Steamed rice

Steamed rice is rice cooked with water vapor, usually after rinsing or soaking. The grains absorb moisture and soften while retaining their shape.

Starch gelatinization: The process in which heated starch granules absorb water, swell, and lose their ordered structure. It softens rice grains as their starch absorbs heat and moisture.
Oryza sativa: The Asian rice species that supplies most rice consumed worldwide. Most steamed rice is prepared from varieties of this cultivated species.
Sushi rice: Short-grain rice seasoned with vinegar, sugar, and salt for use in sushi. Carefully cooked rice becomes the structural base for sushi.
Boiled rice: Rice cooked in water that is later drained or fully absorbed, rather than primarily by vapor. It contrasts direct water cooking with the steam-centered method.
Amylose: A mostly linear starch molecule made of glucose units linked chiefly by α(1→4) bonds. Its amount helps explain why some cooked rice is fluffy while other rice is sticky.
Rice grain: The edible seed of a rice plant, composed chiefly of starch-rich endosperm beneath protective outer layers. Its layers and endosperm determine how water enters during cooking.
Sticky rice: Rice cooked to a cohesive, adhesive texture, often using glutinous rice and steam. This preparation shows how steaming can produce rice shaped and eaten by hand.
Pilaf: A rice dish in which grains are often sautéed before cooking in measured broth. Toasting and broth absorption create a different route to separate grains.
Amylopectin: A highly branched starch molecule made of glucose units. Its abundance contributes to the soft, cohesive texture of many rice varieties.
Glutinous rice: A rice type with very low amylose and high amylopectin content that becomes especially sticky when cooked. Its unusually cohesive cooked texture contrasts with fluffy long-grain rice.

Linked from 7 pages