Tips

Quick Tip: How to Fix Stale, Mushy, and Sticky Rice

If you're facing issues while cooking rice, such as overcooked or mushy rice due to excess water, or if you're using a new type of rice and unsure about the water ratio, resulting in hard rice, or if you accidentally applied too much heat and ended up with burnt rice, don't worry! There are simple ways to tackle these problems.

Administrator

18 October, 2023

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When cooking rice, if the water is too much, the rice becomes sticky or when changing to a new type of rice, not knowing how to adjust the water, the rice becomes hard or the fire is not well controlled causing the rice to burn, don’t worry, some simple methods below will help you handle it.

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Sticky rice. When you smell sticky rice, immediately turn off the stove, put a piece of bread crust in the pot and cover it. The bread crust will help absorb the sticky smell in the rice.

– Pour cold water into a bowl, place it in the middle of the rice pot, press the bowl down so that the mouth of the bowl is level with the rice surface, then cover it and adjust the heat to low to steam the rice for about 1 – 2 minutes, then uncover it, the rice will have less sticky smell.

– When you hear the rice has a sticky smell, immediately put the rice pot into a bowl of cold water or place the rice pot on the ground and sprinkle cold water on it, after 3 minutes the sticky smell will disappear.

– Take the rice pot out, open the lid, put in 3 – 5 stalks of fresh onion, then cover it again. After a few minutes, remove the onion from the rice pot, the sticky smell will be gone.

– If you have charcoal, when you smell sticky rice, take a burning charcoal and put it in a bowl, place it in the rice pot, then cover it tightly. After about 10 minutes, open the lid, remove the charcoal bowl, the charcoal will absorb the sticky smell.

Hard rice. The rice pot becomes hard because of lack of water, just use a chopstick to poke many holes on the surface, then sprinkle some warm water into the pot and continue cooking. Rice pots that become hard should not be opened too many times as it will lose a lot of steam, making the rice difficult to soften.

Soft rice. In the case of soft rice, bread crumbs are a great savior. Tear pieces of bread crumbs onto the surface of the rice and open the lid continuously so that the water does not accumulate on the lid. When the rice is cooked, scoop it onto a plate for the smoke to evaporate, the rice will become less sticky.

Undercooked rice. If the rice becomes undercooked due to low heat or lack of water, quickly stir the rice to evenly heat it and then transfer it to another pot, pour a little white wine into the rice, then put it back on the stove at a low heat until the wine evaporates, the rice will be cooked.