From My Carolina Kitchen by Sam Hoffer
My mother had a very easy but unusual way to cook rice and I’ll share her method with you. It always turned out perfectly, no lumps or sticky clumps, and no fancy cookers. She cooked the rice in lots of boiling salted water, the same way you cook pasta. Twenty minutes for white rice, 35 minutes for brown. After draining it well, she put the rice back in the pan, stirred in a pat of butter, and left it covered on the stove for up to twenty minutes before serving. She always used Uncle Ben’s converted rice and I’ve never used anything else, so I’m not sure how it would work with other brands. But I will add that this recipe has never let me down. Cooking Light magazine wrote an article recently about how to cook rice and their method was the same as my mothers.
Parsley rice:
Add finely chopped parsley to the recipe above when you add the butter at the end.
Lemon rice:
Inspired by The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook by Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso, serves 4 to 6
Proportionally for every cup of uncooked rice from recipe above, stir in 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest to cooked rice after is has been drained. Let the rice and lemon zest mixture stand together, covered, for 5 minutes in the pan. Add some finely chopped fresh herb of your choice (flat-leaf parsley or dill) along with a pat of butter, check for seasonings and serve immediately.