How much rice should I cook per person?

Question

Prefferably in some "fast" measurements - like cups, spoons, etc. And also how much water should I add to the rice-cooker.

Asked by Tomáš Fejfar

Answer

I usually use 1/4 cup per person for a smallish portion, and 1/3 cup per person if you're a bit hungrier. You'll probably want to check the instructions for your rice cooker to check exactly how much water you should add as different manufacturers vary. I believe the one I used in the past needed an equal quantity of water to rice.

Answered by 1796foods

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Pre-made seasoning to add to rice in rice cooker to make rice more flavorful?

Question

I've looked all over for this and not found much.

Chipotle resturant adds lime and cilantro to their rice, some folks put Saffron. I thought "gee there must be others".

Any other pre-made seasonings you could buy and add to rice while cooking it (ideally something you could put in a rice cooker or in rice that you'll cook in a pot). I'm happy to order it by mail (especially if it's in the USA)

This is a more specific version of: Making white Rice more tasteful.

Asked by Clay Nichols

Answer

You can combine it with practically everything, so the question is somewhat broad. So my answer is equally broad: rice pairs well with fresh tastes and acidity, or with moderately sweet components. Or you can just underline its own slightly nutty notes. Below is a list of specific examples, but it is impossible to make it exhaustive.

For fresh tastes, use herbs. Summer savoury and spearmint are the classics, I never make stuffed peppers without them. But other light tasting herbs are also a good choice - lemon balm, oregano. Rosmarin is sometimes good, but somewhat overpowering, it is better for a dish where the rice is cooked together with veggies (eggplant, zucchini).

Beside herbs, you can try more exotic seasonings. Lemon zests are good, finelly chopped grape leaves and shoots are great.

Coriander powder should give you a similar taste profile to cilantro, but it is easier to keep at hand for when a quick dinner without much planning is needed.

The sweet option is also interesting; if you don't overdo it, it is OK to serve it as a side dish for a savoury meal. The easiest way to achieve it is to cook the rice together chopped dry fruit. Sulfured raisins are popular, the dish will be somewhat si milar to pilaf. But others work too, I especially like dried apricots because they are slightly tart.

Other methods for sweetening don't really fall into the "dry seasoing" category, but are worth mentioning. You can add fruit juice to the cooking water (apple or other slightly sour juices are best; this will affect the starch in the rice, causing it to cook firmer than usual) or you can add a small amount of sweetener to the cooked rice (prefer aromatic sweeteners lik honey or C grade maple syrup). Or if you prefer it spicier, mix it with a sweet chutney, like mango.

If you want a subtler taste, combine the rice with nuts (cook them together). Always use nuts with the brown skin removed. I have found unroasted, finely chopped nuts to work better this way. Hazelnuts and almonds are a very good choice. Para nuts also pair well with rice, but are seldom availablr blanched+chopped. This works especially well if you use the parfrying method for the rice, frying in the oil of the nut used. However, I don't know if you can parfry rice in a rice cooker, I always make mine on the stove.

Answered by rumtscho

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Rice cooker problem: film appears after cooking

Question

What is this and why does it appear? It always happened, maybe I cook rice the wrong way, or maybe it comes from the rice itself...

I wash the rice with water before, at least 3-4 times. I don't even cook it until it's completely done, I stop it before today in order to check if it's due to overcooked rice or not. It isn't.

Asked by Aki

Answer

It is perfectly okay to eat. I am going to assume when you cook rice, the rice comes out a bit too moist. The "film" is literally the water and the starch from the rice that has dried and turned into a thin film of rice starch.

If you like your rice the way it currently is, then there is nothing to worry about. But if it indeed is too moist, then decrease the amount of water you use to cook the rice.

Answered by Jay

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Will meat cook inside of a rice cooker?

Question

I would like to use my rice cooker to cook one of those pre-packaged jambalaya mixes, and I've had good success with using prepackaged rice packets in my rice cooker. Sometimes there is a bit of sticking on the bottom but it comes right up and is never that bad.

