Surviving the Sprawl : The Many Ways of Rice Pt.2

In the previous part, we went over WHY you might want to buy a bag of rice, pick up a rice cooker, and find yourself eating cheaper and healthier than almost all in Chiba City. Now we go over why you'll come back to the Universal Grain.

We'll start with Rice Cookers. They have a Cook and Heat settings, which Cooking is the element in the cooker that heats up the water to boiling point, and measures when the water is gone. When the water is boil off and into your rice, if you measured it right, then its fine, and the cooker sets it to Warm, which is a much lower heat setting that keeps things edible, but WILL burn your rice if you walk away for too long. So, when you see or hear it click to Warm, you should start attempting to unplug/pull it out.

This is important though, as Warm can also warm up the other edibles you toss into your rice, and because the Rice Cooker just measures the water, feel free to use the Bullion Cube trick (throw 1 cube per cup of water used into water during measure : start cooking, see steam, stir until dissolved, re-lid, good to go). Canned goods are many, and the one thing you can't do to most canned goods is undercook them : They are made to be eaten right out of the can. Like the Chicken Bullion Cubes but still want more texture and flavor? Canned Chicken. Hearty? Canned Pork and a Can of your favorite veggies will brighten your day.

Note: There are two processes on adding canned goods : Drained and Additive. Do you add even more of the flavor to your rice by throwing the liquid its been stewing in into the Rice?

Addative : When and How Much is truly the technique on Additive. Do I drain half the salty preservatives and then add in it when the rice is almost done, letting the Rice Cooker use the fluid to use the fluid like water, cooking in and making the rice a little softer?.

Drained : Or just drain for similicity, less salty, and more the texture and density that comes with

And before I get to the few 'recipes' I've done recently, I'd like to note : With a Can of almost anything, your going to be using a Cup to a Cup-and-a-Half in order to get proper preportions - but this is more than an individual meal, so if you end up like me with eating a bowl and have a pound of leftovers, what do you do?

Microwaving : When you do the normal thing of sealing it for later, you might want it quickly, but microwaving makes rice hard. Personal trick? Add small amounts of water until it starts to look/feel muddy/sticky, but not drowned (visable pools of water) and microwave it then. Your rice will be softer, but at least its not feeling like pebbles because your rice is dryed out. I also suggest saucing again - Hot sauce and Soy Sauce is my personal preference.

This also leads to the next suggestion, which is make alot on purpose, and eat it throughout the next 2-3 days, as its quicker than making rice every time.

Personal 'Rice Recipes'

Chicken Hope ->

Jasmine Rice - 1 cup (made with 2-1/2 cups water and 2 Chicken Bullion Cubes)

Canned Chicken - 1 Can, Drained, Added during 'Warm' for 1 min

Jasmine rice is a personal favorite in types of rice - it has a flavor of its own while still being rice-like and absorbing flavors, so when using Jasmine rice, I just decided a single can of chicken and some bullion would just add more texture to the wonderful, light, meal(s)

Iron Diet ->

Basamatic Rice - 1 cup (made with 2 cups water and 2 Beef Bullion Cubes)

Canned Pork - Addative (half 'fluid', added toward the end of the end, as when you start seeing the rice 'bubble' and see 'holes' from the bottom to the top)

Canned Sliced Mushrooms - Addative (whole, added during 'Warm' for 1 min)

Basamatic Rice tends to be a little dryer, but is definetly its own thing. Unlike Jasmine or regular White, it doesn't absorb as readily, so I use the Addative Process to make it softer and more flavor dense. Canned Pork does need more work, as it doesn't come stripped down like Chicken, so requires more time in the Rice Cooker and alot of stirring to break it down. Then re-lid, toss some mushrooms for a minute afterwards to allow them to heat up, and enjoy a nice meal, full of Protein, Iron, and perhaps a little too much salt?

Final Thought :

Yes, these are personal, Yes, rice of different brands have different tastes and require different styles, Yes, Rice Cookers might vary in operation brand to brand, but No, they all generally work the same.

Experiment. Toss it if you fail. Try again. Eat and enjoy successes, and surprise, youre a Cook working on your own personal Cookbook.