Entries in this section are made in a 300w thrift store rice cooker (Aroma 6-cup model - ARC-363NG). On a Kill-a-Watt it pulls 271w cooking, 34.5w on keep-warm.

See also Roger Ebert’s famous rice cooker essay.

rice

white rice

white rice

1c rice, rinsed
2c water

place in rice cooker and press the lever :-)

Experiments, from best to worst:

  1. A. (1st attempt) 1c white rice, 2c water. Rinsed rice and cooked in rice cooker. Very close to perfect - 10k altitude made the water boil a little more vigorously than normal. Might add a TBS or two more water at high altitudes to compensate for lower boiling point.

rice and boudin

boudin on top before cooking boudin on top after cooking

I love boudin over white rice. Bulks up the boudin and cuts the spice to a mangeable level for me. Since both the rice and boudin require cooking I thought I’d try both at once.

v1.1 

12oz package boudin
1c/200g white rice
2c water

Coil up or cut up boudin in bottom of rice cooker bowl.
Rinse rice and add to bowl.
Add water.
Press COOK button.
  1. A+. Coiled up boudin in bottom of rice cooker instead of laying on top. Better infusion of flavor in rice I think.
  2. A. Coiled up boudin on top of rice. Tasted great, but will try boudin on bottom to ensure complete water coverage.

rice pudding

I did this first in the crock pot, results were good but but the cleanup was horrific. The rice cooker has a teflon pan so here we are. This pic was just after cooking shut off and the pudding is still quite loose. It would continue to set up nicely.

v1.1

55g of sushi rice
28g sugar
15g butter
2c milk

cinnamon, nutmeg or vanilla extract / almond extract
stir regularly to avoid scorching
  1. A. Still couldn’t find the vanilla extract, so added a squirt of Signature vanilla swirl flavoring and a dusting of powered cinnamon. 200w would have been more approprate than 300w; I had to lift/crack the lid to avoid boil-over. Boiling lasted about an hour then the cooker dropped to WARM setting. After about 1/2 hour on WARM the milk was absorbed and the rice was at a nice texture. Win!

sushi rice and nori

on the seaweed cut up soy on top like a heathen

I like seaweed and sushi rice, but not necessarily the fish. And fish isn’t practical for me, economically or logistically.

In the past I have put picked Asian vegetables or similar in the rolls but I did’t have any of that that, so it’s plain..

Version 1.0

rinse 1 cup of sushi
place in 1 2/3rds of fresh water for 30 mins

cook in rice cooker
pour out into bowl or flat surface
add sushi (seasoned rice) vinegar to taste
cool/dry with a fan

place on nori as desired
add rice seasoning as desired
allow to sit until nori softens/conforms
slice as desired

Experiments:

  1. B+. First attempt in the van. Not a huge fan of the Nakano vinegar I found, but the Goma Shio sesame-based rice seasoning is good. Will source some canned kelp or pickled veggies for next time to add visual and flavor interest. I don’t have a ramiken for soy so I put some on top like a heathen.

eggs

scrambled eggs

mixed before cooking soft-scrambled after cooker shut off

Experiments, from best to worst:

  1. A. (1st attempt) Using leftovers. 6 eggs, some shredded cheese, and a couple ounces of leftover ricotta from the last lasagna batch. Dollop of condensed milk. Eggs were soft-scrambled as the cooker shut off. As they sat (still on warm) they came together more to the dry-scrambled (no wetness) style I prefer. Easy cleanup in the teflon pan.

packaged foods

I am interested in using the rice cooker to cook processed sides for when I feel lazy.

Knorr mushroom rice

  1. A-. (1st attempt). Threw everything in and hit the GO button. (related blog post with pic)

Rice-A-Roni

  1. A. Classic chicken flavor. As with Pilaf below, but increased water to 2 5/8c (increased by 1/8th cup for high elvation). Worked great.
  2. A-. (1st attempt). Pilaf flavor. As with most RaR dishes, it requires browning down the pasta/rice in butter before cooking. I did this on COOK until the cooker reached temp and clicked over to WARM. I added the seasoning to the rice then added 2c of water and reset to COOK. Simmering commenced in 8 minutes and it was done in ~35mins. Rice is 95% done; another 1/8c of water at high elevation (10k’ here) might help polish it off.

Walmart Three Cheese Potatoes

  1. A-. (1st attempt). The instructions called for hot water, so I put the water in the cooker and heated it until the butter melted. Added everything and cooked until the cooker clicked off. At 11,000’, so could have used a couple tablespoons more water to account for lower boiling point.

leftovers

Generally I put a small amount of water in the bottom (1/8th cup?), dump in the leftovers, and hit the button. By the time the water steams off the leftovers are toasty. Leave them on warm as long as desired.

plans

Oatmeal is supposed to do well, but I might not have 300w extra power in the mornings.