My question is if it's safe to throw uncooked meat inside of the rice cooker. I'm talking about average sized chunks, but can cut them smaller to make sure they cook through.

Since water boils at 212°F, and the contents of the cooker are kept warm afterwards, I'm guessing that any meat you put in there (granted its cut thin enough) will cook straight through.

To be more specific, in this instance I am thinking about throwing cubes of deer venison which require much less cooking than say pork or poultry.

Asked by Styler

Answer

Anything will cook in a rice cooker, eventually. You will need to experiment with the size of the meat chunks. When the meal is done cooking, take them out and see if they are cooked and at the correct temperature. If not, finish cooking them and cut them up smaller next time.

What I would do however is cube the meat, sear it, and then throw it in to the cooker. You will end up with a better texture this way.

Answered by rhooligan

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Quinoa in a Rice Cooker?

Question

I’ve recently discovered the loveliness of Quinoa, and the joy of buying it in bulk at Costco, so I’ll be making a lot of it in the near future. I’m wondering if I can use my rice cooker to make the Quinoa. Has anybody done this? Does the ‘fuzzy’ logic in the machine prevent it from doing anything other than cooking rice and steaming veggies? I hope not, but I also don’t want to ruin a good kitchen tool finding out either. Thanks!

Answer

I've cooked white rice, brown rice, wild rice, whole Oat Groats (2 brown rice cycles + a little extra water on cycle two) , rye groats, Khorasan wheat (kamut), barley, Spelt, and numerous other seeds in my fuzzy logic rice cooker, but never Quinoa. It seems to me the white Quinoa seed benefits from a short cook time, and a long post-cooking expansion time. A rice cooker doesn't do that very well. The red Quinoa I can also get is tougher, and might like being cooked like brown rice. That said, I haven't tried it. It's certainly possible that your rice cooker could make passable Quinoa. I suggest you give it a try on a small batch. If you like the result, post that here, and I'll try it too.

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Can I use a rice cooker with flavored rice boxes?

Question

Can I use a rice cooker to prepare something like Rice-A-Roni's Four Cheese rice? Or what about the Uncle Ben rice boxes? If not, is there a way to get something that tastes similar without using the boxes?

Answer

It is possible to use a rice cooker to prepare rice from boxes but it is not optimal. These box rices typically call for the mixture to be first browned in butter before adding water and flavoring because it is not all rice. There are bits of pasta in the mixture too. The rice cooker is able to cook it but the result probably will not be as good.

It is very possible to flavor white rice with seasoning. I often like to flavor my rice if I plan on making fried rice or if I am lazy and don't feel like making anything but rice. If you want to imitate a specific flavor, you need to first find out exactly what that flavour is and put that seasoning in the water that cook the rice. Often though there might be some flavors that can't be added until afterwards. Such as the cheese flavored rice you mentioned. Cheese and rice cookers don't mix. You would make the rice then later add a cheese sauce that you made.

Please note that one main difference that might occur is slight difference in moisture content. From the box rice I've made on the stove in the past, I know it is a bit more "wet" than rice made from a rice cooker. In my answer here, I explained how a rice cooker works. Essentially it will continue to cook until all the water has boiled away.

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Pre-made dry seasoning to add to rice in rice cooker to make rice more flavorful?

Question

I've looked all over for this and not found much.

Chipotle resturant adds lime and cilantro to their rice, some folks put Saffron. I thought "gee there must be others".

Any other pre-made seasonings you could buy and add to rice while cooking it (ideally something you could put in a rice cooker or in rice that you'll cook in a pot). I'm happy to order it by mail (especially if it's in the USA)

This is a more specific version of: Making white Rice more tasteful.

Answer

You can combine it with practically everything, so the question is somewhat broad. So my answer is equally broad: rice pairs well with fresh tastes and acidity, or with moderately sweet components. Or you can just underline its own slightly nutty notes. Below is a list of specific examples, but it is impossible to make it exhaustive.

