Once the water has been thoroughly drained from the rice in Step 1, put it into the Staub pot and add the water. *If the rice was left to sit for 1 hour it will soak up the water very nicely.

You've now completed all the preliminaries to cook delicious rice. Place the pot on the stove after the rice has been soaked for an hour, and set the heat to medium.

Medium heat as specified in Step 3 should be strong enough so that the flames touch the bottom of the pot. The photo shows a round 16cm Staube cocotte with 1.5 rice cooker cups of rice.

Once the water in the pot begins to bubble at the bottom, and the center becomes cloudy, raise the heat to high.

The flames should never be so strong that they escape around the edges of the pot.

Turning the heat up to high in Step 5 will get the edges of the water to start boiling. The center will become even more cloudy.

Once big bubbles start forming, it's almost done.

When even more big bubbles start forming, cover the pot with a lid. Set a timer to 1 minute.

Occasionally some soapy bubbles may escape from underneath the lid (once or twice), but don't worry about it. *The photo shows the marks left by the sticky bubbles.

After 1 minute is up, turn down the heat to low (turn the burner knob to the lowest setting). Set the timer for 9 minutes.

After 9 minutes has passed, turn off the heat. Don't remove the lid and let it steam for 12 minutes. *Absolutely do not open the lid.

After 12 minutes have passed, the delicious rice is cooked It's difficult to tell from the photo, but there are small spaces in between the rice grains and the grains are standing up.

Do not leave the rice as-is! Fluff it up gently using a cutting motion.

Ahhh. It's so delicious You will look forward to eating rice everyday I think the best thing about buying a Staub cocotte is that it makes delicious rice.

Steps 1 and 2 are completely necessary, but sadly they take a lot of time to complete. I usually prepare it before going to bed or before I go out for the day, and let it sit in the refrigerator.

If the rice hasn't soaked or absorbed enough water, it will taste completely different. Try to complete both the soaking and absorbing steps within 24 hours.

It's usually said that "too big is better than too small" but try to match the amount of rice to the size of the Staub pot. The rice will taste different if the pot is too big or too small.

1.5 rice cooker cups of rice is just right for the 2 of us, so I usually make both plain white rice and rice cooked with other ingredients using the 16 cm diameter Staub Round Cocotte.

I usually use the16cm cocotte for 1-1.5 rice cooker cups of rice, the 20cm for 2-2.5 cups of rice, and the 22cm for 3-4 cups of rice.

But you can also use a 10cm Staub to make 0.4 cups of rice. There are many different sizes you can have fun with.

[If using a 10cm round Staub...] In Step 8, cover with a lid and turn the heat to low. Set the timer to 9 minutes.

Once the 9 minutes has passed, turn off the heat. Leave the lid on and let it steam for 10 minutes. *Absolutely do not remove the lid.

After 10 minutes, gently fluff up the rice taking care not to crush the grains, and it's done If you don't have a small rice paddle, you can use a small general purpose spatula.