First, get the Pot. You need the simplest rice cooker made. It comes with two speeds: Cook, and Warm. Not expensive. Now you're all set to cook meals for the rest of your life on two square feet of counter space, plus a chopping block. No, I am not putting you on the Rice Diet. Eat what you like. I am thinking of you, student in your dorm room. You, solitary writer, artist, musician, potter, plumber, builder, hermit. You, parents with kids. You, night watchman. You, obsessed computer programmer or weary web-worker. You, lovers who like to cook together but don't want to put anything in the oven. You, in the witness protection program. You, nutritional wingnut. You, in a wheelchair.
The three-cup Pot
And you, serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. You, person on a small budget who wants healthy food. You, shut-in. You, recovering campaign worker. You, movie critic at Sundance. You, sex worker waiting for the phone to ring. You, factory worker sick of frozen meals. You, people in Werner Herzog's documentary about life at the South Pole. You, early riser skipping breakfast. You, teenager home alone. You, rabbi, pastor, priest,, nun, waitress, community organizer, monk, nurse, starving actor, taxi driver, long-haul driver. Yes, you, reader of the second-best best-written blog on the internet.
We will begin with a scientific conundrum. You put Minute Rice and the correct amount of water into the Pot, and click to Cook. Minutes later, the Pot clicks over to Warm. Tomorrow night, you put whole grain organic rice and the correct amount of water into the Pot, and click to Cook. An hour later, the Pot clicks over to Warm. Both nights, the rice is perfectly cooked.
How does it know? There are no dials and settings on the Pot. As far as you can tell, there is only a heating element beneath. There doesn't look like room for anything else to hide. How does the Pot know how long to cook the rice? It is a mystery of the Orient. Don't ask questions you don't need the answers to. The point here is to save you some time and money. If you want gourmet cooking, you aren't going to learn about it here.
[The 10-cup PotThe eternal dilemma: Which rice? Minute Rice cooks fine in the Pot, if you will but follow the exact instructions on the box. Later, I will instruct you not to read instructions. That's further down. For now, read the Minute Rice box! It is called Minute Rice for a reason. If you let it Cook or Warm for half an hour, you are going to be poking around your Pot looking for your rice. Minute Rice is for when you're in a big hurry and nutrition be damned. Minute Rice has been painstakingly deprived of its vitamins and things, which are fed to boars and captive chickens. Use real rice. Brown rice is good for you. Basmati is nice. Don't overlook other grains and pastas. [Note: Someone wrote in saying oh, oh, I can't eat this or that kind of rice! I'm allergic! Then don't eat it. Do you think I want to give you the hives?
I am not a French gourmet. I am a practical cook. An American, Urbana-born, and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make a cookbook in my own way. When I cook, I want to eat in the immediate future. I can cook for my wife or the whole family as easily as for me. And, as Travis Bickle says, "anytime, anywhere." To be sure, health problems now prevent me from eating. That has not discouraged my cooking. Now cooking is an exercise more pure, freed of biological compulsion.To repeat, get the Pot. I have had about a dozen over the years. I always buy Zojirushi. I have no idea if that is the best. I use a 3-cup and a 10-cup. They make many models and sizes. Have nothing to do with anything "Micom Programmable." Nothing to do with words like "Neuro Fuzzy." No dials or "settings." I am saving us money. What you want is your basic Pot with two speeds: Cook, and Warm. Sometimes it says Hold.
Aunt Mary's graduation class. She was kept home for fear of the typhoid
You can skip this paragraph. If you click on the photos of Pots, you go to Amazon and I get a percentage. I am not going into the rice cooker business. Go to Amazon yourself. Search for "rice cooker," and you will find 443 choices. There is one for $8.99, but you have to put it in a microwave. That's where they get you. I found a Black & Decker 3-cup for $19.99. Haven't tried it. Nor the Salton or the Aroma, but they look okay in their photos. I linked to the 10-cup Panasonic for a little variety. There is a 10-cup Zojirushi. There is even a 20-cup Zojirushi, if you are the Soup Nazi. We are still using a 3-cup Zojirushi our assistant, Carol Iwata, gave us as a wedding present 17 years ago. It has gone to Sundance with me. This is the bottom line: Get the Pot.Amazon has rice cooker cookbooks. We don't want no stinking cookbooks. Whatever your gender, you will do this like a man, by refusing to read the instructions. Or a woman like my Aunt Mary, who copied down and traded recipes for a lifetime, and never used a single one. When she was in the kitchen, she was on automatic. She had two speeds: Cook, and Serve. She did not know how to measure salt. "Just throw in about enough, honey," she told me. I believe I have mentioned before her poetic wisdom about how to estimate the number of potatoes sufficient for a meal.
