Cooking With Electric Rice Cookers

Rice is one of the most versatile food items. There is with the great number of things that you can do with it. However, if you like to employ the technique of how most Asians eat it, you would want to use electric rice cookers to do the dirty job for you. This is mostly because these appliances offer many benefits for the household. Some examples of which are the following:

1. Cooking rice is a lot simpler. Of course, you would still go through a process like washing the grains, measuring the water to mix with the uncooked rice, but generally, you can just leave it alone after the basic steps are done. Even while still plugged in, and not worry about your rice getting all black in the bottom.
2. It allows you to multi-task, which can be a great help when preparing meals.
3. Rice cookers can guarantee thorough cooking, which is the common problem by many who cook rice in stovetops.

Now that you know how great it is to have electric rice cookers, it is now important that you keep in mind a couple of things when using it. You see, to maximize its potentials, it is important that you fully know what it has to offer.

For example, to ensure even cooking, you have to know what the maximum capacity of the pot is. This is normally indicated inside the pot itself with the engraved measurements inside. If you can't find it there, the user manual will definitely tell you about it. Exceeding the maximum capacity of the rice cooker would be wasteful and messy. Water overflows and the rice will not be evenly cooked. Another important thing about cooking with electric rice cookers is that there are special considerations when you live in a place located in a higher altitude.

Since nature would have it that water boils faster in these areas, sometimes rice would get pre-cook here if you are not fully aware of how to do it properly. To avoid these problems, you can always add an extra cup of water when cooking, so the boiling process would be longer, allowing you to steam the rice more.

One more important thing about using rice cookers is that you still need to keep in mind that the variety of rice grains are still a factor in how you would cook your rice. Some require more water than others, so you need to pay attention to the instructions of how to deal with these food items. Remember that some varieties require 1:1 rice to water ratio, while others can go up to 1:2. It also depends on how you like your rice. As some people like it really dry, while others enjoy wet rice better.

Adding extra ingredients to make the dish more flavorful can also be done when cooking with this kitchen appliance. Items like butter and pandan leaves are traditionally put into the mix before the cooker is turned on. However, others like putting in bay leaves, cardamom pods, and even broccoli on top of the rice when it is nearly done.