Steamed Basmati Rice
Basmati rinsed until the water runs clear and cooked by absorption, then rested off the heat with the lid on so the grains separate.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 18 min
- Total
- 28 min
- Serves
- 4
- Revisions
- 3
Allergens
- Milk
Named from the ingredients as written, including those carried in from sub-recipes. This is not a guarantee — check the labels on what you actually buy, and note that a product’s recipe can change.
Ingredients
Method
Tip the rice into a bowl and cover it with cold water.
Swirl the grains with your fingers until the water turns chalky white.
Pour the cloudy water off, holding the rice back with your other hand.
Repeat four or five times, until the water you pour away is almost clear.
Do not stop early because it looks like fuss. That cloudiness is loose starch knocked off the surface of the grains in milling, and whatever is left behind gelatinises in the pan and glues the rice into a claggy mass.
Drain the rice in a sieve for 2 minutes, until it stops dripping.
Melt the butter in a heavy pan that has a tight-fitting lid, over medium heat.
Stir the drained rice through the butter for 1-2 minutes, until every grain is coated and glossy.
Pour in the 480ml of cold water. Learn the ratio rather than the numbers: a shade over one and a half times the weight of the rice in water, which holds at any quantity as long as the lid seals.
Stir in the fine salt.
Bring it to a boil uncovered, which takes about 4 minutes.
Boil for 2 minutes more, until craters open across the surface and the water has dropped to the level of the rice.
Turn the heat as low as it will go.
Put the lid on and cook for 10-12 minutes, until the loud bubbling has died back to a faint hiss and only a thin wisp of steam escapes at the rim.
Leave the lid alone for the whole of that time. There is no water boiling in there by now, only steam, and the steam is what cooks the top half of the pan — every lift lets it out, and you get chalky hard grains on top while the base scorches.
Take the pan off the heat with the lid still on.
Stand it for 10 minutes, untouched. The grains finish in their own residual steam and firm up enough to come apart cleanly; rice served straight off the heat is wetter and breaks as you move it.
Lift the lid and check the base with a fork. No free water should be left, and a thin dry crust on the bottom is fine.
Fluff the rice by lifting and turning it with a fork rather than stirring it with a spoon, which mashes the softened grains into paste.
Serve straight away, under the weeknight red lentil dal, beside the crisp-skinned salmon, or alongside anything with sauce to spare.