How to Cook · Boiling & Steaming
Rice Pilaf
Ingredients
Directions
Toast the rice
Rinse the rice until the water runs clear, then drain well. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and sweat the onion until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes — don't let it brown. Add the drained rice and stir to coat, then toast for 1–2 minutes, stirring, until the grains smell nutty and turn slightly translucent at the edges.
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Category
- Side Dish
- Cuisine
- American
Cook and steam
Pour in the stock, add the bay leaf, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer, cover, and cook undisturbed for 15–18 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed. Off the heat, let stand covered for 5 minutes, then discard the bay leaf and fluff with a fork.
Four dishes, three methods, one lesson underneath: rice is a family of ingredients, not a single one, and the grain you buy matters as much as what you do to it. Match a long grain to fluffy absorption, a short grain to sticky steaming, and a starchy medium grain to the slow stir of risotto. And if rice becomes a regular part of how you cook, let a rice cooker take over the one job it does more reliably than you ever will by hand.
The shape here is always the same: cook in water or vapor, or let water absorb slowly into a grain, then finish with fat and seasoning where the dish calls for it. Roasting, by contrast, turns the heat around completely — dry, high heat instead of water — but much of the same instinct for managing moisture still applies.
Boiling & Steaming
