You may think that cooking rice is difficult. You can’t fail with this simple recipe. It is not necessary to precisely measure quantities of rice and water. It’s actually as easy as cooking pasta. From the moment the water boils you have a bowl of perfect rice in 14 minutes. As a bonus you will also find a basic recipe for nasi below.
There are more than 40,000 types of rice worldwide. Each variety has its own shape, taste, texture and preparation. In terms of nutritional value, white rice consists mainly of carbohydrates and the minerals calcium, phosphorus and potassium. Rice is in most cases used as the basis for a dish, but you can also find it in soup in Eastern cuisine.
There are many ways to prepare rice. You can prepare rice in an electric rice cooker, in a steamer, but also in a normal pan with a measured amount of water. The recipe below is a very simple method, where you don’t have to measure the amount of rice and water. The only thing you have to strictly measure is the cooking time.
White basmati rice is used for this recipe. This Indian rice is a very good and popular rice with a nice long grain, which you can buy in all supermarkets nowadays. The cooking time may be longer or shorter for other types of rice.
Necessities:
- Spacious pan with lid
- Water
- The desired amount of white Basmati rice. For example, a tea mug is sufficient for 2 or 3 eaters.
- Kitchen timer, or even simpler: the Timer function of your smartphone.
- Large sieve with small holes
Preparation:
- Boil a generous amount of water in the pan (without lid)
- As soon as the water boils well (large bubbles), add the rice. Immediately stir once with a long spoon to loosen the grains that stick to the bottom.
- As soon as the grains start to dance wildly, start the kitchen timer at 7 minutes.
- As soon as the timer goes off after 7 minutes: remove the pan from the heat and drain the rice into the sieve. Let the rice drain well for a few seconds and then pour the rice back into the pan.
- Immediately put the lid on the pan and let it stand for 7 minutes (not on the fire). Now the rice will steam.
- Spoon the rice and ready.
Rice as a base
Rice is traditionally the basis of many dishes in Eastern cuisine. You can combine rice with anything, but keep as a rule of thumb that rice has a neutral taste and that the dessert can therefore be well seasoned. A classic is, for example, white rice with Masala Chicken and halved green beans.
White rice is also the basis for nasi.
Basic recipe for nasi
Nasi can be compared to soup. You can think of an infinite number of variations. Only the main ingredient is always the same, namely, with fried rice it is rice, with soup it is water. Below is a basic recipe for nasi.
Necessities
- Large wok
- Boiled white rice (according to the recipe above)
- bag of sliced fresh wok vegetables
- diced chicken fillet
- Oil, such as rice oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil
- Sweet soy sauce
- salt
Preparation
- put a small splash of oil in the pan and wok the chicken cubes until done and golden brown
- add the vegetables and wok al dente
- remove the chicken cubes with the vegetables from the pan and keep them in a bowl or plate
- put another small splash of oil in the pan and add all the rice
- Always turn the rice over and loosen it well so that there are no more rice lumps
- add a small dash (about 2 tablespoons) of soy sauce and toss the rice until the color is evenly distributed
- add the chicken and vegetables and mix well
- taste it and add salt if necessary
Variation tips for the nasi
Before adding the white rice to the pan, fry one or two more chopped garlic cloves in the oil until translucent. An outing is also allowed as an extra seasoning. It is also nice to stir-fry 2 eggs with a little bit of oil after removing the vegetables with chicken from the pan. You then also remove this from the pan before you add the rice. If you don’t like brown nasi, you can omit the soy sauce.
Enjoy your meal!