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How to Cook Basmati Rice

April 23, 2012 by PadhuSankar 35 Comments

This is a request from one of my readers long time back and I am really sorry for posting it so late. Basmati rice has a nice taste and flavor and is preferred for Biryani , pulao and many rice preparations. Today we will learn 4 ways of cooking basmati rice.

1. How to cook Basmati rice in pressure cooker

Ingredients needed

Pressure cooker
Basmati rice – 1 cup 

1. Wash basmati rice well to remove all the starch and soak it for half an hour.

2. Drain the water completely.

3. Add water in the ratio 1:2 ( ie) For 1 cup of rice, add 2 cups of water  and pressure cook for 3 whistles and switch it off . This method is when you cook rice in a vessel inside the cooker.

4. When the pressure subsides, open the cooker and fluff the rice gently with a fork so that the grains do not break.

5. When you cook directly in the cooker, once the water boils, simmer, close the cooker and cook without weight (Take care not to burn the rice).

Use it for any rice preparation .

For more details on how to use the pressure cooker for cooking rice, check out my earlier post on
How to cook rice in pressure cooker.

How to cook basmati rice in pressure cooker

2.How to cook basmati rice in a pan over stove top.

Things needed

Basmati rice -1 cup
A pan with a lid 

Step 1 – Wash, soak rice for 30 minutes and drain the water completely.

Step 2 –  Bring 2 cups of water to boil. Add drained rice.

Step 3 – Keep the flame in low and close it with a lid. Let it cook

Step 4 – Once the rice gets cooked, switch off the flame and let it sit for 5 minutes.Then open the lid and fluff the rice with a fork .

Rice is ready to be used

How to cook Basmati rice

3.Rice Cooker method  

Wash, soak rice for 30 minutes and drain the water. Add 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice in the vessel that comes with the rice cooker and switch on the rice cooker. It will switch off automatically once done or else you switch off the rice cooker once the rice is cooked.

4.Cooking rice with excess water over stove top
After washing, soaking and draining the rice, instead of adding correct measurement of water, add more water than required and bring it to boil. Add drained rice, keep the flame low and cook. Once it is cooked, drain the excess water in a colander. Make sure that the water is completely drained before using the rice for any rice preparation.

Note – In case if you are not going to use the rice for any sweet preparation, you can add a little salt and all whole spices in it while cooking to give the rice more flavor.

Hope you found this post useful, meet you all with more interesting recipes.

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Semolina Cake-Eggless Savory Rava Cake Recipe
Akkaravadisal Recipe-Sweet Milk Pongal
Kollu Rasam-Horse Gram Rasam Recipe (Soup)-Ulava Charu

Filed Under: How To, Rice Dishes, Uncategorized Tagged With: Uncategorized




Previous Post: « Senai Kizhangu Curry-Elephant foot yam curry
Next Post: Semiya Biryani-Vermicelli Biryani Recipe-Vermicelli Recipes »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Akila

    April 23, 2012 at 9:04 am

    Wow those were really nice tips to be followed..

    Reply
  2. Santosh Bangar

    April 23, 2012 at 9:29 am

    useful tip

    Reply
  3. Kalyani

    April 23, 2012 at 12:12 pm

    useful post !!!

    Reply
  4. Gayathri Anand

    April 23, 2012 at 12:16 pm

    useful post for beginners ..

    Reply
  5. Priya

    April 23, 2012 at 12:28 pm

    Very useful and helpful post..

    Reply
  6. Suparna

    April 23, 2012 at 12:55 pm

    Thanks for the useful post padhu…though knowing how to prepare there are goof ups some times 😛 these kind of posts are helpful!

    Reply
  7. Roshni

    April 23, 2012 at 3:26 pm

    Lot of ppl mess up basmati rice. useful post

    Reply
  8. Sravs

    April 23, 2012 at 7:27 pm

    Nice basic information for food freshers !!

    Ongoing event CC:Spring Seasonal Food

    Reply
  9. Kanchan

    April 24, 2012 at 6:14 am

    Very detailed post on rice .. nice tip for newbiess

    Reply
  10. Anandhi G.

    April 24, 2012 at 6:25 am

    nice…

    Reply
  11. faseela

    April 24, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    lovely informative post……

    Reply
  12. Rajnish

    April 25, 2012 at 8:44 am

    very nice n informative post. I didn't know that rice should be soaked for half hour before cooking. i have to try it for better result. thanks.
    http://www.rajnishonline.blogspot.com

    Reply
  13. Deeps @ Naughty Curry

    April 25, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    that is such an informative post!

    Reply
  14. Anonymous

    May 3, 2012 at 12:03 pm

    Very useful tip on cooking rice.Thank u.

    Reply
  15. abc

    November 14, 2012 at 5:30 am

    Thank you sister.

