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1
Place the rice in a bowl, cover with cold water, and wash vigorously for several seconds before draining immediately; brevity matters here because the grain will begin absorbing starchy water the moment it is submerged, and you want to shed that starch, not drink it back in. Repeat three to four times until the water runs clear. Each pass should be quick and forceful — prolonged standing at this stage is not washing, it is soaking without control.
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2
Cover the washed rice with fresh cold water and soak for a minimum of 30 minutes — one hour produces a more evenly hydrated grain — so that moisture reaches the centre of each grain gradually and evenly, giving you a cooked texture that is uniform all the way through rather than soft outside and chalky within. Drain before cooking. Properly soaked grains will appear opaque and slightly swollen compared with raw rice.
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3
Transfer the soaked, drained rice to the cooking pot and add the measured cold water — 1 part rice to 1.1–1.2 parts water by volume for new-season rice, 1 part to 1.3 parts for older rice, which has dried further in storage and needs the extra measure to reach the same finished texture. This is where the dish lives or dies: an excess of water produces gluey, over-soft grains, while a deficit leaves the core firm and raw-tasting. Cook over heat or in a rice cooker without lifting the lid at any point during cooking, so the pressurised steam does its work undisturbed.
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4
Once the heat is off, keep the lid on for a further 10 minutes, so the residual steam that has gathered at the top of the pot works its way back down and equalises moisture throughout rather than escaping into the air. Removing the lid immediately drives that steam off and leaves the top layer of grains noticeably drier than those beneath. Patience here costs nothing and improves everything.
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5
After resting, open the lid and hold a wooden spoon flat against the rice surface — the rice should spring back slightly against the spoon, telling you the structure of the grain is set and the moisture is balanced. A deep impression that holds its shape indicates over-soft rice; grains adhering to the spoon in clumps point to insufficient washing in the first step. Individual grains should cling together without gluey heaviness.