STOP Cooking Rice with Just Water. Do This for Fluffy Rice Every Time (The Chinese Way)

00:00 You measure the rice. You measure the

00:02 water. The way the bag told you to. You

00:04 put the lid on and you wait. And what

00:07 comes out is not what you wanted. It is

00:10 heavy. The grains cling together in

00:12 clumps that hold the shape of the spoon.

00:15 There is a wet layer at the bottom and a

00:17 slightly hard bit in the middle of some

00:19 grains. And when you stir it, it goes

00:22 glueyer rather than looser. And you look

00:24 at it and you think quietly, that rice

00:27 is just one of those things some people

00:29 can do and you cannot. It is not you and

00:32 it is not your pot. Your rice was coated

00:35 in glue before the heat was ever

00:37 switched on and you made the glue

00:39 yourself in the first 10 seconds without

00:41 knowing it. Nobody ever showed you the

00:44 three things a Chinese kitchen does

00:46 before a pot of rice goes anywhere near

00:48 a stove.

00:49 They take about four minutes between

00:51 them. They cost nothing and they are the

00:53 entire difference between rice that

00:55 clumps and rice that stands up in

00:57 separate glossy grains.

00:59 So, that is what I'm handing you today.

01:01 All of it. Including the one thing that

01:03 goes into the pot that is not water. And

01:05 the last step, which is 10 minutes of

01:07 doing absolutely nothing and is where

01:10 fluffiness actually comes from.

01:12 And a few of these will surprise you.

01:14 Did you know that the water measurement

01:16 printed on your bag of rice is very

01:18 probably for a completely different kind

01:21 of rice?

01:22 That the reason your rice sticks is a

01:24 fine white dust on the outside of every

01:26 grain that you can wash off in 90

01:28 seconds. Or that Chinese cooks measure

01:31 the water with a finger instead of a

01:33 cup. And that the finger is more

01:35 accurate than the cup for a reason that

01:37 is genuinely clever.

01:39 My name is Shu Fen. Rice is the one

01:41 thing in a Chinese kitchen that is never

01:43 allowed to be mediocre.

01:45 Everything else on the table can be

01:47 simple. The rice cannot because the rice

01:50 is the meal and the rest is what you put

01:52 on it. A cook who ruins the rice has

01:55 ruined the dinner no matter what else is

01:57 on that table, and everybody knows it,

01:59 and so it is the first thing anybody is

02:01 taught and the last thing anybody stops

02:04 paying attention to. The whole method,

02:07 every measure, is written out in the

02:09 description below, so you can cook

02:11 along. Now, get out your rice, a bowl,

02:14 and a pot with a lid that actually fits.

02:17 That lid matters more than the pot does.

02:20 First, let me clear away the folklore.

02:22 You have been told not to rinse your

02:24 rice because you will wash the nutrients

02:26 away. Here is the honest version. If

02:30 your bag says enriched, that rice has

02:32 been dusted with a vitamin coating on

02:34 the outside, and rinsing does remove

02:37 some of it. That is real, but imported

02:40 jasmine from Thailand is generally not

02:42 enriched, and either way you are getting

02:44 those vitamins from the rest of your

02:46 food. The texture you gain is enormous,

02:49 and the loss is small, and every

02:51 rice-eating country on Earth rinses.

02:54 Rinse it. You have been told one cup of

02:57 rice to two cups of water. That ratio

03:00 was written for American long grain and

03:02 parboiled rice and then printed on the

03:04 back of everything. And for jasmine, it

03:07 is far too much water. Follow it, and

03:09 you will get exactly the heavy wet rice

03:12 you have been getting. You have been

03:13 told to salt the water. Chinese rice is

03:16 not salted, and it is deliberate. The

03:19 rice is the plain thing that everything

03:21 salty sits on top of, and salting it

03:24 flattens the contrast the whole meal is

03:26 built on. If you like salted rice, salt

03:29 it. Just know it is a choice and not a

03:31 rule. And you have been told to stir it

03:34 while it cooks so it does not stick.

03:37 Stirring is what makes it stick. Every

03:39 time you move a spoon through cooking

03:41 rice, you break grains open and release

03:43 starch, and that starch is the glue.

03:46 Rice is left alone. Now, the mechanism,

03:50 because everything below follows from

03:52 it. A grain of rice is a tight bundle of

03:55 starch. Cooking it means getting water

03:57 into that bundle, so the starch granules

04:00 swell and soften. That is all. But rice

04:03 does not arrive clean. It has been

04:06 milled and polished and moved and

04:08 bagged, and all of that rubbing leaves a

04:10 fine white dust of broken starch

04:13 clinging to the outside of every grain.

