Cooking White Rice (白饭)

Cooking rice, the most basic step in preparing a meal but yet could be complicated if some details are not being meticulous enough.  Hey don't be scared by that statement, just relax follow the instruction and problem will be resolved.

Ingredient :-
白米
Rice grains of course !  Can easily buy at any of the supermarket or hypermarket.  Do be careful of what type of rice grains you will be buying nevertheless.  Those local brand/housebrand which has a price range of below $10 for 5kg bag suggest avoid.  Yes, I know it is cheap but the rice you cook from it could be became hard and rough to eat.  Those premium type of rice grains like long grain, Japanese type, etc yap you can go for it if you don't mind the prices.  Typically, the mid-range type of rice grains which cost between $10 - $15 per 5kg bag will be ok and most of the people are eating those type of rice.  Brands like Songhe, Golden Phoenix, Royal Umbrella, New Moon, Golden Pineapple, Golden Eagle and Double FP are some of those mid-range rice grains and I'm using one of those too myself.

Cooking Instruction :-
1. Determine how many people you are serving.  Typically, 1/2 cup or about 80ml of rice grains is 1 adult person serving.  If you have toddlers, he/she probably could eat 1/4 cup or about 40ml of rice grains.  Where to find the cup ? It comes with the Rice Cooker when you purchase it.

2. Washing the rice grains will be next.  Need to rinse the rice grains before use.  I remember one brand of rice grains claims you just need to rinse once and personally I tried that before on that brand and so far no issue with that.  Typically, I will rinse twice.

3. Now the meticulous part in cooking rice.  How much water to put !!!.  Well just have to say, if you put too little water, the rice after cooked will be hard and rough.  If put too much water, it will become soggy and sticky.  There are many methods to decide how much water to put in.  Firstly, the so-called standard that is using measuring cup to do it, how many ml of rice grains will require how many ml of water.  Secondly, the housewife method, using your hand !!!.  For me, all along I stick with the housewife method as that probably was what my mum thought me.  Placing my finger at the top of the rice grains (not the base of the rice pot) after filling into the rice cooker and the water level to be used is about 90% from the tip of your finger to the first joint of the finger ( see the picture below ).  By doing so, regardless of how many cups or ml of rice grains you have, it is always like that.  There is another method that is placing you palm down on top of the rice grains and water level should like just covering the whole of your palm.  Personally, I have not used this palm method before and should anyone has detail, can inform me so that I could add that to the instruction step.  Many thanks.

4. After settling with the amount of water needed, next and final step, put the rice pot in the rice cooker to cook.  This perhaps is the easiest step as rice cooker is automatic !!! Just press down the cook button and once that rice is cooked, the button will jump on and there you are done with cooking the rice.  Should the water level be correct, the rice will be soft and non-sticky or soggy ( see picture below ).

To clean up the rice pot, there should still be some rice stick to the rice pot, please DO NOT scrub the rice pot, instead SOAK the rice pot with water overnight and the next day the cleaning will be piece of cake.