It's rice Jim, but not as we know it.

Apologies to any of you Delias out there who have been cooking perfect rice for years and who may consider this to be teaching you how to suck eggs... but for years I had a shameful secret. I couldn't cook rice without making a complete bangles of it. It was either mush or a watery flavourless mess. Now I was quite happy to do dinner for six or bake you an apple sponge with homemade custard, but at the mention of rice I looked away like a dislexic at a book club.

Then, as luck would have it, my chum John announced that he was coming over from Hong Kong and bringing his new fiance Sherry with him. Perfect I said, I'll borrow Sherry for a day and throw a Chinese dinner party that evening. 'So Sherry', say's I, 'making rice for you must be the same as boiling spuds for me, but er, I can't, so what's it all about Alfie?'.

So she showed me with great simplicity and first explained the finger method. Take a cup of rice per person and put it into a pot. Rinse it until the water is clear. Add as much water as to reach the first joint of your forefinger as it rests on top of the rice. Add salt. Put lid on and bring to the boil then turn heat down to lowest. Keep lid on and after a while check. When it has craters on the top it is done. Put lid back on and turn off heat. This will happily sit there for fifteen minutes until you are ready to serve. Then fluff it up with a serving spoon. Fluffy and slightly sticky, but most importantly, full of flavour because it hasn't had the life rinsed out of it after it has cooked.

Since then I haven't looked back.
Things to consider though: If you are using a finer grain jasmine or basmati rice, add slightly less water and check sooner as it will cook a little faster. If you are making a curry, consider using Swartz Pilau Rice Seasoning. Now I'm not a great one for things from jars, but this wee mixture is very good. Sprinkle a teaspoon of the spice mixture on top of the water in the pot before you bring it to the boil. Job done - the result is a pleasingly yellow and subtly fragranced rice that works a treat with that curry you just had to make.