COOKING TIP: Rice

You need a certain number of no-brainer dishes in your life: recipes you can make with your eyes nearly closed. Rice fits the bill!

Fried rice—that's the one for me. It's quick, plays right into my fridge cleanout tendencies and besides, I always have rice around. Come to think of it, my go-to dish could easily be any number of rice dishes: risotto, Spanish rice, red beans and rice, rice pudding etc. Rice is dependable that way.

But one rice does not fit all. There are hundreds of thousands of different strains of rice, according to the USA Rice Council, which keeps tabs on such things. Thanks to Katie Maher, the council's Director of Domestic Promotion, who whittled it down for me—by color, size, shape of grain, and starch content.

Rice is a whole grain, all bran, germ, and endosperm. Remove the outer hull, the bran, and the germ, and you're left with a white kernel—white rice.

White rice is often enriched with vitamins to make up for what’s lost in processing.

Brown rice and other colored rice retain their bran (but not the inedible hull) and, thus, their nutrients. Black rice, also called Chinese Forbidden rice, gets its color from its black bran. Red rice has reddish brown bran. All the whole-grain rice’s taste chewier and nuttier than white rice.

Rice is most often categorized by size: long, medium, and short grain.

Long-grain rice is three to four times as long as it is wide. Basmati and Jasmine rice are in this category.

Medium grain has shorter kernels, two to three times as long as they are wide. Arborio and Carnaroli rice for risotto, Bomba for paella, and Calrose sushi rice are all medium grain.

Short-grain rice is squat, almost round. It’s used interchangeably with medium grain for sushi and dishes like risotto and rice pudding.

Two starches in rice—amylose and amylopectin—determine its texture when cooked.

Short- and medium-grain rice are higher in amylopectin, the so-called "sticky starch," so they cook up moist and clingy.

Long-grain rice has more amylose. That’s why its kernels stay fluffy and separate

Glutinous rice, also known as sweet rice, contains only amylopectin, which explains its super-stickiness. It's usually sold in Asian markets and used in many Asian desserts.

Wild rice really isn't rice. It's an aquatic grass native to the Great Lakes region, now largely cultivated in Minnesota and California. Like brown rice and other whole-grain rice, it's very nutrient-dense.

Instant rice. Also called quick-cooking or pre-cooked rice, this is fully cooked and dehydrated rice. It needs only a quick reheat.

Parboiled rice is rice that's been soaked and steamed before the outer hull is removed, in the process absorbing nutrients that would otherwise be lost. Parboiling also partially cooks the starch in the rice so the kernels stay fluffy but firm.

Rice is appealingly cheap and goes a long way. If you’re buying from the bulk bin or by the giant bagful, make room to store it properly.

Once opened, transfer it to a well-sealed container. Rice is a dry good and needs to stay that way: dry, cool, and away from aromatic foods like onions (it’ll pick up those aromas).

Brown rice will go rancid because of the oil content in the bran; it’s best to keep it in the fridge, similarly sealed.

While brown rice has a shelf life of about six months, white rice’s is “almost indefinite,” Maher said.

Freshly cooked rice has a shelf life, too. Use it within two hours or refrigerate. It’ll keep for three to five days—optimal fried-rice time, if you ask me.