The Ultimate Rice Cooker (11 page)
1. Place the umeboshi, parsley, and sesame seeds in separate small, shallow serving bowls.
2. Place the rice in a medium-size serving bowl, sprinkle it with the condiments, and drizzle with some sesame oil and tamari.
Serve immediately.
note:
Japanese sesame seeds are sold toasted; you can toast them again in a dry skillet for more flavor.
Riso
is Italian for rice, and Italian rice is domestic or imported Arborio, Carnaroli, or Vialone nano. While these rices are commonly cooked into a risotto, the side dish that is like a creamy savory rice pudding, “everyday” rice is cooked so that the grains are dry and separate, more like a pilaf than a risotto. Home recipes for
riso
require the cook to measure the same amount of dry rice and water plus ½ cup extra water for the cooking pot. We found the measurements ran true when translating the recipe to the rice cooker. This rice takes a long time to cook for white rice, a full hour. Be prepared for the rice to be ever-so-slightly chewy in a percentage of the grains. One look and you will recognize the perfect example of a plumped medium-sized grain of rice. It is slightly moist, but dry on the tongue, and very tasty without being sweet. Serve with butter and Parmesan cheese as a side like any other rice bowl rice, or as a bed for sautéed meat and onions. This is the rice to make for stuffed peppers, stuffings, rice omelets, fritters, and Italian rice and vegetable salads dressed with olive oil and lemon juice.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular
YIELD: Serves 4 (about 31/ 2 cups)
1¼ cups Arborio, Carnaroli, or Vialone nano rice
1¾ cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil
Small pinch of salt
1. Place the rice in the rice cooker bowl. Add the water, olive oil, and salt; swirl to combine. Close the cover and set for the regular cycle.
2. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, let the rice steam for 10 minutes. Fluff the rice gently with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. This rice will hold on Keep Warm for hours. Serve hot.
CLICK TO SEE TO WASH OR NOT TO WASH
Japanese-style short-grain white rice is about 5 percent of the rice grown in the United States. Since half of it is exported, there is not much around. You might say it is a real specialty item. Short-grain rice makes the best sushi. It is also called pearl rice, especially in dessert recipes. Traditional cooking methods require soaking to get a nice soft texture. There is a lot of starch in short-grain rice, so it really sticks together after cooking, but deliciously so. It is a type of rice that tastes better with every bite. Our favorite brand of Japanese-style rice, Tamaki Gold, is labeled short-grain. “What were the proportions to get that Tamaki Gold so perfect?” asked Beth of Julie one day. “Three rice cooker cups and water to the line that says 3 on the bowl, just the way the machine was designed to cook.” This recipe gives measurements in U.S. cups, but if you use the white rice recipe from the manufacturer’s pamphlet, measurements will be in rice cooker cups. This is the recipe to use for imported and domestic Koshi Hikari.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular
YIELD: Serves 3 to 4
1½ cups (2 rice cooker cups) short-grain white rice
1⅔ cups cold water
¼ teaspoon salt (optional)
1. Place the rice in a bowl and fill about half-full with cold water. Swirl the rice in the water with your hand. Carefully pour off most of the water, through a mesh strainer or by holding one cupped hand under the stream to catch any grains of rice that are carried away with the water. Holding the bowl steady with one hand, use the other to rub and squeeze the wet rice, turning the bowl as you go so that all the rice is “scrubbed.” The small amount of water in the bowl will turn chalky white. Now, run cold water into the bowl, give the rice a quick swish, and carefully drain off the water as before. Repeat the scrubbing and pouring-off process twice more. By the third time, the water you pour off will be nearly clear.
2. Place the rice in the rice cooker bowl. Add the water (to line 2) and salt, if using; swirl to combine. Let the rice soak for 30 minutes to 1 hour in the bowl with the cover shut, time permitting. When the soaking period is finished, set for the regular cycle.
3. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, gently but thoroughly fluff the rice with a plastic or wooden rice paddle or wooden spoon. Let the rice steam for 10 to 15 minutes. This rice will hold on Keep Warm for hours. Serve hot.
Sticky Rice
Sticky rice, also known as glutinous rice or sweet rice (even though it isn’t sweet at all), is a staple in the Asian culinary repertoire and a frequent ingredient in stuffings and desserts. Japanese cooks combine it with small red adzuki beans for a savory, pink-tinted side dish that is often served at festive meals, topped with sesame seeds and salt. Chinese cooks mix sticky rice with sweet or savory tidbits for stuffings, hearty one-pot meals, or sweet puddings. It is the rice of choice in Thailand, where it is eaten with the fingers.
CLICK TO SEE TO SALT OR NOT TO SALT
Sticky rice must be soaked before cooking, for several hours at least, to cook properly, though overnight soaking is the most common recommendation. During the soaking time, the grains swell and soften, and will crumble easily between your teeth or fingernails.
Once it has soaked, there are three ways to cook sticky rice. There is the traditional method, steaming, and two modern ones: the microwave and the fuzzy logic rice cooker boil/steam method. Since the on/off rice cookers are easy-to-use, reliable steamers, we highly recommend this method. Some fuzzy logic rice cookers also are designed to cook sticky rice and have a cycle or button specifically for it. If your rice cooker is designed to cook sticky rice, it will say so in the booklet that came with it. You will notice that sticky rice takes less water than other types of rice and that the cooker’s sticky rice capacity is somewhat less than for regular white medium- and short-grain rices. (Julie’s medium-size Sanyo fuzzy logic cooker makes 3 rice cooker cups of sticky rice, versus making 5½ rice cooker cups of regular white rice.)
To make sticky rice in a fuzzy logic rice cooker, just follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Sticky rice made in a fuzzy logic machine is fine for some uses, such as when it will be combined with other ingredients, as in Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaves, but overall it is wetter, softer, and not as appealing as steamed sticky rice. You can also mix sticky rice with regular long-grain rice in mixed dishes such as Rainbow Rice in a Pot. To do so, you can substitute one-quarter to one-half sticky rice for long-grain.
Machine-made sticky rice should never be held on the Keep Warm cycle. When the regular cycle completes, turn the rice out into a bowl and fan it (or use an electric fan or a hair dryer set on cool) for a few minutes. Then serve it.
These instructions for steamed sticky rice come courtesy of Hiroko Shimbo, author of the encyclopedic and accessible book
The
Japanese Kitchen
(Harvard Common Press, 2000). Not everyone salts their sticky rice before cooking; feel free to leave out the salt if you wish. Hiroko notes that sticky rice is often served for special occasions, topped with a sprinkle of
gomasio
, the addictive sesame seed and salt condiment. She explains that you can make your own by toasting 3 tablespoons black sesame seeds in a small skillet over low heat until fragrant. If you wish, you can release more of the seeds’ fragrance and flavor by partly grinding them with a mortar and pestle or the Japanese ridged
suribachi
, made for precisely that purpose. Add 2 teaspoons sea salt to the sesame seeds and let the mixture cool.
You need an on/off rice cooker with a steamer basket or tray that fits into the top of the cooker. When steaming sticky rice, the steamer basket or tray must be lined with a piece of cloth, which is then folded over to enclose the rice. You can use a double or triple layer of cheesecloth, a square of muslin, or a cloth made especially for this purpose which is sold in Japanese markets. We have also used a clean linen handkerchief with great success. If you love rice, treat yourself to making this rice and enjoy the texture achieved by the steaming.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) or large
(10-cup) rice cooker; on/off o n l y
CYCLE: Regular
YIELD: Serves 4 to 6
2¼ cups (3 rice cooker cups) sticky rice 1 teaspoon salt
1. Wash the rice. Place the rice in a bowl (or use the bowl of your rice cooker) and fill the bowl about half-full with cold tap water. Swirl the rice in the water with your hand. Carefully pour off most of the water, holding one cupped hand under the stream to catch any grains of rice that are carried away with the water. Holding the bowl steady with one hand, use the other to rub and squeeze the wet rice, turning the bowl as you go, so that all the rice is “scrubbed.” The small amount of water in the bowl will turn chalky white. Now, run cold water into the bowl, give the rice a quick swish, and carefully drain off the water as before. Repeat the scrubbing and pouring-off process two more times. By the third time, the water you pour off will be nearly clear.
