Cooking - Basics

How to cook rice

1.       In Pressure Cooker

a)     Use of perforated plate

Pressure cooker cooks fast as water boils at around 115deg Celsius under pressure instead 100 deg Celsius.  If you use high raised utensils you can ignore the perforated plate.  But it is preferable to place the perforated plate at the bottom to avoid toppling of the utensils.

We can keep two or more utensils also; one for rice, another for daal; if the utensils are shallow we can keep another one for vegetables also. Also sometimes some grains and water from the daal e ingredients, mostly water and some grains to fall out of the bowl into the vessel.

Some times, more than one bowl is used for different dishes. In such occasions, they would get mixed up by the above processes. This is undesirable.

Scientific reason (if you interested):  Large steam bubbles are created at the bottom when move up through the perforated plate are broken up into smaller steam bubbles which are less powerful so do not lift the vessels.

b)     Washing of rice

Wash the rice thoroughly till you get clear water or otherwise cooked rice will be sticky.

c)     Quantity of water

Normally 1 cup rice required 2 ½ to 3 cups of water.  While cooking for first time use 2 ¾ cups of water.  If the cooked rice is mushy they add less water ie. 2 ½ if it is dry then  add 3 cups of water in the future. 

d)     No.of whistles

3 whistles are normally required.  If only less rice is used 2 whistles will suffice.

e)     Standing time

At least wait for 15 to 20 mins.  Check the whistle and if it is till releasing steam then wait further.  If you rush to open then the rice will not be fully cooked and it will be watery.

f)      Soaking time

You need not soak day to day rice.  For Basmati long grained rice rinse it thoroughly and then soak it for half an hour and use less water ie. 2 cups per 1 cup of rice for cooking.