For fresh tastes, use herbs. Summer savoury and spearmint are the classics, I never make stuffed peppers without them. But other light tasting herbs are also a good choice - lemon balm, oregano. Rosmarin is sometimes good, but somewhat overpowering, it is better for a dish where the rice is cooked together with veggies (eggplant, zucchini).

Beside herbs, you can try more exotic seasonings. Lemon zests are good, finelly chopped grape leaves and shoots are great.

Coriander powder should give you a similar taste profile to cilantro, but it is easier to keep at hand for when a quick dinner without much planning is needed.

The sweet option is also interesting; if you don't overdo it, it is OK to serve it as a side dish for a savoury meal. The easiest way to achieve it is to cook the rice together chopped dry fruit. Sulfured raisins are popular, the dish will be somewhat si milar to pilaf. But others work too, I especially like dried apricots because they are slightly tart.

Other methods for sweetening don't really fall into the "dry seasoing" category, but are worth mentioning. You can add fruit juice to the cooking water (apple or other slightly sour juices are best; this will affect the starch in the rice, causing it to cook firmer than usual) or you can add a small amount of sweetener to the cooked rice (prefer aromatic sweeteners lik honey or C grade maple syrup). Or if you prefer it spicier, mix it with a sweet chutney, like mango.

If you want a subtler taste, combine the rice with nuts (cook them together). Always use nuts with the brown skin removed. I have found unroasted, finely chopped nuts to work better this way. Hazelnuts and almonds are a very good choice. Para nuts also pair well with rice, but are seldom availablr blanched+chopped. This works especially well if you use the parfrying method for the rice, frying in the oil of the nut used. However, I don't know if you can parfry rice in a rice cooker, I always make mine on the stove.

Check more discussion of this question.

Does the cooking time, adding more water and using high quality and expensive rice help to produce soft and non-stick rice?

Question

Most of my friends told me that to prevent the rice from sticking at the bottom of the rice cooker pot (as shown in the picture below) and to prevent the rice from becoming very hard at the bottom of the rice cooker port, I have to do the following:

1. Decrease the cooking time
2. Adding more water and
3. Using high quality and expensive rice (e.g. Paw San Fragrance rice)

Currently, for each cup of rice that I added, I add two cup of water. The current cooking time is about 1 hour for two cup of rice and the rice use is the normal plain rice.

Would appreciate if anyone can confirm that I should decrease my cooking time to 30 minutes and add 4 cup of water for each cup of rice and the use of high quality and expensive rice?

Answer

This is what I do for cooking ONE cup rice:

1. Soak one cup rice in one and a half cup water for 20 minutes. This should be done after rinsing the rice properly since, the water used for soaking is NOT to be thrown away.
2. After 20 minutes put the vessel with the existing water on the gas stove (with a loose lid on) on a high heat.
   When the water reaches the boiling point (indicator: water starts to pour out of the top of the vessel), reduce the gas to a minimum.
3. After 4-5 minutes check whether the rice is done by taking the lid off sightly. Keep it on the minimum gas till the water bubbles on the top of the rice vanish completely.
4. Switch off the gas.
5. Let the rice vessel (with the lid on) be on that switched off gas for 15 minutes. The inherent heat of the gas helps in setting the rice properly and reduces the chances of the rice getting stuck at the bottom.

Also, using a thick bottomed vessel for cooking rice is a must. In a thin bottomed vessel, the food is more likely to get burnt if less water is used.

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Meatballs in tomato sauce using a rice cooker

Question

I have a package of frozen precooked Italian meatballs. I got a can of salsa. I would like to cook the meatballs in a tomato sauce. I don't have a pot right now. I only have a 4-cup rice cooker with tow modes: 'cook' and 'warm'. How can I use it? For how long?

Answer

What's the unit's usual cycle time for white rice? 20-30 min? That should get the sauce boiling, and the meatballs hot (70°C, plus) all the way through. I'd not trust a rice-cooker's 'warm' setting to eliminate bacteria in even pre-cooked meat.

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