Tips for cooking rice and make it taste better

Rice is a staple item for people of Asia, and many other regions. They have their own rice varieties and cooking methods. If taken into account Indian context, let me provide a few simple tips while cooking rice.

1. While cooking rice in pressure cooker, add 2-3 drops of lemon juice and ginger juice. Rice will get good white colour once cooked.

2. While preparing biryani, use pot with thick bottom. Otherwise your biryani will stick on to the bottom.

3. If your rice is overcooked, spread it in a plate or cotton cloth and allow it to cool. Use a fork instead of spoon to slowly spread it. You can also add cold water and ghee to it, mix well and keep aside. After sometime strain water and spread on a plate.

4. While preparing rice for biryani, add a little ghee, lime juice or cooking oil to the water used for boiling rice. It prevents rice from clotting. 

5. If rice is overcooked, add some cold water to hot rice and then drain water. Then spread rice to a open plate.

6. While preparing fried rice, add a little oil or ghee and a little lemon juice to the water used for cooking rice. Rice won’t stick to the bottom of the vessel, and tastes better too. Add lemon juice in the proportion of 1 small spoon equals to 1 litre of water while cooking rice.

7. While normal cooking of rice, add a little lime juice to the water used for cooking. Rice gets good colour.

8. If your rice takes more time to cook, wash it well and soak in water overnight. Use that water to cook rice next day morning. Your rice cooks easily. You can also soak chickpeas, peas etc overnight if it takes more time to cook.

What if cooked rice is left over?

Why can’t we make some easy snacks with leftover cooked ice? Kondattams and patties could be the right solution. 

1. To prepare rice patties, mix rice with finely chopped onions and green chillies, salt and eggs. Make small pancakes in a hot tawa adding a little oil, and fry both sides. 

2. In the left over rice, add chicken pieces (torn into small bites after cooking), pepper powder and salt. Fill inside capsicum or tomato and put grated cheese on its top and bake in oven. 

3. We can prepare rice appam (rice pancake) too. Grind cooked rice adding salt and water. Add fennel seeds, scrapped coconut and rice flour and mix well. Using a banana leaf, spread it thin and cook them as pancakes in hot tawa. Cook both sides.

4. You can prepare rice kondattam using left over rice. Make a fine paste adding salt, chilli powder (black pepper powder) and asafoetida. Spread desired shapes on cotton clothes or plastic covers. Dry it well for a few days and keep in air tight containers. For evening snacks, you can fry in hot oil and use. 

Image source: Pixabay

Want to know how to enhance and improve the taste of some of the common dishes? Here is the page link. Click on the images in the gallery to read