The common mistake people make is that rice turns out to be undercooked or overcooked. So the ratio of water and rice to be perfect.
But, is it easy for a novice to know the correct ratio? You will face undercooked or overcooked rice issue. How to tell if rice is undercooked?
If you’re a newbie, you are definitely struggling with few questions such as “how to fix undercooked rice in the microwave?” and “is it undercooked or overcooked?” Does this sound like your story?
If it is, keep reading!
How To Tell If Rice Is Undercooked Or Overcooked?
Undercooked Rice means that water has evaporated, but rice grain is still hard at the core. When you press lightly with thumb and finger, you will feel the hard grain part at the core, similar to raw rice.
While half or most of the rice will be meshed up easily with your finger and thumb, you will not be able to mesh small hard grain in the middle of whole grain.
This is how you will come to know that rice is undercooked. You will have to chew it more. Though eating undercooked rice does not cause a major issue, it does not taste good while chewing.
Overcooked rice means it is very soft. The grains will break out into smaller pieces and mushy. It looks like someone mashed the cooked rice grains.
It will have more water. It generally happens when you put in more water into rice than required.
How To Fix Undercooked Rice?
You are learning to make perfect rice, but it always comes out as undercooked or overcooked. Do you get irritated by looking at undercooked rice? Are you searching for a solution to “How to fix uncooked rice?”
Here is good news for you. No need to worry even if rice comes undercooked. Microwave is your friend in this case. Let’s read on the below steps to fix undercooked rice with a microwave.
- Identify Undercooked Rice
The first step is to identify whether rice is uncooked or not. If uncooked, what the level is. If it is 90% cooked or 50% cooked. The big question is how to tell if rice is undercooked?
You can follow the thumb finger process to know it. This step is important as that you can take effective measures to fix undercooked rice.
For example, if your rice is undercooked 10% only, 90% rice is cooked, and you microwave it for long minutes, your rice may get dry or hard, which makes rice worsen than making it perfect.
If your rice is undercooked 50%, then you have to keep it in the microwave for little longer minutes to make it perfect. It depends on your level of undercooked rice.
If you do not carefully identify the level of cooked rice, whether it is 50% or 90%, or anything else, you may end up with overcooked or dry rice.
Now you have the answer to the question “how to tell if rice is undercooked?” and you also know the level. So move to the second step of the answer of how to fix uncooked rice?
- Check Water In The Cooking Pot
The second step is to verify that your rice cooking pot still has some water inside it or not. Sit gently on the rice cooking pot, and then you can see if there is any water left inside the pot.
If your pot does not have any water, add little water to the rice pot according to the level of uncooked rice, as we identified in step 1.
So your rice will have moisture. Gently stir the rice pot to mix water with rice. Be careful while stirring as rice grain can split into smaller pieces. Always use a soft spatula to do so.
- Get Your Microwave Ready
The third step is microwave readiness. See if you have paper towels in your kitchen. You have to take two paper towels. Soak these paper towels in the water.
Now, these are wet but have more water. So you have to squeeze out the extra water. Just squeeze 20% of water so that your paper towel is still wet but not overflowing with water.
Now place these paper towels over rice in a microwave-safe bowl. Now keep it in the microwave and start your microwave for 2 minutes.
The uncooked rice will come out as cooked because of the steam generated by a wet paper towel and extra added water.
- Your Rice Is Fixed!
Now, you bring your rice bowl out of the microwave. You have to remove the wet paper towels but, be careful as these will be very hot because of microwave heat. So by this time now, your uncooked rice is fixed by microwave.
You can press one rice grain with thumb and finger and see if it is thoroughly cooked. If not, you can repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 to ensure that it is cooked thoroughly.
We suggest you try with little water addition and lesser time duration for microwave while fixing undercooked rice in a microwave.
Then you repeat the same steps if rice is still uncooked. Otherwise, you may end up either overcooked rice or dry rice.
The Perfectly Cooked Rice!
Rice is popular as food in most countries. The reason for its popularity is that it goes well with different types of curries such as Thai curry, Chinese gravy, and Indian curry.
You can make vegetables fried rice, lemon rice, coconut rice, biryani, egg fried rice, and chicken fried rice. There are a lot of options when you choose rice as a whole meal or a side menu of a meal.
You might have heard of the fact that cooking rice is super easy. You need just to add water to the rice and cook it on a stovetop or in the microwave.
Yes! You are correct. It is easy. Any person who does not know cooking will go for rice if he/she is hungry. You want fluffy, not sticky, perfect whole grains for a perfectly cooked rice.
You have done a great job reading my guide so far. So, here is a real treat for you. Watch the video demo on the topic.
Conclusion
So, now you know how to fix undercooked rice in the microwave? You see how the microwave can fix the undercooked rice. So next time you face an undercooked rice issue, no need to worry at all. Just go and grab the paper towels and microwave bowl.
Your undercooked rice can be fixed in the microwave within 2 minutes. Your delicious meal is ready with perfectly cooked rice.
All the best for rice cooking!
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