[minya]

A while back, in the green tea thread, Demolition and a few others recommended some rice cookers to me. Search is down so I cannot locate said thread, unfortunately.

So I'm starting a new one. I need rice cooker recommendations. I'll be living on my own soon (shock/awe) and since it will just be my girlfriend and I, a small size rice cooker is needed. I'm thinking maximum 3 cups; regular use will be 1 cup, give/take a half-cup. Is a cooker this small feasible?

Information appreciated!

Thanks,

- Chris

 

[archosman]

Don't know... let me go ask my buddy Hanada Goro

 

[mbriant]

HERE'S a bunch.

 

[harkamus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by minya I'm thinking maximum 3 cups; regular use will be 1 cup, give/take a half-cup. Is a cooker this small feasible? Information appreciated! Thanks, - Chris

Being Asian myself, I cook and eat a lot of rice. 3 cups should be plenty. We usually cook 3.5 cups, which ends up enough for my family(5 including me) with a little bit left over.

If you cook 3 cups of rice at once, it will be overkill for yourself and your girlfriend.

BTW, the perfect way to cook rice: Put the desired amount of dry rice in the rice cooker pot. Level it out by shaking the pot a little bit. The idea is to get it as flat as possible. Now, stick your index finger in the center and measure the depth of the rice with your thumb. Then, remove your finger and place it on the surface of the rice. Add water to the level you marked with your thumb + a small amount more. This will make perfect rice. Also, never rince the rice as that washes away a lot of nutrients.

It is NEVER one part of rice to one part of water! You may think that by measuring the depth of the rice and putting that amount of water would be one part rice to one part water. That's wrong. If that were the case you would for example add 3 cups of water to 3 cups of rice which will result in dry rice in the end.

Sorry for rambling.

 

[ampgalore]

Any rice cooker you find at walmart will do.

I recommend Panasonic, for inexpensive and reliable rice cookers.

Zurchirochi's (or whatever how it is spelled) are too expensive.

 

[ampgalore]

Never rinse raw rice? I was always taught to rinse raw rice before cooking. It's like washing everything you cook.

 

[harkamus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ampgalore Never rinse raw rice? I was always taught to rinse raw rice before cooking. It's like washing everything you cook.

Rice is cleaned before it gets bagged. It's not like they pick it from the rice paddy and hand it over to you full of animal droppings and tapeworm.

It's clean buddy. They even add minerals and things to the rice to make it more healthy. If you wash the rice you wash away a lot of the added stuff.

BTW, American rice sucks! *barf* Tooooooooo grainy. Buy some Jasmine rice in 50 pound sacks.

 

[mbriant]

I love Japanese rice. My ex used to cook it but often we'd find small light brown bugs in the bag. So we always washed it first. The bugs would drown, float to the surface, and we'd skim them off. I'm not a big fan of bugs in my food, but for some reason, I accepted it to have Japanese rice and figured it was just part of eating a "foreign food". Are you now telling me finding bugs isn't a common occurance?

 

[harkamus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbriant I love Japanese rice. My ex used to cook it but often we'd find small light brown bugs in the bag. So we always washed it first. The bugs would drown, float to the surface, and we'd skim them off. I'm not a big fan of bugs in my food, but for some reason, I accepted it to have Japanese rice and figured it was just part of eating a "foreign food". Are you now telling me finding bugs isn't a common occurance?

I have NEVER ever found a bug in my rice. Maybe that's Japanese rice. All I buy is 50 pound sacks of Jasmine rice. Never once was there a bug in it. ...and those are big bags of rice. We go through them in like 2 months.

 

[mbriant]

Did you look hard? If you simply scooped out some rice and dumped it in the cooker, you wouldn't notice them. They were very small bugs which blended in with the rice and you had to sift through the rice in a shallow pan to find them. Found them in several different bags over a several year period. That was the only food we ever bought that contained bugs. (that I know of)

 

[harkamus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbriant Did you look hard? If you simply scooped out some rice and dumped it in the cooker, you wouldn't notice them. They were very small bugs which blended in with the rice and you had to sift through the rice in a shallow pan to find them. Found them in several different bags over a several year period. That was the only food we ever bought that contained bugs. (that I know of)

Well, my dad washes rice when he cooked it. He's never seen a bug in the rice either.

 

[ampgalore]

If there are little white bugs in the rice, then that bag of rice probably has sat on the shelf for too long.

I think most of the good rice on the market nowadays are either directly from Japan or Japanese varieties grown in Thailand. Beats American rice, and other indigenous varieties hands down.

 

[mbriant]

Quote:

If there are little white bugs in the rice, then that bag of rice probably has sat on the shelf for too long.

I was thinking they were light brown, but now that I think about it, maybe they were white. They blended in perfectly with the rice. Since there aren't all that many Japanese people living in Toronto, chances are the rice did sit on the shelves for a while. Oh well ... added protein.

 

[tiberian]

1 and a half cup should be maximum for 2 because you must have other stuff to eat with and you don't want to have leftover rice unless you are doing fried rice.
make sure you get a non-sticky pot or its going to be annoying to wash.
btw i think japanese rice is overrated, it is a must have for sushi tho...

 

[harkamus]

For the record, I believe Jasmine rice is of Chinese or Thai origin or Hong Kong...not Japanese. We've never had Jasmine rice from Japan; the origin is marked on the bag.