    Reply
  16. Manaswini Hoskere

    March 6, 2013 at 5:25 pm

    Loved the way you narrate recipes. no hassle, it is simple. An amazing blog and amazing efforts Padma! you are truly talents and I am inspired as its also my dream to start my own kitchen garden with organic veggies. hats off!
    =manu

    Reply
  17. Venkataramanan Srinivasan

    June 30, 2013 at 3:59 am

    Thanks for the tips!!

    Reply
  18. Lasya Jiti

    July 26, 2013 at 9:04 am

    fantastice article and very useful. Really loved the way u narrate the recipes..easily understood..very good.keep going….

    Reply
  19. The Girl Next Door..

    August 12, 2013 at 2:34 pm

    I have always messed up with Basmati rice water ratio. I'm not new to cooking and yet I have this problem. Your explanation helped a lot. Thanks Padhu 🙂
    Visit my blog when you find time. 🙂
    http://bridecooks.blogspot.com/

    Reply
  20. gauri

    June 17, 2014 at 3:16 am

    Thanks a lot for giving such nice tips ! They are really useful 🙂

    Reply
  21. Lakshmi Ranganathan

    August 15, 2014 at 2:41 pm

    Hello padhu,
    What are all the whole spices we can use and how to use it? Cooking in the pressure cooker for 3 whistles in low flame or medium flame?

    Reply
    • Padhu Sankar

      August 17, 2014 at 5:33 am

      You can use 2 cloves, 1 inch cinnamon stick, 1 cardamom .While boiling the water for rice, add all these spices and then add rice.
      Cook on medium flame when cooking in pressure cooker.

      Reply
  22. Lakshmi Ranganathan

    August 18, 2014 at 8:11 am

    Thankyou so much

    Reply
  23. Parkavi Cool

    May 13, 2015 at 3:17 pm

    Hi Padhu….
    I have tried electric rice cooker method.. For 1 cup of normal rice kept 3 cup of water… But still the bottom layer rice sticked in the vessel… During cooking little amount of water came out from stream hole… I didn't kept in warm mode…but the bottom layer rice color was changed .. Can you please give me an idea to get good result??

    Reply
  24. Padhu Sankar

    May 15, 2015 at 8:39 am

    Parkavi –
    Add a little more than 3 cups of water and cook the rice. Once the rice is done, remove the vessel from the rice cooker or transfer the rice to a casserole. In this way, you can prevent the rice from getting cooked further in the heat which results in the bottom layer rice getting slightly burnt.

    Reply
  25. Bala Subramanian

    September 12, 2015 at 6:39 pm

    Thank you .,It helped me .

    Reply
  26. roopa yaligar

    June 3, 2016 at 3:08 pm

    Thank you.. it helped me a lot padhu. I always messed up with fried rice recipe and after seeing n following your recipe am very glad.. thanks a lot.. love to follow your posts n try as many as recipes..

    Reply
  27. Suchitra Manikandan

    June 10, 2016 at 12:16 am

    Wow Paddy,
    You are just awesome for taking that one step forward which is totally different and useful when compared to other blogs. That is how to cook, the water ratio and pics of barnstorming rice.
    Superb!!!
    Most of the recipes will have only cooking method but your blog has useful tips which is a great boon for beginners like me.
    God bless you…

    Reply
  28. neetha

    June 11, 2016 at 7:51 am

    Hi,

    While using a pressure cooker does the flame setting matter ? (medium-high/high/low ) or three whistles at any flame setting will do ?

    Reply
    • Padhu Sankar

      June 12, 2016 at 8:41 am

      If you are cooking with a vessel inside the cooker, you can cook for 3 whistles on medium heat. If you are cooking directly in the cooker, cook on low heat for 1 whistle or even without whistle until the rice absorbs all the water. When cooking directly in the cooker, take care not to burn the rice.

      Reply
  29. anu

    June 16, 2016 at 12:37 pm

    Hi Padhu.. I have a question. In method 2 , while cooking in pan, can we cook the veggies first (like say for peas pulao), then add 2 cups of boiling water and rice? Will the rice get cooked properly and absorb all water if veggies are present?

    Reply
    • Padhu Sankar

      June 16, 2016 at 2:41 pm

      Yes, you must cook the veggies and then add boiling water and rice. The rice will get cooked well. I usually follow only this method.

      Reply
  30. Rathi Ravindra

    September 15, 2016 at 4:45 pm

    Hi padhu,I use to cook in a vessel inside cooker,but when I add veggies or paste for pulao rice become very sticky,not @ all getting fluffy,plz give me an solution.

    Reply
    • Padhu Sankar

      September 16, 2016 at 5:24 am

      Follow my cooker biryani method and cook directly in the cooker. Check my Easy cooker biryani

      Reply
  31. pooran dewangan

    September 3, 2022 at 2:48 am

    thank you

    Reply

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