
Step Two – Pre Soak the Rice
This is a controversial topic. Some cookbooks recommend soaking, others don’t. It’s possible to cook good rice either way, but for this method, soaking is a must. If you don’t pre-soak and follow the rest of the recipe, you’ll end up with bad rice, because the rest of the recipe assumes the rice was pre-soaked.
Put the dry rice in a large pot, add cold water (about 3-4 times the volume of the rice) and let it sit at room temperature. I typically let it sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour, undisturbed. If you are using aged Basmati, you can soak for a bit less, but I’d still soak for about 20 – 30 minutes.
Step Three – Wash the Rice
You can wash the rice before or after the soaking. I do it after. When the rice has finished soaking, drain out the water. You can use a sieve or cheesecloth to drain if you want. I just tilt the pot and let the water drain out, using a cupped hand to prevent any rice from escaping. You don’t need to drain every last drop of water, just most of it.
Now add lots of cold water, stir the rice a couple times with your finger, and drain it again. Repeat this 3 – 4 times. Washing the rice in this way gets rid of loose starch around the rice grains, which will cause the grains to stick together unless it’s removed. Again, if you’re using aged Basmati, you can wash it fewer times, or even dispense with the washing. I’d wash it at least once anyway, it doesn’t hurt the rice.
Step Four – Cook the Rice
After the final wash, drain all the water. It doesn’t matter if a few drops remain, just not too much. Now add cold water for cooking. The general rule I follow is that I add 1.0 – 1.3 times the volume of water as the initial volume of dry rice. So for 1 cup of rice (measured when the rice was dry, before soaking), I would add 1 to 1.3 cups of water, depending on a few factors:
- If I drained it really well after the last wash (used a sieve or cheesecloth or colander), I would add more water, like 1.25 – 1.3 cups water per cup of dry rice. If I didn’t drain it so well, I’d adjust for that accordingly, by adding slightly less water.
- If you like you rice slightly chewy, add less water (1.0 -1.1 cups per cup of dry rice). If you like it softer and moister, add a bit more (1.2 – 1.3 cups per cup of dry rice).
- If the rice is aged 1+ years, add a bit less water. Just a tiny bit less.
Turn the stove to high heat and put the pot with the rice and water on it. Add some unsalted butter (about a tablespoon). Do not add salt or anything else. Bring it to a vigorous boil, stirring once or twice with a spoon to make sure the rice isn’t sticking to the bottom. Turn the heat down to simmer, put the lid on the pot, and let it simmer for about 25 minutes. Don’t open the pot during this time, don’t fuss with it at all. Just let it be.
After 25 minutes you can open the pot and test the rice. I usually pick off a couple grains of rice from the top with a fork, and taste them. If they’re done, remove the pot from the heat. If not, give it another few minutes. It can take 20 – 35 minutes to cook the rice, depending on the rice and your definition of “simmer”.
Step Five – Serve
After the rice has cooked, remove it from the stove, put the lid back on, and let it sit for at least 5 minutes. Then you can serve it. I take a fork and (gently!) scrape the top of the rice to loosen the grains, and then pour from the pot directly into a plate. Just keep scraping more of the rice loose with a fork and pouring until you’re done.
Some Extra Notes
Never, ever add more cold water to cooking rice, even if the rice appears dry. If you followed the recipe above, and check after say 20 minutes, you may find the rice not thoroughly cooked and the water all gone. Don’t worry, just put the lid back on and give it more time. If the heat is down to simmer, you can leave it for quite a while and it won’t burn. Check back at 35 minutes or so, and the rice should be done.
“Simmer” really means “simmer” – very low heat. Since stoves are different, you have to find out what the simmer setting is on your stove. Think of it this way: if you take a pot of plain tap water (with nothing added to it) and bring it to a rolling boil, then simmer would be the setting to which you could set your stove so that the surface of the water continues to gently steam, but isn’t bubbling. If you cook the rice at higher heat, you can turn it to mush. Or you can burn it at the bottom, making a mess of the pot. At “simmer” the rice is safe for a long time. I’ve accidentally cooked rice for as long as an hour, and it’s still quite edible. It gives you a wide safety range and allows you to stop cooking when the rice tastes right to you.
You can use the same method, with the exact same quantities of water for ordinary long grain rice, not just Basmati. Even the cheapo Riceland Extra Long Grain rice sold at most grocery stores (which isn’t Basmati, or even extra long grained – it’s just milled to make each grain thinner and look “long grained”) works well with this recipe. Each grain will be fluffy and separate. Of course, it won’t taste or smell the same as Basmati.
