How To Cook The Perfect Basmati Rice Using The Absorption Method

Step 1: The Traditional Absorption Method

I'm going to demonstrate to you how to cook the perfect basmati rice using Tilda original pure basmati rice. Now, there are two methods of cooking this rice. You can use the traditional absorption method or the pasta-cooking method. The one I'm going to show you here is how to use the absorption method.

Step 2: Soften The Rice

So first of all, when it comes to quantities, Tilda will recommend 60 grams per person which is what I have in here. But for the demonstration purposes, I'm going to double those quantities so you'll have enough to serve two people. Now, what I have here is 120 grams of the rice, and it's been soaking in cold water for about 30 minutes. This just softens the grain, and if you have time, do it, but it's not essential if you don't. And all I need to do now is rinse it under the cold tap until the water runs clear, just getting rid of any excess starch. So now, what you'll need to do is just drain your rice through a sieve, and then hold under a cold running tap, just to get rid of any excess starch. So, our rice has been drained, and let's just tip that into a saucepan.

Step 3: Water Measurements

When it comes to quantities of water, the absorption method, which is the traditional method that we're using, the general guideline is one part rice to two parts water. So with our 120 grams, a double portion of rice, I'm going to do 240 millilitres roughly, of water. Let's put that straight into the pan, that's just cold water, and then pop in on a low heat and bring it up to a simmer.

Step 4: Simmer

It's just come up to the simmer, so it's time to put on the lid, and I can see already that those grains are elongating, and it's going to give us some really nice fluffy rice. Now, you want to leave this on a low heat for 10 minutes because I've soaked the rice. If you haven't soaked the rice, you could leave it for 12 minutes, but don't touch the lid, just leave it to cook on a low heat. So the rice has had 10 minutes of cooking time, I'm now going to turn off the heat, leave on the lid, and just leave it to rest for 5 minutes.

Step 5: Fluff the Rice

So the rice has been resting for 5 minutes, and it's now time to remove the lid. Now, you can just smell that magical aroma that comes from the rice, it's got a really nutty smell. Now, I haven't added any extra flavours in this at all because there's certainly no need to. The basmati itself has a fantastic flavour. If you wanted to, however, you could put in some cloves, maybe some cardamon pod, some lemon, or some tumeric, just for the additional flavour to maybe suit a dish that you're cooking. And what I need to do now, is just fluff this slightly with a fork just to release the grains and make them extra-light and fluffy. And you can see that they've elongated up to twice their length. So I have a lovely light fluffy basmati rice, and I'm just going to serve this up onto the plate.


So we have the equivalent of two servings here, that's 60 grams per person, so 120 grams of the dry white rice. Now, if you're buying a kilo bag, that's 30 portions, that's less than 30 p per person, so it's amazing how far basmati rice goes. Just to compare the difference between the long grain rice that I have here, I started off with two of exactly the same quantities, 120 grams of each. I've got the basmati rice and the long grain rice. And you can see the difference in size when you've cooked it. It's lighter, it's fluffier, and it'll go a lot further. So, hopefully this has explained to you a really simple method of how to cook your Tilda Pure Original Basmati R