If you wanna learn how to cook rice, always ask a Brazilian. Rice is the first thing we learn how to make in the kitchen. It usually goes like this: girl gets married, comes back from the honeymoon and realizes she has to start cooking or both she and her husband will starve to death (down there, men rarely know how to cook!), then calls her mom to ask how to make rice and how to fry an egg.
Are you up for the challenge? Ok, great! Let’s do this! I promise it is not hard. It is a tiny bit more work than what you’re used to, but still not difficult at all.
First, wash your rice! What? Yes! We wash our rice! Unlike risottos, we don’t need the starch here. We want the rice to be fluffy and loose, not clumpy. So we wash it until the water runs clear. In Brazil we have special strainers for rice, but here I just use a plain cheap plastic one and it works perfectly.
Also, for this type of rice we prefer the white long grain type. Basmati or jasmine will do. I always use jasmine because that’s my favorite. I usually don’t do free advertising here, but I’m a fan of the Goya brand. Their jasmine rice is delicious!
When cooking rice, the right proportion of rice to water is 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water. Always! This is religious! Just kidding… But if you always remember this, your rice will always come out perfect!
We boil the water separately. Use a tea kettle. While the water boils, you prepare the rest.
In a large pot (rice gains 50%-60% volume after cooked, so choose something with room) heat 1/4 cup vegetable oil (vegetable oil keeps the rice white! Olive oil will tint it slightly!) over high heat and, once hot, sauté one finely chopped onion and 3 minced cloves of garlic until translucent. Add the rice and let it fry really well with the onion and garlic. That seals the grain and also lubricates it, guaranteeing a loose rice at the end.
Once you’ve fried the rice for a couple of minutes, it will start forming clumps. That is the cue to add the water (that was boiling separately in a tea kettle or saucepan). Add a pinch of salt, stir with a wooden spoon, cover and lower the heat to the lowest possible setting. Now it’s just the waiting game. In about 20 minutes your rice will be ready. A good way to know is way you stop hearing the water boil and you see holes throughout the surface of the rice.
Turn the heat off, lift the lid slightly and let the rice sit untouched for 5 more minutes.
Fluff it with a fork and serve!
And that, my friends, is how I cook the perfect/fluffiest/whitest rice! Is it on my family’s table almost everyday. And, once you try it, it will probably be on yours too!
This rice will keep fine in the fridge for up to a week. It is important to sauté the onion really well, because if not, the onion will get bad and sour fast and so will your rice.
You can use this cooked rice for so many other recipes: rice with broccoli, chicken soup, rice cakes, fried rice, holiday rice (coming to this blog later this week!)… But you will probably really enjoy it plain with some Brazilian style beans. :-)
Scroll down for the printable version on how to cook the perfect rice! :) Enjoy your week, folks!
How to Cook Rice (the Brazilian way!)
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup white (long grain) rice (I use jasmine), washed
- 2 cups water
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
Feeling Brazilian?
Friend, you are totally right about brazilian rice. this is the same way I make my rice too. And I love it with beans, salad and some type of protein. I hope all is well ;-)
What an informative post, Olivia! I love that you season your rice, way better than the American way! Sounds delicious! I’m definitely trying this out the next time I make rice!
Thank you, Gayle!! :D
Your rice looks perfect! Can’t wait to give your method a try!
Thanks! Let me know what you think!!! :-)
haha Indians also eat rice everyday Olivia! I guess we are pretty similar :D The rice looks perfect!
I’m so glad to have stumbled across this post (and your blog)! We lived in southern Brazil for about 3 years and while there I had friends show me how to cook several Brazilian dishes. Rice was the first thing and I have made mine this way ever since!
How cool, Lori! Where exactly did you live? I’m glad you like the Brazilian way of making rice. It’s so much better than plain old boiled rice, isn’t it? It actually tastes like something! :P
Yum! Do you think I could adapt this for the rice cooker by sautéing the garlic and onion in a pan first, then dumping it in the rice cooker with the raw rice and water to cook normally? Thanks!
Hi Jenn,
Yes, I think that would work! :) Enjoy!
Is this the rice to serve with feijoada for my Brasilian Olympics party?
Hi Daphne,
Yes, this is the rice with serve with any Brazilian dish! :) I hope you enjoy it.
Whoa now , travel much ? Italian risotto, Spanish paella, any Indian or middle eastern rice dish , are far more superb than this.
If you search my blog, you will find recipes for all these things. This is just the Brazilian way to cook a plain rice dish.
Made this last night for a Brazilian-themed book club night (Thanks this month’s author – Paulo Coelho). It was so easy, fluffy and flavorful! I doubled it and the double onion might have been a little much for me, but everyone loved it. I’m keeping this one handy. Thanks!
Amazing, so flavorful with just a bit ore effort than regular rice! Made for a Brazillion themed dinner of Moqueca fish stew and Caipirinha’s on our back porch. Used Mahimahi and my husband deemed it a 10 star.
You shouldn’t store cooked rice for that long in the fridge, use it within 3 or 4 days tops. Rice is prone to carrying a bacteria called ‘Bacillus cereus’ that causes diarrhoea and nausea, so either make less rice, or you can freeze it for up to 6 months. When you take cooked rice out of the freezer or fridge, always heat it to over 60 degrees Celsius to help destroy any bacteria present and reduce the chance of food poisoning.
Melissa, I have cooked rice Brazilian style for 50 years – which is similar to how the Cubans, and the Japanese (!) cook rice. Americans just do not know how to cook rice. Your problems would largely vanish if you learned how to cook rice, and, also how to reheat rice: in a covered pan with a little cold water , say 3/4 cup; and cook over a very low flame until the lid is too hot to touch.
Wondering if you can tell me if flocao de arroz is different than just buying American rice?