The Steamy Way to Dinner

[randomness]

From http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/dining/01rice.html:

SHIRLEY CHAN, a Chinese-American Web site designer, was born in Hong Kong, lives in Brooklyn, and has never cooked a pot of rice in her life. “One billion Chinese people cannot be wrong about rice,” she said: virtually every household has at least a basic rice cooker. As a child, it was her chore before each meal to wash the rice, measure it into the machine, and press the button. “It always, always comes out perfect,” she said. “Until I came here, I never even knew rice could burn.”

How does the machine know when the rice is done? A built-in thermostat tracks the temperature of the bubbling mixture of rice and water. When the water boils and turns to steam, the temperature in the pot begins to rise, which signals the cooker to switch to warm.

But it’s easy to override the machine’s small brain. Press the “cook” button, melt butter in the bowl, and sweat a finely diced shallot in it until soft — then add rice, broth and saffron strands, and start the machine again to make a daffodil-yellow pilaf. Cook some short-grain rice, then drizzle in some sesame oil and switch back to “cook,” mix in some kimchi and break eggs on top for a simple bibimbap, the Korean-American staple of rice “and whatever is in the refrigerator,” Mr. Park said.

Make grits, risotto or any grain cooked by the absorption method simply by adding extra liquid and stirring often. The machine has plenty of built-in cushions for the cook: the temperature never gets very high, the surface is nonstick, and everything happens in a kind of slow-motion.

The new-model rice cookers, with digital menus and “fuzzy logic” operation, are actually less flexible than their one-button ancestors. The machines have their own ideas about brown rice, porridge, sushi rice and sometimes more.

It's true. My rice cooker is an old-fashioned one, and I really prefer its versatility.

Comments

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Well, I have a very old-fashioned Tatung that looks like the TAC-10KS at the top of this page: http://www.tatung.com/en/dm_200.asp. It's very simple, relatively cheap, and probably available at one of the Asian markets in your area (I hear very good things about the Vietnamese food over there).

It doesn't have to be that model or that brand, but simple is good, in my opinion. One of the ones where you put water in the cooker and set the metal rice cooker within it is the kind I'd recommend. That is, one where you have an outer water stage and various metal food containers which go in it...hmmm, I'm having trouble distinguishing it from the kind I don't like. We should talk, perhaps?

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

Talking through it would be great! I was planning to make a pass through various of the Asian markets this weekend anyway (we've got good Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean supermarkets, and some small Japanese groceries), so I'll have a look at what seems to be available to me, and then drop you a line to see when you're available to talk. Thanks!

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Sure!

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

Hey, circling back to this--

My shopping adventures this weekend were kind of disappointing (on this level, anyway -- on the upside, I found a place to buy quail eggs! Also, the motherlode of Pocky -- I now have flavors I can't even identify), in that most of the markets seem to carry really only (a) the bigger capacity cookers, or (b) the fancy fuzzy-logic kind, and I don't really need that kind of capacity or want to make that kind of investment. There were a couple of smaller, inexpensive models, but they seemed to be the direct-heat kind (they didn't specify in so many words on the outside of the box, but given the dimensions of cooker and pot, it seemed like the pot would be in contact with the heating element) and I agree with you that the indirect-heat method seems superior. And nobody carried Tatung; there was a lot of Tayama, a lot of Zojirushi, and a lot of Tiger (which seems CRAZY expensive compared to models of apparently-similar features in other brands, not sure what's up with that or if I'm missing something).

So I'm thinking of mail-order. I don't think I need a great big pot, but about a 5-7 cup capacity seems appropriate, and I found this one; does that seem appropriately priced to you?

Oh, and I remembered that my Black&Decker steamer/rice cooker, which I've had for 13 years and mmmmmmaybe cooked rice in once or twice 12 years ago, *is* a rice cooker as well as a steamer (which I use it for all the time). I made some short-grain rice in it last night, and it did okay! It's only a 3-cup capacity, though (which is enough for a single meal, or for making onigiri for lunch boxes for a day or two, but not for significant make-ahead work), and it doesn't keep rice warm, so I still want another one, but it's handy to have remembered I had it.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Also, the motherlode of Pocky -- I now have flavors I can't even identify

Isn't that amazing? "Men's Pocky" is the one that really makes bedfull_o_books laugh.

I've never even heard of Tiger-brand rice cookers.

$50 isn't bad, particularly including shipping. We got ours for around $30, if memory serves, but that was years ago. That model of Tatung is dead-simple, and should last forever. Make sure you either keep the little measuring cup or carefully figure out what the volume measures are (on both the cup and the rice pot), because I personally am sunk for proportions if I can't find the thing. Fortunately we have two, so we can usually find at least one of the measuring cups.

I also find that perforated steamer platform very useful for steam-heating dumplings and buns.

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you have to laugh at that one. The one that stumped me for a long time was Gokuboso, until I figured out that just meant "skinny." The new ones I found this time which I hadn't found before were blueberry and marron, which apparently means "chestnut" -- both yum -- and then everything I've ever seen before anywhere, all in one spot. Handy! Also, the Lotte versions (I like the mini almond crunch ones of these -- they're about half as long, so they pack into lunches nicely), and Pretz. I noted that they have beer-flavored Pretz, which strikes me as remarkably efficient.

I just looked up more info about Tiger; apparently they're big in Japan. The H Mart carries a bunch of lunch jars and stuff from them also.

Thanks so much for your advice on this! It's good to know that's a reasonable price; it seemed in the right ballpark to me, but it's always good to sanity-check these things! And yeah, I'll take the warning about the measuring cup to heart -- if I'm smart, I'll actually WRITE DOWN the information, in the manual or something, so that when I both lose the cup and forget what the measurement was, I won't be doomed.

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

Oh, I found this which illustrates the Tatung rice cookers, so I think I see what you mean; there's an outer stage with water in it, in addition to the water-and-rice in the inner actual cooking pot, so the bottom of the rice doesn't scorch -- basically a double-boiler for rice! Clever, and I can see how that would be an awesome feature.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yes! That's what I was trying to describe. :)

(BTW, the price that site is asking is too high.)

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figured as much. I was just using it as a reference, not planning to buy there.

This has been really helpful -- between this and the reviews I've read, I think I've got a much clearer idea of what I'm looking for. Now I just need to see what's available locally. I'm definitely looking forward to shopping on Saturday!