http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Rice-Cooker-Bread


The same 2:1 ratio is usually recommended for all absorption methods of cooking rice. You'll find it in every cook book around the world.

I very rarely make plain boiled rice. I usually make a risotto, pilau or fry it.

I really want a rice cooker, but the portioning thing could be an issue. Anyhoo, I'm going to wait until post-uni, anyhoo.

Our uni halls had them in every kitchen...

I wish I'd known about them when I was at uni. It's the one time I really could have used one!

Everything is so much cheaper now though. Gadgets like this would have cost a week's wage back in the 80s, which is why I never afforded a sandwich toaster

My main problem is I move around too much, so I have to try and reduce gadgetty clutter. That and people tend to break/blunt stuff.

We'll have a non movable place from next year with lots of state of the art thingys

And it'll only be 100 miles from where I'm living...

So did mine. There were dozens of Chinese students in many of the halls. You could count the number by counting the rice cookers!

Personally, I prefer to keep kitchen implements to a minimum, and so I avoid them as microwaves are clearly the way forward. Come to that, pasta is clearly the way forward - for me any way, I just don't like rice as much!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No.

I couldn't put it better meself, except possibly with the addition of a "NO!"

Faye's aunt does the best rice I've ever had, and she does it in a saucepan, but then does something "secret" after it's boiled (people aren't allowed in the kitchen at this point as she is busy finishing dinner off and you'll just be in the way if you stay in there)...
Although I've never been to a country where the main diet is rice, it's far better than any rice I've had from a Chinese or Indian restaurant...

Secret eh? Sounds interesting... you'll have to find out .

I've never had the same "issue" with rice when i've been to a Chinese restaurant so it probably is just that my personal tastes differ to yours. It's the same with my flatmate who prefers his boiled and then strained rice over my rice cooker whilst i on the other hand much prefer my own rice.

To me it's sort of like the difference between having Pasta aldente and soft, the latter is still edible, but i much prefer the former but don't generally find people who cook it that way (although i believe it's getting more common now).



Problem with eating rice cooked from a saucepan or cooking rice using a saucepan?

Traditionally you're supposed to add enough water to cook the rice so you don't have to strain it but not so little that it burns too badly to the bottom of the pan since the actual burnt amalgam of rice is actually somewhat popular too lol.

I'd ask whether or not you've had rice from a rice cooker to compare but to be honest it's not like i'm going to make a debate out of this since everybody has their own tastes and preferences and if you enjoy cooking and eating rice from a saucepan then it's not as if i'm going to (or am inclined to) stop you.



I believe i've heard about microwaving rice like that from my mum before but i've never needed the opportunity to try it... not to mention my mum seems to be wary of using microwaves to actually cook anything lol.



I'd never heard of that before since i guess i don't read cook books (and just learn by watching parents or experimenting), another half coming from that everyone else i've seen "cook" rice in a saucepan generally just does the whole add water, boil then strain.

As for the pilau and frying it, may i ask how? I don't know much about Pilau rice and how it's done, but as for fried rice, don't you use already pre-cooked rice? From what i've heard my parents say and my own... "bad" attempt, trying to fry raw rice is rather time consuming and hard to do and as such most places use already pre-cooked rice. Although there is a specialty dish that actually does use raw fried rice however that uses Glutinous/Sticky rice (as opposed to normal rice) and is also very time consuming and hard to cook.

And thanks for that link about Fruit Loaf, i had no clue about that and will forward it to my mum... she likes baking stuff .

If you Google "cooking rice absorption" you'll find a lot of results saying 2:1. I always knew it as "the risotto method", as opposed to the "Boil it in a lot of water and rinse" method, which probably has a snappier name I don't know of. For certain, most Italians would die if you tried to feed them rinsed rice! England is probably not the best place to see people cook properly - we're more about mashed turnips

To fry rice, I par-boil it first for about 5 minutes. Then let it drain totally in a sieve to steam off and cool down. In the wok I scramble some eggs in vegetable oil, add the rice and stir-fry for another five minutes. I then sprinkle over quite a lot of soy sauce and put the lid on with the heat very low for a minute. I usually do this a while in advance, and then give it another quick stir fry before serving. The trick is to stir it enough to stop it burning, but not enough to break the rice. You want it slightly browned, but not dry and crispy. It's not difficult, but it takes practice to get it the way you like it best. I still get it wrong sometimes, usually when I have guests and I'm distracted!

