Perfect Rice

I Am From Here

I rarely make rice on the stove since I got a small, cheap rice cooker to try it out. That one still works, but when it dies I'll probably get another one, because it makes cooking rice SO EASY that it has become one of the things I can have my daughter do without much supervision. But if you have a smaller kitchen, or don't like keeping single-purpose appliances, then this method works very well!

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[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with Heather today I am really excited
[00:09]: because we are starting a new book this
[00:12]: is our first recipe from
[00:15]: I am from here a book by vishweshbot
[00:21]: he is an Indian
[00:25]: American he grew up in India and moved
[00:30]: uh to the United States in the South
[00:33]: when he was 18. so he didn't grow up
[00:36]: here but he has chosen to live here and
[00:40]: to cook with the ingredients and some of
[00:43]: the techniques that we use here in the
[00:45]: South so it's sort of a mixture of
[00:47]: Indian and Southern and
[00:49]: I'm looking forward to trying out some
[00:52]: of these recipes
[00:54]: but it was a it was a gift for for
[00:57]: Christmas and I was super excited to try
[00:59]: things so
[01:01]: we'll see how it goes the very first
[01:04]: recipe we're doing is kind of boring but
[01:07]: we need it for the next recipe we're
[01:09]: going to do and decided to go ahead and
[01:11]: make it for you guys
[01:14]: um we're going to be making what he
[01:15]: calls perfect rice
[01:18]: uh I haven't cooked rice really on the
[01:21]: stove in a very long time well
[01:24]: occasionally I made a recipe with my son
[01:28]: that called for cooking it on the stove
[01:30]: so we did it that way even though we
[01:32]: could have used the rice cooker I have a
[01:33]: very cheap uh rice cooker that I bought
[01:36]: a while back just to
[01:39]: um
[01:40]: be able to make rice quickly
[01:42]: for our family and it does a pretty
[01:44]: decent job although it is is probably
[01:47]: needs to be replaced soon we'll see
[01:51]: um
[01:52]: but it's hard to get rice that's even in
[01:55]: the rice cooker sometimes it turns out a
[01:57]: little bit sticky not as fluffy as you
[02:00]: want and I'm
[02:02]: not sure exactly why
[02:05]: but he says this is perfect rice and we
[02:08]: will see
[02:09]: um I need a double batch for the recipe
[02:13]: I'm making tomorrow
[02:15]: uh and it needs to be cooked and cooled
[02:18]: so I'm just gonna make it today and
[02:19]: we're going to use it tomorrow
[02:21]: but
[02:23]: uh
[02:25]: he says that this will work that it
[02:27]: works just just as well in a double
[02:30]: batch as a single batch so
[02:34]: these are all the ingredients I need I
[02:35]: have water
[02:37]: I have rice this is uh basmati rice or
[02:41]: mainly Basmati I added a little bit of
[02:44]: other long grain white rice just because
[02:46]: I didn't have quite the right amount but
[02:48]: it'll be fine you can use
[02:50]: um any
[02:52]: long grain white rice for this recipe
[02:56]: that would
[02:57]: work with the proportions and the timing
[02:59]: and all of that so and uh salt and
[03:03]: that's it
[03:05]: the first thing I need to do is you can
[03:07]: see I have my rice in a strainer
[03:10]: I'm gonna go rinse it and rinsing rice
[03:12]: is something that I didn't do when I was
[03:14]: a kid I do it sometimes now but
[03:19]: the recipe calls for it I think it helps
[03:22]: to
[03:23]: reduce sort of the stickiness and give
[03:26]: you get get more of a separated grain
[03:29]: but that could just be
[03:31]: coincidental
[03:33]: based on other factors
[03:35]: I don't make well I make my daughter
[03:38]: make the rice in the rice cooker so
[03:40]: that's one of the good things about
[03:41]: having the rice cooker is that it's
