Cooking rice with rice cooker

Here is how to cook rice with a rice cooker. It is dead easy. I got a Vonshef 1.8 L rice cooker in which I had for years. It is an automatic rice cooker which means it cooks by itself.

It is so much more convenient compared to cooking on the hob steaming method. That was how I was thought in my domestic science class in secondary school. It is possible but you will have to watch it like a hawk. With a busy young family no chance of doing that.

Most modern Asian families use it. They are so many types in the market nowadays. From the ones that do it all-in-one slow cooker, making rice porridge to cooking rice combination, to a straight forward simple rice cooker they have it in the market nowadays.

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I love being in love with my rice cooker from Vonshef that I got a year or two back on eBay. They do have it on their website but a different model. Here is the link to it. They do free delivery to the UK mainland. This model is 1.8 litre which might a bit big for small families. However, cooked rice is freezer able for up to 3 months. In order to make fried rice of any kind, you will need to use fridge cool rice rather than just ready cooked rice. As it’s still warm and once fried it will go mush and soggy.

Advantages of using a rice cooker

By having a rice cooker one can obtain the nice cooked fluffy rice that you get from Indian or Chinese or Asian restaurants. Yes it will cook all types of rice. It depends how much you put it and who type of texture you want to achieve. Of course the end result depends on the type of rice and how much water you put in. I have recently made a blog post on making chicken rice. And that is how I got an idea for this blog post. Cooked rice can go with any stir fries. It makes a great accompaniment with them. Here is a link to my water bamboo stir fry recipe.

Cooking rice

I am using a 2 litres rice cooker which is enough to feed a family of 4-6 adults. It’s all depending on the portion size.

The ratio to cook rice is to add water double the amount of rice. Yup always keep in mind the ratio and you will have fluffy rice. Another technique to use is the use of the fingertip method. This is where after you put the rice into the pot you put your index finger into the rice and to the bottom of the pot. Till you touch it then put your thumb on top of the index finger where the top of the rice is. That the measurement of how much water you will need to cook the rice. With that finger, measurement add to that finger measurement.

It works for more than one or more cup of rice. If your rice pot is huge this measurement will not work you will need more water as the surface the base wider. There more heat will be dispersed around the pot hence more water is needed.

It all depends on the type of rice. Black rice and brown take a bit longer to cook compare to basmati or long-grain rice. I also add some green lentils to add more nutrient to the rice content. I normally buy my rice from Waitrose as they do free delivery for more than £60 spend.