One potato
For every member of the family.
One potato for the pot.
And one last tater, honey,
For fear of later company.We are her kind of cook. We try. We learn. We experiment. When we have absorbed the principle of the Pot, we will find ourselves day-dreaming new combinations. Can you cook potatoes in the Pot? Of course you can, and boiled eggs, too. You can cook about everything but a souffle.
Breakfast good for the rest of your life. Start with oatmeal. I like the stone-ground organic oatmeal. Put in as much as you need, and the specified amount of water. The water is important. I like my oatmeal a little al dente. You may like yours a little softer. With experience you can make small adjustments in the amount of water.
Mortar and pestle.
Look for some unground flaxseed. Never mind why unground. Good for you. I'm cooking here and I don't have time to do into endless details. Grind it fresh in a mortar and pestle. You don't have a mortar and pestle? People these days want everything done for them. Do like the Indians did and grind it with the end of a stick in the depression of a boulder. Measure out a generous teaspoon for every serving. There is a plenty good reason for grinding it fresh. Trust me.
Now you have your oatmeal. You can substitute any grain of your choice. Even amarath, seen as the favorite side dish in "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor." I like to use low-fat Silk soybean milk. Use what you like. Have a small or medium chopping block and a nice knife. Slice into smallish pieces the fruit of your choice. Any fruit except something like watermelon. I shouldn't have to be telling you this. Slice your bananas, your peaches, your applies, pears, plums, apricots, strawberries, your Kiwi. Throw in your blueberries, your blackberries, your boysenberries, your this berry, your that berry. Drop in maybe a couple dried prunes. No, stupid. Not all the fruits at once. We're making breakfast, not fruit compote. Let's say two fruits together are nice. Bananas and peaches make Peaches 'n Cream. Mmmm! Chaz loves 'em.
While you're doing this, your oatmeal is already cooking. Figure out the hard way when to add the fruit to the Pot so it tastes the best and doesn't get all boiled to death on you. Okay. Fruit's in. Slam the lid back down. Cook, click, and Warm. It will wait there for you a long time. Find out the hard way what's too long. If the result looks like a potato pancake, that was too long. On the other hand, you can make a sortofa half-assed potato pancake, although not crisp on the bottom, that way. You can even start with instant potatoes, if you are a fool. Chop in some onions on the far turn. Throw in onions, peppers and mushrooms, and when they're thundering down the home stretch, some stirred-up eggs, and you have what down home we call Skillet.
Now you have mastered the Pot. Every recipe works the same way. By trial and error, you learn to adjust the amount of water, for example to steam spinach versus steaming broccoli. And you will learn how to monitor the Pot when you're making something like soup, which you don't want to cook all the way down.
I'm strong to the finich, 'cause I eats me spinach.
Let's make some soup. Assemble your ingredients. Throw them in the pot. Add enough water to make it soup. I have been known to start with a can of Health Valley or Pritkin soup and add fresh ingredients. I have also been known to start with Health Valley chili and add ground beef, spices, and a small chopped onion late in the day, Slam down the lid. This watched Pot boils. Click to Warm when the soup looks about right. If it looks undercooked, add a little more water and keep going. You will also learn to add the ingredients in a mixture in the reverse order of how long you think they'll take to cook. For example, dried beans first. Even let them sit in water and Warm for awhile. If you're in a hurry, throw them in and boil them. The hell with them. Never put in meat and chicken so soon it will overcook. There are no rules. You are Aunt Mary. The last ingredients into the Pot should be the things you like still a little crunchy, like frozen peas and corn.Stews. Like soup only with less water, Albert Einstein.
