Hull, Color and Cooking

• Plain white rice is white for the same reason white flour is white: the outer layer of bran is milled from the grain when it's processed. This gives the rice an attractively pale appearance, shortens its cooking time, and -- by removing the natural oils that are present in the bran -- improves the rice's shelf life. Rice with the bran left in place, as it is in brown rice and colored rices, has a few advantages of its own. Although it takes longer to cook, it's higher in fiber and more nutritious because the bran layer contains many of the rice's vitamins.

Ruby Red Jasmine Rice

• Ruby red is a variety of long-grain Thai rice, distinctive for its deep, earthy red color. It can be enjoyed either on its own or in a blend with regular jasmine rice, though the two are best when cooked separately, then combined. Jasmine rice is aromatic to begin with, and the ruby red variety is even more so because of complex flavor and aroma compounds in its colorful sheath. If you'd like to emphasize the nutty aromas of the rice, toast it briefly in butter or oil before adding your cooking liquid.

A Pot of Rubies

• The most basic method for cooking ruby red jasmine rice is to use a pot with a tight-fitting lid, as you would for plain white rice. Use approximately 2 to 2 1/2 cups of water for each cup of rice, depending whether you like it firm or soft, and just a pinch of salt. Bring the rice to a boil, then turn down the heat to a low simmer and cover the pot with its lid. It will take 45 to 55 minutes for the rice to finish cooking, and it's vital not to remove the lid during that time. The rice won't finish cooking unless the hot steam remains in the pot to be absorbed by the grains.

Your Rice Cooker

• If you have poor luck cooking rice on the stove top, or if you simply need to preserve some time, attention or stovetop real estate for other dishes, most rice cookers do an excellent job of cooking ruby red rice. Use the brown rice setting if your model has one, but otherwise, it isn't necessary. Rice cookers are designed to shut off when their temperature reaches a given point, which can't happen until your rice has absorbed all the cooking water. It will switch to its keep-warm setting, which allows the rice to cool slightly and firm up while you prepare your other dishes.