How to Cook Rice Quickly
An article was found by Lifehacker and it got me thinking to write about cooking rice not in a perfect way but a quicker way. Coincidently my daughter didn’t want to bring any sandwiches to her university for lunch this morning. She requested me to cook her some rice and wanted to go with our leftover, spicy baked pork chops – one of her favorites. I normally use rice cooker because it’s easy and reliable. I didn’t have enough time then. So I used my microwave oven instead. Simple and quick. Here’s what I did :
1. Rinse 1 cup of rice two or three times, drain thoroughly. Put washed rice in a deep microwave bowl, add 0.8 cup of water. (when using rice cooker, the ratio of water and rice is 1:1, but with a microwave oven, 1: 0.8 – it also depends on what kind of rice you’ve got. New rice needs more water than old rice.)
2. Cover and cook on HIGH 5 minutes or until boiling. Don’t open the cover yet.
3. Reduce setting to MEDIUM (50% power) and cook 15-20 minutes more.
4. Important step: Let the rice stand for a while with the cover on and the steam inside the bowl continue to soften the rice.
Within half an hour, rice was ready for my daughter. She’s quite happy with the rice I cooked for her. (Hah….even a picky eater can accept, I think it’s not too bad.)
Caution:
Different microwave ovens have different power levels. So when you use your own microwave oven, you have to make adjustment to the cooking time.
If you find the rice is still hard, you can add a little bit of water and cook again. If it is too soft, just reheat again.
After trying two or three times with your own microwave oven, I bet you can also cook not-too-bad rice within half an hour.