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Rice Boiled for Curry
Rice Water Butter The rice should be picked over, but not washed. Throw it into plenty of quickly boiling water, and let it continue to boil quickly for one minute. Then pour in a very little cold water to check it. It should now boil slowly but continuously for fifteen to twenty minutes. It is boiled enough if the grains are soft when pressed between the thumb and finger. Drain it, and return to the saucepan, which should be dried and buttered. Cover it with a clean cloth, and allow it to steam on the stove, where it is not too hot, or in a slow oven. Stir it lightly with a fork, and let it remain for a quarter of an hour. Each grain should then swell up, and be well separated.
This is the British boil-and-steam method for curry rice, and it still works, though modern rice is cleaner and cooks faster than what the author had. The hinge is the final dry steam: skip it and you get damp rice, however carefully you boiled it.
- No quantities givenAssume about 1 cup long-grain rice to 2-3 quarts water, which serves three or four alongside a curry. The point of "plenty of water" is that the grains move freely and shed surface starch.
- Which riceUse a long-grain white rice or basmati. Short-grain, arborio or sushi rice is bred to release starch and cling, and will defeat the whole "well separated" aim.
- "Picked over, but not washed"Picking over meant hunting for grit and husk in loose bulk rice. Not washing leaves some surface starch on the grain; many cooks today rinse basmati until the water runs clear for drier grains. Either is defensible; rinsing is not a mistake.
- SaltThe ingredient list omits it. Salt the boiling water as you would for pasta, roughly a tablespoon per two quarts, or the rice will taste flat against a sauced curry.
- TimingFifteen to twenty minutes suits older, drier stock. Modern long-grain is usually done in 10-12 minutes and basmati in 8-10, so start testing at eight. Go by the grain crushed between thumb and finger, as written.
- The splash of cold waterThis drops the boil for a moment so the outsides stop cooking ahead of the centres. It is optional on a modern stove, where you can simply turn the heat down.
- "A slow oven"Roughly 250-300F. On the stovetop, the lowest setting or a burner just switched off does the same work.
- The clothThe cloth absorbs steam so condensation does not fall back onto the rice; keep it inside the lid, and keep it well clear of a gas flame or a hot electric element. A folded clean tea towel under the lid is the same trick used for pilaf today.
Rice cooked this way -- boiled hard in abundant water, drained, then dried off in its own steam -- is closer to the treatment of rice in a pilau than to the absorption method most home cooks now use. The insistence that the rice not be washed also belongs to its moment, when polished rice reached the shopper loose from the sack; the instruction to pick it over first is a reminder that grit, husk and the occasional stone were expected rather than exceptional.