This is one of my favorite types of rice. It has a nice smell, not overpowering, but distinct. It has a great texture, just the right amount of gluten to make it easy to eat with chopsticks. The grains are slightly chewey with the vaguest hint of nuttiness. It's a very subtle and refreshing flavor that goes great with anything.

Jasmine rice is one of the two main types of rice grown in Thailand; the other is sticky rice (which is not the same as sushi rice). Where jasmine rice is an aromatic long-grain rice with almost translucent grains, sticky rice is a short-grain rice with white, opaque grains. The use of the words "jasmine" and "sticky" on the packaging is fairly new; often jasmine rice is called milagrosa or mali rice on the package, while sticky rice is labeled glutinous or sweet rice. So read the packages carefully to be sure you have the right product. In addition, the particular types of rice mentioned in this node and the one on sticky rice are native to Thailand and (purists would say) only grow there, so the package should be marked "Product of Thailand".

As mentioned by sensei on his w/u on How to cook rice, 1 cup of rice to 1-1/4 cups of water (240 ml rice to 300 ml water) is a good proportion, whether cooking in a rice cooker or on the stove. Plan for perhaps 1/2 cup (120 ml) dry rice per person, more if they're real porkers.

For a delicious variation, substitute 2/3 cup of coconut milk in your 1-1/4 cups portion of water. Very nice.

Okay, so now the proportions are all figured out. Let's get cooking! Rinse the rice a few times to rid it of excess starch, and drain off the water as best you can. No need to remove every drop.

Put your rice into the rice cooker or a pot with a heavy bottom and a tight-fitting lid. The rice should be between 1 inch and 2 inches (about 2.5 to 5 cm) deep in the pot; if not, change pots. Pour in your measured water.

If you've got a rice cooker, just turn it to cook and do whatever else you need to do. If you're using a pot, bring the rice to a full boil, and then cover it, turn the heat down to low (you may have experiment to find the optimum setting on your stove; I use 2, which is the next up from minimum, because minimum's too low on my stove and my rice doesn't cook properly) and - I'm going to bold here, 'cause this is important - set the timer for 18 minutes. Trust me on this one. 18 minutes is a finicky length of time: it's not a multiple of 5, which is easy to track on your watch, and it's just long enough for you to forget what you were supposed to be doing. And your perfect rice depends on that 18 minutes, so please, just use the timer.

After the timer goes off, remove the pot from the stove and let it sit, covered, for another 10 minutes. Then it's ready to serve.

Bold again, kids, so take note: Don't peek at the rice at any time during this process. Don't lift the lid off to see how it's going in there, and definitely don't stir it; just leave it alone to do as Mother Rice intended it to be done. (Yes Virginia, there really is a Mother Rice in Thai mythology.)

Now I've made rice successfully thousands of times on stovetops and in rice cookers, but there is some very sensible advice for the inevitable mistakes, particularly for those new to this thing, at Ack! My Rice Is Ruined! Or Is It?. Note though that burned-on-the-bottom rice indicates that either you didn't set the timer (I told you!); or your pot bottom is too thin; or the heat was too high. If the rice is still a little crunchy in the centre, probably the heat was too low; that's how I learned to set my stove to 2, not minimum, for the cooking. Other than that, this should work just fine.

Happy cooking!

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