How to Cook Brown Rice

Sometimes I have a hard time writing about such a basic cooking skill because it seems so, well, so "basic"!!  Surely everyone knows how to cook brown rice!  But there was a time when I did not know how to cook brown rice and was exasperated at my lousy attempts.  So, this is for all of you who are struggling.  I do hope it helps!

This first thing you must remember before cooking brown rice is that you need to allow yourself enough time - it will NOT be rushed!!  You need 45 minutes to cook brown rice, no less!!!   Depending on how quickly (or slowly) it takes your pan of water to come to a boil will determine the other part of the time equation.

The second VERY IMPORTANT thing to remember is YOU MUST NOT take the lid off the pan of rice - NO MATTER WHAT!!!  This was where I kept failing . . . I hate not knowing what is going on under that lid.  I kept peeking ;D !!  Now I cheat because I have pans with glass lids and I can "see" what is going on without taking the lid off.  So here is your very simple recipe . . .

Brown Rice -

4 1/2 cups water
1 - 1 1/2 teaspoon salt (this is what Sue Gregg says . . . I just salt the water!)
2 cups of brown rice

Bring your salted water to a boil.  Pour in your brown rice and stir.  Place the tight fitting lid securely on top of pan, turn down your heat to a simmer, and start your 45 minute timer.  When the timer goes off, take off the lid, fluff rice with a fork and serve immediately.

Here are a couple of  other notes:
1)  I do find that the rice cooks better if in a shallow, straight sided pan (saute pan - here is a really neat explanation of all sorts of pans.
2)  What if you don't want to cook 2 cups of rice . . . just remember this simple formula - 2 1/4 cups water to 1 cup brown rice.  I can tell you this works well for up to 4 cups of rice, beyond that I cannot tell you from experience.

What to do with leftover rice -

• Make rice pudding - YUMMY!!
• I will very often make scrambled eggs and rice for breakfast - it stretches the eggs :D.  Just scramble your eggs as usual and when they are almost done add a little butter and 1 cup or more of rice and stir together until warmed through.  Serve immediately!

Enjoy!!