[03:43]: really easy for her to do but
[03:46]: they love rice
[03:47]: this has a whole chapter of rice so
[03:52]: we're gonna make rice
[03:54]: anyway I'm gonna go rinse this he says
[03:56]: to gently rinse it under cold running
[03:59]: water so we'll see
[04:01]: so I rinsed it I don't know a minute or
[04:03]: two and now I'm just gonna let it kind
[04:06]: of
[04:07]: drain a little bit over this bowl
[04:10]: and
[04:12]: um this also has a step that I never
[04:15]: have done before for Rice so he says you
[04:18]: need to drain it thoroughly so
[04:21]: I'm gonna let it go for I don't know a
[04:24]: couple minutes it's not really draining
[04:26]: all that much anymore now so it didn't
[04:28]: drain all that much after I got it out
[04:30]: of here but
[04:37]: that'll be fine now I'm going to put
[04:39]: this into my pot now he says
[04:41]: uh for a single sorry for the noise for
[04:46]: a single recipe you need a 2 quart
[04:49]: with a heavy bottom this is a pretty
[04:52]: heavy stainless steel one and it is four
[04:54]: quart because we're doing a double batch
[04:56]: and
[04:58]: we are adding our water
[05:04]: measured measured water measured rice
[05:06]: and it's standard measurements that I've
[05:09]: always used when making rice before
[05:12]: and
[05:14]: just a pinch of salt I'm going to put a
[05:16]: couple decent sized pinches in here
[05:18]: because I've never
[05:20]: too much salt on Rice especially not
[05:22]: seasoning it before now the thing that
[05:25]: he does that is
[05:27]: um
[05:28]: unusual is he says to let this sit for
[05:33]: 15 minutes before you cook it so he says
[05:36]: to uh
[05:38]: just put it on the stove without turning
[05:41]: the heat on for 15 minutes so we're just
[05:42]: going to set a timer for 15 minutes uh
[05:45]: and we'll see you back in about 15
[05:46]: minutes okay it's been sitting for at
[05:49]: least 15 minutes a couple more minutes
[05:51]: with moving everything around
[05:53]: um but I'm going to turn it on to medium
[05:56]: high heat
[05:57]: I'm going to let this come to a boil now
[06:00]: I'm glad
[06:02]: he says to that as soon as it comes
[06:05]: starts boiling basically uh
[06:09]: as soon as the water starts to boil so I
[06:13]: always
[06:15]: second guess myself as far as what
[06:17]: boiling means so sometimes it's like do
[06:20]: I want to wait until it like is really
[06:22]: really a full boil or not
[06:25]: uh we're gonna wait until it starts to
[06:28]: boil
[06:30]: medium high heat so we'll see how long
[06:32]: that takes
[06:34]: I'll let you know
[06:36]: it's been about four minutes and it's
[06:39]: just starting to Bubble I would not call
[06:42]: that boiling
[06:44]: but soon
[06:46]: I'd say we are starting to boil this is
[06:48]: definitely above a strong simmer it's
[06:51]: been about seven minutes
[06:54]: um
[06:55]: so I'm going to go ahead we're gonna put
[06:57]: the lid on and we're going to turn the
[06:59]: heat down to
[07:01]: very low
[07:06]: I have a low
[07:08]: low is really low so I'm going to go a
[07:12]: little bit above that I'm going to set a
[07:14]: timer for 15 minutes but we're going to
[07:16]: see you in about 20 minutes because
[07:18]: we're going to let this sit we are not
[07:20]: going to take the lid off we are not
[07:23]: going to look at it
[07:24]: we're just going to let it do its thing
[07:26]: for 15 minutes
[07:28]: we're going to come back we're going to
[07:30]: turn off the stove we're going to move
[07:31]: it off of the Heat
[07:32]: and we're going to let it sit for
[07:34]: another five minutes before we open it
[07:38]: so we'll see you in about 20 minutes
[07:41]: it's been 20 minutes so 15 of
[07:44]: an event on the heat
[07:45]: five of it off the heat and now is time
[07:49]: for the Moment of Truth
[07:51]: when we finally open it up
[07:53]: and see what we've got
[07:56]: well it looks like we have
