The Ultimate Rice Cooker (12 page)
Brown Rice (Medium-Grain or Long-Grain)
CLICK TO SEE PERFECT BROWN RICE IN THE RICE COOKER
Stretching the Brown Rice Capacity of Your Rice Cooker*
*important note:
When stretching the brown rice capacity of your rice cooker, you must use the special technique developed to go along with this chart or you will experience a messy boilover. Add water and rice to the rice cooker as usual, but when the water boils, SHUT OFF THE RICE COOKER. Set a timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn the cooker on again and let the regular cycle complete as usual. Be sure to allow the full 15 minutes of steaming time after the rice cooker has switched to Keep Warm.
long-ormedium-grain brown rice
There are lots of long-grain brown rices, most sold in generic-looking bags. They come in a range of natural colors, from creamy to dark tan, with a flavor palate to match. We find long-grain brown rice has its own special sweetness, a far different flavor from medium-or short-grain. Brown rice takes more water and a longer time to cook than white rice, so plan your meal accordingly. You will use this same proportion scale for medium-grain brown rice.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup domestic long-grain brown rice
2 cups plus 1 tablespoon water
1. Place the rice in a fine strainer or bowl, rinse with cold water twice, and drain twice.
2. Place the rice in the rice cooker bowl. Add the water, swirl to combine, close the cover, and set for the regular/Brown Rice cycle.
3. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, let the rice steam for 10 to 15 minutes. Fluff the rice with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. This rice will hold on Keep Warm for 1 to 2 hours. Serve hot.
Short-grain brown rice is beloved by vegetarians, health food advocates, macrobiotics, Somersizers, and everyone else who loves chewy, flavorful brown rice. Short-grain brown rice is not as smoothly sweet as long-grain and makes a perfect side dish with a bit of butter or sprinkled with
gomasio
, a sesame salt condiment very popular in Japanese cuisine. If you want a brown rice risotto (don’t tell the purists) or a dessert pudding, this would be the rice to use.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup short-grain brown rice
2¼ cups cold water
1. Place the rice in a fine strainer or bowl, rinse with cold water twice, and drain twice.
2. Place the rice in the rice cooker bowl. Add the water; swirl to combine. If you have the time, soak the rice in its cooking water for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Close the cover and set for the regular/Brown Rice cycle.
3. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, let the rice steam for 10 to 15 minutes. Fluff the rice with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. This rice will hold on Keep Warm for 1 to 2 hours. Serve hot.
CLICK TO SEE STORING RICE
Considering how aromatic white basmati rice is, you will have a shock if you expect the imported brown unhulled basmati to taste and smell the same. It doesn’t. It might as well be an entirely different rice. First, the dark tan rice is a lot less foamy while washing. The aroma is distinctly grassy and the flavor delicately nutty. It takes fully twice the amount of time to cook as the white long-grain basmati. You can use these proportions for the domestic brown basmati developed by Lundberg, which is a delicious, milder rice all around.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup imported Indian brown basmati rice
2 cups water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon salt
1. Place the rice in a fine strainer or bowl, rinse with cold water twice, and drain twice.
2. Coat the rice cooker bowl with nonstick cooking spray or a film of vegetable oil. Place the rice in the rice bowl. Add the water, butter, and salt; swirl to combine. Close the cover and set for the regular/ Brown Rice cycle.
3. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, let the rice steam for 10 minutes. Fluff the rice with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. This rice will hold on Keep Warm for 1 to 2 hours. Serve hot.
Brown jasmine rice is grown in the marshy river delta area south of Galveston, Texas, by a third generation of rice growers. It is sold by Lotus Foods under the label of Lowell Farms. It is a pale tan, long-grain rice that we found cooks up very much like white rice because the bran and germ layers are so thin. But be prepared; it is a bit moist, like regular jasmine rice, rather than dry, like other long-grain brown rices. We found this had the most appealing aroma of all the brown rices, delicate and slightly nutty. The flavor is equally light and not overly sweet like other brown rices. We do not add salt during cooking; it is too strong and can be detected in the final flavor. This rice became a fast favorite.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup domestic brown jasmine rice
2 cups water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1. Coat the rice cooker bowl with nonstick cooking spray or a film of vegetable oil. Place the rice in the rice bowl. Add the water and butter, swirl to combine, close the cover, and set for the regular/Brown Rice cycle.
2. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, let the rice steam for 15 minutes. Fluff the rice with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. This rice will hold on Keep Warm for 1 to 2 hours. Serve hot.
Wehani rice, which is a russet color and somewhere between a long- and medium-grain brown rice, is a specialty rice developed by the Lundberg brothers in the upper Sacramento delta in central California. This rice is served as the house rice at one of our local gourmet restaurants, with everything from grilled seafood to game hens. Let the rice sit for 15 minutes longer if it is too moist. You don’t want a big clump of rice, but know that it tends to look moist, even if it will be delicate on the tongue. Don’t add salt while Wehani is cooking; it will toughen the grain. This rice is delicious and one of our favorites in the brown rice genre (try it as a fried rice).
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup Wehani rice
1¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (optional)
1. Coat the rice cooker bowl with nonstick cooking spray or a film of vegetable oil. Place the rice in the rice bowl. Add the water and butter, if using, swirl to combine, close the cover, and set for the regular/ Brown Rice cycle.
2. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, open and dry the inside of the cover. Crumple a clean paper towel and place over the surface of the rice to absorb excess moisture. Close the cover and let the rice steam for 15 minutes. Remove the paper towel. Fluff the rice with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. This rice will hold on Keep Warm for 1 to 2 hours. Serve hot.
Riz rouge de Camargue
is a red rice from the marshy Camargue region of southern France, adjacent to the French Riviera. It is imported as an artisanal rice by Made in France, Inc., of San Francisco and is really a special find since friends in Paris don’t seem to be able to get it! It is a beautiful, earthy-colored russet rice with pointed ends and intact hull, tech nically making it a brown rice. The rice is so visually delicate that immediately our instincts were to use proportions as for a white rice rather than a brown rice, which ended up being accurate. The rice plumps and elongates, cooking into a mass of dark rice with lots of white grains scattered throughout. It has a milder flavor than other red rices that deepens as it sits on the Keep Warm cycle. It is the longest grain of all the red rices and the least sticky. Serve as a side dish with roast meats and rosy dark sauces.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup riz rouge
1¾ cups water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (optional)
1. Coat the rice cooker bowl with nonstick cooking spray or a film of vegetable oil. Place the rice in the rice bowl. Add the water and butter, if using. Close the cover and set for the regular/Brown Rice cycle.
2. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, let the rice steam for 10 minutes. Fluff the rice with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. This rice will hold on Keep Warm for 1 to 2 hours. Serve hot.
Wild Pecan aromatic rice is a hearty-flavored long-grain brown rice with a gently woodsy aroma that cooks up slightly moist. It is a local regional specialty, grown only in Iberia Parish in the Acadian counties of the South Louisiana bayous. Developed by Louisiana State University, Wild Pecan rice is a cross between Carolina long-grain and several varieties of Indochine aromatic rices. It is milled with almost all the bran layers intact, hence the creamy color of the brown rice with some dark grains dispersed; portions of the cooked rice will curl, or butterfly. It is available in the rice section of the super market in 7-ounce boxes. If there is a lot of creamy dust in the bag, give it a rinse to clean off the dry bran layers that have fallen off while aging on the shelf. Serve with poultry, game, and shrimp dishes.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: Serves 4
One 7-ounce package Wild Pecan rice
1¾ cups water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