Your ingredients, (1) Any meat. Lamb, pork, beef, chicken, goat, wild boar, minotaur, hot dogs, ground beef. Cut into bite-sized pieces. (2) Fish, you have to be careful not to overcook. Canned tuna is useful. Use chilled shrimp, but don't let it cook until it gets too tough. Delicate fish, wait to read my salmon recipe. (3) Vegetable protein. Slice up tofu bite-sized. Try textured soy protein, which comes pretending to be beef chunks, chicken chunks, hamburger. (4) Vegetables. Just about any and all, but use your common sense. Don't try to cook a whole head of cabbage. You can cut it into wedges and steam it. Easier, use Brusells sprouts. Obvious principles: Carrots take longer than peppers. (5) Grains and pastas. Any and all. Experiment. With some, you'll want to cook them a little before adding anything else. (6) Salt, pepper and oils. Use all the pepper(s) you like. Otherwise, see below.
Your spices. Earlier, I
carefully avoided mentioningdidn't emphasize that I want to put you on a low salt, low fat diet. This is up to you. Throw in salt by the handful if you want to. Aunt Mary would get nervous: "Don't you think that's about enough?" Hell, I don't care. Take a good look at that microwave oatmeal you've been eating. It's loaded with salt, corn syrup, palm oil and coconut oils--the two deadliest oils on earth. But it's high fiber, you say? Terrific. You can die of a heart attack during a perfect bowel movement. Use oils very sparingly. Even my pals at Pritikin say you can use a little olive oil. That means a little, Chef Boy-ar-Dee.
Other herbs and spices. Any and all, especially fresh ones like basil. Dried ones, rub them between your palms. Or use your elbow to grind them on the boulder. You don't want to be tasting stick.
The Original Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce. No oil. Very low salt.
You know how Lea and Perrins invented it? They owned the chemist shop in Worcestershire. A colonel in the British army came home from serving the Raj, and told them about a great sauce he had tasted in India. John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins worked together with great care to assemble the correct ingredients. They left them to ferment in a barrel down in the cellar. The colonel never came home again from India. Three years later, Lea & Perrins remembered the barrel, but they couldn't remember what they put into it. So, they invented Worcestershire Sauce. It is still made in the original factory on Midlands Road. The neighbors smell like Bloody Marys.
Marie Sharp's Exotic Sauce. Made in Belize, the former British Honduras. You were thinking of Grenada. Cooked up first in the kitchen by Marie and her family, now by 20 employees who are like family. No salt. No oil. A little spicy and and very delicious. Ingredients: fresh green mangoes, tamarind, raisins, ginger, sugar, vinegar, onions, garlic, Habanero peppers and spices. Sold in stores and on the Web. Marie makes a lot of hot sauces, but the Exotic Sauce does not alarmingly claim to remove spots from your driveway. Worcestershire and Marie Sharp's Exotic are the two best steak sauces in the world. Sometimes I get to the point where a add a little Worcestershire, Marie Sharp's or Saigon Sizzle to everything. Then I remember that nothing whets the appetite like the smell of curry cooking. However, there is strictly speaking no such thing as "curry powder." You can purchase the constituent ingredients and combine according to taste. You will have noticed I do not recommend cooking steaks in the Pot. That would be a bad idea. Cook them over a fire on your boulder.
Marie Sharp invented one of the two best steak sauces in the world.
House of Tsang Saigon Sizzle Sauce. Contains some salt and oil. Use it when you go crazy mad. I do, several times a week. A nice addition to a stir-fry. How do you stir-fry in the Pot? You don't. Combine the ingredients of your stir-fry and Pot them. Much lower oil that way. Start with rice or the grain of your choice, let it cook awhile, then throw in whatever you want in your stir-fry. Animal or vegetable protein, onions, peppers, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, baby corn, anything. Also try Sweet & Sour sauce (and throw in some pineapple chunks) or Peanut Sauce (and throw in some soy nuts). A few drops of sesame oil add aroma. I like to stir in some frozen peas at the last moment, and let them cook on the way to the table.There are countless other sauces. These are mine. There are countless combinations of grains and foods. You will be full, healthy and happy. You will become the center of attention when you claim you can cook almost anything in the Pot. Take it from me. I put it in my Who's Who entry, and it has added immeasurably to my aura of mystery and intrigue.
Dear Readers: If you desire fame, please please send in a recipe so I can rip you off when I publish my stinking cookbook in 2009. Chaz has been after me to write this book for years, but for some reason she objects to my title, "The Pot and How to Use It." So do my publishers. You have to Use the Pot to love it.
¶
"The Legend of the Legendary Rice Cooker: A Quest for Love." Written and directed by Bobbie Liang. Winner of 2007 Baulkham Hills High School Short Film Festival¶
Finally...a post for the stay-at-home hosewife with not-so-much time on her hands (we're your target demographic, I know).
