Rice – When I boil cereals (rice, quinoa, etc.) to freeze, shall I drain water first

I am accustomed to the boil-and-drain method of cooking rice. If you like your rice very soft/mushy, you can even cook rice 3.5:1 and wait until all water has evaporated on moderate-to-low heat (this is how my grandma always does it). The texture is different from the aldente 2:1 rice common in the USA, but I think the preference is a matter of habit.

It is perfectly possible to boil and then drain rice, although 6:1 is an uncommonly high ratio of water to rice. Obviously, Consumer Reports are more concerned with leeching contaminants out of the rice than with culinary aspects such as convenience and taste. Still, the rice cooking method exists, and there is no culinary objection against it except that some people don't like the resulting soft texture.

The boil-and-drain method (actually simmer-and-drain) is often combined with first frying the rice in oil until translucent, as for pilaf, but it is not technically required. You can just simmer in salted water until it has reached the desired consistency (depending on the type of rice you used, it will be somewhere on the spectrum between soft separate grains and a sticky soft mass where you have trouble separating the grains), then remove from the heat and drain. Add your aroma after the draining, as you don't want to throw it out with the water.

In cooking rice or many other grains (and even some grain based products such as pasta), two things actually happen:

1. The starches absorb water; they are hydrated.
2. Cooking.

The boiling phase does both at the same time, very efficiently, but sufficient hydration happens before the rice is fully cooked through. So steaming to finish allows the rice to be fully cooked.

If you just simmer, things would simply take longer. The reason to turn the heat down is to not burn the rice at the bottom during the steaming phase.