Jeera rice I make exactly the same but with fried onions and cumin seed instead of egg. Ideally, use ghee instead of oil because it has a much better taste. It goes with any Indian meal.

You can add all kinds of stuff to make fried rice "special". I like fine green beans or prawns, but there's no end of stuff you can put in.

Pilau is basically a simple Indian style risotto. 1 part rice, 2 parts stock, onion, garlic, spices and peas cooked in a closed pan. I like to add finely chopped sweet peppers and split almonds. I imagine you could do it in a rice cooker, but I've never tried. In restaurants it is usually coloured with red, green and yellow inks. Let it rest and "fluff it up" with chop sticks before serving. Adding ghee or butter makes it richer in flavour and helps separate the grains. Cardamom is the most important spice.

This recipe is very close to the pilau I do: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/datab ... 7870.shtml

Note, you really should use basmati for any Indian rice dish and sadly the expensive stuff is definitely the best. Tildi tastes really good even if it's just steamed, which you really can't say about boring American long-grain...

The internet is fantastic for recipes, so if you want to try something find a few different ones and adapt to what you have in the cupboard.

I'm slightly intreged by the speciality fried rice you said about. If there's no water, I can imagine it might come out like Rice Krispies

Never thought about par boiling it first, although as you say i can see it would be tricky to balance not breaking the softer, just cooked rice.

My mum always says that the best fried rice is to actually use rice leftover from a previous night. Basically when you make plain rice just make a load extra and bang it in the fridge or freezer.

Ideally the rice needs to be on the "harder" side so not the whole fluffy soft sort of rice but more like sticky-ish individual grains. You then heat up the wok and crumble the rice before hand into a colander so it separates out. Then put some rice in the wok and fry it whilst constantly adding more and more (so not like in one go), if you use your hands to transfer the rice you should rinse it in cold water before hand so it doesn't stay stuck to it.

IIRC this is usually done over a medium to high heat with constant stirring of the rice. With regards to eggs, they can either be:

a) Scrambled before, taken out and then added later (generally results in more solid clumps of eggs).

b) Scrambled, then rice added without taking the eggs out... i've done this before but imo it doesn't work that well since either the eggs get cooked for way longer than they should be or if you add them whilst the eggs aren't fully solidified, the rice doesn't turn out quite as nice (imo).

c) Poured straight over whilst you're still frying or towards the end of frying the rice. Personally i find this method to be more hassle since you end up frying the rice longer to make sure the eggs are cooked however it results in lots of smaller pieces of egg and is generally more uniform.

I personally choose method a) since it's the easiest but my dad prefers method c) i think just because he doesn't like clumps of eggs that much... it's up to preference though really.



Yeah, generally for fried rice that isn't just the plain egg type i usually add in whatever i have at hand ranging from peas and soya beans to sweet corn, pancetta cubes, bacon and sometimes even mince (although all the meats are precooked).



Hmmm, thanks for that link, i'll definitely try it out at some point, although i'll first try using the overnight rice from the above since i'm less about rice fluffy-ness and more about it's texture (more solid, not quite chewy but it's not necessarily soft... as i said, aldente?).



I agree with that, although i don't use Basmati, my parents prefer Jasmine Rice (Thai Fragant Rice) which according to wikipedia is responsible for the half-sticky grains noted above rather than separated grains.



It uses glutinous rice rather than normal rice, which is much much stickier than the normal rice used for everyday eating (at least in the West and in Hong Kong).

It's not that it doesn't use water, it's that the grains are cooked in a wok straight from raw. Water is added periodically, but you have to make sure that it's not too much that the rice boils but enough so that the rice still cooks and isn't raw.

The end result is an amalgam of fried rice and dried meat which all comes/sticks together in what looks to be a similar way an Onigiri would... although it's not eaten with hands nor as a snack.



Looks like normal but i wouldn't be surprised if you could turn the plate upside down and it would fall off... exageration but definitely a lot stickier than normal rice, despite its looks