But will it rival my beloved Crock Pot? That's what I really want to know. But I'm a sucker for a gadget, so the Amazon order is in and I'm determined to find out.
Ebert: You can try leaving it on Warm for an extended period, but keep an eye on it and unplug it if it causes any concern. I think you're safer with your beloved Crock Pot. You probably have more than two square feet of counter space. Think what a treasure the Pot is for Asians who don't have kitchens as big as an indoor skating rink.
Dude, I can't risk a rice cooker purchase. Three years ago I bought a cast iron pan and ever since Amazon has tried to convince me that I need to buy a $50 Peugeot Pepper Mill. It comes up every damned week on the recommendations. I shudder to think what would happen if I bought a rice cooker.
You have intrigued me with your tales of the Pot. I think I know what I want for Christmas this year. I have never used a slow rice cooker, but I put wear and tear on my crockpot every winter. Warms up the kitchen and cooks dinner for me--what's not to love?
I know a great fudgey "cake" recipe for the crockpot--I wonder if it'll work in the Pot?
Here's the recipe: Note to readers:
Cooking time is about 2 and 1/2 hours.
Cake
1 cup all purpose flour (I have no idea if oat flour would work-interesting to try)
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbs baking cocoa (ie unsweetened)
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (I use skim)
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cupped chopped nuts
Syrup/sauce
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 and 1/2 cups hot water
Chocolate chips/toffee bits/dried cherries/whatever
Spray the inside of your slow cooker. Mix first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Stir in next 3 and mix until smooth. Add nuts. Spread batter in cooker.
Mix syrup ingredients together until sugar is dissolved. Pour evenly over batter. Cover and cook on HIGH for 2-21/2 hours or until toothpick comes out clean. Turn cooker off and let stand--now is the time to add the choc chips or toffee etc and stir once. Spoon extra "sauce" or syrup over serving.
Great with ice cream.
Ebert: I don't think that's going to work in the Pot. In fact, I think it could catch on fire, and fill the house with the smell we get on cold winter nights all over Chicago's Loop when the Tootsie Roll factory fires up.
My god, this is a priceless entry for someone who fits TWO of your categories, college student and solitary writer. All the better because you posted this just as I was beginning to panic about my current extreme need to save money feeding myself. And what's more, you threw in witticisms and references, right down to Saul Bellow! For real, this post was crucial, thank you.
Mr. Ebert,
It seems to me that the rice cooker way of life you endorse would be perfect for the stars of the documentary "Cinemaniacs." Makes sense, since it was developed by a borderline cinemaniac (I mean that in the best sense, of course). Also, Werner Herzog could probably have used these techniques to make that leather shoe a little bit more digestible, no? Thanks so much for the years of reviews and the new joys of the blog. Happy rice cookering!
Rhett
Wow, this is a surprise. I never thought you had this side to you. Never seemed the cooking type.
I'm a girl living with a single mother, so I always had to know how to cook for myself. It's really a must. How can anyone survive on take out or eating out forever?
Maybe your post will have a good impact on men who didn't know how to use the pot before. One can only hope!
Food is the universal solvent for disolving the uneasiness during any social situation, its what brings people together, since its very nature is one of survival and personal exchange. Nowadays, in a world of packaged, nutrition deficient goodness, rice seems to be universal because you can make it with anything, eat it with anything, share it with anybody; its also quite healthy.
Personally, I was never big on gourmet food. While I've never had a personal chef like the wealthy or the famous, I think I can safely say I'd prefer ordinary comfort food to anything else.
Back when I was in the military, I never really enjoyed eating out often. When I would go to parties with friends or social gatherings, there would often be an abundance of the same old finger sandwhiches, rubbery meats or frozen vegetables (You can tell the difference between fresh and fake-no matter how fancy the presentation).
When I was deployed to Iraq, our plane had to make an emergency stop, since our jet was leaking fuel right out of the sky! We stopped in Frankfurt and were thankfully placed in a five-star hotel. We were given wonderful food, fresh fish, gourmet breads, ice-cream and even your dreaded caviar. Despite being very tasty, I think I'd still prefer eating a large pizza or just rice with some fish or fried chicken fingers. Its not that I'm underprivelaged in the mind, its simply because I know my own memories, and the memories of most people do not come from butlers serving you the greatest dishes this side of the orient express. We'd all like to believe we'd prefer fancy cuisine all the time, truth is, most of us just like a good old fashioned home cooked meal.
