My family eats a lot of rice, mainly basmati. Well, apart from my son who never liked the texture and mouthfeel of it when he was younger. Now that he’s over 6′ 2″ he’s still the fussiest eater in the family but he has started to try different foods, including rice, but it’s still not his first choice, especially when there’s chips.

Cooking rice can be done in many ways, there’s lots of advice out there and you can even buy special electric rice cookers. I’ve tried lots of ways but this gives me reliable results without being starchy and clumped together.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 250g white basmati rice
• Water

Method

• Put the rice in a large bowl and cover with water. Leave to soak for 20 minutes.
• Drain the rice using a fine mesh sieve. Rinse the rice under the tap and let it drain.
• Fill a medium pan about 2/3rds full of water and bring to the boil.
• Add the rice and boil for 5 minutes. Turn the heat off.
• Drain using the fine mesh sieve again and it’s ready to serve. Pop it back in the pan and stick the lid on to keep it hot.

Notes

You can use this method for cooking brown basmati rice, long grain rice and brown rice. The cooking time for brown rice will be about 10 minutes.