Rice – How to properly cook basmati rice in a rice cooker

equipmentricerice-cooker

I do have a kind of problem with cooking basmati rice in my rice cooker.
I am following the cooker instructions – for two cups (the cooker one, not the measurement unit) I use 200 ml of water. As far as rice goes, I am washing it multiple times – about 5 times every time, until the water is more or less clean and even let it soak for a few hours sometimes. But there are two problems :

  1. Sometimes there is some kind of white foam coming from the rice which will somehow alter the cooking and eventually ruin the rice. There's a lot of foam and the rice has got a really bad taste afterwards and some weird texture.
  2. Even when the foam is not present the rice is burned on the bottom of the cooker – I know I shouldn't trust ads, but the cooker was said not to be sticky one 🙁

Any help will be appreciated, thanks

Best Answer

Basmati rice will not cook well in rice cookers made in China. I've had success with Basmati rice in a Black and Decker rice cooker but solely if I soak for 35+ minutes and add a tbsp of olive oil and a 1/4 tsp of salt to it. But the Walmart rice cooker I used to have which was made in China had the foam issue you describe. I believe the foam is due to rice starch and water and air mixing and the "dum" method required for achieving proper cooked Basmati rice is impossible to do when the rice cooker does not trap steam fully.

I would suggest purchasing Jasmine or other short grain rices instead of using Basmati with the type of rice cooker you seem to have.