thoughts on cooking rice

I just had a similar situation (had oats in bulk but no idea how to cook) so I read the back of a box in the regular grocery store, memorized the directions, then used it on my oats at home!

In my rice-cooking experience (and I have a lot because I've lived in Asia for most of past dozen years), the ratio of rice to water that you should use is dependent on the length of the grain. Technically I don't think that white vs. brown rice matters, but since you have to cook brown rice longer and may therefore lose more moisture through evaporation, I use slightly more water for brown than white. Anyway, the rule on grain length (assuming white rice) is that for very short rice, use 1:1, and for very long grain rice, use 3 parts water to 1 part rice.

If you cook rice very frequently, you might consider investing in a rice cooker (I don't know where you live, but if there is even a small east Asian population in your community, I guarantee you can find them for sale in any Asian [though not necessarily Indian] store). While the makers of rice cookers are probably thinking about white rice, I have never had any difficulty cooking brown rice in mine. (Somehow its sensors know whether or not the rice is done.) The advantage is that you throw your rice and water into the cooker, turn it on, and then don't worry about it -- the rice will cook in 20 to 45 min (depending on the amount/variety) and will then sit there hot but unchanged for a good additional hour or two, leaving you considerable freedom to attend to other aspects of your meal without coordinating the exact timing of the rice.