/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.4735902]

So whats the best way to cook rice

My mother use to do it out of a pan with water, oil, salt and a couple of minutes and the rice because that was all we really had and would come out great

But i have been thinking of getting a rice cooker and i don't know if the rice would come out as good.

Should i?

[Anonymous No.4735908]

Rice cookers are the gateway drug to becoming a full blown weeaboo shithead.
You've been warned.

[Anonymous No.4735916]

>>4735908
I come from a cuban/Dominican family, not looking to make Japanese type food

[Anonymous No.4735923]

>>4735902
It's all about convenience. Get a small one.

Eat rice daily? Do it.

[Anonymous No.4735929]

>>4735916
My sister-in-law has a rice cooker and she makes some pretty good rice for frijoles negros. My wife's paternal family is from Cuba and her grandmother and sister both swear on rice cookers. It would make things easier and are really awesome.

[Anonymous No.4735935]

>>4735929
Ok cool

My mother would do it with just a pan so this would be the first time she or any of my family on her side would even see one

Ill give it a go thanks

[Anonymous No.4736012]

You Have no idea the can of worms you just opened up op get ready for a ck class shit storm

[Anonymous No.4736139]

> buying any useless kitchen gimmick
> YOLD 3179
shiggy diggy doo, where are you?

[Anonymous No.4736149]

>>4735902
Rican here. I suppose if you experiment there's nothing stopping you from adding oil to the rice cooker but I suspect you will not get good results.

The rice cooker will make decent enough rice especially if you work on the right rice/water ratio. I never figured that out and some of the tips I got (knuckle deep, or using your big spoon to measure water) didnt work for me.

If push comes to shove, just get a small caldera which can do other dishes also.

[Anonymous No.4736155]

>>4735902
Usually in the rice cooker they use short grain rice, but I bet your mom used long grain.

Don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't get parboiled rice.

[Anonymous No.4736174]

>>4736155
Why?

[Anonymous No.4736201]

I never saw the point of rice cookers. Surely rice is one of the easiest things to cook anyway? What's the advantage of some bulky gimmick over just pan of water?

[Anonymous No.4736207]

>>4736201
i set the machine in the morning, and then when i come back from work its perfect and waiting for me.

[Anonymous No.4736214]

>>4736139
rice cookers are hardly a "cooking gimmick", and neither are mandolins if you don't have a food processor, and or you don't want to tediously and unevenly finely slice your produce

these tools serve two main functions a) saving you time, and b) offering you unparalleled consistency

[Anonymous No.4736216]

>>4736201

ACtually between potatoes, pasta and rice, I think rice is the hardest to get *just* right.

How much does a rice cooker cost anyway?

[Anonymous No.4736218]

>>4736216
You could get a cheap one for under $30.

[Anonymous No.4736221]

>>4736218

Interesting, might be worth looking into.

[Anonymous No.4736223]

I really don't eat rice anymore, but when I did, I'd eat it every day, and sometimes multiple times a day, for a couple of years. If you have a similar eating habit, it's a perfectly reasonable investment.

[Anonymous No.4736247]

Depends on the variety of rice and how it is intended to be served.

Sweet/glutinous/"sushi" rice meant to be eaten with/as the meal:
Place rice in rice cooker bowl.
Wash rice.
Drain rice.
Rinse rice.
Drain rice.
Wash rice.
Drain rice.
Rinse rice.
Drain rice.
Wash rice.
Drain rice.
Rinse rice.
Drain rice.
Add a volume of water equal to slightly less than half of the volume of rice IE if cooking 3 cups rice, add slightly less than 1½ cups water.
Allow to soak 30 minutes.
Turn on rice cooker.
When rice cooker pops off, remove lid and allow excess steam to dissipate, about 10 minutes.
If drop-lid variety of rice cooker, turn cooker back on and allow to pop off a second time; if clamp-lid variety, rice will likely already be nearly perfectly cooked so skip to next step.
Place rice into a large wooden bowl.
Mix and fan to cool rice quickly; rice will stick to itself, but nothing else.
Place clumps of rice back into rice cooker and set to warm.
Eat when/as desired.

Sweet/glutinous/"sushi" rice meant to be eaten as steam cake/rice dumpling (ketupat/lontong/etc):
Do as instructed above for sweet/glutinous/"sushi" rice up until the step where the rice cooker is turned on.
Soak the rice an additional 30 minutes (total of 60 minutes/1 hour) and drain.
Pack tightly into cheesecloth/muslin or food leaves, such as cabbage, banana or pandan.
Steam until rice is cooked through.

