How to Cook the Perfect Rice

The best and quickest way to cook steamed rice. This detailed video tutorial yields the perfect Bengali jhurjhure bhaat in 30 minutes.

  • Cooking time
    15 to 30 minutes
  • Calories
    kcal
Recommended by
95.8
%
of
2283
viewers who rated this recipe on Youtube

In this tutorial, we show you how you can cook the perfect, fluffy, non-sticky rice on an everyday basis to go along with your _dal_, _torkari_, or _mangsher jhol_ for the day.

Rice is Bengal’s staple carbohydrate. Grown in vast quantities in paddy fields across the region, rice is eaten in various forms—boiled, steamed, puffed, or beaten. While the keeper of the Bengali kitchen might break out the precious gobindobhog for polao, payesh, or khichuri, and the basmati for biryani, it is the sheddho chal, or parboiled rice, that is piled onto plates daily. Sheddho chal is named after the technique used to separate the grain from the husk. This process is said to enhance the nutritional profile of the rice and make it easier to digest.

There is something extremely satisfying in sitting down to a meal before a plate of perfectly cooked, non-sticky, pearly-white, fluffy rice. While there are innumerable ways of boiling rice and there appears to be no set formula, keeping a few things in mind is useful. (1) Washing the rice thoroughly and repeatedly helps get rid of the starch that usually contributes to its stickiness. (2) Rice, like pasta, must be boiled in a large pot of water. The water must measure at least 5 times in volume than the volume of uncooked rice. Doing so dilutes the starch and ensures that most of it gets drained out at the end, along with the water. (3) Once the rice is cooked to the desired softness, use a large strainer to remove the excess water. Letting the rice sit in the boiled, starchy water (or not draining off as much of the liquid as possible) will yield a sticky, mushy end product. (4) Sometimes, the iron content in the water tends to produce yellowish rice. For fluffy, white rice, you may add a tablespoon of vinegar or a teaspoon of fitkari (alum) to the boiling pot. (5) Finally, as for boiling time, it will depend on the rice and water you use. Ours usually takes about 25 minutes. We highly recommend that you determine the cooking time for your rice. Once you've done that, set a timer whenever you put a pot to boil. When the timer goes off, all you need to do is drain out the water, and you have perfectly cooked rice every single time.

Books in this recipe

No items found.
Like the work we do? Help keep this site ad-free by making a donation.
Donate

Ingredients

Serves
2 servings
  • 1 cup rice
  • 5 cups water
  • 1 tbsp vinegar (optional)

Method

  1. Measure out the rice and place it in a boiling vessel.
  2. Fill the pot with water and wash the rice thoroughly to remove dirt and any excess starch. Rinse and repeat this process till the water runs clear.
  3. Fill the pot with water once again and set it to boil, with the lid on. Rice is a starch that loves water. Be sure to boil it in sufficient water (at least 5 parts water to 1 part rice) if you want your rice to not be sticky.
  4. For fluffy, pearly-white rice, you may also add 1 tbsp of vinegar or 1 tsp of fitkari (alum) to the pot.
  5. Cook the rice till it is just done. Check by lifting a grain between your fingers and mashing it gently. Do not overcook if you want the rice grains to remain firm and separate.
  6. Strain immediately over a colander and allow the water to drain off completely before serving.

Recipe discussion

Did this recipe help you cook something that made you happy?

At Bong Eats, we are working to standardise Bengali recipes, and present them to the world in a way that anyone, anywhere will be able to cook Bengali food with confidence—even if they have never tasted it before. We want the world to know that there is Indian food beyond tikka masala.

A lot of time and money goes into creating precise recipes such as this one. We don't want to depend on advertisements that track our viewers' activities through third-party cookies; we do not want take sponsorship money from companies that don't make subpar products.

You can help us make this a sustainable venture that can employ talented local writers, editors, photographers, recipe-testers, and more. Donate to keep us going.

Make a One-time donation

Help us keep Bong Eats free and open for everyone by making a one-time contribution. You can donate as much as you want. No amount is too little.

Donate
Become a member ⭐️

Join to get access to a vibrant private community of people who full of people who love to cook, feed and eat. Get answers to your questions about recipes, techniques, where to find ingredients from fellow members. If you love cooking, this is the place for you.

Monthly LIVE cookalongs
Shiny new private forum
Adda after every video release
Personalised recommendations
✨ See Membership Perks ✨
OR
Art by Ritwika
A fun, private community for enthusiasts of Bengali food

We're building a community

With Bong Eats adda we are trying to create a quiet corner on the internet for people who love nothing more than cooking and feeding people. The focus is naturally on Bengali and South Asian food, but as anyone who has spent time with food and its history knows, everything in food is interconnected. Nowhere is this more true than in Bengal, the melting point of so many cultures of the world—home to the first "global cuisine", as food historian Pritha Sen puts it. If that sounds like just the place you have been looking for, come help us build this space together. We are just getting started.

Join now
Join our 2000+ strong community

🧣 Winter 🫛

Bakes & Roasts

Posted on
December 21, 2023
by
Bong Eats

Winter is here. It is time to get baking. Here are some ideas, both savoury and sweet.

Read More »

✨ What's new?

View all »

Bota-soho Begun Bhaja

Fried brinjal with stalk on

  • 20 mins
  • 104
    kcal
Viewers liked this
%

Peyajkoli Bhaja

A stir-fry with onion-blossom stalk

  • 40 mins
  • 160
    kcal
Viewers liked this
%

Bhetki Machher Jhol

With winter vegetables

  • 45 mins
  • 208
    kcal
Viewers liked this
%

Kacha Tetuler Tok

A light, green-tamarind chutney

  • 30 mins
  • 103
    kcal
Viewers liked this
%
See all New recipes »
More
rice
recipes
View all »

Mishti Polao

A sweet, rich Bengali-style polao with cashew and raisins

  • 1 hour, 30 mins
  • 520
    kcal

Bengali Vegetable Fried Rice

Easy-to-cook and nutritious, this fried rice is loaded with the goodness of fresh, seasonal veggies.

  • 60 minutes
  • 432
    kcal

Kolkata Mutton Biryani

Fragrant rice and soft mutton get together in this classic Calcutta biryani dish. Contains potatoes!

  • 4 hours
  • kcal
More
chicken
recipes
View all »

Chicken Korma

North-India style rich Mughlai korma of chicken braised in ghee, spices and nuts—looks spectacular, but is actually quite quick to make

  • 1 hour, 15 minutes
  • kcal

Chilli Chicken

The secret technique to the crunchiest chilli chicken in a hot, sour and mildly sweet sauce. Calcutta’s Tangra-style chilli chicken!

  • 1 hour
  • kcal

Chicken Lollipop / Drums of Heaven

Learn how to easily make lollipops from chicken wings, then turn them into the hot-sour-crunchy appetiser, drums of heaven

  • 2 hours
  • kcal