[07:59]: rice potentially fluffy
[08:04]: oh yeah it's it's relatively
[08:08]: um
[08:09]: fluffy it's certainly all of the water
[08:12]: is gone
[08:13]: very steamy the the grains seem to be
[08:18]: separating pretty well
[08:22]: I would be happy to serve that
[08:26]: um you do not have to fluff it with a
[08:28]: fork he says if you want to
[08:30]: um
[08:31]: now
[08:33]: excuse the dog chewing in the background
[08:37]: can't do much about that
[08:39]: um
[08:41]: I need to measure what I need for my
[08:44]: recipe tomorrow which might be the whole
[08:46]: thing might not
[08:48]: and cool it down so what I'm going to do
[08:50]: is spread it out
[08:52]: on a baking sheet
[08:56]: on like my countertops where I can put
[08:59]: it in the refrigerator whatever we want
[09:01]: to cool it down relatively quickly rice
[09:03]: is something that you really want to
[09:04]: cool down quickly it could
[09:07]: um carry bacteria that can make you very
[09:10]: sick
[09:12]: and we are going to eat this attic
[09:16]: room temperature tomorrow so we don't
[09:18]: want that to happen we're not reheating
[09:19]: it
[09:20]: um
[09:21]: so we will show you what this looks like
[09:24]: in a pretty Bowl hopefully there'll be
[09:26]: some left that we can try tonight uh and
[09:28]: let you know what we think of this
[09:30]: method and this rice in just a minute
[09:33]: foreign
[09:39]: on this episode of cooking the books
[09:40]: with Heather you watched me make perfect
[09:42]: rice from vishwesh Bots I am from here
[09:46]: cookbook
[09:48]: and I will say this is probably the best
[09:50]: rice that I've made on the stove in
[09:52]: quite a while I
[09:54]: do think rinsing it is a great idea I
[09:58]: still haven't tried it with a regular
[10:00]: long grain rice that I normally use but
[10:04]: Basmati tends to to stay a little bit uh
[10:07]: more separate in general for me but
[10:11]: I think rinsing the rice is is
[10:13]: definitely important and uh
[10:17]: I think that it was a decent method it
[10:19]: was a little damp still at the very
[10:21]: bottom so maybe a little bit longer for
[10:26]: me
[10:27]: um
[10:28]: I don't know also it made way more than
[10:32]: the recipe says so the recipe says it
[10:34]: makes uh two to two and a half cups of
[10:38]: cooked rice
[10:40]: uh I think and I made a double batch
[10:43]: because I needed four cups and I think I
[10:47]: probably ended up with about four cups
[10:49]: from one batch so that was you know
[10:53]: because we definitely had more than six
[10:56]: cups of rice because
[10:58]: I'm positive of that we ended up eating
[11:01]: it
[11:02]: uh for dinner and we had leftovers and
[11:05]: then after I'd put away the rest the
[11:07]: stuff that I needed for the other recipe
[11:10]: um and there was still more so there was
[11:11]: plenty to feed four people for more than
[11:15]: two more than two meals so I think that
[11:19]: that uh that amount is not quite right
[11:22]: or at least not for the the what I made
[11:25]: I used Basmati
[11:27]: and he says it depends on the grain size
[11:30]: but I would
[11:33]: I need to make it just sort of as is and
[11:36]: see exactly how much rice it makes
[11:38]: because
[11:39]: it was more than there needed to be but
[11:42]: I think if you don't have a rice cooker
[11:43]: this is a great recipe a good method and
[11:47]: takes a little bit longer because there
[11:49]: is that sort of soak beforehand but uh
[11:53]: if it turns out
[11:55]: nice if it turns out not sticky uh not
[11:60]: underdone that's a win in my book so
[12:03]: just needs a little bit of extra plan
[12:05]: anyway if you enjoyed watching me make
[12:07]: this please give me a thumbs up hit the
[12:10]: Subscribe button share it with your
[12:12]: friends and uh come back and watch me
[12:14]: make something else next week
[12:16]: [Music]