Speaking of Japanese short-grain rice, you’ll never get fluffy sticky delicious rice when you boil the rice in water…
If you often get terrible mushy cooked rice, you may miss how to cook the Japanese rice properly.
Simply, a rice cooker or pressure cooker is able to provide fluffy sticky sweet rice effortlessly.
You don’t have either cooker?
When following these steps to cook perfect white rice, you can get fluffy and tasty cooked rice you never had.
Cooking the Japanese rice on the stovetop, I found this perfect recipe while I lived by myself without a rice cooker.
This recipe is available for long-grain, medium-short grain, and short-grain white rice that I have tried so far.
If you have a pressure cooker or Instant pot, I definitely recommend cooking the rice with them rather than cooking on the stovetop.
Effortless, quick, sweeter, and fluffier.
SO, skip reading this post and jump to ↓
- Rinse The Rice Before Cooking
- How To Wash And Rinse Japanese Rice
- Let The Rice Soak In The Water Before Cooking
- The Ratio Of Water To Rice
- Tne Best Pot To Cook The White Rice On Stove
- The Best Temeperature To Cook Rice On The Stovetop
- Murashi Process
- Serve The Cooked Rice
- How Do The Japanese Cook White Rice Without A Rice Cooker
- The Bottom Line
Rinse The Rice Before Cooking
Rinse rice before cooking to remove excess starch.
This process is essential to make fluffy, shiny, sweet, and delicious rice without starch flavor.
In the Japanese term, washing and rinsing rice is called “Togu”, and the Japanese thoughtfully do this process.
Since polish technology has been improved these days, it is not necessary to wash and rinse Japanese rice with the traditional proper technique.
Simply, stir the rice a few times in cold water and rinse the rice until the water will roughly clear. (it’ll never clear-clear.)
Use Purified Water For The Initial Rinse
Use purified water for the initial rinse since dry rice absorbs water from the initial rinse.
The cooked rice will be upgraded while just changing the initial water.
You don’t need to use the purified water throughout the rinse& wash process.
You can use tap water after the initial water.
How To Wash The Rice
How To Wash And Rinse Japanese Rice
Materials
- Japanese rice
- Purified water
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add your desired amount of rice.
- (The Initial Rinse) Pour purified water into the bowl. Gently stir the rice a few times, then drain the rice.
- After the initial rinse, make a claw on your hand and gently swirl the rice a few times.
- Add tap water and drain.
- Repeat washing and rinse the rice with tap water until the drained water will be almost clear.*Approximately, repeat 3-5 times for 2 cups of rice.*Avoid over-washing since the rice grain will be cracked.
- When cooking the rice on the stovetop or with a rice cooker, let the rice soak in cold water for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Notes
Let The Rice Soak In The Water Before Cooking
When you cook the rice on the stovetop (or cook the rice with a rice cooker), let them soak in cold water for a minimum of 30 minutes for cooking the rice perfectly every time.
You can skip this process when using a pressure cooker/ instant pot and this is one of the reasons I prefer to use my fav Instant pot for cooking rice.
Why Do You Need To Soak Rice Before Cooking?
As let the rice soak in water, rice grains absorb water which leads to the rice being cooked quickly, effectively, and evenly.
When rice is cooking, the starch will break down into sugar, and the cooked rice becomes sticky. fluffy, and sweet.
This phenomenon is called “gelatinization of rice” which is essential to make delicious rice.
While the rice is thoroughly soaked in water, the heat will easily reach the core of the grain, and it helps the starch quickly and effectively gelatinize.
On the other hand, when you cook rinsed rice without soaking, only the surface will be gelatinized which bothers cooking the core of the grain so that the cooked rice will be undercooked remaining dried core.
How Long Should You Soak The Rice
- Any time between 30 minutes to 1 hour in the summer season
- Any time between 1 hour to 2 hours in the winter season
Is It OK To Soak The Rice In Water Overnight?
Leaving the rice soaking at room temperature will cause over-soaked. Besides, there is concern about the growth of germs.
Store the bowl in a refrigerator if you are going to soak the rice overnight and complete soaking the rice for up to 12 hours.
Adding a pinch of salt may help to prevent the growth of germs.
What You Can Do When You Forget Soaking Rice
It’ll often happen, don’t be panic.
- Soak the rice with lukewarm water for 15 minutes to 30 minutes.
- Get a preesure cooker or Instant pot in case of this situation.
The Ratio Of Water To Rice
Getting to know the ratio of water to Japanese rice is important to cook perfectly.
Even to us (the Japanese), it is not an easy task since the ratio frequently changes depending on the type of rice, production of rice, seasons, and cooking method including the types of pot, rice cooker, and stove.
Especially, your pot doesn’t have the guide of water unlike a rice cooker, cooking rice on the stovetop definitely needs the technic and experiences.
Once in a while, this ratio doesn’t work, yet, adding an equal amount of water with the rice is so far my secret success key.
Why I miss the perfect cooked rice even when I follow this ratio is when I am in a hurry to cook rice or use a different pot.
You’ll need to take a little time and patience to get to know the ratio of water (and habit of your stove), but, follow these steps that I talk about today, and you’ll be able to cook the perfect white rice soon.
Remember, if you don’t soak rice in the water, this way never be successful.
Tne Best Pot To Cook The White Rice On Stove
The best (suitable) pot to cook Japanese white rice is the pot that has a wide flat bottom and a lid that tightly fits it.
Moreover, choosing a pot is the right size to cook your rice, and better to avoid a deep pot.
