Cooking rice and noodles the Chinese way

Rice

Westerners tend to boil rice in water and then drain the cooked grains. The average Chinese housewife would look upon that with utter horror and consider that totally wasteful. Both nutrients and flavor would be lost with the water.

Instead, rice is rinsed briefly to remove impurities and grit, and then the water is carefully measured and poured into the pot.

Depending on the variety of rice, the ratio of rice to water may range from 1-to-1.5 or 1-to-2. The more glutinous varieties will take in more liquid, but the most commonly eaten long and medium-grained rice will take less.

Every novice cook in the Chinese kitchen is told to stick a finger into the rice pot. If the water comes up to the first joint of the index finger, then you have got it perfect.

Modern-day rice cookers make the next steps easy. All you have to do is press the button and wait for it to pop. If you don't have a rice cooker, place the pot of washed rice and water on a stove and let it boil. Once the water comes to a rolling boil, reduce the heat to the lowest possible and wait for the water to be totally absorbed. When that happens, remove the rice from the heat and let it steam uncovered for another 10 minutes. Then it's time to fluff it up and serve.

Noodles

There are fresh noodles, and dried noodles, but the cooking style is basically the same.

Fresh noodles are dropped into boiling water to cook. Once the noodles are in the pot, the water will subside and then come back to the boil.

This is when the Chinese cook will add additional cold liquid to the pot in a process called "dotting the water". If there is a large pot of noodles, the process may be repeated twice.

Sometimes, the cooked noodles are removed from the pot and immediately plunged into cold water to stop them cooking further, to preserve the texture. This process is called "crossing the cold river".

Dried noodles are cooked the same way, although the water may take a little longer to come back to boil.

(China Daily European Weekly 03/18/2016 page18)