2. Place the drained rice in a bowl and add cold water to cover by several inches. Let the rice soak at room temperature for at least 3 hours, and overnight if possible.
3. Drain the rice, discarding the water. Add the salt to the rice and toss it gently to mix. Fill the rice cooker bowl about half-full of water. Close the cover and set for the regular cycle. When the water comes to a full boil, you are ready to begin.
4. Lay the cloth or a double or triple layer of cheesecloth in the steamer basket or tray. Pour the rice onto the cloth and spread it out as evenly as possible. Make a shallow depression 2 inches in diameter in the center of the rice. This allows the steam to circulate and cook the rice evenly. Fold the corners of the cloth over the rice to cover it completely. Place the steamer basket in the rice cooker and close the cover. Set a timer for 40 minutes. After 15 minutes of cooking, open the cover, taking care to avoid steam burns, and fold back the cloth. Sprinkle ⅓ cup water over the rice. Re-cover the rice with the cloth, close the cover, and proceed with the steaming. Repeat the water-sprinkling process once or twice during the cooking. When the timer sounds, open the cover and taste some rice. It should be tender. If it’s not, or if you are not sure, let the rice steam for 10 minutes more.
CLICK TO SEE REHEAT IN GRICE IN THE RICE COOKER
5. Transfer the cooked rice to a large bowl and fan it to cool the rice quickly.
6. Serve the rice immediately or, if you are making it ahead of time, cover it with a clean, dry tea towel and store it at cool room temperature. (If you have made the rice a day ahead, refrigerate it, tightly covered.) You can reheat sticky rice in the steamer or microwave oven.
Medium- and Long-Grain Brown Rice
Most rice cookers are not really engineered with brown rice in mind, although some sophisticated models have a setting for it. Nevertheless, all rice cookers can and will do a wonderful job of cooking it, as long as you keep a few basic points in mind. (If your machine is one of the relatively few models with a Brown Rice cycle, then by all means use it according to the manufacturer’s instructions.)
Brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice because its protective outer bran layer is intact. It also requires more water. Your brown rice will taste better if you have time to let the rice and water soak for about an hour before cooking, but this is not necessary. (Some fuzzy logic rice cookers have a soaking cycle built in.)
After much testing and deliberation, we came up with a rule of thumb for adapting the basic stovetop recipe for brown rice to the rice cooker. For white rices you adapt by using ¼ cup less water than the package says; for brown rices, start with ¼ cup
more
water.
As with white rice, the long-grain brown cooks up fluffier with the individual grains more separate, while the medium-grain is a bit stickier and moister. Wash the rice first, if you wish; washing will reduce stickiness by rinsing off some of the surface starch.
If you have the time, do soak your brown rice for 30 minutes to an hour before you cook it. This allows the rice to cook more evenly and quickly. If you don’t have time or you forget, don’t worry. Just push the button and go. Your brown rice will still be fine.
Use the proportions in the chart below as a guide; you may need to make adjustments for your rice cooker or for a particularly dry or moist bag of rice. Of course, personal taste varies, too. If you like softer rice, add more water; for firmer rice, use less. If the water boils over while you are cooking, try reducing the amount of water slightly (start with 2 tablespoons less water, and continue in 2-tablespoon increments). Note your adjustment on the chart to jog your memory the next time.