A rice pot is probably one of the best inventions out there, it sure made my life a whole lot easier. Most of the best meals I've had around the world came complete with a pot of rice.
One of the best meals I ever had was in Thailand, I had stopped along side a country road near the outside of Udorn, just a short distance from Bangcock. This little house on the side of the road was owned by a very old couple. The husband was a fisherman and his wife was this wonderful cook. Their restaurant consisted of mainly a counter which oversaw their living space, a small little Coke machine hanging near the side of a register (I wish I could remember the address). On their menu, was but one humble item: Enormous Jumbo Shrimp which they lightly sprinked with a touch a fresh lemon from their tree, sautaying them lightely. That's it. It would practically melt in your mouth. Best, freshest meal I've ever had. Beat that, John Travolta and your gourmet chef.
Ebert, I could not love your blog any more than I do. I clicked on the link expecting some dry reference from a pot to...I don't know, the latest Kevin Smith movie, and was surprised, hesitant, disappointed, humored, and then informed. I think I'm actually gonna go out and get one of these things now.
Thanks, and keep up my favorite blog (you pushed out DailyKos, can you believe it?)
"When I cook, I want to eat in the immediate future."
Amen, brother, amen.
Cooking humor? Who knew? We have a cooker. Have had it for at least 10 years. Used it maybe 5 times early on. Been in the barn ever since. I liked your take, so tomorrow I will pull it out of the cabinet and give it another chance. Luckily I passed on selling it on eBay.
So who has the #1 Best Written Blog on the internet?
Thanks, John
Ebert: Dan Lyons at http://realdanlyons.com/blog/. I'm happy being down here at #2. It takes the pressure off. The whole list is here: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9116838&&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1
I thought this was a really interesting post! I kept waiting for some connection to a movie or for it to flow in some other way away from cooking, but it just kept on it! I don't have any recipes to suggest or anything, but I wanted to say that I thought that this kind of writing would make a great cookbook. Nice and loose, with just enough information to get one going but not so much as to glorify the authors knowledge. It was like you were glad to give the information, but didn't really have any interest in repeating it. If you missed it the first time, it's your own fault. Very compelling, good stuff!
Dear Mr. Ebert,
Whatever Studs Terkel meant to your generation as the greatest American writer, one whose words filled your heart with joy, one whose words you eagerly anticipated reading; whatever Studs meant to you, Mr. Ebert, I can say without hesitation that you mean that to my generation.
While I don't particularly enjoy going to movies often, I do turn to your website most days to read what you have to say about them. I learn so much from your reviews, because they go so far beyond the movie being reviewed. And now your blog extends that wonderful writing and great sense of perception to, well, everything from Studs Terkel to The Pot. That the above blog, about a simple rice pot, held my interest and made me smile is a great testament to your profound brilliance as a writer.
Thank you. Bless you. May you live well and write for many, many more years to come.
I love my cheap, $12.99, rice cooker. My eldest daughter has celiac disease and cannot eat traditional pastas and breads, so we live by our rice cooker and bread maker. We eat rice four days a week and I would die without it. Cut up some pork strips, add some gluten free cream of mushroom soup, put it on top the rice, add some green beans and a spinach salad with carrots and cucumber, a drizzle of Italian dressing ( also gluten free)- voila- dinner for four for less than $20.
BTW, you'd be surprised how much of our food uses gluten as a binding agent. Half the stuff we used to eat is no longer allowed in my house.
Nice Greek poetry,Einstein.
Duck-Soup?
Ebert: Take a duck. Behead it on your boulder. Remove feathers, wash, chop into pieces, cover with water and some bouillon. Add sliced celery, carrots, onions, garlic. The poultry seasonings of your choice--sparingly. Rice. A bay leaf. You will probably have to add more water midway. Warning: Shield your eyes while reading one of my forthcoming blogs from Donald Duck's Family Tree.
Ah1Absurdity!
Ah1Absurdity!
My wife and I got married two years ago and out of the few wedding gifts that were NOT towels, we ended up with a rice cooker. It was a Black and Decker 16-cup rice cooker (model RC426). We followed the instructions and the thing just ended up making a mess. It spewed water all over the place and there was so much steam that it made the cabinets wet. Was I doing something wrong? Or is this like microwave popcorn where you really can't trust the instructions?
