Cooking Rice

If cooking rice regularly, invest in an electric rice cooker. This cooks the rice and switches itself off automatically, then switches itself on again at intervals to keep it warm. This does dry the rice out, so I unplug mine when it is cooked.

The other way to boil rice is in an ordinary pan. Proportions are the same: 2 of rice to 2% of water. Bring to the boil (don’t add salt), stir and simmer, uncovered, until the water is absorbed (about 10 minutes). To ‘finish’ the rice, cover with a tight-fitting lid and leave on a very low heat for 10-12 minutes. Make a pad of a cold, wet tea towel on your draining board, and put the pan on this, with the lid still firmly on. Leave to rest for 5 minutes. The cold wet cloth stops the bottom layer of rice sticking to the pan.