Editor's note: This was originally published on the Shop, Chop, Eat blog at montrealgazette.com/shopchopeat.

MONTREAL - I have found this recipe for cooking brown rice, from Cook's Illustrtated, to be foolproof. Cook’s can be a bit earnest at times, but it is a really, really excellent cooking resource, so I never mind that it is earnest. I like brown basmati rice best – and since I have discovered this cooking method, I almost never cook white rice anymore: brown tastes so much nuttier and chewier and more flavourful: also, it tastes as if it is good for you, which white rice never does.

The recipe calls for an 8-inch square (2 L) tempered glass (Pyrex) dish; it makes more than 4 cups (1 L) of cooked rice, which in my experience is a lot of rice. But leftovers keep well, in a covered bowl in the fridge. I have also made this rice in a round Pyrex with an 8-inch diameter and a two-inch height. To minimize loss of water through evaporation, cover the pot in which you are boiling the water – and use it as soon as it reaches a boil. To double the recipe, use a 13-by-9-inch baking dish; baking time need not be increased.

Foolproof Brown Rice

1 1/2 cups (375 mL) long-, medium- or short-grain brown rice (I use brown basmati)

2 1/3 (575 mL) cups water

2 teaspoons (10 mL) unsalted butter or vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon (3 mL) salt

1. Adjust the oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 375 degrees F (190 C). Spread rice in 8-inch square baking dish.

2. Bring water and butter or oil to boil, covered, in medium-sized pot over high heat; once boiling, immediately stir in salt and pour water over rice. Cover baking dish tightly with doubled layer of foil. Bake rice 1 hour, until tender.

3. Remove baking dish from oven and uncover. Fluff rice with dinner fork, then cover dish with clean kitchen towel or a couple of layers of paper towel; let rice stand 5 minutes. Uncover and let rice stand 5 minutes longer; serve.