Asians, for whom rice is a staple, always wash rice before cooking. Many claim that rice won't stick because you are washing off the starch. Others say that rice is starchy anyway. Perhaps rinsing removes bits of rice that have broken off from the grain.
The reason for washing rice (or any food, for that matter) is cleanliness. Rinsing rice removes dirt, dust, debris, chemicals, and bugs—in short, you're getting rid of the types of things you probably don't want to eat in your finished rice dish.
Togu: Washing Rice. Before cooking, white rice is first rinsed with water, then "washed" so as to remove rice bran from the outer hull: the word togu is used to describe this "washing," or rubbing together, of the rice grains.
But even after processing, the rice still has a sticky coating called hada nuka (literally “skin bran”), and that is what you're supposed to wash off. If you don't, your cooked rice will suffer in both taste and aroma.
Japanese people don't "wash" their rice, they polish it. The Japanese term for washing rice is kome-o-togu, meaning to polish the rice (togu = 研ぐ = polish). They don't just rinse the talc off the surface, they remove a little bit of outer-most layer of rice.
Rinsing or washing rice removes that excess starch, resulting in grains that are more separate when cooked. (There's the added benefit that rinsing rice before cooking can reduce the level of arsenic, but FDA research shows that the impact is minimal on the cooked grain.)
First, make sure that you rinse the uncooked rice 3-4 times until the water runs clear. This is crucial to get rid of excess starch that makes it soggy.
"When you start to look at the Italians, as well as the Spanish, there's quite a bit of rice in their risottos and paellas. "They don't really wash their rice because what they want to do is retain the [starch] that is essential in making sure the dish ends up tasting creamy.
Dirty rice is a traditional Louisiana Creole dish made from white rice which gets a "dirty" color from being cooked with small pieces of pork, beef or chicken, green bell pepper, celery, and onion, and spiced with cayenne and black pepper. Parsley and chopped green onions are common garnishes.
Both culinary experts share that washing rice depends on the type of rice as well as the dish. Kernan says that risotto, paella, and sushi each call for different types of rice. Out of the three, rice for sushi is the only one that needs to be washed.
It's imperative that you rinse the rice, and that you use cold water to do so. But the question is, how many times? In Korea, the magic number is three. The secret is to rinse softly, grain against grain, drawing a circle around the washing bowl with your hands.
The reason is to get rid of impurities such as dust, rice bran, and potential agricultural chemicals.
“Koreans, Japanese and Chinese do not add salt to plain rice when cooking it. The raw rice needs to be agitated (swirled around using a clean hand) while running cold water over it, stopping the water then draining it -- as many times as this takes for the water in the pot to look crystal clear.
Keep in mind that excess washing and rinsing may remove some water-soluble B vitamins, especially for polished enriched white rice, in which the vitamins have been sprayed onto the surface of the grain. Rice is typically boiled in water or steamed, as it absorbs water and softens during the cooking process.
Rinse basmati rice very well before cooking.
Wash a few times (4 to 5) until the water runs clear. This will help remove starch from the surface of the grains. Starch is what makes cooked rice sticky and gummy, so for fluffy rice, it is important to remove the starch.
Rice is a staple in the Cambodian diet, whether it's eaten for breakfast, dinner or a simple snack. Therefore, it comes as little surprise that the country grows some of the world's finest rice. Step out of the city and you'll find evidence of Cambodians' passion for rice everywhere.
One of the reasons why Asians have used mainly white rice over the years is that white rice lasts longer in storage than brown rice. The essential fatty acids found in brown rice usually begin to go bad after approximately 6 to 12 months of storage, the exact amount of time depending on how much oxygen is available.
Jasmine Rice is traditionally grown in the humid climate of Thailand and other Eastern Asian countries where it is often used in pad thai and fried rice dishes.
Most white rice produced in the US is thoroughly washed then fortified. So, Americans don't usually wash white rice. It's fine if you do, though.
What happens if you do not rinse the rice? If you do not rinse the rice, residual starch from the grains will gelatinized during the cooking process and create cooked grains to be of sticky texture. The rice will look more like risotto than the fluffy rice that are served at restaurants.
Much of the rice prep in Indian kitchens typically begins with washing and picking the rice several times, swirled in water by hand to wash away the starch and any foreign matter.
Recipe video above.
The key to fluffy jasmine rice is to use less water than usual because it's a softer rice - only 1 1/4 cups for each 1 cup of rice. Most recipes get this wrong and the rice is way too soft/gummy. Rinsing is optional - it barely makes a difference to fluffiness (see comments in post).
For less than four cups of rice, wash it twice. For between four and seven cups of rice, wash it three times, and for more than eight cups of rice, wash it four times. If the water remains cloudy, keep washing and rinsing until the rice grains are visible through the water.
The FDA research also shows that rinsing rice before cooking has a minimal effect on the arsenic content of the cooked grain and will wash off iron, folate, thiamine and niacin from polished and parboiled rice.