Sweet/glutinous/"sushi" rice meant to be eaten with/as dessert:
Do as instructed above for sweet/glutinous/"sushi" rice up until the step where a half volume of water is added to the rice.
Instead, add half volume of sweet liquid, such as coconut milk and sugar and stir in fruits if/as desired.
Soak 45 minutes and cook as above.

[Anonymous No.4736250]

>>4736247
Sweet/glutinous/"sushi" rice meant to be eaten as a cracker/snack:
Do as instructed above for sweet/glutinous/"sushi" rice.
Spread on half sheet in thin, even layer.
Place in oven heated to lowest temp.
Allow to dry out over several hours, flipping over every so often if/as necessary.
Once dry, break into pieces & deep-fry in 175°C/350°F oil; pieces will puff instantly into crispy crackers.

Italian long-grain (also good for other long-grain European rices as well as African, Middle Eastern, Indian & southeast Asian rices) meant to be eaten with/as the meal:
Boil 1 litre/quart water for every cup/200g of rice.
Add unwashed rice.
Boil until almost cooked through, then drain.
Rinse in several changes of cold water until water runs relatively clear.
Drain rice.
Place back into pot & cover with lid.
Set back to low heat, allowing rice's own excess moisture to evaporate, steaming the rice, heating it through & finishing its cook.

Italian long-grain (also good for other long-grain European rices as well as African, Middle Eastern, Indian and southeast Asian rices) meant to be eaten as soup/porridge/pudding:
Do as instructed above for Italian long-grain up until the step where rice is rinsed.
Place rice into pot with four times its volume of water/broth/mixture of water and cream/milk and bring to the boil; add oil or butter if/as appropriate/desired.
Lower to maintain simmer and cook until rice is broken down and liquid is thick.

Short grain pearl rice (arborio):
Place rice in a sauté pan and set to high heat, butter or oil optional.
When nutty and fragrant, add water or broth to barely cover rice and set heat to medium-low/low; meanwhile, keep additional quantities of the cooking liquid at a steady simmer.
Cook rice, stirring constantly, until liquid is evaporated, then top off with additional liquid (hot this time) and repeat the process.
Continue repeating the process over and over until rice is tender, cooked through & creamy.

[Anonymous No.4736262]

>>4736201
Sweet/glutinous rice is a pain to cook just right without one, unless one uses pic related to steam it.
I use a rice cooker specifically because sweet rice is the rice I most commonly consume.

[Anonymous No.4736393]

i just got one of these!

>>4736201
>What's the advantage of some bulky gimmick over just pan of water?

The advantage over a pan of water, among other things, is that you put in the rice and water, push "cook," then can go play League of Legends for half an hour or an hour, without worrying that it boiled over, scorched to the pan, or on fire. It stops cooking when it's done, then changes to a "warm" setting. When your game is over, hot moist rice is ready and waiting for you to jam your chopsticks in it.

>>4736216
>How much does a rice cooker cost anyway?

The typical cheapest models at Walmart-like stores seem to bottom out at $15. They look a lot like OP's picture, but also typically include a an additional short quasi-pot with holes you can set between the base and the lid, to take advantage of escaping steam to also steam some veggies as your rice cooks. (Haven't tried that).

[Anonymous No.4736439]

yeah buy a rice cooker

[Anonymous No.4736470]

>>4736207
>>4736262
>>4736393

I'm this guy >>4736201
Huh, maybe I'll actually use ours then. I only really used the top half for steaming veg

[Anonymous No.4737589]

>>4736174
Nobody going to tell me what's so hideously wrong with parboiled rice?

[Anonymous No.4737596]

>>4735902
Plug it in
Put the rice in
Ask for help from the armed feds that show up at your door because your neighbor thought it was a pressure cooker instead of a rice cooker
???
Your house burns down and the news calls you a terrorist

[Anonymous No.4737863]

>>4737589
>Nobody going to tell me what's so hideously wrong with parboiled rice?

I have a feeling that person was confusing parboiled rice with "minute rice"/"instant" rice, since both are precooked to varying degrees.

Parboiling steams the rice with the hull on, which causes some of the nutrients in the hull to be absorbed into the grain of rice. It's then dried and hulled, leaving a more nutritious white rice than non-precooked white rice that had its hull removed. (Brown rice with its hull has more nutrients, and *fiber*, so is typically considered better for people than white rice.)

Instant rice doesn't necessarily use that technique; most are focused on cost, and ease of manufacturing. It's easier to hull it, cook it, and add industrially-produced vitamins to the rice as it's drying. (There's also instant brown rice...not sure what its deal is, but I'd guess it has a nutritional drawback.)

