Steamed Rice is the simplest form of Rice preparation consumed in every cuisine of India. This blog post, in a step-by-step process explains in a much simplified way, how steamed rice can be made in Microwave.
Rice is my staple diet. Being a Goan-Konkani, rice forms an essential part of my sustenance to an extent that inclusion of a small portion of rice in every day meal is a norm for me. My fascination for Rice preparation manifests itself in the Rice preparation Playlist on this blog and our YouTube Channel that features a variety of exciting and delicious rice dishes from various parts of country.
In a typical Konkani household, rice is eaten in many different forms, right from Gurgutya Bhat (super soft rice ideal for patients and babies), pulao with prawns or green peas, kheer, Naram Bhat ideal for fish curries and varan and even rice flour bhakri or Steamed Modaks that has rice flour as a primary ingredient.
During initial days of my married life, I went through days of struggle striving to keep the balance between my personal and professional life. I had to cook for my family, perform other essential household chores while serving in different shifts in an IT company and work in a 24*7 model. I must confess, those were the challenging times which taught me an important lesson of my life-multi tasking.
So while, I would wait for a pressure cooker to release its pressure in form of whistles earlier, I learnt to wind up some small chores during this time. While I had no choice than waiting for a veg preparation to get cooked, I learnt to finish off some longer chores during this time frame. Though it may not appear to be too big a deal, but for someone who was a new entrant in a kitchen this meant a lot.
In Hindsight, when I recollect how I would deny any kind of assistance to my mother leaving her all by her own self as she was going through similar kind of struggle decades ago, I find myself getting teary-eyed.
The difference between school and life, as rightly said by Tom Bodett, “In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson”. I believe some of you dear readers, would be able to identify with this situation.
It was during those days I befriended Microwave, deciding to leverage this human invention to its fullest possibilities and Boy, it sure was one of the best decisions that I have ever made in my life!
Starting with basic recipes like making steamed rice, Dal, simple veg preparations I graduated into making elaborate preparations with microwave. I started saving on lot of time as I practiced microwave cooking in my kitchen in a more liberal way. During the first couple of trials, we need to be watchful and cautious until you finalize the recipe steps. It then all boils down to following this recipe up to the hilt without much thought.
Last week, while we were discussing about our future recipes, it dawned upon us that we haven’t really made any tutorial series wherein we hand hold our viewers and help them graduate through different skills. Looking at the comment section under our Microwave recipes and videos, we could say that a step-by step beginner series kind of recipes made for microwave is a really good idea.
With this thought, we are starting with a series of ‘Microwave recipes’ and its usage, where we start with simplest of recipes that you can make in Microwave and then graduating into more advanced recipes. By this series, we hope to help our readers and viewers shed their inhibitions so that they could start using microwave in their everyday cooking.
Our first recipe is How to make steamed rice in microwave- step by step method:
Take ½ cup (125 gm) white rice. I have personally tried cooking long grain Basmati, Ambe Mohar, Wada Kolam and Surti Kolam rice.
Wash rice to rinse away dirt, impurities and extra starch. Put this washed rice in microwave safe bowl. Add exactly 1 cup of water (250 ml) and let the rice remain soaked in the water for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes soaking time, put the container with rice and water inside the microwave oven at the center of the microwave turntable.
Close the door of oven, press Micro Mode. Select High power which is 900 W for my oven. Set the timer for 8 minutes. cook rice uncovered for 5 minutes.
After rice has cooked for 5 mins, open the door and take out the container, add lemon juice and stir.
Put the container back in oven, cover with lid and cook for rest 3 minutes.
Once the timer ends, use the microwave safe gloves and take out the container and keep it covered for resting/standing time of 3 minutes.
After standing time, fluff the rice with fork and serve hot immediately.
Tip: Adding lemon juice is completely optional step. It makes the rice grain whiter in appearance.
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
- ½ Cup=125 grams Long Grain Basmati Rice
- Microwave Safe Bowl
- 1 Cup=250 ml Water
- ½ tsp Lemon Juice (Optional)
- Always use Microwave safe glass bowl with a lid (*We are using Borosil). This glass bowl is available in any online store
- Now, add rice to the glass bowl and wash and clean under running tap water.
- Add 1 Cup Water. We are using 1 Cup=250 ml water for ½ Cup rice. Soak rice for 15-20 mins
- After 20 mins, place the glass bowl in the microwave. Place the bowl exactly at the center of the plate. Cook uncovered for 5 mins
- Mode: Micro Mode
- Power: 900 Watts
- Time: 8 mins (for ½ Cup rice)
- Press Start
- After 5 mins, remove the glass bowl. Add Lemon Juice and mix. Put the glass bowl back in the microwave. Cover with the glass lid and cook for remaining 3 mins
- After 3 mins, remove from microwave and give a standing time of 3 mins.
- Standing Time: In any Microwave recipe, standing time is very important. After cooking time, remove the bowl from microwave and place it on a flat surface.Keep the food covered during this standing time. During standing time, food at the center is cooked by heat distribution. During this time food gets cooked completely right to the centre. Always Respect the Standing time specified in the recipe!!
- After 3 mins of standing time,steamed rice is ready to be served.
- Tip of the Day: Add ½ tsp Lemon Juice while making steamed rice. Add ½ tsp Lemon Juice while making steamed rice. This will help in maintaining the texture of cooked rice and cooked rice will be whiter in color.
Click to watch recipe video
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