It starts with rice!

Atkin’s diet believers may banish me to purgatorial swill-land but all Chinese home-cooked and regular restaurants meals start with fluffy hot rice!  Chinese banquets end with rice because no one wants to load up with rice when nine of the ten course banquet consist of delectable high cuisine of the emperors!

Rice may be bland and tasteless to many, but to those who grew up eating it all their lives, rice has a texture, taste, and fragrance. Depending on the type, brand, and how it is cooked, rice can be fluffy, fragrant, aromatic, holds it’s shape, dryish, yet has a chewiness against the teeth (al dente to the Italians).

Most Asians use an electric rice cooker, but I have cooked rice for more than 20 years in a microwave.  You can cook it for one or for eight.  For the benefit of those who have a busy work life and eating in when they get home, below is a recipe for my time-tested microwave-cooked rice.  Do not open the cooked rice for at least 10 minutes after the microwave sounded the end of cooking cycle.  This will allow the rice to continue the absorption of the liquid and fluff up.

cups of rice	cups of water	minutes on HI, uncovered	minutes on MED, covered
1	1-1/2	4	6
2	2-1/2	6	8
3	3-1/2	8	10

Note: Proportions and cooking times are based on a 1000-watt plus microwave.  I have been told that the proportions work fine with most microwaves manufactured these days.  If it doesn’t, adjust cook times accordingly.