Cost-wise, you'll pay more for any precooked white rice due to the added processing. They have a longer shelf life than brown rices. I find instant rice has a mushier texture than normal white rices, and less flavor, but perhaps that's due to my cooking or choice of instant rices. In any case I only use instant rice when camping.

I'm not a rice pro, so I could be wrong on some details; would love to read any corrections!

[Anonymous No.4737894]

>>4737589

Frankly I think it was a bit of a misunderstanding, and it's not that there's anything wrong with parboiled rice--more like, "don't cook parboiled rice in a rice cooker".

A rice cooker detects when the rice is done based on the change in temperature in the cooking pot. While there is still liquid in the bottom of the pot the temperature will never get beyond boiling (100C) but once all the water has been absorbed by the rice then it can. The electronics inside the cooker watch for this little bump in temperature and therefore "knows" when to switch to the low power "keep warm" mode instead of the full power cooking mode. Pre-cooked rice (Instant or parboiled) takes a different cooking time than plain rice so the cooking time will come out wrong if you use parboiled or instant in a rice cooker.

[Anonymous No.4738840]

I like to cook rice in our steamer.

[Anonymous No.4738945]

Hi there. Mexican in the UK

I've trying to make arroz rojo (red rice) but I just can't get it right. The rice won't absorb the "sauce". I'm using easy cook long rice. What am I doing wrong

[Anonymous No.4738980]

1 cup basmati rice (other types of rice will not be fluffy, be warned)
2 cups boiling water
season with salt
simmer 15 minutes
remove from heat
rest 5 minutes without taking the lid off

never failed. not once. always fluffy, always right texture. incredibly easy. before buying a rice cooker try this method and see if you actually even like rice. chances are you will not enjoy it enough to eat once every week. In that case do not buy a rice cooker, duh. If you actually like rice it'll really be a wise investment to buy a rice cooker, no matter how easy it is to make on the stove

[Anonymous No.4738991]

>>4738945
>What am I doing wrong
how do you suppose we answer that if you do not tell us what is it that you are doing in the first place..?

> I'm using easy cook long rice
having been parboiled, the rice might not have enough time to absorb. Try using proper long grain rice (basmati will be fluffy). 1 cup rice 1 cup tomato puree (not paste, obvsly....) 1 cup water simmer 15 mins, rest 5 minutes, do not remove lid

[Anonymous No.4739000]

>>4738991
Well, the recipe as I remember my mom doing it was this

1) Put the rice on water
2) Rest it for "a while"
3) Wash it
4) Fry it until golden
5) While frying (or before) make recaudo (boil one or two tomatos; blend them with onion garlic and salt)
6) Add the recaudo
7) Boil
8) Wait until rice absorbs everything.
9) Serve

[Anonymous No.4739003]

I use double the volume of water to rice

>soak the rice in water for 30 minutes or so
>bring the water to the boil with some salt in it in a saucepan
>put in the rice, stir a bit, and don't touch while it's boiled
>it should take 10-12 minutes, but do try some of it to be sure
>drain using a sieve, then put the sieve back on the saucepan, and leave for five minutes
>run a fork through it, and serve

[Anonymous No.4739048]

1 cup of rice
1.7 cups of cold water
bit of salt

Add to a saucepan and put on high heat with the lid on. Once boiling, put on lowest heat and simmer for 7 minutes. Then take off lid and fork.

Serves 2

[Anonymous No.4739050]

>>4739000
>Wash it
I bet your mother did not use easy cooking rice...
Washing the rice is unnecessary too. It will absorb some liquid and fuck up the 1:2 ratio. Make your recaudo, combine 1:1:1 rice:recaudo:water (I am assuming recaudo is liquidy. If it is actually chunchy and thick you'll need more water. I can't say anything for sure without seeing that thing. But rice is pretty forgiving) If you want to brown the rice, do so while it is still dry, you'll need some oil. But if you will brown the rice in oil, why not add the onion to the oil?

Do this:
Heat oil
Add finely chopped onion + 1 cup rice. Stir occasionally. This will take a long time so its best to get it going before anything else.
Puree only tomatoes (boil them, whatever you do)
The final 1 minute of browning the rice, add the garlic. Stir around.
Add 1 cup water 1 cup puree.
Simmer 15 minutes
Rest 5 minutes.
If you use short grain rice it WILL stick, if you use basmati it won't. Choice is yours

[Anonymous No.4739064]

>>4739050
that being said, I wouldn't worry about browning the rice. I mean, it is fuckin rice, not a gourmet dish, it doesn't warrant being stirred around for 20 minutes.