04:15 You can see it the moment you add water

04:18 because the water goes cloudy white

04:20 instantly. That dust dissolves the

04:22 second it meets hot water and turns into

04:25 a thin paste, and then your rice cooks

04:27 inside that paste, and when it cools,

04:30 the paste sets, and it glues every grain

04:32 to its neighbors.

04:34 So, your rice was never really sticking

04:36 to itself. It was set in a glue you made

04:39 in the first 10 seconds by pouring water

04:41 onto unrinsed rice. And the second

04:44 thing, water takes time to travel to the

04:47 middle of a hard dry grain. Put dry rice

04:50 straight into heat, and the outside

04:52 swells and gelatinizes immediately, and

04:55 that swollen outside becomes a barrier

04:57 that slows the water going further in.

05:00 So, the outside is soft, and the center

05:02 is still firm, and you have to overcook

05:04 the outside to fix the middle. That is

05:07 where mushy outsides with slightly

05:09 chalky centers come from. Rinse away the

05:11 glue, let the water in before the heat

05:14 arrives, then get the amount right, and

05:17 leave it alone. That is the whole thing.

05:20 Here is the method, exactly, in order.

05:23 It is printed word word in the

05:25 description. Two cups of jasmine rice,

05:28 water,

05:30 1 tsp of neutral oil, or better, a small

05:33 spoon of rendered chicken or pork fat,

05:36 optional, two thick coins of ginger and

05:38 one scallion tied in a knot. Step one,

05:42 rinse it, and rinse it properly. Rice

05:45 into a bowl, cover with cold water, and

05:48 put your hand in and swirl it gently,

05:50 moving the grains against each other. Do

05:53 not scrub or squeeze because broken

05:55 grains make more starch, not less. The

05:58 water will go milky white almost

06:01 immediately. Pour it off, do it again,

06:04 and again, three or four changes until

06:07 the water is only faintly cloudy rather

06:09 than white. It does not need to be

06:11 perfectly clear, and chasing that just

06:14 wastes water.

06:16 90 seconds. This one step is the largest

06:19 single improvement available to you, and

06:21 most people in this country have never

06:23 done it once.

06:25 Step two. Soak it. 20 to 30 minutes in

06:28 cold water, and then drain it. I know

06:31 this is the step everybody skips because

06:34 you are hungry and the pot is right

06:35 there, but this is where the water gets

06:38 into the center of every grain gently

06:40 before any heat is involved so that when

06:42 the heat does arrive, the whole grain

06:45 cooks at the same rate from the outside

06:47 to the middle.

06:48 Soaked rice cooks faster, cooks evenly,

06:51 and comes out noticeably fluffier. And

06:54 it costs you nothing but planning it

06:55 half an hour ahead, which you can do

06:57 while you cut everything else.

06:59 Step three. The water, and this is the

07:02 finger.

07:03 Drain the soaked rice properly, then tip

07:06 it into your pot and shake it flat and

07:08 level.

07:09 Now rest the tip of your index finger

07:11 lightly on the surface of the rice, and

07:13 add water until it comes up to your

07:15 first knuckle. About an inch above the

07:18 rice. That is it. That is how it is

07:21 measured in an enormous number of

07:23 kitchens, and it is more reliable than a

07:25 measuring cup. And here is the clever

07:27 part. What decides how much water a pot

07:30 of rice needs is not the total amount of

07:33 rice. It is the depth of the bed of rice

07:35 and the surface area of the pot because

07:38 that is what governs how the steam moves

07:40 through it. A wide pot with a shallow

07:43 bed and a narrow pot with a deep bed

07:45 need different amounts of water for the

07:47 same weight of rice, and a cup

07:49 measurement cannot know that.

07:51 Your finger measures depth, so it works

07:53 for one cup or for six in any pot you

07:56 own, and it always has.

07:59 If you want a number, soaked and drained

08:01 jasmine wants roughly one to one water

08:04 to rice by volume.

08:06 The finger will land you very close to

08:08 that on its own.

08:10 Step four, and this is the part the

08:12 title is about. Do not put in only

08:14 water.

08:15 A teaspoon of neutral oil stirred

08:18 through. That is the smallest version,

08:20 and it is enough.

