The trick with rice is not to stir it much at all. Stirring it causes starch to come out into the cooking water and that's not good, unless you're after sticky rice.
Long-grain rice is generally best as an accompaniment to savoury dishes. Basmati is my favourite and Thai jasmine rice is good if you can find it. The short-grain stuff is better for soups and puddings, but there are many exceptions. Spanish and italian rice is intermediate in shape, as is central Asian barakhat rice and they are all used in savoury dishes, although they are usually cooked along with other ingredients. Here we're looking at how to prepare simple, delicious, plain steamed rice.
Good quality rice can often be cooked without rinsing first, but if it looks chalky or dusty it is best to rinse it in cold water. You need a sieve to do this well.
Put the rice in a pan with cold water - I cup of rice to 1.6 cups of water - and add salt if you want. Give a gentle stir to separate the grains. Bring to the boil then turn the heat down as far as it will go. Give another gentle stir and cover the pan. It should take about twenty minutes to cook. Try to keep the pan covered and don't stir the rice at all. Test it by lifting a few grains out with a fork and tasting them. When it is ready, turn off the heat and leave it to sit for a few minutes. Give it a stir to loosen it up and if it is still a little wet, leave it in the pan with the lid off to let the steam escape for a few minutes before serving.
Brown rice takes longer to cook and requires more water. Use about 2.4 cups of water to one cup of brown rice and cook for anything up to 50 minutes.
To reheat cooked rice, put the rice in a colander or sieve and sit it on a pot containing about five cm of water. Use the lid from the pot to cover the rice. The pot should be just a little bit smaller than the colander (or sieve). Bring the water to the boil and let the rice steam for five minutes or so (This is a good way of steaming vegetables too). Left-over rice can also be fried, perhaps with the addition of some finely chopped vegetables and soy sauce. Click here for a 'vegetable fried rice' recipe.