Fair play, was drunkenly written in the vernacular. Have removed the offending language...

Just thought I'd share my recipe for perfect steamed basmati rice because it's something that's very easy to get right and just as easy to get wrong.

I used to always order Pilou Rice whenever i ate from a BIR but have found it too greasy recently, as a result i switched to plain. that was great but whenever i ate at home it turned out claggy, wet and horrible.

in the end i tried a lot of recipes and this works best, sorry if it's very simple and I'm preaching to the choir but i couldn't see it anywhere on the site;

1) rice and its cooking is done by volume, not weight so find a appropriately sized vessel. I use an actual cup measure (250ml of liquid). fill that with your rice and pour into a sieve.

2) fill the kettle and put on to boil.

3) chuck the plug into the sink and begin running cold water. put the rice, in the sieve under the flow and begin to wash. once the water in the sink is up to the top of the sieve (if it's resting on the bottom) switch off the tap.

4) start to rinse the rice; shake the sieve (careful not to lose any!) and run your fingers through the rice (did i forget to tell you to wash your hands???). carry that on until the water is milky and not clear.

5) pull the plug and start the cold water again. run the sieve under the cold tap again as the sink drains and replace the plug.

6)repeat steps 4 & 5 until the water doesn't turn milky. To be honest that depends on the quality / cleanlines of the rice, I've had expensive rice take 4 goes but my current bulk bought basmati only takes 2.

7) chuck a pan with a decently fitting lid on the heat. long term we want very little heat but in the beginning we want the water to boil so the hotter the better.

let your rice drain in the sieve.

9) put 2 measures (double the volume of rice) of the kettle hot water into the now hot pan, closely followed by the rice from step 8.

10) turn up heat and wait for simmer.

11) chuck on lid and turn the heat down as low as it'll go.

12) leave it alone for 10 mins.

13) leave it alone for 3 mins.

14) grab a fork, open the lid and move the rice at the bottom gently aside. is there water? if so return to step 13. if not move forward to step 15.

15)  grab a fork, take a few grains. if they're cooked then turn off the heat, put the lid back.

16) Wait for everyone to stop messing about and sit down before you put the perfectly cooked rice on the table alongside the most amazing curry they've ever eaten.

i think that covers it.
 

Hi everybody,

I've been lurking on here for a little while (there's a lot of great info to take in) but thought i'd say hi as i think i'm going to try to take my curry to the next level this weekend (Wife's out of town and i'm at home looking after our toddler, that leaves me cooking and playing playstation of an evening...). so here's my plan and i'd be happy to hear any tips / comments you veterans have!

we bought a slow cooker recently and it has created the best homemade curries i've been able to acheive so;

 i've never gone down the road of making a gravy before but reading everything on here it makes complete sense that a true BIR curry should be done that way. i figure that's probaby the missing texture i can't get making a curry from scratch so I think i'll do an amalgam of the best recipes i've seen here allowing for the spices / veges i've got. i'm thinking; oil, stock, onions, garlic / ginger, carrots, tomatoes, spice blend, seasoning and then let that go for about 6/8 hours. make sure the oil's separated and then blend until it's as smooth as can be. then chuck the whole lot in the fridge over night.

i'll then cook the onons for the curry  in the oil from the gravy, chuck in more garlic, ginger, fresh chillies, new spices (i use rajah madras and trs garam masla plus a generous amount of tumeric, coriander & cumin) and then the bulk ingredients. in my case i'm a vegetarian so it'll be potatoes, cauliflower, carrots and probably a can of chickpeas and just let the lot cook. so then the big difference is that normally i'd add tomato puree and chopped tinned plus water but in this case i'd use my gravy. does that sound right or would you use a combination?

as i said i'll be using a slow cooker for this part as well (excluding browning the onions), it has made such a difference to the way everything gets cooked!

please excuse the rambling /typos, i'm usually fastidious about that but have spent all day running after my daughter so have had a couple of light ales as a reward...

mike.