Sella, steamed and raw basmati: which rice for which dish.

The same grain at three different processing stages

Nothing separates these three at the field. They are all basmati paddy; what differs is the order in which heat and milling are applied. Raw basmati is simply hulled and polished. Steamed basmati is hulled, then steamed, then dried, which firms the grain a little. Sella takes the longest road: the paddy is soaked, steamed under pressure while the husk is still on, dried, and only then milled.

That pressure-steaming is what changes everything about sella. Heat and water gelatinise the starch inside the grain, and as it dries the starch sets again into a denser, harder structure. Colour compounds from the husk and bran are driven inward at the same time, which is why sella comes out golden rather than white and why washing does not take the colour off. The result is a grain that behaves less like rice and more like something already half-cooked and then hardened.

Sella: the forgiving biryani rice

Biryani is brutal on rice. The grain is boiled almost through, drained, layered over hot salan, stirred at the end and often reheated the next day. Raw basmati has to be caught at exactly the right second to survive that; sella has a much wider margin. Because its starch has already been gelatinised and set, far less of it leaches out into the boiling water, so the grains stay separate instead of gluing to each other, and the hardened structure resists breaking when you fold the layers together.

The trade-off is real. Sella has less of basmati's aroma, because the steaming drives some of it off, and the bite is chewier and firmer than a raw grain. It also needs much more soaking — an hour or two, and many cooks leave it overnight — and a longer boil. If you are cooking a large degh, cooking for a crowd where timing will slip, or making a biryani you know will be reheated, sella is the sensible grain.

Steamed basmati: the middle setting

Steamed basmati sits between the other two and is the least talked about of the three. Because the steaming happens after milling and without the pressure of the sella process, the grain firms up without gelatinising all the way through and without turning golden. You get a white grain that holds its shape under boiling and layering better than raw rice, while keeping more of the aroma than sella.

It is the right pick when you want a white biryani or a large pulao and do not trust raw basmati to survive the pot, and it is a good default for anyone who keeps ending up with broken grains. Cook it closer to the way you cook raw basmati than the way you cook sella: a soak of half an hour or so is usually enough.

Raw basmati: aroma, and the rice that rewards attention

Raw basmati is the fragrant one. Nothing has been done to it beyond hulling and polishing, so the aroma is intact and it elongates dramatically on cooking, which is the whole trick of a good plate of chawal. It is also the most fragile. Over-soak it and it breaks in the pot; boil it hard and you get a bottom layer of paste under a top layer of whole grains.

It is the correct rice for pulao, because pulao is cooked by absorption and the grain drinks the yakhni as it swells — you want a grain that takes flavour in, not one already sealed by parboiling. It is also the rice for plain everyday chawal alongside daal, salan or bhindi, where the point is aroma and a soft grain rather than structural strength. The basmati on our pantry shelf is an aged extra-long grain, sold ready for exactly this kind of cooking.

Soaking, boiling and knowing when to drain

Rinse first, whatever the grade, until the water runs more or less clear. That is surface starch you are washing away, and leaving it on is the commonest cause of a sticky pot. Then soak, and let the grade set the time: roughly twenty to thirty minutes for raw basmati, half an hour to forty-five for steamed, and one to two hours for sella.

For biryani, boil in a large volume of well-salted water — the grain seasons only in that stage, so under-salting the water leaves you with bland rice inside a well-salted masala. Drain at kani: lift a grain out and press it, and it should break into two or three pieces with a hard white core still visible. That core finishes cooking on dum. Never stir boiling rice with a spoon; shake the pot or lift gently with a perforated skimmer, because a spoon breaks grains against the side. For an absorption pulao, work at roughly one measure of raw basmati to one and a half of liquid, and add more for sella.

• Big-batch biryani, or one that will be reheated: sella.
• White biryani or a large pulao where you still want fragrance: steamed.
• Pulao cooked by absorption, and plain chawal: raw, aged basmati.
• Kheer and khichri: not a job for a firm grain at all. A softer, starchier rice is what binds them.