One thing you should always do to rice before cooking it - and it makes a huge difference

Rice is a key ingredient in most of our diets. It's cheap, it's not too unhealthy and it has a long old shelf life so you can always have an emergency pack in the cupboard.

But despite most of cooking it pretty regularly, many will admit to still managing to get it wrong far more often than we should.

A top chef has revealed a secret trick which could put the days of burnt saucepans and mushy meals behind us.

Australia's Monty Koludrovic shared his expertise on 9Honey's podcast saying the key to perfect flurry rice is washing the grains before you cook them.

But we're afraid a quick old rinse won't do, and if you want to do it properly you'll need to wash it about 30 times. Yep, 30 TIMES.

Monty says: "When you wash it well it's just amazing

"They say to wash it 30 times.

"If you picture the starch being microscopic grains of stickiness... as they absorb water, they don't have the ability to stand up to pressure so their structure is pasty.

"Whereas the starch in the rice helps it stand up and be fluffy."

Now all we need to do is work out how to get the portions right...