help! should we buy a rice cooker?
Hello dear readers. I’m hoping you can help Chad and I settle a debate. He thinks we should get a rice cooker — you know, a contraption you plug in, pour in some water and rice and let it cook to perfection. I think this seems like another small appliance we will have to store and don’t really need. Do they really do a better/easier job than cooking rice the old-fashion way, on the stove? One of Chad’s favorite dishes (left over from his bachelor days) is beans and rice; and no doubt we’ll be making a lot of rice once Isadora starts eating food. But really, do we need this? As appliances go, is it useful like a Foreman Grill, or more like a rarely-used fondue pot? Tell me your rice cooker thoughts! If you like them, which one do you recommend? The above one is from Williams-Sonoma. — Angela M.
[...] minutes and serve with yogurt sauce. I dished it out with a simple rice pilaf (made in a pan, not a rice cooker). It was pretty damn yummy, especially the roasted chickpeas that had a nice, nutty crunch. Click [...]
I got a rice cooker last summer at a garage sale for two dollars and found myself using it constantly. It made fabulous brown rice, perfectly cooked. I also started using it to cook hot organic oatmeal in the mornings with chopped dried apricots or dried cranberries and it did a great job. I could get ready for work and it would cook on its own. Then I started cooking red lentils, oatmeal in the rice cooker and mixing it with an egg and whole wheat grains (that I’d cooked earlier in the rice cooker and was storing in the fridge) chopped red onion and some hot red pepper flakes and a small shake of italian seasonings and making up veggie burgers and cooking them in some olive oil in a black cast iron pan. The BEST veggie burgers I’ve ever had, yummie! and no cholesteral. Put a slice of cheese on top of these veggie burgers and they are super delicious (put the lid on the pan for a minute and the cheese melts beautifully). That 2 dollars I spent on the rice cooker were well worth it. It is sort of like a slow cooker in that you don’t have to tend it, but much faster and if you think outside the box, a great cooking tool. p.s. red lentils have a spicy taste just by themselves, so that, I think, is why they have become a veggie burger staple at my house (I and both my dogs love them). Plus I do like being able to have perfect brown rice at hand and not have to watch it cook, or even be in the kitchen, very convenient if I need the time for some other activity like walking the dogs, etc. Good luck!!!
[...] for an easy broiled, glazed salmon that is served over rice with broccoli. I use my handy rice cooker to to make the rice, adding broccoli to the pot just before the rice is done. While that is cooking [...]