SURPRISING THINGS YOU CAN MAKE IN A RICE COOKER
Despite its name, the rice cooker is not a single-minded kitchen appliance. Sure, it is the easiest way to make perfect rice, but it’s also a convenient way to cook a wide variety of foods. Here are a few examples that might just convince you to invest in a rice cooker or use yours more often.
If you think about it, the rice cooker works similarly in principle as the slow cooker (another versatile set-and-forget meal-making appliance): it uses moist heat over a period of time to cook food, trapping the flavors in the pot. Some rice cookers even have a “slow cook” setting, which means you can potentially use your rice cooker as a slow cooker.
Even if you have the most basic rice cooker, one with just two settings—cook and warm—but you can still “trick” your rice cooker to make more than just rice.
Your rice cooker might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you want to make breakfast, but many breakfast foods can indeed be made in the rice cooker.
BOILED EGGS
There are dozens of techniques for making the perfect boiled egg. The rice cooker is another one and cooking a few or lots of eggs at once produces easy-to-peel eggs. The rice cooker, admittedly, won’t save you any time over just doing it on the stove, but it’s pretty hands-off. Also, technically, the eggs aren’t boiled, they’re steamed, but eggs will come out like soft, medium, or hard boiled eggs in the rice cooker.
FRITTATAS
Perhaps you prefer a frittata to boiled eggs? Pre-cook some vegetables or whatever ingredients you want in your frittata, then whisk some eggs right in the rice cooker bowl and add your ingredients to the egg mixture. Cook on the regular rice setting and when it’s done, you’ve got a quick breakfast (or dinner) for at least two people, depending on your rice cooker size.
Oatmeal and other hot breakfast cereals
Yes, you can make oatmeal in a rice cooker. Let the oats soak overnight in the rice cooker, then turn it on in the morning for a hot breakfast in about half an hour (or set the timer).
Giant pancake
There’s the epic made-in-a-rice-cooker pancake, a giant pancake cake that’s fit for a big breakfast or dessert. One of the best things about the rice cooker is that you can mix in ingredients for a one-pot meal and basically walk away.
Steamed meats and vegetables
While you cook your rice, why not steam vegetables and meats at the same time? As a bonus, the meats/vegetables enhance the flavor of the rice or you could use broth to cook the rice and up the flavor of the entire dish.
Your rice cooker should have instructions for using the steaming tray (if it came with one). You can even steam a whole fish in a steamer basket lined with vegetables for a full one-pot meal. Or try steaming fully cooked sausages on a bed of sauerkraut and potatoes (30–40 minutes cooking time).
Pork roast
Most rice cookers have a setting that will just keep the pot warm. This is the setting that you’ll leave your cooker on for most of the time to cook a roast. To start out, place your ingredients in the rice cooker. I placed a pork roast or filet, onions, curry, soy sauce, chili sauce, lemon juice, garlic, and a few other spices including coriander. After the normal rice-cooking setting cycle, change to the warming setting and leave for an hour. You can cook just about any meat in the rice cooker this way, even an entire chicken.
If available, for the oatmeal to be done when you drag yourself out of bed. The nonstick rice pot is easy to clean and you can make smaller amounts of oatmeal without worrying about the oatmeal crusting on the bottom.
