How To Get Fluffy Fragrant Jasmine Rice Every Time

Cooking a good pot of rice was one of the skills that I’ve learned when I was in high school. It is definitely far different from cooking instant noodles or frying an egg. Get the proportions wrong and you will end up with rice that is either too dry or too mushy. If you get it right, the aroma opens up the appetite for everyone young or old.

Choice Of Rice

I’ve chosen Jasmine rice is because I’ve grown to love it. It’s cheap, straightforward and does not require solving any algebra equations to cook. As long as the bag has the label fragrant jasmine rice, you’re good to go. Now that I’ve mentioned bag labels, let me share with you about the time I bought a bag of rice that was labelled “Special Rice” from one of the supermarkets here.

To be honest, curiosity got me at that time. I was doing my usual grocery shopping when I saw the bag of rice labelled “Special Rice”. It was cheaper than Jasmine rice so I decided to give it a try. So I got back and cooked a small portion of it just to test. First try, the rice turned out dry. Tried for a second time with an added cup of water, still didn’t cook. By the time it came to the third time, I packed the rice and gave it away. That was the first and the last.

The Right Proportion

The first key to cooking fluffy fragrant Jasmine rice is to have the right proportion of rice to moisture. Some of our parents would use their pinky to measure the water quantity. I chose not to follow that technique as our eyes can sometimes be inaccurate. So the best tool to use is the tool that comes with the rice cooker when we first bought it. The measuring cup.

Now to cook the rice, here’s what you need to do. To 1 full cup of rice, add 2 full cups of water. 2 full cups of rice would be 3 full cups of water and so on. So there would be an additional 1 more full cup when it comes to adding water. This is when you are cooking the rice.

Wash The Rice Thoroughly

Any rice when purchased would always come with some impurities. These impurities if not cleaned proper would

• affect the aroma of the rice once cooked
• make the rice turn stale faster

So it is always important to wash the rice thoroughly before cooking it. How to judge? I have some images below as a guide.

The image on the left is the first wash. The water would most of the time be very cloudy. On the right is after 4 to 5 times washing the rice. The water is translucent and you can almost see the rice inside. At this moment, you may start to feel that the rice starts to be slightly heavier too.

During washing, be sure to do a bit of shuffle(like making soap suds) with your hands to help loosen any impurities that might stick onto the rice. Once you are done washing the rice, you may start preparing to cook the rice according to the proportions mentioned earlier.

Next is to leave your rice cooker to do its job. Once the rice is cooked, open the cover and allow the excess vapour to escape. The rice is ready to be served. A good old fashion way to enjoy a hot plate of rice is to eat it with a fried egg and sweet soy sauce. Yummy!

Reheating Tips

Don’t forget to reheat your rice to prolong its shelf life. This can be done twice a day. Once in the morning or afternoon and the next, in the evening.

Enjoy! 🙂