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Old October 20th, 2006, 01:19 PM
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Question Rice Cooker

Not sure if this is the right area to post but, here goes
My family and I eat alot of rice, currently it's the kids fav with carrots being a busy family with young children (if it ain't broke- don't fix it) we go with the fast and easy(and I know they'll eat it) Kraft Minute Rice. Here is my question does anyone of you own a rice cooker and how easy and what types of rice can/do you cook in it? Are there different kinds of cookers, or are they all pretty much the same?
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Old October 20th, 2006, 01:26 PM
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I want one! My friend grew up with a rice cooker, and the rice is real! You start it in the morning, and by suppertime, you have real asian rice. You know? It comes out in clumps that you can pick up with a fork. It's GREAT. I so want one. Much easier than potatoes.

I don't know what other kinds of rice you can cook in them because she just did white rice... I think most of the cookers are similar and quite simple, but I'm not sure. I think costco has one.
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Old October 20th, 2006, 01:58 PM
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My former landlord's family had one, they are Vietnamese and used it every single day. But I had no idea it was an all-day thing, I was thinking 20-40 minutes, as on a stove top. Bet it would do brown rice too, with enough topping your kids won't notice and it is a great source of protein and other goodies; although I hear white basmati is almost as good, minus the roughage.
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Old October 20th, 2006, 02:31 PM
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Most of the cheap rice cookers (like the one I have) can only cook different types of white rice. In general white rices all take about the same time to cook and take about the same amount of water. The rice cooker I have determines the amount of time it cooks by weight. For instance if you put a cup of rice it takes a little less than 2 cups of water, which weighs a certain amount, so the cooker decides how long to cook it. So I can't cook brown rice in this cooker because it won't cook it for the right amount of time. If a simple cooker like this is all you need, mine was $10(u.s) for a small one (makes 3 cups of rice), and larger ones aren't too expensive.

If you go up a bit more in price you can find a rice cooker that has multiple settings to cook different types of rice, which is probably about the most elaborate machine you'd need for your use. Price goes up depending on how much rice the cooker holds too.
Depending on how much you want to spend, there are rice cookers that have digital keypads to choose exactly how you want your rice cooked and what kind of rice you're cooking, but these tend to be a bit expensive, and generally aren't used for anything but restaurants because most of them are made to make large quantities.

Quote:
You start it in the morning, and by suppertime, you have real asian rice.
Most of the ones I'm thinking of take the same amount as if you made it on a stove top. My electric rice maker takes 25 minutes. My microwave rice cooker takes 20-30 depending on the amount you make - it cooks up to 6 cups.

Btw, if you want convenience, it's really easy to make up a large batch of rice and then seperate it into portions and freeze it. I usually put each portion in aluminum foil and then steam it or boil it a bit to warm it up, it's really easy and cheaper than buying a bunch of minute rice.

Last edited by MyBirdIsEvil; October 20th, 2006 at 02:39 PM.
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Old October 20th, 2006, 05:14 PM
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My Mom has a steamer-is that what you mean? It cooks rice or veggies or even chicken. It's pretty basic-you put water in one place, the food in a basket thingie and plug it in. It works well, and the chicken is really moist and tender done that way. It'll cook all different types of rice and grain-comes with a recipe book that gives you the amount of water to add.

Basmati rice rocks! It smells great when cooking and tastes better than plain white rice.

I'm coveting the new PC rice cooker-all computerized and everything. But I was looking at one the other day. It makes up to 18-20 cups of rice at a time (!). That's a lot of rice.
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Old October 20th, 2006, 06:23 PM
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the steamer cooks veggies too

but my mom gave me this microwave rice cooker. I haven't used it but apparently you put water and rice and put it in the microwave and 3 minutes later it's done perfectly
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Old October 20th, 2006, 06:38 PM
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Ok.

I "stole" my mom's rice cooker and we use it all the time. I usually use 3 cups of water to one and a half cups of white rice. I add a chicken buillon cube for each cup of water (I mash it between my fingers into the water before adding the rice) and then add browned chicken and cooked corn. Yummy! And there are always enough left overs for lunch the next day.
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Old October 21st, 2006, 11:25 PM
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A rice cooker is definitely worth the storage space. Those of you using twice as much water must be using long-grain white rice. If using short-grain, use equal amounts of water and rice. I like slightly more water, like 1 cup rice and 1-1/4 cup water. Cooked rice reheats really well in the microwave. Try putting a piece of fresh lemon grass in the pot for a nice fragrance. I know they say not to wash rice because you're washing away the added vitamins, but I don't like the talc taste.
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Old October 21st, 2006, 11:29 PM
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I normally use either basmati rice or sushi rice.
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Old October 22nd, 2006, 08:00 AM
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I have a rice cooker and it's neat if I need to make a lot of rice, but with there being only the two of us I usually just cook my sushi rice on the stove top and add a small amount of vinegar to it. I'll only pull the rice cooker out if we are having company over because the cleanup isn't worth it with two people. But ours takes about 20-25 minutes to cook.
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Old October 22nd, 2006, 08:24 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by badger View Post
But I had no idea it was an all-day thing, I was thinking 20-40 minutes, as on a stove top. .
Takes like 30 minutes then keeps warm if it takes another 15 or 20 till the rest of dinner is ready. Maybe non cheap ones you can program to come on later in the day.. but with ours it would cook then keep it warm.. not sure if I'd want it kept warm all day..

We only eat sticky rice. In the 20 pound bags from the Korean store. Not sure how well it cooks rice from a grocery store. But I enjoy rice never being burned since we went to a rice cooker.
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