So, I'm sure there's some super-specialized place on the internet that could answer this question for me, but what I want to know is how many of you ladies have a rice cooker, and what else do you do with it?
I just finally got one tonight and made some fantastic, perfectly cooked brown rice. I've been wanting one forever, because I'm so easily distracted I always wander away from the stove and accidentally let my rice burn. (Or I put in too much water.) I know, set a timer, I'm just ADD in the kitchen, I hear the timer, taste the rice, and wander away again, thinking to myself, "I'll go check on it in a minute...". And it seems like every time it takes a different amount of time to get to the right consistency, 25 minutes, 30 minutes, 35 minutes... Easier to pony up the thirty bucks for the appliance than to try and change my behavior to become patient enough to deal, you know? Plus, honestly, the first batch of rice we made was so tasty, it's better than anything we've made on the stove, I don't know why.
So, what other things do you make in it? The instructions came with some recipes, but they seem mostly geared towards people using rice cookers in dorms or other places that don't have stoves or ovens, because why else would you use their super time-consuming recipe to make an omelette in it?
If it matters, it's a "fuzzy logic" rice cooker as opposed to the old school kind. And it has the steamer basket thingy for the top.
I'm so excited because I love brown rice and it's so tasty but I avoid making it (Manfriend usually does the honors) because it's a pain. Tonight we had brown rice with steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots (from the cool steamer basket!) but there must be a million other things you could do.
Religion
Honestly I only use mine to cook rice. Mine is VERY basic. Just for rice...no steamer basket.
1But I will NOT make rice without it. It makes brown rice taste so good and I can make the sticky white rice for chinese food. LOVE IT.
I have two, once that's strictly for rice and another I use as to make stew
2Harm, I couldn't believe the brown rice tasted better! I mean, I love brown rice period, but this was...fluffier or something?
I'm also excited it has a timer thing, so I can just set it to have brown rice ready at a certain time. I'm thinking I'll end up using it about as much as I use my slow cooker.
3Sorry, I'm gushing, you'd think I'd was talking about something more exciting an appliance!
But I think one of the reasons it might be better tasting is it automatically has a period where it just soaks the rice? I don't know, I'm perusing the instructions more carefully now.
This is the one I got : http://www.aroma-housewares.com/kitchen/appliances/ARC-1000.html?id=CAWD...
But it was only $30 at Costco, not $70 like on the website.
4Myst, what's your recipe for stew?
5TS I make this bouillabaisse type of stew that my grandma gave me the recipe for. It's made with different types of fish, mussels, and shellfish(shrimp, conch, lobster meat, soft crabs(sometimes)). It like to make them in the rice cooker when I want to cut down on cooking time and when I'm just making enough for me and the hubby.
And I sometimes make chicken stew in there too.
6Myst, do you just throw in the ingredients and hit the "brown rice" button or what?
7I usually put them in layers with starting the sauce first, then adding the fish once it's up to the boil and just let it go from there and add the shrimp and mussel in as last. But I have a Panasonic rice cooker with and it doesn't ask for the type of rice you're making. It sets by the time you want to cook and have an adjustable heat settings. I also like to make rice and beans, rice & mix vegetables in that one too.
8Cool, thanks!
9Yeah, I've only used mine for brown rice, too. I've thought about using it for fish, though. It really does make cooking the rice so much easier, though. And, it's allowed me to not cook the rice with butter anymore, which I always used to do on the stove.
10I have a rice cooker and LOVE it since I have the same problems you seem to have, TS (although I like to blame my issues on the altitude, rather than my laziness!). Our rice cooker has a steamer basket too, but we've yet to use it. I should give it a try tonight since we have a buttload of veggies to use up.
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