Rice Poll

a zojirushi/tiger/cuckoo/other asian rice cooker with brown rice setting will get brown rice right

rice cooking is a feature that was added to the instant pot as an afterthought imo, it's not designed to cook rice

i worked for a short while with a Japanese chef and he rinsed his (regular short grain, white) rice to remove excess starch then soaked it for ~1/2 hour before cooking. when it comes to brown rice i rinse, then soak it for a couple hours if i have time. think it comes out better/more tender that way (1:1.5 :: rice:water)

xp

yes, instant pots are especially unsuited for white rice - I was fooled by some bad food youtubers that they are also rice cookers. I'm going to get a decent Asian rice cooker when I've got the dosh, not a ridiculously expensive one, but I looked at some good mid-priced options. I'm not buying any more basic £30 ones off e-bay.

i love the idea behind simple rice cookers, it's ingenious. perfect rice cooking with simple electric components, no circuit boards or software, no scales, no timer. how do they do it? i'm glad you asked! boiling water is always 100c no matter how slow or fast it's boiling, so as long as there's water in the pot the temperature will be no higher than 100c. once the water is all absorbed by the rice the temperature of the rice can rise above 100c. below the pot is a magnet made of an alloy designed to become demagnetised above 100c - this magnet is part of a switch that completes the heating circuit. so when the rice has absorbed all the water the temperature goes above 100, the magnet turns off and the heating circuit is disconnected.

it's an impressive old tech invention. Lol I previously thought it was the weight change that switched off the heating circuit.

the first automatic one invented in 1955.

yeah i have one of those cheap no-circuitry ones, it's fine

Yeah we had a $15 Kmart rice cooker with a glass lid whose only setting is cook or warm, I assume it worked the same way - the spring-loaded circle in the middle of the element that pops up (even my new cooker does it that way). We had it years with no issue and no burnt rice, only reason we had to turf it was the nonstick coating was all coming off.

that is the issue I have with the cheap ones, the shitty cheap teflon pot that the rice starts sticking to after a few months of use.

yeah i have one of those cheap no-circuitry ones, it's fine

no doubt. i had one (don't recall brand) that lasted nearly 30 years. replaced recently with another "no-circuitry" Zojirushi that cost ~$50. probably set for life
xp

one I've been looking at is made by Yum Asia and the appeal of it to me, more than all the fancy features it has, is that the inner bowl is ceramic coated and more durable than the awful cheap teflon ones.

Oh that might be ours calz, post a picture? It does brown rice very well

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T2/images/I/71CiUfDgerL._AC_SS450_.jpg

this baby

those are cool but I think you really want one of these babies that costs $500

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZdM-IYUa2I

another rice cooker that is cool and maybe worth investing in is a persian rice cooker that does tahdig. yum yum

https://assets.epicurious.com/photos/5cc881466844e07bbd4a579d/16:9/w_4992,h_2808,c_limit/Pars-Persian-Rice-Cooker-04252019.jpg

ok wow

I'm really liking the build quality of that pannasonic inner pot - "hard diamond inner coating" Yes!

This is actually the one we have, it gets used very frequently.

does the inner pot scratch easily during washing? I think the Yum Asian models all have the same kind of ceramic (BPA-free and PTFE-free) pot and I'll admit this is a tedious obsession of mine.

No, not at all. I wash it frequently and it’s still perfect.

Damn I did not know a dedicated persian rice cooker was a thing. I have been wanting to make tahdig but it gives me angst just thinking about it.

when I was talking abt Persian rice on Sunday we were specifically discussing how hard it is to do that in a regular pot, even a heavy-bottomed one!

a persian rice cooker that does tahdig

WHAT

I don't have the countertop space for a tahdig rice cooker, though a couple of my relatives use them and like them. idg why it's hard to do in a regular nonstick pot tho.

you should always use grapeseed oil. it's harder with oil that burns at lower temps i guess. glad to hear ppl are making persian rice, or want to.

I tried making Tachin in a Le Creuset pot and wanted to get a formed mass of rice with a crust, but it didn't work out. It just ended up being smoked basmati rice (a really great thing in itself, but it scents the whole house) with saffron, yogurt, barberries, coriander seeds, and toasted pine nuts

LOL my fancy newer rice cooker makes tahdig by accident (it crisp/semi singes the bottom of the rice every damn time).

I am in the space-challenged no-more-kitchen-appliances camp. One can make any type of rice in a pot, and one needs the $80 for saffron anyway.

in my local Asian supermarket the saffron is safeguarded on the shelves behind what used to be the cigarette/lottery kiosk from when the building was owned by a chain supermarket. Saffron is a much more expensive habit than smoking though!

hey i can stop anytime i want

xp amen!

the only issue i have with making persian rice in a pot is, you need to wrap a towel around the cover of the pot, otherwise it doesn't come out quite right. i don't know why, maybe the towel absorbs some of the moisture. then where do you keep the towel afterwards, you can't wash it properly with detergent b/c it's used for food preparation. so i always have this fire-singed towel that smells like polow folded up like, on top of my toaster oven.

you now have a towel that can also be used for proofing bread now imo

i just need to start baking bread.

