Rice cookery

Lifting the lid during absorption cooking — you've released the steam that was cooking the top layer. Every lift costs you 2 minutes of recovery. Not washing when required — gummy, stodgy, clumped Japanese rice means it wasn't washed enough. Washing risotto rice — you've just washed away the starch that creates the creamy sauce. Wrong water ratio — too much water is the most common error. Start with less than you think. Stirring during absorption cooking — stirring breaks grains and releases starch, turning separate fluffy rice into a sticky mass. Using fresh rice for fried rice — fresh rice is too moist and sticky. Day-old rice, refrigerated uncovered, is NON-NEGOTIABLE. The surface starch retrogrades overnight, creating the dry, separate grains that fry instead of steam. Treating all rice the same — cooking basmati like short-grain or short-grain like basmati ignores the fundamental starch differences.