We finally made some good rice in a dutch oven today. I was a little disheartened by previous failures, but I knew that it could be done because the Japanese have been cooking rice over a fire for centuries.
Heat! You want heat! I have a 10″ cast iron pot with a lid. It’s not a “camp” dutch oven (with the legs and a rim around the edge of the lid). I set the pot on a wire trivet with charcoal packed underneath. If you have a dutch oven, it’s more convenient. Today all the dutch ovens were being used to cook other things.
- Put two cups of water in the pot.
- Bring the water to a boil. Be patient, as it make take a while.
- After the water is boiling, add one cup of rice.
- Bring to a boil again, then remove all the charcoal except a ring.
- Cook until done.
If the water isn’t hot enough at the beginning, the rice will turn to mush with a hard core — really gross.
Note that we cook with the short grain Japanese rice, which turns out a little sticky. It’s perfect for using chopsticks. I’ve not cooked the “fluffy” American long-grain rice for over a decade, so I can’t comment on that.