Hi,
I have a riceboy? microwave rice cooker which I am having trouble making the rice with. I have lost the instructions...
i seem to remember it was 1 cup of rice to 1 1/4 cups of water?
I made some last night 2 cups rice 2.5 cups of water in an 850w microwave for 14 mins and it came out like bullets and stdgy at the bottom. What am I doing wrong ?
I have a microwave rice cooker/steamer -- mine has on inner colander/sieve bottomed pot for the rice and an outer pot in which this sits and a perforated lid?
If yours is similar, this is what I do:-
For basmati rice: soak rice in cold water for 15 mins first (I just put the rice in the rice cooker and fill with cold water. Drain then rinse the rice under running cold water for a while (I just leave it in the inner colander bit and wave it around under the tap for a while). Cover rice with boiling water, allowing about 1 - 2 cm of water above the level of the rice. Stir to separate the grains then microwave for 6 minutes, and allow to stand for 4. (I have a 900W microwave and do this on full). This seems to produce fluffy, yet firm (i.e. not stodgy) rice. The key is to get the water level at the start such that by the end of the cooking time it has boiled down well below the level of the rice so that the rice steams rather than boils. (My stove-top method for Basmati is rather similar to this... taken from the Curry Bible cookbook by Pat Chapman)
You can, if you're flavouring the rice with whole spices (e.g. cardamons, cloves, cinnamon/cassia bark etc) put these in the outer part of the pot so they're already separated from the rice once you pull out the inner pot to drain it.
For brown rice, the microwave cooking time is about the same as the hob (the variety I buy wants about 25 mins in both methods). No need to soak or rinse.