Rissoto Rice

Rinsing rice for risotto is usually not done as you want the extra starchiness in this case.

Phil

Phil beat me to it! :D Right: if you are using the rice to make risotto, it's the extra surface starch that creates the creaminess you want.

However, if you're cooking it some other way (just boiling it, or making a pilaf), it's okay to rinse it first. And yes, it's perfectly all right to use arborio or carnaroli rice in ways other than making risotto. Even Santa Marcella (Marcella Hazan ;) ) has a recipe for plain boiled rice using them!

Ditto Phil & Suzanne :)

Has anyone heard you should only stir the risotto in one direction in the pan (i.e. only clockwise or only counter-clockwise) ? Supposedly it gets a better result and doesn't break the rice up. It may be rumour only....

There are many superstitions around cooking like everything else. I always wondered about the stir-in-one-direction advice, which i heard in many contexts (sauces, puddings, risotto, etc etc etc).
I think it's totally unfounded.
PROBABLY the reason this one-direction stirring rumor began is that if you make pudding-like cream (custard cream, creme anglais, etc) you will add unwanted bubbles by changing direction. Some recipes even call for straining such creams through fine sieves, to remove bubbles. I never cared if there were bubbles, but if that's a concern, then that's the only reason i can imagine. I always stir everything however i please (often for pure orneriness) and never had a problem.

Love the attitude - gotta teach the food who's boss! :smoking:

Please don't rinse!

As was said here, indeed you want to keep the starch in place when you have made a risotto. Where else will all that great butter and cheese you add go? That starch network you just spent 30 minutes building up by carefully adding liquid slowly and stirring, stirring, stirring would all be lost in just 10 seconds of rinsing - what a waste that would be!

The same goes for pasta. The surface starch (though not as complex a network of starch as in a risotto) is what gives the sauce something to cling to and work in. Again, a rinse would be catastrophic to the overall dish. (Yes, there are a few instances where you need to rinse pasta - but they are the VAST minority of cases, and quite frankly, I try to avoid those instances anyway...)