I am with Sufjan Grafton here.

My kitchen is 6'x7', with maybe a pillowcase-sized amount of counter space. Many of you have closets the size of my kitchen.

I love my wife very much, but our bitterest arguments are about single-use appliances. We simply do not have room for: a microwave, toaster, toaster oven, electric kettle, coffeemaker, stand mixer, food processor, slow cooker, instant pot, and a fucking rice cooker. Like, maybe pick two of those? Three, max.

Anyways we make and eat rice frequently. Using a totally normal saucepan on the stove.

Solidarity to closet-sized kitchen users! When I said in the other thread I literally don’t have a stove I meant I don’t have any kind of built-in cooker unit nor the option of having one, countertop appliances only (and v limited space for those)

I cook rice in the microwave, comes out good

Oh man tho, my mum always did amazing Persian rice w tahdig (we have Iranian family) — not thought about that in a while but my bday is on Easter Sunday this year & I might try and nudge our family meal in that direction

a microwave, toaster, toaster oven, electric kettle, coffeemaker, stand mixer, food processor, slow cooker, instant pot, and a fucking rice cooker. Like, maybe pick two of those? Three, max.

rice cooker, toaster oven, electric kettle. that's it. that's all you need.

are microwave ovens any better at cooking jacket potatoes these days? I had a microwave cooked one in the 90's and it was not good.

i have a good sized kitchen with an *enormous* double sink, lots of clutter and limited counter space. the oven doesn't work (and i'm not going to fix it because $$$), the refrigerator stopped working years ago but the freezer is just about cold enough to refrigerate food for like 5 days. Your cue to post OS Mutantes YT itt, James Redd & The Blecchs. The ancient microwave is built in. I have a toaster oven and an electric kettle that live on the countertop. The food processor is stored away and I just bust it out to make ghormeh sabzi and a couple of other things. I use an immersion blender almost daily. The only other gadget I had was a coffee grinder that I used for spices, which broke after i took to using it for garlic-ginger-chili paste. They're for dry ingredients only, I guess.

I would like your gormeh sabzi recipe pls

rice cooker, toaster oven, electric kettle. that's it. that's all you need.

― 龜, Thursday, March 30, 2023 9:58 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

these are the 3 appliances i own as well, all sitting in a row on the table since my kitchen has no counter space

my small kitchen is now starting to feel absolutely massive. I've still had to make space by mounting hooks and shelves on the wall, hooks are so essential I don't know how I ever managed without them.

microwave, toaster, toaster oven, electric kettle, coffeemaker, stand mixer, food processor, slow cooker, instant pot, and a fucking rice cooker

Forgot to add: waffle maker, blender, breadmaker, Foreman grill, sodastream.

Like, my mother and grandmother had exactly none of these things and made delicious food for eight decades.

Bet they wish they had some of them though. Almost as though making everything from scratch is work.

it can be fun in various ways sometimes. But after years of doing it every day, inevitably you get burnt out and end up doing some effing chips with instant powder curry sauce!

Anyways we make and eat rice frequently. Using a totally normal saucepan on the stove.

I've been cooking rice a minimum of once a week for over 40 years. I always use a saucepan on the stove. It needs to have a good, snug lid, but otherwise nothing special is required. I long ago stopped measuring the rice and water by any method except eyeballing them. It's one of the advantages of doing the exact same thing over and over, especially if the pan and stove hardly ever change.

Yes aimless. Ears help too. I know the sound of rice that is cooking vs. rice that is about to burn.

the results of water ratios with cooking rice can vary by the size of the pan. Currently I use a German stainless steel wide saute pan with a glass lid. I cook it for something short of 10 mins then leave in the steam for another 5 and this works fine. But still want a fancy rice cooker.

I would like your gormeh sabzi recipe pls

― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie)

here ya go

Forgot to add: waffle maker, blender, breadmaker, Foreman grill, sodastream.

I own a blender, breadmaker, sodastream - blender, you can do without but a proper vitamix will make amazing hummus, soups, moles, etc. breadmaker, it's OK (doesn't make great artisanal bread) but it is a great dough mixer, I could live without, you could probably get by with a pair of egg beaters. sodastream, how else are you gonna carbonate water, blow into the bottle really hard? plus they're mostly vertical, don't take up a ton of space.

I am against ridulously-specific kitchen items like mini-pie makers, waffle irons, steamers just for eggs, all that crap.

But my benchtops get the toaster, espresso machine**, kettle and Sodastream. The cupboards store the stand mixer, rice cooker, and I have a combo blender/food processor (one stand, blender and FP can be swapped out on it).

The microwave has its own spot on a seperate small island bench thingy.

**The espresso machine is a really narrow form factor, I'm not covering half a bench with a giant Gaggia or anything, its one of these:
https://dam.delonghi.com/600x600/assets/223683