Rice has been a huge part of my family meals. In my culture, we eat rice with just about every meal. We do not get sick of it! Why would you? It is savory, fluffy, and goes great with just about anything! You can mix stuff in it to make it an entire meal. Rice is a commodity all across the world! Different cultures make and eat rice differently. You can have chicken fried rice, curry rice, your good old fashion southern chicken and rice, and many more versions of rice dishes. Cooking the perfect rice isn’t as easy as it looks though. I grew up watching my mother cook rise, and I still struggled cooking it when I first started learning. No matter what I did, it would come out overcooked or undercooked! It was actually quite annoying. What can you do when you overcook or undercook rice? Can you microwave undercooked rice or overcooked rice to fix it? Yes, you can!
How to Tell if Rice is Undercooked or Overcooked
If you’re just starting out in the rice cooking field, you might not even be sure how to tell whether you cooked the rice correctly. If you’re just starting to learn how to cook rice, chances are, you didn’t cook it right. Seriously, it is not as easy as it might look. How can you tell though? Well, undercooked rice won’t have a soft and fluffy consistency. It will be extra chewy and a little hard. It will have a grainy texture too. You’ll know when it’s like this. Overcooked rice is quite the opposite. It will be super soft! It will be so soft that the rice grains will sort of fall apart and be very mushy. It’ll have more of a consistency of mashed potatoes than it would rice. You need to cook your rice to the perfect consistency in order for it to be really enjoyable. How can you fix poorly cooked rice? Can you microwave undercooked rice or overcooked rice to fix it? Let’s find out how you can do this!
How to Fix Undercooked or Overcooked Rice in the Microwave
The microwave has been used for so many purposes over the years. You can use the microwave to thaw out food, reheat food, or cook food. Now, you will learn how to use the microwave to fix poorly cooked food too! It truly is amazing. First, let’s learn how to fix undercooked rice. What you’ll want to do with undercooked rice is place it in a microwavable bowl. Then, you want to grab 2 paper towels and soak them in water. Squeeze about 20% of the water in the paper towels onto the rice. Then, place the paper towels over the bowl. The paper towels should still be very wet. Microwave the rice for 2 minutes and then check to make sure it’s no longer undercooked. The steam from the added water and wet paper towels finishes cooking the rice in the microwave and fixes that yucky undercooked consistency.
You can also fix overcooked rice in the microwave! You should know that microwaves have a tendency of drying out foods. The heat can seriously make food lose its moisture quickly; which is what makes the microwave a great remedy for mushy rice. Overcooked rice was cooked with too much water. The rice grains are too wet; making them mushy and easy to fall apart. Luckily, the microwave can easily dry them out! All you need to do is spread the rice across a large plate. Microwave the rice on low for about a minute. Then, check to see if the rice is no longer mushy and has more substance. If needed, microwave it for 1- minute increments until the rice looks perfectly cooked. The rice grains should have a shape to them and should be able to come apart easily and fluff up with a fork. Now, you know how to fix undercook or overcooked rice!
How to Cook Rice Perfectly
It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to cook rice perfectly. First, you’ll need to decide whether you’re going to rinse your rice or not. This has been a debate I won’t get into; so you choose what works best for you. If you choose to rinse it, place it in a mesh strainer and place it under cold running water moving the rice around for a few minutes. You don’t need to wait until the water runs clear, because it never will. Just make sure it all gets rinsed, and you’re done.
The first step is to measure out how much rice you want to cook. Then, measure out the water. Add 2 cups of water for every 1 cup of rice. If you are cooking 2 cups of rice, then you need 4 cups of water and so on and so forth. Place the rice and water in the pan, and salt the water until it is a little over-salted (you can skip this step if you prefer to salt your rice after it’s cooked). Add about a tablespoon of vegetable oil per cup of rice. Bring the pot to a boil uncovered. Leave it uncovered and boiling. Make sure you don’t walk away! Pay attention to when the water has mostly evaporated, and you can no longer see it over the rice. Immediately cover it, and lower the heat to low. Leave it fully covered and untouched for 15 minutes. Then lift the lid and stir the rice around. Replace the lid and cook it for 5-10 more minutes until it’s done! You will have perfectly fluffy rice!
Rice is the Perfect Meal or Side
Can you microwave undercooked rice or overcooked rice to fix it? You know how to now! But if you master how to cook rice perfectly, you won’t have to! Rice is eaten all over the world across many different cultures for a reason! It is delicious and transformable. I mean you can transform it into whatever you want! You can fry it up with some meat and veggies to make it Chinese cuisine. You can cook it with coconut curry and call it a Thai dish. Wrap it in a tortilla with beef and other toppings, and you’ve got yourself a Mexican burrito meal! It really can be transformed through many different recipes. You can add it to different casseroles, and you can even make a dessert with it! That’s right! I am sure you’ve heard of rice pudding before. No matter if your rice is just a side or you make it into a full meal; rice is an amazing food that you will truly enjoy!
