(snipped)

I love my rice cooker, so easy to make rice in it.  Well worth
the investment in my opinion, plus using it as a veggie steamer
is a real bonus!  mine doesn't do that.

Sara

On Feb 29, 4:39 pm, "jofirey" <jofi...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I know it's even further OT, but since the subject came up, do you
have a rice cooker in your
basement collection of small appliances? I hate to buy something else
to store, but I'm considering
one, and wonder how well they work. We like rice, and I suck at
cooking it. It always turns out gummy.
This little appliance also steams vegetables, and I think I'd use that
often, too, so maybe it wouldn't end
up shoved to the back of the pantry floor.
Sherry

I've never had a problem cooking rice, so I don't have a steamer.  I don't
see the point in them unless you are cooking a large batch of rice.

Sometimes you can save gummy rice by taking the lid off when Its done,
putting a couple of layers of folded paper towel across the pan and putting
the lid back on.   It will dry it out a bit.

How to cook rice:

(This doesn't work for more than two cups of dry rice, at that point the
water you use needs to be less than 2 to 1)

In a pan with a fairly well fitting lid put two cups of water, a pinch of
salt, one cup of rice and about a tablespoon of butter or oil.  Bring to a
boil, then immediately turn the heat down to low.  Cover and cook for at
least twenty minutes and no more than thirty minutes.

I always have at least two types of rice on hand.  Extra long grain, and
pearl.  The long grain will fluff up with a fork when its done.  The pearl
rice will be sticky (not gummy).

Sticky rice is better with Asian recipes.  My kids and Charlie prefer it if
we are eating plain white rice.  They top it with soy sauce no matter what
its served with.

Note you can use any measure in the above, just so its 2 -1.

Fried rice:

Learned this from my MIL years ago.  Put a cup of long grain rice and about
a tablespoon of oil or butter in a frying pan with a lid.  Saute the rice in
the oil over fairly high hear at least until the rice is translucent if you
want mild rice or until its golden.  You have to stir this while its
browning or it can burn.

Now you can add some flavors.  For yellow rice I add Turmeric and Saffron,
salt and pepper and two cups of chicken broth.  Turn down to low, cover and
cook for twenty minutes.

For Chinese style fried rice I add two cups of chicken for beef broth, a
tablespoon of soy sauce and a few cut up veggies, such as julienne carrots
or zucchini, or celery, cut up peppers (Green or Red or Yellow) and or
sliced green onions.  Maybe some oyster sauce if you have it.  Reduce heat,
cover and cook for twenty minutes.

You can make a pretty good Spanish or Mexican flavored rice this way, by
adding some tomato paste or cooked diced tomatoes with the liquid, but I
tend to season that with whatever looks good that day.  Probably onion and
garlic powder and cumin.  Or fresh cilantro,

The main thing is turn down the heat as soon as it boils and turn off the
heat as soon as its done.

Jo

we have a dedicated rice cooker and a separate steamer that would do rice...
I love them both, I hate to cook and don't mind using either... Gramby has
one like you are talking about, Lee
On Feb 29, 4:39 pm, "jofirey" <jofi...@hotmail.com> wrote:

of

I

the

I know it's even further OT, but since the subject came up, do you
have a rice cooker in your
basement collection of small appliances? I hate to buy something else
to store, but I'm considering
one, and wonder how well they work. We like rice, and I suck at
cooking it. It always turns out gummy.
This little appliance also steams vegetables, and I think I'd use that
often, too, so maybe it wouldn't end
up shoved to the back of the pantry floor.
Sherry

Like Marina, I love raw fruits and veggies.  But there aren't a lot of
veggies that I like all that well.  Probably from being force fed them as a
kid.  Salads, beans, peas, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach,
artichokes and so forth are wonderful.  I like most fruits except apricots
(force fed again) and my biggie. . . pears.  I don't eat fruit cocktail
because one of the base fruits is pear.  I don't eat them fresh, canned,
pureed, or any other way.  Of course when I was in hospital last year, they
tried to give me pears in any form they could.  I had to write them a nasty
note on my menu choice form before they finally quit giving them to me every
day.  And they still tried to sneak them in on me every couple of days or
so.  I finally quit complaining and saved them for Rob, who loves pears.
Sigh.

Pam S