Food Stuff

I love rice. Growing up, my mom fed us rice with almost every meal. Minute Rice. It was cheap, filling, and I couldn't get enough of it. As a kid, I think I preferred rice and gravy over potatoes and gravy. I didn't have what I always called "real rice" until I was in college. I didn't have brown rice until I was out of college. And even older the first time I had jasmine and basmati rice. I still love it.

So, yesterday I bought a rice cooker.

The first time someone told me they wanted one, I laughed. Who needs a rice cooker? Then I moved to the Pacific Northwest and live in an area where various forms of Asian food is on pretty much every corner. And the rice I made on my stove was no longer adequate.

I've had my rice cooker for one day and already I love it. Really love it.

I bought a Zojirushi NHS10 6-cup rice cooker and steamer. I didn't know a whole lot about rice cookers before I bought one. I read some reviews on Amazon. I knew that Zojirushi was considered a good brand, but I also knew they were expensive. The one I bought isn't fancy and there were less expensive brands, but this one was comparable with the two or three I was considering.

Since buying it, I've used it twice. I have a feeling outside of my hot water kettle that I use every morning for coffee, this is the appliance I will use more than all others.

It works great. I read some of the complaints: It overflows. It spits steam and starchy water out the steam hole thingee in the lid. And I read the advice from others--and they were helpful.

First thing I did was make rice to make Curried rice Chickpea Salad. I measured out one cup of long grain brown rice and added water up to the little line in the cooker. I found out fairly quickly it wasn't enough. I added more. It cooked, turned itself off, and all was good.

The second thing I made was brown rice using a mix veggie broth and water and put some edamame in the steamer (and then roast some veggies with salt, pepper and garlic at the same time). This time I measured "one cup" of rice using the little plastic cup included with the steamer. I added two cups (where one cup = 8 oz) of liquid. This is what I learned: The "one cup" referred to in the instructions means the cup included with the cooker, not the one cup that equals 8 ozs. And the liquid recommended in the instructions doesn't seem to be enough. Based on what I've read, the instructions and measurements are for Japanese rice and it's different from the long grain rice used by more Americans. I have no clue if that's true, but I do know the instructions are slightly off.

Anyway, both rice dishes turned out wonderfully. Some alterations I made to the Curried Chickpea Salad: I used three cups of rice and two cans of chickpeas. I used agave nectar in the dressing instead of honey to make it vegan. Despite the increased amount of rice and chickpeas, I didn't increase the amount of dressing. I don't like dressing heavy salads.

I topped off the rice/edamame/roasted veggie concoction with some sriracha and it was awesome in it's simplicity.

On a completely different note: Trader Joe's had vegan "jello" cup. I was surprised at how excited I got when I found out. But I can report that I have been eating black cherry "gel" cups all weekend.


**Edit: I fixed the mistake I had in the number of ounces in a cup. That way it will be correct if anyone stumbles on this in search of how to use a rice cooker and they don't read Frenchie's correction in the comment.