Rice. It's so, so good.

I set out on a modest quest this past fall...to perfect my rice. I know it sounds small, but all the rice I had ever made before, like, December of 2009 was okay. And just that- okay. Not great. And rice is something you should really just understand, you know? Something that should come easily. I try to challenge myself a couple of times a year to really study, like, REALLY study one specific food and learn how to make it really well. 2008 was the Year of The Yeast Dough. I made so much bread, so many sticky buns, so many delicious cakes that 2009, by default, also happened to become The Year of Losing Ten Pounds. But I learned a lot.

So I figured that I could do something relatively simple for late 2009, since Jos had just been born and I needed at least a little of my wits about me.

Anyway, I'm not saying that I make the best rice. I'm not saying that I learned all there is to learn about rice. But I did learn one thing, at least, and that is that the instructions on the package DO NOT make the quality of rice that a few little adjustments will allow....

So make this rice, and tell me if you like it. This is our go-to rice now, the side dish that accompanies at least one meal per week. After a couple of times it's old hat...this recipe is from memory (it is so simple!).

Oh, one more thing. We try to eat pretty healthfully but I gave up on brown rice a few years ago because I missed the deliciousness of starchy, wonderful white rice. I missed it so much! We'll give brown rice another go someday, I'm sure, but for now we use plain old white, long grain rice.

Rice

Ingredients:
One cup dry long grain white rice
1.5 tsp butter (2 tsp if you've had a bad day)
.5 tsp kosher salt
1.5 cups boiling water (boil the water then measure...it doesn't have to be literally boiling hot when you add it, but it should definitely be hot)

Directions:
Rinse the heck out of the rice. What I do is soak the rice in a 2-cup measure in cool water for several minutes, stirring occasionally. I pour off the starchy water and refill with fresh several times. After ten minutes or so, when the water is more or less clear (the starches have been rinsed away) I pour the rice into a metal strainer and give it one last rinse...then let it rest on a clean cotton towel (to sap away some of the moisture - important for later).

Put a 2 quart pot on the stove, and turn the heat to medium. Put your butter in there.

When the butter is melted and sizzling a little (but not yet brown!) add the salt and drained rice. This is where your draining of the rice is important - you don't want a bunch of water hitting that melted butter.

Leaving the heat on medium, stir the rice with a wooden spoon. If it creeps up the sides of the pot, push it back down. Keep stirring for three minutes. What you're doing here is toasting the rice a bit. It brings out a kind of nutty flavor.

Add your hot water, jack the heat up to high, and stir until your rice is boiling. This will happen quickly, probably within twenty seconds. As soon as you have a good boil, give one last stir, cover the pot with a tight fitting lid and turn the heat down to the lowest setting on your burner. For me, it's just above low, like just between low and one, but more toward low.

Set your timer for seventeen minutes and leave it the heck alone.

When the timer rings you have two options - serve right away or move off the hot burner, keep covered, and wait until the rest of your dinner is ready. It stays hot and doesn't lose much quality if it waits there in the kitchen while you're getting other stuff together. When you're ready to serve, scoop it out very gently into a serving bowl using a fork, scrape at it like you would an Italian Ice, going one layer at a time.

So simple, yet so delicious.