looking for nice clumpy rice

[jim bachinski]

whenever i eat at a chinese restaurant the rice always sticks together in nice clumps- which makes for easy eating with chopsticks. when i make rice at home in my rice cooker, it never sticks together- any suggestions? thanks in advance.

[tmso]

I buy jasmine rice in 5 kg bags, and always find the bottom of the bag to have a lot more starch on the grains than the top, which isn't surprising. So maybe try digging down to the bottom and only giving the rice the briefest of rinses.

[hsk]

As others have said, more water=more clumpy. Rice cooker recipes call for X cups water for Y cups rice, it doesn't work that way (there are LOTS of threads on water/rice ratio), if you're making just a little vs. a lot you have to adjust the water content. Also if you like your rice dry or moist.

I'd recommend just adding more water to your existing setup (since you likely still have the balance of the package of rice in your cupboard), experiment with more/less to see what works for you.

[oryza]

Rice variety heavily influences the stickiness.
Use calrose rice, which is also a shortgrain rice like sushi rice, but a little longer in length and cheaper and usually easier to find. That's probably the variety of rice that Chinese restaurants use...
Oh, and a pressure cooker also works wonders if you are in a high altitude area. A rice cooker just didn't cut it when I lived in Denver

[Sam Fujisaka]

Chinese places use Indica and not Japonica rices.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Try cooking long grain (Indica) rice as follows: one cup rice to one-and-a-half cups of water. Bring to a boil covered; turn heat down to low(est) for 20 minutes; let sit for 10 minutes (also covered).

As you know short grained (Japonica) rice is sticker due to low amylose content; but is served with Japanese food and used to make sushi.

[MikeG]

Unless you're using parboiled/converted rice or adding fat, I can't really imagine how a rice cooker could be turning out rice too unsticky to eat easily with chopsticks. Excessive rinsing might make it a little too unsticky, but unless you're being really OCD about it, that's not likely to be the problem, imx.

If you're willing to eat it regularly, short/med grain rice does tend to be more clumpy in a kind of gluey sort of way, but it's not something you'd normally get in for example Chinese restaurants. You could also try Jasmine rice which is a little stickier albeit more expensive than regular long-grain, but it sounds like a problem of technique, not the rice itself. A little more water might help, but if you're using the rice cooker measuring lines, that's problem not the problem - rice is pretty forgiving unless you really screw something up.

[bakerboyz]

I do not have a rice cooker so I am not familiar with using one but here is what I do: 1 cup of rice to 1 and 3/4 water; over high heat cook uncovered until "fish eyes" are formed on top (tiny craters, you will know them when you see them); lower heat to simmer for approx. 20 minutes, covered; remove from heat and let sit, covered,10-30 minutes; this always comes out very clumpy and is also perfect the next day for fried rice when it is dried out and you can separate strands.

[weezycom]

Only the briefest of rinses of the rice (if you rinse at all) before you start cooking, as well, will help it clump.

[sharonanne]

What Yen said or add a little more water when cooking long grain rice. It might need to sit longer to absorb the water though which is back to what Yen said. Never mind.

[yen]

Try short grain rice. Or, you can over cook it, and it will stick together as well.