Since we aim for heating the rice quickly with the best temperature, wide flat bottom is the best.
Besides, the pan heats up quickly is great because of the rice gelatinization phenomenon, which is simply making the rice sweet and delicious.
Therefore, a frying pan / a skillet perfectly suits these conditions, choosing a non-stick type will be easy to clean!
A small (8-inch) frying pan can cook up to 2 cups of rice.
Can You Cook The Rice In A Cast-Iron?
Yes, you can.
The enameled cast iron is easy to clean (it’s important, right?) and has the perfect wide flat bottom with a heavy lid which means to hold steam inside, resulting in perfectly fluffy rice.
(Even more, you have no mess if the water will try to overflow on the stovetop.)
However, cooking the rice in the cast iron pot will require a little more control of the heat while cooking rice since it is excellent to hold the heat.
Also, transfer the cooked rice immediately to another container to stop the rice cooking.
The Best Temeperature To Cook Rice On The Stovetop
In Japanese rice cooking terms, “Cook rice over high heat until the water boiled, reduce to low heat until the end”.
In other words, we want to bring the water to a boil.
Even if the Japanese cooking tradition is correct, bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. lol.
Place the lid all the time.
You’ll need to pay attention until the water boils since it easily overflows and makes a mess on the stovetop.
Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to low heat so that a lid made of glass or with a window is handy to cook the rice.
Murashi Process
Although You can open the lid and stir the rice while cooking, you need to be patient to open the lid after the rice is cooked.
It is called “Murashi” (蒸らし), which lets the rice sit in the steam for about 10-15 minutes to make the rice fluffy and delicious.
When we cook rice in a pressure cooker / Instant pot and we naturally release the pressure means the same-Murashi process.
By the way, the rice cooker includes this Murashi process, so you don’t need to wait for 10 minutes to open the lid.
Serve The Cooked Rice
It’s time to open the lid after sitting the rice covered for 10-15 minutes.
You can see the rice pops up and make some bumps-which are good signs.
Fluffing the cooked rice not only prevents the rice on the bottom will be squashed, but also, dries excess steam out.
Transfer the cooked rice to a container with a lid at least before sleep.
Keeping the cooked rice in a pot (or even in a rice cooker) dry out the rice.
When cooking the rice on the stovetop or Instantpot, it is better to transfer the cooked rice immediately.
You can use a traditional Japanese rice keeper called Ohitsu.
Ohitsu is a special container to keep the cooked rice warm and delicious.
It can keep effectively foods warm and moderately moist.
Not only cooked rice, but it’s also suitable for meat, seafood, veggies, and, steamed dishes without getting cold and watery them.
The cool side is about this product is Microwave and Oven-safe.
Freeze Cooked Rice
Do you like to know the rice freezing tip?
I tell you why and how to freeze the cooked rice in this post so please check out later!
Or check this out↓
How Do The Japanese Cook White Rice Without A Rice Cooker
Equipment
- 1 wide flat bottom pot *see the post
Ingredients
- 2 cups white rice Long-grain, Medium-short Grain, Japanese Rice
- 2 cups water
- purified water for the initial rinse
Instructions
Wash And Rinse The Rice
- In a large mixing bowl, add your desired amount of rice.
- (The Initial Rinse) Pour purified water into the bowl. Gently stir the rice a few times, then drain the rice.
- After the initial rinse, make a claw on your hand and gently swirl the rice a few times.
- Add tap water and drain.
- Repeat washing and rinse the rice with tap water until the drained water will be almost clear.*Approximately, repeat 3-5 times for 2 cups of rice.*Avoid over-washing since the rice grain will be cracked.
- Let the rice soak in cold water for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Cook The Rice
- Drain the rice and transfer the rinsed rice to the pot.
- Add 2 cups of water. (the same amount of water as the rice.)*Use the same cup that you measured uncooked rice.
- Cover the pot with a lid or foil. Bring the water to a boil over medium-high or medium heat. (adjust the heat depending your stove.)
- Once the water boiled, reduce the heat to low and let it cook for 7-12 minutes. Occasionally, open the lid and stir the rice to cook evenly. *Check out the rice after the 7-minute cooking, and add a few minutes to cook through the rice.*In my experience, 2 cups of rice will be cooked in 7 minutes in a non-stick frying pan.
"Murashi" process
- When the rice is cooked, turn off the stove.
- Set the pot aside and let the rice cook with the steam covered for about 10 minutes. Leave the lid closed while this process.
Transfer The Cooked Rice
- After Murashi process, transfer the cooked rice to another container. *To avoid the cooked rice drying out.
- If you want to freeze the cooked rice, it is better to wrap rice at this point. (while it is still warm.)For more details, read this post.
Notes
The Bottom Line
Cooking rice is required experience and techniques for sure, and I still often fail to cook perfectly the rice today.
Japanese sticky rice may little more difficult than other white rice such as short, medium, and long-grain, (but not risotto rice,) so start these grains of rice if you are a beginner.
(But you can’t make sushi with this rice in case you don’t know.)
Also, 2 cups of rice are the best amount every time you want to cook without a rice cooker.
It is because the rice on the bottom is easily squished and watery, or overcooked.
You Should But An Instant Pot Rather Than A Japanese Rice Cooker
I recommend buying an Instant pot if you are considering buying a Japanese rice cooker.
To be honest, cooking rice in an instant pot is more delicious, sweeter.
Moreover, it’s the easiest and quickest way to cook white rice.
For more details, check out this post later!
