Forum: cooking.stackexchange.com
Tags: <rice><bulk-cooking>
Title: Reheating rice for 25 guests
Question: I am having a party. I have no rice cooker.  I plan on cooking the rice the day before.  Is it possible to reheat it and have it taste good?  How to?

Answers:
sents: text: When making rice for a large group, you should take a hint from the restaurants and do it in the oven in a large roaster or baking pan.
text: Put the rice in a pan, add boiling water and salt, and then cover with foil.
text: Or you can make it like a very large pilaf which will make it more special.
text: But oven in large pan is the way to go and make it fresh.
text: I don't have amounts because you will know how much you need to make.
text: Common knowledge is 2 times as much water as the rice, and common knowledge is, generally, too much water, particularly in large batches.
text: Again, a restaurant recipe will do you well.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/3479/Doug Johnson-Cookloose
score: 11
sents: text: You have to be very careful when preparing rice for consumption later.
text: Cooked rice can contain a toxic spore which causes severe food poisoning.
text: You should cool the rice as rapidly as possible to prevent too much of the toxin being produced by the spore.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/4194/ElendilTheTall
score: 7
sents: text: ok, so this may not be a correct answer for a cooking site, but... maybe you could buy enough cooked rice on the day of your event from a local chinese restaurant? : )
text: one less thing for you to worry about on the day of your big party (and nobody needs to know)!
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/1415/franko
score: 5
sents: text: Rice will dehydrate when it's left over night.
text: So it will be very dry when you try and reheat it.
text: Cook it ahead of time, but keep it as close to ahead of time as possible.
text: The less time it sits around, the better.
text: When it's time to serve, place a little water in with the rice, cover it (slightly vented), and then microwave till warm.
text: The steam from the water will help rehydrate.
text: I don't think the result is quite as good as fresh rice, but it's much easier.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/1259/yossarian
score: 3
sents: text: I have two options here..
text: one was not easy and the other one was rather creative (but traditional) Fried Rice.
text: A quick way of reheating a large amount of rice from the fridge (I guess you pre-cook all the rice prior) is to make fried rice.
text: Just heat up a wok and add a bit of oil will do the job.
text: It may take you a few rounds, but it's better than reheating rice in microwave.
text: Make Rice dumplings - you may have heard of Chinese rice dumpling which is usually made of glutinous rice, but you can use short grain rice instead which is sticky enough.
text: It may look kinda fancy if you serve people with rice dumplings.
text: The advantage of rice dumpling is you can keep them in hot water before you serve and you don't need rice cooker as the whole cooking process is in a pot.
text: I cannot find you the exact recipe, but this blog article seems pretty good.
text: http://eatfirstthinklater.blogspot.com/2006/05/making-chinese-rice-dumpling-bak-chang.html Just ignore all the ingredient and put in rice only.
text: I got some links here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zongzi
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/2951/Foodrules 
score: 1
sents: text: I do this for parties all the time.
text: I put several large spoonfuls in a plastic ziplock bag.
text: Seal the bag, stick it in the microwave for 3min intervals till it is hot enough.
text: flipping the contents around in between heating.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/62549/Carl
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Cooked rice can cause severe food poisoning, but if you are careful and cook it close to the time of consumption it should be fine to microwave it with a little added water. If short of time, a local Chinese restaurant may be able to deliver enough cooked rice at the right time.
Put a little water in with the rice and microwave until warm. Alternatively, you can get large amounts of rice from a local Chinese restaurant.