We haven't used it since, it's been sitting in the corner of our dining room amid the stuff we will donate to Good Will while I agonize over the decision to give it to the poor and have them inherit the same problem I had.
Our old manner of cooking rice was in a metal pot that we use on the stove. It doesn't gauge itself but it sure makes less of a mess.
Ebert: Shouldn't be one drop of spew. You were pranked by your friend. Never read the instructions. This blog entry is all you need. The instructions even tell you: "CAUTION! Do not cook anything but rice in this cooker!" Yeah, like the Pot gives a damn. The bastards are just trying to sell you some other pot.
Dear Roger, sorry for putting this here, but I feel that I must comment about Erica Jong's seemingly paranoiac view on the election. The article by Michael Powell, "Obama Is Up, and Fans Fear That Jinxes It," appearing in The New York Times on October 31, may show some light into this behavior.
I call on my American friends, regardless of race or political convictions, to maintain levelheadedness throughout these last days of the election, and beyond. I exhort my American friends, from Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain to the hoi polloi, to truly grapple with the issues at hand and be responsible, because the way we outsiders see the U.S., she is in deep and dire, not to mention farcical, mess. A mess ranging from the size of the U.S. national debt to the blood of the innocents that have spilled due to belligerence borne out of dubious and/or misguided ideals. If Bertie Wooster were here, I can imagine him saying, "Can you imagine how ridic your posish is?" If these problems are left untended, what then will your posterity say about this generation?
Uphold the true spirit of democracy, and put the country first before bigotry or partisanship.
Ebert: You are quite correct, but I think I'll also try acupuncture.
We didn't cook anything but rice in our cooker, it still made a mess. Why would an appliance come with instructions that are basically useless?
The heck with it, I'll just make my tater tot casserole in the oven and be be done with it.
Mark Palmer nailed it.
We all miss Studs. It's obvious the hole in your life. No one can take up his flame. Mr. Ebert, we need the wisdom of our elders. For better or worse, you are now an elder of words. I always look forward to the next utterance. I am better for it. I'm buying one of those stupid rice pots now. For no other reason than this post.
Bless you.
Your friend you have yet to meet,
Steve
Dear Jerry Roberts, you wrote:
It spewed water all over the place and there was so much steam that it made the cabinets wet.
It spewed water all over the place? Sounds like you've put too much water into the rice (although, I have to say that it does that sometimes, even under normal circumstances.) Also, did you wash the rice first until clear (about three times)? As a personal rule, the volume of rice you put into the cooker is also the volume of water, and a bit more, you use to cook it in. Or, be sure to only use the measuring cup that came with your cooking gadget. And yes, it's supposed to steam and wet the cabinets. I put mine under the kitchen exhaust fan.
Who's interested in Chinese Radish Cake?
Ebert, you are full of crap. This is THE best-written blog on the internet.
Regarding your conundrum:
Minute Rice is a brand of parboiled rice. It takes less time to cook because it has already been boiled in the husk. I have never cooked whole grain organic rice, but I believe it hasn't be parboiled. Because Minute Rice has already been boiled in the husk, it takes less time for the rice to become saturated; I imagine that this is not the case with whole grain organic rice. Once the rice is saturated and the residual water has boiled away, the temperature of the rice exceeds the boiling point, thus tripping the thermostat in the rice cooker--the rice cooker then switches to "Warming". Since it takes less time for the Minute Rice to become saturated, it achieves the "Warming" state faster than the whole grain organic rice. Of course, that's just one theory. Personally, I'm a fan of the Intelligent Pot.
When the wedding wrap revealed a rice-cooker, I put on my best 'at-least-it's-not-another-platter' smile. Three years on, the husband's gone but the rice-cooker is still with me. Steamed vegies, quick risottos and perfect basmati every time.
What election? Where?
Sir --
This piece achieves a certain manic intensity normally found only on bottles of castile soap.
With admiration,
Geoff
As an expat living in China I can vouch for the awesomeness and surprising versatility that is the rice-cooker. And yes, it most certainly is a critical device in the average small kitchen here.
Robert in Taiwan: you are truly a wise man. :-)
And Mr. Ebert, apologies in advance but I have to ask: what's your fave rice cooker recipe for chili?