08:22 What it does is coat each grain in the

08:24 thinnest possible film, so the grains

08:26 cannot weld to one another as they

08:28 swell, and it gives the finished rice a

08:31 low shine instead of a dull matte

08:33 surface. Restaurant rice glistens. This

08:36 is why.

08:37 Better than oil, if you have it, is a

08:39 small spoonful of rendered chicken or

08:42 pork fat from the jar in your fridge,

08:44 which adds a savory depth underneath

08:46 everything without making the rice taste

08:49 of anything in particular.

08:51 And if you want to go further, this is

08:53 the moment. Two thick coins of ginger

08:56 and a scallion tied in a knot laid on

08:58 top of the rice, both fished out at the

09:01 end, or replace some of the water with

09:03 stock, or with the water you soak dried

09:05 mushrooms in. A single dried scallop

09:08 dropped in. Any of these turns plain

09:11 rice into something people notice

09:12 without turning it into a dish. Step

09:15 five, cooking, and the lid does the

09:17 work. Bring it to a boil uncovered over

09:21 medium-high heat.

09:22 When it is boiling properly and you can

09:24 see craters forming on the surface, put

09:27 the lid on and turn the heat to the very

09:29 lowest your stove will go. 12 minutes

09:32 for two cups. And now the rule. Do not

09:35 lift that lid. Not once, not to peek,

09:39 not to check. The rice is not being

09:41 cooked by the water. Below the surface,

09:44 the water is being absorbed, and above

09:46 it, the rice is being cooked by trapped

09:48 steam.

09:49 Lift the lid, and that steam is gone in

09:51 a second, and the grains at the top will

09:54 be underdone, and there is no getting it

09:56 back. Step six. This is where fluffiness

09:59 actually comes from, and it is the step

10:01 people skip because they think the job

10:04 is done. After 12 minutes, turn the heat

10:07 off completely, and leave the pot

10:09 exactly where it is, with the lid still

10:11 on, for 10 minutes. Do not touch it.

10:14 Here is what is happening in there. At

10:17 the moment the heat goes off, the bottom

10:19 of that pot is wetter than the top,

10:21 because the water has been traveling

10:23 upward as steam and condensing. If you

10:26 open it now, you get a wet layer

10:28 underneath, and a drier layer above.

10:31 Those 10 minutes let the moisture even

10:33 itself out through the whole pot, and

10:36 let the grains firm up just enough to

10:38 hold their shape when you move them.

10:40 This one wait is the difference between

10:42 rice that clumps under a spoon, and rice

10:45 that falls apart into separate grains.

10:47 Step seven. Fluff it correctly, because

10:50 there is a wrong way. Take a rice

10:53 paddle, or a fork, and cut down through

10:55 the rice and lift, turning it over

10:57 gently from the bottom. Cut and lift.

11:01 Cut and lift. Do not stir it. Stirring

11:04 drags and mashes and breaks grains, and

11:07 releases the very starch you spent 90

11:09 seconds rinsing away. Then put the lid

11:12 back on until you serve. Now, the same

11:15 pot gives you three quite different

11:17 things, and it depends only on what you

11:19 do at the end. The first is what we just

11:22 made, plain, separate, glossy, standing

11:25 up on the plate. That is the everyday

11:27 one, and it is the point of the whole

11:29 video. The second is the crust.

11:32 After the 12 minutes, before the rest,

11:35 turn the heat up to medium for another 2

11:37 to 3 minutes and listen.

11:40 You will hear it change from a soft

11:41 bubbling to a faint crackle. That is the

11:44 layer against the metal turning golden

11:46 and crisp. And in China that crust has

11:49 its own name and people argue over who

11:51 gets it.

11:53 Then rest as normal and lift it out in

11:55 sheets with a spatula. It is the best

11:57 part of the pot and it is free.

12:00 And the third is not for tonight at all.

12:02 Cook double deliberately and spread the

12:05 extra thin on a tray. Cool it fast and

12:08 put it in the fridge uncovered. Cold

12:10 rice from yesterday is not a leftover.

12:13 It is a different and better ingredient

12:15 and it is the only thing that makes

12:17 proper fried rice. You are already

12:19 boiling the water and dirtying the pot.

12:22 Do it every time.

12:23 Now the honest words because your first

12:26 pot will teach you things. If it came

12:28 out heavy and clumped, you did not rinse

12:31 or you used too much water or you

12:33 stirred it at the end. If it came out

12:36 wet at the bottom and dry on top, you

12:38 skipped the 10-minute rest. If some

12:41 grains were soft outside and hard in the

12:43 center, you did not soak. If the top

12:46 layer was under done, you lifted the

12:49 lid.

