Cooking Brown Rice In A Pressure Cooker

by Allan Little on September 23, 2009

This is how I cook short grain brown rice in a pressure cooker.

Most important tips

Wash the rice well
Soak the rice for at least 3 hours, preferably more
Add high quality sea salt or Kombu (seaweed) right before cooking
Turn the flame down low after it reaches full pressure
Use a flame tamer, especially if you think you might forget to turn off the flame (like I did in the video).

NOTES

The pressure cooker we use is called Silit and it’s made in Germany. You can purchase it from an online store in Canada, Casa Home and Gourmet Accessories Ltd.
The Kombu not only provides salt, but many other important minerals to your rice. You can purchase Kombu sea vegetable online or at your local health food store.
Pressure cookers vary and they change over time, so the ratio of rice to water will have to be tweaked for your specific pressure cooker and your desired results.
Of course it is best to use organic brown rice when possible.
Most macrobiotic chefs take the time to carefully sort the rice before washing in order remove the occasional small stones that might be present.

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

Melissa Prado Little September 24, 2009 at 5:25 am: Love you both so much. I admire your dedication. Are you sure that all the mucky water is dirt? I’m thinking that it might be rice starch. I always rinse my rice too but I thought it was mostly rice starch, not dirt. Also, I’m wondering what you think about not soaking the rice? I never remember to soak my rice prior. Do you think some of the health benefits are lost if you don’t soak it?

BrownRiceLife RULES.
Allan Little September 24, 2009 at 5:35 pm: Hi Mellisa.

You may be correct about the starch being a component of the dirty look of the water. But I still think it is important to clean the rice very carefully because the process of delivering the rice from field to warehouse to truck or train to stockroom to bulk display to home, is a long and dirty journey. Sue learned in the many macrobiotic cooking
classes she took through Casa de Luz that soaking helps release the
nutritional goodness in the rice and makes it much softer and more
digestible as well as tasting great. There is a more technical explanation for the reason to soak the rice in the short article found
in this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_rice. I have become
a real rice snob after getting used to the pressure cooked brown rice.
Valerie January 2, 2010 at 7:43 pm: Thanks for this great how-to video. It’s wonderful that you are sharing your knowledge and passion!