Rice Cooking - How to Cook Perfect Rice

Cooking rice is very difficult if you do not have a rice cooker. It requires a lot of attention form you and even if you give your attention to it, you often end up burning them instead. In this light, we really need to thank rice cookers or rice makers for making our lives easier.

Rice cooker makes cooking an easy thing to do. It uses a thermostat that automatically controls the temperature once the rice is cooked. However, even if this is the case, there are still fiascos that result when cooking in a rice cooker. Some turn fluffy or they stick to the pan while others become dry.

In cooking the perfect rice using your rice maker, it is important that you still need to know the basics about rice cooking. Below are the tips on how to prevent these fiascos from happening while you cook rice.

Use Long Grains

Do not use short-grains since they have a tendency to cook in less time and that they do stick on the bottom of the pan. Do not use instant or pre-cooked rice otherwise they will really get soggy if you cook it in a stainless rice cooker.

Rinsing

There is a science to rinsing the grains. It removes the extra starch and other residues that usually cause the rice to become sticky. You can rinse for two to three times to completely clean it. If you are in a hurry, you can rinse the night before and keep it inside the fridge. This will give it a softer texture.

Use a Heavy Bottom

Using a heavy bottom prevents the rice from sticking to bottom. You can also use a copper pan as this distributes the heat equally on all the sides resulting to uniformly-cooked rice.

Jasmine Lee is a product trainer for appliances. She gives her tips on how to choose the best rice cookers. At BestStainlessSteelRiceCooker.com, you may find interesting information on the related category.

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Electric Rice Cookers - Automation & Flavor

Have you ever heard of electric rice cookers? Basically it is a kitchen appliance that automates the rice cooking process.

The most modern machines cook not only white rice, but also brown rice and sushi rice as well. Some models go beyond that and they also work for steaming vegetables, chicken and fishes.

Rice

You can, too, pre-program certain foods such as rice and oatmeal and have them ready only a few hours later. Can you imagine just putting the ingredients in the evening and going to bed to wake up on a lazy Saturday with freshly made oatmeal? And in case you feel extra-lazy and decide to sleep a little longer, the rice cooker will switch automatically to warming mode, so the food will not overcook -- it will just maintain the temperature.

Other common traits to most rice cookers are the presence of a retractable cord, as well as removable inner lid and pot for easy cleaning and maintenance. Speaking of which, my family has had a Zojirushi cooker for 20 years. They are very robust and well built.

These cookers are available basically in three different sizes: for individuals (or couples), for families and for restaurants.

The 3-cup models are very small and cook your rice really fast. You can find some brands that make rice on between 20 and 25 minutes. These are ideal for college students due to their versatility as a rice cooker and as a steamer, while they are small and easy to store.

When I moved out and came to Japan, I did some research and I ended up buying a Panasonic cooker, 3-cup model. It is also a Japanese, reliable brand. There were two main selling points for me: it was a bit cheaper than the Zojirushi model and it saves some good 4-5% of electricity. I don't know if all models are like that, but I found that to be pretty amazing.

The 5-cup models are a bit bigger. These are ideal for families with four to six mouths to feed on every meal. Although you will be far from using the entire capacity of this rice cooker on every meal (most likely around half if you really like rice), this is a good size because it either allows you to cook extra rice for two meals at once or you are able to make more rice for an unexpected guest.

This is the size of the rice cooker I have back home. You can also use the warming function during the winter and serve soups and stews in your rice cooker. The warming function will keep your foods warm, although not necessarily keep cooking them.

And if you really like these machines, or you are a restaurant owner looking for further automation of your kitchen, you can buy a 10-cup cooker. These are a bit too big for families, although you can buy one of these if you entertain a lot. If you manage to find Sanyo cookers, they offer some models with a program specially made to bake breads. So this machine can be a rice cooker, oatmeal maker, warm foods, steam vegetables and also make you bread. Talk about versatility, huh?

Electric rice cookers can be a great aid to any kitchen. They serve a wide variety of needs and automate processes to free your time. I hope this article has helped you grasp that.

Electric Rice Cookers - Automation & Flavor

Max White lives in Japan and maintains BestRiceCooker.org, a site devoted to bring the best reviews of rice cookers. If you are interested in a detailed Panasonic rice cooker buyers guide or other brands, make sure to click one of these links.

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Cooking With Kids - How to Make Chocolate Covered Rice Crispy Treats

How would you like an idea for a fun activity to do with your children? How about something that will give your kids a sense of accomplishment that will make them feel like a grown up? Baking is just that activity. It gives kids practice to improve their invaluable skills in the kitchen, which they'll need later in life. The best choices for recipes should be easy to make and allow for some creativity such as shapes, colors or toppings, and of course, the most important "ingredient", they should taste great! So what's something that your kids will love to make and eat?

You got it- rice crispy treats. There are 3 different approaches that we'll take in this article, but with some twists. We will make normal rice crispy treats, mixed ones and chocolate covered. You've all made rice crispy treats before so let's have some fun with the normal kind and discuss shapes. You can do the traditional squares by filling the rice crispy treat mix in a square or rectangular pan and cutting out the pieces, but you could also have some extra fun. Get some cake pans with different shapes. You can find a variety of many different shapes, anything from their favorite characters, seasonal shapes, for example, Halloween or Christmas, as well as various small normal shapes like stars or mini bundt cakes. The cake pans come big or small and can be found at any store that sells baking supplies or online.

Before you finish up all the mix take half of it and blend in your favorite hard candies to add flavor and a contrast of texture, whether they're M&Ms, Reese's Pieces or cinnamon candies. Have some more fun, why not try soft candies too? Try some multi-colored chocolate chips or your favorite gummy candies, maybe Sour Patch Kids.

Want some more unique ideas? Mix in chocolate flavored rice crisped cereal with the mix to create multi-flavored treats. Just have the kids help with stirring the mix after it's removed from the heat (microwave or stove top), mixing in the candies and pressing the mix into your choice of pan. Your kids will love their rice crispy creations and can take them to school to share with their classmates and they also make great teachers gifts. But the fun is just beginning. You could combine all these elements for the "grand finale".

Now we are going to create chocolate covered rice crispy treats!

I prefer to use a double boiler to melt my chocolate which is one pan sitting inside a bigger pan. You heat up the water on medium heat in the bottom pan and place grated milk chocolate or milk chocolate chips in the top one. You can also use the microwave by melting chips in a small microwavable bowl. First, heat up the chips for one minute and 10 seconds stir and then again in 10-second intervals. The chips will not melt to a liquid form just by heating the chips up. You must stir them with a metal spoon once they show signs of melting. No matter the shape of treat, dip it into the chocolate at least half way over the treat and place on a baking sheet lined with wax or parchment paper. Add some sprinkles or colored sugar or even use white chocolate!

Your kids will love all the different varieties. Let their creativity run wild and make sure to take their works of art as gifts to their teachers, friends, grandparents or relatives. Let your "little chefs" boast how good their treats look and taste!

Cooking with kids is a fun, creative activity in which the parent and child can interact together and produce a tasty treat. Rice Crispy Treats make great homemade gifts for grandparents, teachers and more, and will make those you care about feel special.

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