layering it with a variety of cooked meats,
vegetables, dried fruits, and nuts, then gently
steaming to finish the cooking, and managing
the heat so that a brown crust of rice, the
prized tahdig, forms at the bottom.
Rinsing and Soaking An initial rinsing of the
dry rice removes surface starch and thus a
source of added stickiness. Some rices,
notably basmatis and Japanese varieties, are
either soaked in water or allowed to rest for
20–30 minutes after washing; they thus absorb
some water, which will speed the subsequent
cooking. Brown and wild rices can be treated
similarly.
After Cooking: Resting, Reheating Once
cooked, rice benefits from a resting period to
allow the grains to cool down somewhat and
become firmer, so that they aren’t as easily
broken when scooped from the pot and served.
Leftover rice is often hard due to the
retrogradation of the starch, which is cured by