What's Good On: Rice

Rice is one of the most forgiving things in the kitchen. It's infinitely spiceable, sweet or savory, and I have a lot of thoughts about it.

I make rice in a rice cooker. I cooked it in a pot for years, but once I tried the rice cooker I never looked back. The rice cooker has never once boiled over or scorched the bottom of a pan while I was in another room doing something else, which is more than I can say for myself. It's one of the most useful gadgets I own and if rice is a big part of your diet, I highly recommend it.

None of what follows needs the machine. On the stove you rinse the rice, use a heavy pot with a lid that fits, and leave it alone once the heat is low. In an Instant Pot it's a few minutes at pressure and then a natural release. The bags you drop into boiling water work too, and if that's what gets rice onto your plate on a Tuesday, that's a good Tuesday.

Flavor goes in the pot

The first place to put flavor is the cooking liquid. Water gives you plain rice, which is often exactly what you want underneath something saucy. Broth gives you rice you can eat on its own with nothing on it. Brewed tea works, and so does coconut milk, which makes the rice rich and a little sweet and very good beside anything fiery.

You can also drop things into the pot before you start. Whole Star Anise, a fewGreen Cardamom Pods lightly crushed, a Cinnamon Stick, a Bay Leaf, a few cloves of garlic smashed flat, a handful of sliced onion.

For saffron rice, bloom the threads first. Crush a small pinch of Saffron, pour a few tablespoons of hot water over it, and let it sit while you rinse your rice. Add the water and the threads to the pot and the rice comes out gold. Mummy's Nutty Saffron Ricedoes it that way, with whole spices fried in oil first and toasted nuts, raisins, and fried onion rings piled on at the end.

What you put on it after

Hot rice with butter stirred through is a fine thing to eat standing at the counter. If you want to spend fifteen minutes now and be pleased with yourself for a month, make a compound butter.Soften a stick, work in a seasoned salt, roll it into a log in plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge. Slice off a coin and let it melt into the rice. Try it with Svaneti Seasoned Salt, made with caraway, fenugreek and garlic, or Provencal Seasoned Salt with tarragon, chervil and lemon.

Then there are the sprinkles. Osaka Seasoned Salt is where I'd start, sesame and seaweed with lemon peel and a little Korean chile. Togarashi has no salt in it at all, so you can be heavy-handed with it. The heat comes from Korean chile and there's orange peel and sesame in there too. Rice with Togarashi and a fried egg on top is dinner. Hazelnut Dukkah is chunky, with roasted hazelnuts, sesame and herbs. Spoon it over rice with a little olive oil.

The second day

Leftover rice is the workhorse of all things.

Fried rice is how I handle odds and ends: a cup of cold rice, whatever meat is left from earlier in the week, whatever vegetables are going soft in the drawer, an egg. Vegan Richa's Instant Pot Fried Riceworks the other way around and makes it from scratch under pressure, with crumbled tofu where the egg would be and Black Salt doing the eggy, sulfury part.

Wild Rice with Savory and Oyster Mushroomsstarts from rice you already cooked. Brown the mushrooms and shallots with Winter Savory, which tastes piney and peppery and a bit like thyme, then add stock, the wild rice, dried cranberries, a little maple syrup and Alderwood Smoked Salt. Fresh apple and spinach go in off the heat. It's good warm and it's good cold out of the fridge the next day.

Something sweet

Rice makes dessert, too. Mayan Cocoa Arroz Con Lecheis built from leftover white rice simmered with brewed Mayan Cocoa until it thickens, ten or fifteen minutes on the stove.

If you've got a trick I should know about, hit reply and tell me about it. Whatever else is on your table this week, I hope there's a pot of rice somewhere in it.

 - Aubrey