Normally just washing basmati rice has been enough to make it cook well, but the generic brand I've been buying for years seems to have changed their supplier or something and now what should be the same exact rice doesn't cook right anymore and turns out disgusting. How do I compensate for this? Do I just wash it even more thoroughly? Do I wash it, let it soak in clean water for a while, and then wash it again?
I'm kind of at a loss for how to fix it because I've never encountered such starchy, shitty quality basmati rice before.
Soak for a few hours or if you need it fast, repeatedly soak, rinse with a hand rubbing the grains together good, and drain in quick succession until the water runs clear. It might take 5-10 rinse cycles.
Add a little salt to the water when you cook it.
This has been my standard approach, but before the rice changed it consistently only took two cycles of that. I'll try just doing more rinse cycles and see if that fixes the problems or if there's more wrong with it than just how starchy it is.