Some of the secrets of cooking rice

  
Every lady has different ways for cooking rice and there might be some secrets during the cooking process, which help to avoid some of the problems that might make the cooked rice meal undelicious or unpleasant. The followings are examples of these secrets:

1. Water should reach the boiling degree before adding the rice. After adding the rice, it should be left on a very low heat till it is well cooked and absorbs water gradually.

2. To prevent the sticking of the rice grains to each other during the preparation of some dishes like kabsa, for example, some ladies advised the addition of one or two spoonfuls of the cooking oil after the rice gets dry and before it is well cooked. The addition of oil, in case the rice gets dried, should be on the rice layers if water gets dried in the underneath.

3. The suitable quantity of water for preparing well cooked and unsticked and unmated rice is that the upper surface of water should be about 4cm.(half finger approx) above the rice surface after being dipped in water. To check the amount of the suitable water, some ladies put or insert a spoon in the middle of the cooking pot after adding rice to water. If the spoon does not fall, that will indicate that the amount of water is suitable.

4. For preparing a rice meal with separated grains, water should be minimized to the lowest level and heat should be at lowest and for a longer period. Spices and salt should be added to the boiling water before adding the rice.

5. When adding any stuff to rice, such as the spices and salt, these substances should be added to water before adding water, and then rice is added. If it is necessary to add salt, for example, after the rice starts to absorb the water, salt should be added to a half glass of water and diluted properly and distributed evenly to the surface of the cooking pot, because if any substance is added after rice is added and absorbed the water it will loose its tenacity and some of its delicious characteristics. Therefore, the dilution of the substance to be added before adding it to rice insures that it is distributed equally without stirring the rice.
   
   A piece of potato restores the flavor or the burnt rice.

6. When the house wife forgets the cooking pot on the oven for a longer time, the lower layer starts burning and then the burning smell will spread in all parts of the pot, thus the rice will loose its delicious smell and pleasant taste. In this case, it is advisable to take all the contents of the pot to another container as quickly as possible and leave the burnt bottom layer, or complete piece of peeled potato should be put inside the rice. If the container is big more than one piece should be immersed in the rice.
   The views of our honorable (she) readers and their additions to these secrets are welcomed; just mail them to shalan@hotmail.com.