(If it's not too far off topic, long as we're talking food: I'd also ask what your favorite place is in Illinois for Chicago Dogs. Here in Long Beach CA we have a great place called Mustard's that makes 'em with Vienna Beef dogs, and they're terrific, but I can only imagine how mindblowing they are in your hometown.)
Ebert: Just how you'd figure: Beans, ground or chunk beef or vegetable protein, onions, garlic, maybe some peppers, maybe some bacon, maybe some cocoa powder, tomatoes or try stewed tomatoes (bigger tomato chunks cut up), and chili powder, garam masala or the peppers of your choice.
Did you know that the Pot is now the "in" thing with the gourmet set? In "sous vide" cookery, one vacuum-seals a protein (steak, fish, egg) and submerges it in water kept very precisely at the desired final temperature. Leave the protein in for an hour, two hours, or a weekend, and the result is still perfectly-cooked. A steak, medium rare, from the surface to the core, all the same shade of pink, AND ANYWAYS, I digress:
The pro-chef implementation of this idea is an "immersion circulator", which immerses and circulates water and I don't know anything more than that except that it costs $10,000.
The home-chef implementation is a doohickey that one plugs the Pot into that keeps water in the Pot very precisely at a desired final temperature.
I don't know if "molecular gastronomers" have yet repurposes the boulder and the stick, but there's a whole future ahead of us, so I have high hopes.
Roger:
Add a PID controller (Auberins or Fresh Meals Solutions) and a Foodsaver, and you can change your world forever with sous vide cookery.
Ok, totally not in the spirit of your post, but if you are going to limit yourself to using a rice cooker, a little bit of after-market gear can go a long way.
First off, I must say that the rice cooker my wife and I received for our wedding was, hands down, the best present we got--beating out the TV and the queen-sized bed.
Second, this definitely made me laugh out loud at least 7 times while reading it, and about 2 giggles afterwards while thinking about it. I will never see my rice pot the same way.
Reading this while watching an Iron Chef (Japan) rerun left over on my TiVo. I notice that one of them has a pot going. If it's good enough for an Iron Chef it should be good enough for all of us, no?
Aww. I thought this post was going to be about maurijuana.
"The Pot and How to Use It."
Cookbook, drug manual or guide to potty training? Who cares what your editors say, that title is brilliant.
Mr. Ebert,
I never watch a movie without first reading your review. I feel the same way you do about 99 percent of the time regarding movies, I just love how you put my feelings into words, and often read your reviews out loud to my fiance or my children.
I've just found your blog... and have been seriously contemplating purchasing a rice cooker for some time. Now I know what I will be asking for for christmas!
I can't believe you love House of Tsang sauce as much as I do! I have never found anyone else who used the sauce other than those I've turned on to it. I absolutely LOVE their spicy schezuan stir fry sauce and when it is on sale, will buy 10 bottles at a time. It is very spicy and flavored absolutely perfectly. I use their classic stir fry sauce for my children's stir fry, as the spicy schezuan is indeed too spicy for them. I don't care for the saigon sizzle, which you like, as it is too sweet for me, and i only like sweetness in my desserts. If you like spicy, try the schezuan spicy stir fry if you haven't already... delicious... have you tried it?
My children and I were rear ended in a bad car accident a year ago, and I suffered spinal fractures and other injuries. I can not presently work, and end up watching more movies than i used to get to, and your reviews mean a LOT to me!
Thank you for all you do... how cool that you have this blog!
I have long been a fan of the rice cooker. My stepfather is Japanese-American and I was raised eating rice- from a rice cooker- with just about every meal. I remember seeing ads for instant rice that advertised that it never stuck together, and thinking "that's weird, isn't rice supposed to stick together?" Anyway, when I got my first apartment in college the first appliance I wanted was a rice cooker. It was far more important than a toaster. That Christmas, my parents got me a Hitachi "chime-o-matic" with an "on" and "warm" setting. That was over 20 years ago, and I've used that very same one several times a week ever since. Unlike the dire warnings you have seen, my instruction booklet actually comes with directions for steaming veggies! (Mine has a little steamer insert that is basically a little raised disk with holes, that goes in the bottom before you add veggies and water). I have to admit, I have never tried cooking a protein in it. I will have to try that! I wonder if you could start with the flash-frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts, or if you'd need to thaw them first?
Awesome. I really LOVE beef stew from "the pot