Bake and Boil Method

Photo: flickr user austinevan

Ingredients

2 cups long-grain rice

4 cups water

Salt to taste

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Preparation

Combine rice, water and salt in medium, oven-safe saucepan. Heat to boiling; stir, cover, place in oven. Cook 12 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes. Fluff with fork before serving.

Back to basics

"It has been said often, too often, that making properly cooked rice is virtually impossible," Yin-Fei Lo writes in "The Chinese Kitchen." "This is of course not so."

She is a rice renegade in that she cooks rice with the lid off, and stirs it to boot. She prefers Texas-grown extra-long-grain rice. This produces a great texture for Chinese dishes: Slightly resistant grains that cling to one another but aren't sticky or wet.

This also works with Thai jasmine rice and basmati, though the grains break up more with the stirring.