What is the best way to cook/season basmati rice? I like rice, and I'm looking to try something other than standard long grain white rice.

Thank you for your help.

This is what I do: for 1 cup of rice, use 16 oz of low-sodium chicken broth; 1 teaspoon of sea salt; 1 tablespoon of minced/diced dried onions; 1 tablespoon of dried parsley; 1 tablespoon of butter.

Cover & nuke in microwave on high for 5 minutes; stir mixture and nuke at 50% power for another 10 to 15 minutes, until all broth fully absorbed. Remove from microwave and stir to fluff up rice; keep covered until ready to serve.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...ilpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Bought one for my girlfriend, one of the best kitchen appliances we own.

I'll second the Zojirushi ... while not cheap it was money well spent.

We cook different types of rice, including basmati, and all types come out wonderful!

I prefer Basmati to other rices. I like the flavor, texture and smell. I substitute chicken broth (or beef broth, if I am making a heavier dish) for water, and add 2 tbsp of butter to the cooking water and 2 tbsp of crushed ginger. The ginger is particularly nice if you are serving the rice with fish or a light chicken dish.

Trader Joe's microwaveable pouches!!
Quick easy and delicious.

Just substitute coconut milk for half the water.

You can thank me later.

Cheers~

This will not be the low sodium or low fat solution, but is a great standby that folks will love!

1 & 1/3c rice
1 can beef consomme
1 can french onion soup
1 stick melted butter
~4oz mushroom slices (optional)

Mix all together, cook an hour at 350 in covered casserole, fluff with fork halfway through and again when done, top with Parmesan when done.

Seriously good eats, and straight off a bag of Basmati about a zillion years ago.

I make it in a rice cooker, it isn't exactly Persian style but it is close. I buy it at the Persian market, aged extra long grain Basmati.

2 cups of rinsed rice
2.25cups water
Salt to taste
2 tbsp butter
Pinch of saffron (I use powdered because I make it a lot)

Turn the rice cooker on, and it is pretty much fool proof.

We sometimes put Dill and Fava Beans but that is typically paired with sea food. On special occasions we will make it in a traditional pot and crisp the bottom for a proper Tahdig.

We are fans of Jasmine rice here. It's been a while since I've had Basmati, but IIRC, the flavors aren't that far apart.

I just cook the same as white rice (1 1/2 cups water for 1 cup rice, 2 3/4 cups water for 2 cups rice), bring to a boil, then kill the heat and clamp on the lid.

I'll add a pinch of salt to the water.

We normally only make rice here when making chinese/asian dishes, and serve the meat on top of it, as you would find in most chinese restaurants.

In America's Test Kitchen testing, the twenty dollar Aroma rice cooker beat out the Zojirushi in several categories. And it's way easier to figure out.

I cook rice often, being that I am Indian.

First, I take 2 sponnfuls of Olive Oil, and het it in the pot. When the oil is heated, I put the measured amount of rice , and stir well, making sure that oil coats all the rice. I keep stirring the riice at high temp. for about 4 or 5 minutes. Then, I add 1.5 cups of Water for every 1 cup of rice, and let the water cometo a boil. When the water starts boiling, lower the temperature to 3.5 ( on a stove that goes from 1 to 10), and cover the pot. Let the rice cook at 3.5 for 14 or 15 minutes.
After 14 minutes, remove the pot from the stove, and let it sit for about 12 to 15 minutes, and after that, serve and eat!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Trader Joe's microwaveable pouches!!
Quick easy and delicious.

Yep. I get my Basmati rice in TJ's frozen Indian dinners. I season it with fresh ground black pepper.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...ilpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Bought one for my girlfriend, one of the best kitchen appliances we own.

Holy smokes! That is one expensive rice cooker. I'm not dissing you. I just can't believe techonology can add much to cooking rice like it's been done for so many centuries for so much more cheaper. Coffee, I can believe. But rice?

Thank you to everyone for your replies. I'm learning a lot, and I'm glad I asked.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...ilpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Bought one for my girlfriend, one of the best kitchen appliances we own.

Holy smokes! That is one expensive rice cooker. I'm not dissing you. I just can't believe techonology can add much to cooking rice like it's been done for so many centuries for so much more cheaper. Coffee, I can believe. But rice?

If you are like me and can't get rice right it's worth every penny. Load her up and hit cook, 45 minutes later house is filled with the smell of Jasmine or Basmati rice. I love that smell.

Also very helpful because I insist that all food be ready at the same time and served steaming hot. This thing will keep rice warm for days I've eaten three day old rice out of it.

My rice keeps coming out as total mush and I looked up what I was doing wrong. All this time I thought the 1 part rice to 2 parts water was correct but it wasn't apparently.

Last night my wife cooked up some Carolina rice and she rinsed it well first, then used 1.5 CUPS water to the 1 cup rice and it came out really, really good! Not mushy, nice separate firmer grains.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...ilpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Bought one for my girlfriend, one of the best kitchen appliances we own.

Holy smokes! That is one expensive rice cooker. I'm not dissing you. I just can't believe techonology can add much to cooking rice like it's been done for so many centuries for so much more cheaper. Coffee, I can believe. But rice?

If you are like me and can't get rice right it's worth every penny. Load her up and hit cook, 45 minutes later house is filled with the smell of Jasmine or Basmati rice. I love that smell.

Also very helpful because I insist that all food be ready at the same time and served steaming hot. This thing will keep rice warm for days I've eaten three day old rice out of it.

I agree completely. I have a similar Zojirushi that I've had for 5 or 6 years. Mine's a 3-cup. It makes plenty of rice for a family of four using American-sized portions of rice (where rice is a side dish or something to soak up sauce). If you routinely feed more than four people or you serve Asian-sized portions of rice (where the rice is the meal and the other stuff is basically a topping), get a bigger one.

Perfectly cooked rice every time.

You don't have to keep an eye on it or remember when you're supposed to turn the stove off. Just dump the water and rice in, close the top, push start. Done. (If you're cooking not-white rice, you might have to push a button a couple of times to tell the machine you're doing something else.)

Skins mentioned maybe the biggest selling point of all. The machine seals up tight (it does vent steam while cooking rice), so after the rice is done and it switches to "keep warm" mode, it will keep the rice hot, fluffy, and moist for hours (I've never gone three days, but five or six hours later the rice still has the taste and texture of just-cooked rice).

For the tea drinkers out there (or people who use a french press for coffee), Zojirushi also makes the best hot water dispensers in existence. Like the rice cookers, they seal up tight, so they'll keep hot water for weeks without noticeable evaporation. They also have selectable temperatures (175 F if you're doing mix-in-powder instant hot drinks, 195 F for most types of tea, and 208 F for coffee and the few types of tea that are supposed to be steeped that hot). Lately I've left mine on 208 F and just dispense water straight into the french press.

We love that rice, my wife boils it then lets in simmer with a towel wrapped around the lid,basically acts as a steamer, rice comes out perfect every time.

The only bad thing about Basmati rice is that I pronounce it "bassamatic" if I haven't said the word for awhile.