12:50 If it boiled over and made a mess of

12:52 your stove, that foam was the loose

12:54 starch you did not rinse off. It will

12:56 not happen again once you do.

12:59 If it burnt on the bottom when you did

13:01 not want it to, your lowest heat is not

13:04 low enough and the fix is a heat

13:06 diffuser or simply a thicker pot. And if

13:09 it tasted flat and dull, that is the

13:11 teaspoon of oil and the ginger you left

13:14 out and it is the whole reason for the

13:16 title of this video.

13:18 Now let me say the plain thing about the

13:20 pouches.

13:21 Go and look at the shelf where they sell

13:23 rice in a plastic pouch that you

13:25 microwave for 90 seconds. $2.50

13:29 for one and a bit cups of cooked rice.

13:31 The rice inside that pouch cost about 12

13:34 cents.

13:35 You are paying $2.40

13:38 for somebody else to have boiled water

13:40 and for the belief sold quite

13:42 deliberately that plain rice is

13:44 difficult and slow and best avoided. It

13:47 is not difficult. It is 4 minutes of

13:49 hands and 20 minutes of a pot doing its

13:52 own work while you cook everything else

13:54 and half of that is waiting. I do not

13:57 think there is a wicked man in a back

13:59 room. It is duller and sadder than that.

14:02 There is money in a pouch. There is

14:04 money in a bag with instructions on the

14:06 back that were copied from a different

14:08 kind of rice and never checked because

14:11 nobody complains about rice. They simply

14:13 blame themselves. There is no money at

14:15 all in telling somebody to rinse the

14:17 dust off and then leave the pot alone

14:19 for 10 minutes. Nobody films a

14:21 commercial for leaving a lid on.

14:24 Now the habit and it is two very small

14:26 ones. Rinse and soak in the morning or

14:29 before you go out or the moment you get

14:31 in.

14:32 The rice can sit in its soaking water

14:34 for hours quite happily and then dinner

14:37 starts 20 minutes closer to finish than

14:40 it did before.

14:41 And cook double every single time.

14:44 The pot is already dirty. The extra cost

14:47 you 30 cents and takes no more of your

14:49 attention and tomorrow it is fried rice

14:52 or congee or the thing that saves you on

14:55 a bad evening.

14:56 That is not a recipe. That is insurance.

14:59 So here is what I would ask of you.

15:02 Tonight change only three things and

15:04 nothing else. Rinse it until the water

15:07 stops going white. Use your finger

15:09 instead of the cup and when the 12

15:11 minutes are up, turn the heat off and

15:14 walk away from the pot for 10 full

15:16 minutes without lifting the lid.

15:18 Then fluff it by cutting and lifting,

15:20 not stirring and look at what is in the

15:23 pot, because it will not be what usually

15:25 comes out of it. And come and tell me in

15:27 the comments whether the grains stood

15:29 apart, because that is the one thing I

15:31 want to know.

15:33 Tell me honestly whether you had ever

15:35 rinsed rice before today, because a

15:37 great many of you will not have, and I

15:39 would like all of you to see each other.

15:42 And tell me what kind of rice you buy,

15:44 and what it says on the back of the bag,

15:46 because I am genuinely curious how wrong

15:49 those numbers are in different

15:50 countries. Next time, we take that crust

15:54 at the bottom of the pot and make it the

15:56 entire point. Clay pot rice, where the

15:59 rice cooks with the meat sitting

16:00 directly on top of it, so everything

16:03 drips down through, and where the bottom

16:05 goes deep golden and crackling, and it

16:07 is all done in one pot on one burner in

16:10 25 minutes. Bring the heaviest pot you

16:13 own with the lid. But today you start

16:16 with the pot that has been disappointing

16:17 you. You wash the glue off the grains,

16:20 which takes 90 seconds and changes

16:22 everything.

16:24 You let the water in gently before any

16:26 heat arrives. You measure with your

16:28 finger, the way it has always been

16:30 measured. You put something in that is

16:32 not water.

16:34 And then you leave the lid alone twice,

16:36 when everything in you wants to look.

16:39 The women who fed whole families out of

16:41 one pot knew a thing we have very nearly

16:43 let go of. That the plainest thing on

16:46 the table is the one worth getting

16:48 right, because everything else is only

16:50 sitting on top of it, and that almost

16:52 nobody makes any money at all from

16:54 teaching you to do that properly.