Rice cookers?

Me too, I just keep a amount for other stuff, or spot-cleaning obstinate stains on garments. My current bottle's getting a bit elderly now, but the detergent's still fine.


ETA: My cat was sick on a small rug a couple of weeks ago, and I decided to try the last of a bottle of carpet shampoo that came with a wet/dry vacuum cleaner I bought in 1997. It still smelt the same, and still worked...

 

Rice: I used to love rice (and had a rice cooker), but rice is carby and too tempting to go beyond the my 25 gram meal allotment. I'd rather indulge in a half a cup of stuffed pasta.


Laundry detergent: I mostly hand wash using Ivory bar soap, dish soap, and ammonia for stains.

California climate, a south facing window, or my indoor heater takes care of the drying.

(A round-trip to the communal washing machine results in an uptick of FM pain.)

 

Instant Pot is good for so many things including cooking rice by itself, rice with meat, soups, stews, hard boiled eggs, etc. I now use it more than the stove top. Rice comes out perfect every time. Easy cleaning.

 

Does it come out ok that way for you? I never seem to be able to get it right in the microwave.

 

I’ve found a rice cooker to be very helpful. I use it most often for steelcut oats. Cleaning is very minimal with white rice. More so with brown rice as the foam leaves more residue on the lid. Oats leave no residue on lid, but the bowl takes a bit more work to clean. It makes great quinoa as well. Certainly a time saver for me.

 

DO you have any more detail on which type that you have?

I'm currently most likely to do basmati rice and really tempted by the keep-warm function so I can stop overcooking my rice or it ending up cold/inedible if I can't get to it in time.

The other stuff might be a bonus (as might doing sushi rice - but I'm not able to be adventurous currently) but that would be a biggie if the clearing up isn't adding extra arduousness.

 

Thanks @Wonko I'm always amazed at your knowledge

I think the bamboo looks amazing but I can't justify £200 (how did you manage to find such a bargain )

It looks like the only other type is the Tsuki mini from that brand, and looking at their details the difference that stands out is the Bamboo is the only one that uses UMAI Induction Heating (IH + AI) whereas all the others have Conventional with Advanced Fuzzy Logic (AI) and the Tsuki Min Kamado Conventional with Advanced Fuzzy Logic (AI). I've no idea how relevant that is.

I looked up the Instant Pot and found a few threads that warn the keep warm function isn't ideal for rice - and tbh that's a big attraction for me because I often ruin my rice one way or the other so something that just switches to a different mode until I get to it seems wonderful. It needs to do Basmati rice well, all else is great but a bonus.

Thank you for the PITA tip on the yum carb (and the cheaper ones) that's exactly the situation I'm keen to avoid! good point to bear in mind re: ceramic bowls too.

The search continues, but rather slow atm

 

Thank you, useful insight. DO you have a particular type you can recommend I avoid or try?

 

Thank you - I shall take a look at it!

 

Oh hang on, Instant do a Rice Cooker (that I assume has a keep warm on 140-150 so the rice doesn't cook): Instant Rice Cooker | Rice Steamer | Instant Brands Appliances - Official Instant UK Site and it has a dishwasher safe bowl. I was writing it off because it is big and doesn't do 1 portion, only 2-12. But then I remember that maybe my rice portion is large anyway vs what they count as a portion. Will try and find that out next!

 

I'd be doing the same but.. I just don't like it, strange as I'm even happy with microwave chips, bacon, eggs and I don't mind the egg fried rice in tubs. I can do frozen rice but only the ones with the vegetables in it, some of which are delicious but it's slightly limiting and I do like fluffy basmati eg with chilli etc.

And happy to try microwaving rice in a cooker in there but a few catches include me tending to not always be get back to things at the time intended if I leave it and doing it that way taking more time than the frozen/micro packets so being a pain when you also need to microwave other things, so the keep warm sounds brilliant if it works - particularly if as some say it keeps warm for many hours...

 

Blind luck is how I got it for £50 - it is 'faulty' in that it has a quite pronounced induction hum/buzz sometimes while it's heating - it's clearly been dropped or crushed diagonally - no cosmetic damage but the frame is bent and it's a PITA to get the water collection thing out of the back as it's slot seems to be slightly distorted.

It does however cook properly and noise cancelling headphones exist for the days when noise is a terrible thing.

It was bought as 'used - like new', which TBF until it's turned on seems fair enough. It was kept because it does actually work and was a quarter of the price of new, fully intending to simply replace when it broke. Three or so years on it's still going.

That new model I have not seen, it's more recent that my rice cooker buying period and whilst I was tempted to try it I already have 3 rice cookers lol.

The instant pot rice cooker - I'd be wary of all the positive reviews as Instant Pot has a massive fan club who tend to post only positive stuff. I did notice that it's time to cook photos are 'misleading' in that for most modes it appears, only a final 5 or 10 minute final countdown is provided (this is common for a lot of rice cookers) and yet they show a display with 39 minutes on it in the photo's/video. I was unable to determine it's cooking control method based on the info/specs. This is odd as normally they crow about it if it's not just a basic thermostatically controlled heater.

Also be wary of relying on keep warm functions - I've not found ones that are any good for more than an hour or so, no matter what the product info says.

And, as a final downer, I've not found a rice cooker that can properly cook white basmati rice. I'm not a fan of white basmati rice so it's not an issue for me.

Other people seem happy with basmati rice cooked in rice cookers so maybe it's just me.

ETA - rice cooker keep warm temperature is apparently around 60C - it only has to be warm enough to discourage the thing that produces toxins from doing so.

 

I have one of the mid-range Zojirushi, a 5 cup Micom. Zojirushi is often regarded as the best brand for rice cookers in the US, but some of the other Asian brands like cuckoo and tiger are apparently just as good. The micom versions have settings for white rice, brown rice, and porridge, as well as markings inside the bowl that make it very easy to make each type. There’s also an entry-level model that only has one setting. Seems like that one doesn’t have markings for each rice type so you may need to refer to a chart for water quantities. If you’re just after white rice, I imagine most of the cheap ones will do quite well. I used an Aroma brand one after college which I was happy enough with.

A friend uses an instant pot for rice and seems happy with it. In the US, a lot of people are getting rid of theirs so they’re easy to find cheap if price is an issue. They can make the right recipes very easy, but they’re also very large and take up a lot of counter space. I’ve used ours infrequently, but on a couple Moroccan soups that take a fraction of time and energy to make with the instant pot.