Rice is a fairly popular cereal in our country, from which completely different dishes are made. It should be noted that such a product came to us from Asia. Also considered to be its homeland, Africa, America and Australia.
What should be the ratio of water to rice? This is what we will talk about in the article.
Product General Information
At first glance, cooking rice may seem like an easy task. But it's not always the case. After all, the housewives, who first encountered this product, do not have the slightest idea about how to properly prepare it.
Specialists argue that the ratio of water to rice during its cooking must be observed by cooks. Otherwise, the dish will not turn out as tasty as we would like.
The method of preparation of cereals
The ratio of water to rice when cooking homemade dishes can be different. An important factor in determining the amount of these ingredients is the final product. In other words, the magnitude of such proportions depends directly on which particular dish you want to receive.
Rice side dish for meat or fish
The most popular way to prepare the cereal in question is to cook it on a stove. Such rice is very often served as a side dish for fish or meat. Boiled cereals are also used to form semi-finished products such as stuffed peppers, hedgehogs and more.
If the rice cooked on the stove is necessary for filling the pie, it is very important that it turns out to be friable and its grains do not stick together, but separate well from each other.
The ratio of water and rice during cooking
To start cooking the cereals in question should only be after it has been carefully processed. To do this, rice is sorted and washed. If necessary, it can be kept in water for some time. This will speed up its heat treatment.
So what should be the ratio of water to rice when cooking? As a rule, for this they take one glass of cereal and three glasses of pure water. By the way, when cooking rice for a side dish of these proportions, few housewives adhere. This is due to the fact that many of them add water, as they say, to the eye. The main thing is that there should be a lot of it.
Unfortunately, the experience of many housewives is not always possible to determine the ratio of water and rice by eye. This is especially true for those cases when it is necessary to cook any special dish, and not just a side dish.
For many cooks, the question often arises as to what should be the ratio of rice to water for pilaf. Experts say that this value depends on which dish you want to get: friable or thick. In the first case, rice with meat must be covered with a water thickness equal to 1.5 cm. As for the thicker and more viscous pilaf, in this case the liquid above the ingredients should be at a level of 3 cm.
Rice porridge in a slow cooker
Now you know what should be the ratio of rice to water for pilaf. However, the dish in question is not the only one where the cereal in question is used. It is often used to make tasty and nutritious cereal.
How to cook such a breakfast? What should be the ratio of rice to water in a slow cooker? It should immediately be noted that the proportions for such a dish are markedly different from those presented above. What is the reason for this? The fact is that cooking rice in the form of porridge requires an almost equal amount of one and the other ingredient. However, more accurate volumes will depend on the viscosity of the dish. After all, porridge can also be friable and viscous.
So, in order to cook crumbly porridge in a slow cooker, it is enough to observe the following ratio: 1: 2 (rice and water). If you need to get a more viscous dish, then the specified proportions must be changed to 1: 3. Due to the large amount of liquid, rice grains will boil more strongly, contributing to a thicker porridge. At the same time, it needs to be cooked for a very long time.
To summarize
Now you know how to cook rice for a side dish, for pilaf and porridge. Usually, all proportions of such ingredients are indicated in the cookbooks. However, they are described in grams in them. If you do not have at hand a kitchen scale, then you can use an ordinary faceted glass. Experts say that it contains about 200 g of dry cereal. As for the liquid, this container is designed for 250 ml.
It should also be noted that all the described proportions can be observed not only in the process of cooking rice in water, but also during the preparation of cereal dishes in milk. Although it must be borne in mind that such a product has a certain fat content. Therefore, it is much thicker than ordinary water. In this regard, experienced chefs recommend using a little more milk (about 30-40 ml). In this case, your porridge will turn out exactly the consistency that you need.