Basic Boiled Rice

The Japanese serve unseasoned, unadorned short-grained rice with nearly every meal. Its subtle flavor is the perfect foil for other more complex dishes. The chart that follows shows the amount of fresh cold water needed to cook various quantities of raw rice. (The yield of cooked rice is about double the raw rice used.) It is extremely difficult to cook less than 1 cup of raw rice, and I recommend making 1½ cups or more at a time. Leftover rice responds well to freezing and microwave-reheat