How To Cook Indian Rice

What is the one dish anyone should be able to cook without screwing it up? Ok, besides toast? Rice in a rice cooker is the easiest thing out there to make. Well, for most people. I, on the other hand, managed to screw it up when my father in law came to visit. He let me know what I didn't add enough water and that I should watch him make it. It was like getting yelled at in front of your friends, getting smacked in the head in front of your friends by your mom, or tripping in front of everyone at school. I wanted to impress Joel's dad and let him know what a connoisseur of Indian food I had become. Instead I screwed up one of the easiest dishes there is. I watched him and tried to figure out what I did wrong.... A lot. First of all, you have to wash the rice. What the heck! Wash rice. This is what Basmati and Jasmine rice look like when you put water in it. The water is cloudy and definitely doesn't look clean. You have to fill it up with water and rinse it out until the water is clear. All of the surface starch gets washed off of the rice when you wash it. Joel says he has horrible memories of washing rice all through out his childhood. Torturous really. The kitchen chore I hated the most growing up was peeling potatoes. Your hand starts cramping up after the third potato and you think you will never be able to open your hand again. He then explained to me the water to rice ratio. I followed all of his advice and made proper Indian rice from then on. Then I made it for my mother in law. Yet again, there was something wrong. Apparently they disagree on the water to rice ratio! At this point I had to go with the larger consensus. I asked his aunts how they do it and the ratio they all agree on is 1:1. The other little detail is to make sure you have PLENTY of it. It's never fun when you run out of rice during dinner!If you want to impress a few of your Indian friends, make rice this way!