Peden + Munk
In Japanese, the word for food is the same as the one for rice. Without it, a meal is not a meal. The real genius of rice is revealed when you think about it in reverse: Add just about anything to a bowl of it and, voilà! you’ve got dinner. But don’t think of it as a throwaway fill-you-up starch. Properly cooked short-grain white rice is a craveable study in subtlety and texture, to be mixed and matched at will. Try it with bold flavors—like scrambled eggs and sliced scallions, canned tuna and mayo, pickled cucumbers, or soboro beef—that will work elegantly against rice’s magical blank canvas.
For an easy stovetop method that is quicker than a rice cooker and yields tender, distinct grains that cling gently to each other, read on.