Cooking rice for 12 people

Muppet81

When I cook basmati rice, I always cook it in plenty of water then drain and ALWAYS rinse with boiling water. Nice, non sticky rice.

On Christmas Eve I will be doing chilli and rice for 12 and possibly a couple more.

I don't have a seive big enough to drain so much rice and I assume it would drop through a colander.

I have thought about using 6 boil in the bag rice's (this does not seem to need rinsing) but that would be pretty costly.

Any tips?

poohzee

Cant you rinse an amount at a time? We use a small seive and rinse then put that rice into another bowl - then do some more - until it is all done.

jcr16

i always use a colender when rinsing rice.

although thinking about it . my colender doesn't seem to have loads and loads of hole's.

Muppet81

Thanks Poohzee - why is it always so blindingly obvious once someone points it out

champys

Muppet

Two tips:
1. If you do have the right kind of colander, by all means cook and rinse your rice in advance. Keep it in the colander. Just before the meal, all you need to do is hang the colander over a pan with just boiling water to steam it up again: that way you get it re-heated and it can stay there till you dish it up.
2. you will probably need less rice than you think for 12 - strange thing, but the more people you have, you need proportionally less food. you will see that for 12, 8 normal portions will be about sufficient. others on this board may be able to confirm/refine this number from their experience.

good luck!

cowbutt

You could try adapting the technique I learnt from Delia for doing pilau rice; measure out enough rice for 12, make a note of the volume of the rice, fry it in a little hot olive oil until every grain has a little oil, then add double the volume of water, cover, and simmer until all the water has been absorbed (usually 10-15 minutes).

noonesperfect

If you do cook and reheat rice be very sure to make certain it's properly hot as you have the potential for food poisoning there.

maypole

Cowbutt

I use the Delia method, but it might be a bit misleading to say "fry" the rice as we only heat up the oil and coat the rice before adding the water, we use boiling water and then turn heat down to simmer for 15mins. Never take off the lid until 15mins time. I follow Delia exactly:o