I was never big on rice, until I tried Japanese style rice. It's a miracle and rinsing really does make a difference.
You'll need:
Japanese style medium-grain white rice (steamed medium grain white rice seems to work just fine) (see Looking at rice)
A frying pan with a non-stick surface. I used a 28 cm / 11 inch diameter model. I recommend a similar size for making 1 to 2 cups of rice.
A tight fitting lid for the frying pan. The lid does need to fit well so that excess steam gets trapped. A glass one is nice since it lets you see your rice's progress without opening the lid.
Following the method described in my basic rice how-to (Japanese rice basics), rinse the rice and drain it well. (Rinsing does make a difference in taste! You just need to do it a few times.) Put the drained rice plus 1.1 times the amount of water by volume in the frying pan. So, if you have 1 cup of rice, use 1 cup and a bit of water. For 2 cups of rice, use 2.2 cups (about 2 and 1/4) water. I don't recommend doing more than 2 cups at a time in this size frying pan.
At this point, ideally you'll let the rice soak a bit (about half an hour) for plumper grains, but you can skip the soaking if you're in a big hurry.
Put the frying pan on the stove top over high heat with the lid on. Bring to a boil - the water will bubble aggressively, like so.
Give the rice a good stir up from the bottom with a spoon or spatula.
Replace the lid tightly. Lower the heat immediately to low.
If you're using an electric range, the heat will not respond instantly so you'll have high heat for a couple of minutes. Take the frying pan off the hot burner for a couple of minutes until the burner has had a chance to cool down to the low level.
Let the rice cook on the low setting. You'll see the water get absorbed rapidly and big, starchy bubbles on the surface. This only takes about 5 minutes so be sure you're hovering near the pan with an eye on it! (I do other dinner-prep stuff while the rice is steaming.)
Once the bubbles have subsided, you'll see the surface of the rice with nice, even steam holes all over it. As soon this happens, turn the heat up to high for a minute or two, then turn the heat off. If you're using an electric range, take the pan off the hot burner and put it somewhere else (like on top of an unused burner).
Let the pan rest with the lid on for a minimum of 10 minutes. This is very important, otherwise you may end up with a little hard center in your rice grains. Al dente is good for pasta, not for rice! (At least, it's not good for Japanese style rice. Other rices, I don't think so either.)