Rice cooker recipe request

June 15, 2017 12:13 PM

I just figured out the easiest way to steam vegetables and make mashed potato is in the rice cooker. I'm not the kind to cook steak in the microwave, and it's a RICE cooker, it just never occurred to me. I'm thinking risotto is possible? I'm asking how people use their rice cooker for things other than rice.
posted by adept256 to Food & Drink (20 answers total)

Best answer: We've made these large pancakes in our rice cooker before. I found that they were a bit mushy in the middle, though.
posted by Paper rabies at 12:17 PM on June 15, 2017

Best answer: Maybe obvious but I use my rice cooker for millet, quinoa, even barley. All those are more tasty and nutritious than plain rice too.
posted by SaltySalticid at 12:20 PM on June 15, 2017

Best answer: This is not exactly a giant leap from rice, but we use ours for oatmeal, too. I use these proportions:
- 1 steel cut oats
- 1 milk
- 1.5 water
posted by Kriesa at 12:22 PM on June 15, 2017

Best answer: Hard boiled eggs. I don't eat them anymore, so I don't remember the details, but they were perfect and much easier to peel.
posted by FencingGal at 12:27 PM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You can make complete meal items like donburi, risotto, soups and chilis in your rice cooker. If you want an awesomely wonderful cookbook that gives you idea after idea, try this one, my go to rice cooker cookbook.
posted by bearwife at 12:28 PM on June 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Roger Ebert's The Pot and How to Use It can help you wrap your mind around this with bonus lovely recipes. I was skeptical so I borrowed it from the library before getting my own copy. YMMV.
posted by childofTethys at 12:35 PM on June 15, 2017 [8 favorites]

Best answer: I second @bearwife's book rec.
posted by old_growler at 12:36 PM on June 15, 2017

Best answer: I use google for this mostly, like here's a risotto adapted by Serious Eats from Roger Ebert (who really was the original English-language expert in this genre). Youtube is also a goldmine of recipes.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:03 PM on June 15, 2017

Best answer: I've seen people online claim you can do caramelized onions in a rice cooker if it has a long-cooking "porridge" cycle. Haven't tried it yet myself.
posted by nebulawindphone at 1:16 PM on June 15, 2017

Best answer: Bread and cakes are also a possibility (but my knowledge comes from manga, not personal experience).
posted by trig at 1:21 PM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Dried beans and lentils.
posted by noxperpetua at 1:50 PM on June 15, 2017

Best answer: Polenta on the porridge cycle.
posted by lazuli at 3:40 PM on June 15, 2017

Best answer: I've tried bread in a rice cooker once. It came out soft, fluffy, and fine-textured--kinda like a moister hamburger bun or the bun on a pork bun?? No hard or dark crust.
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 4:43 PM on June 15, 2017

Best answer: Like noxperpetua says about lentils...but what I like to do is put in half lentils, half rice with some seasonings. They finish in the same time and it's a complete meal.
posted by 8603 at 6:30 PM on June 15, 2017

Best answer: For example: red lentils, white rice, cumin, and coriander. Add salt when it comes out!
posted by 8603 at 6:38 PM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I love The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook.
posted by Lexica at 8:06 PM on June 15, 2017

Response by poster: I'm going to inject the best answer I've heard in meatspace. A colleague at work told me her mother is a textile artist. She sprays, splatters, sprinkles, pours, pollacks wax onto fabric before dying it, creating some very interesting patterns. She gets the wax from candles, and melts them in a rice cooker.

I'm marking everyone as the best answerer, and I bestow the highest honour as a private Australian citizen can give, the Koala Stamp.

I have more Koala Stamps, so keep your ideas coming!
posted by adept256 at 10:15 PM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

Seconding FencingGal's egg suggestion; it's the only way I make them now! I put the eggs in a bowl filled with warm water (just to get them up to room temp so you have less chance of them cracking). Start the rice cooker up with water inside. Once it is steaming, add the eggs. Cook for about 17 minutes then transfer eggs to ice bath. Perfect, slip-out-of-their-shell eggs every time!
posted by LKWorking at 7:09 AM on June 16, 2017

I had this genius idea to do steel cut oats similar to Kriesa's idea above... but! I would activate the delayed start button before I went to bed at night so in the morning I'd have delicious hot breakfast. The timer seemed to work just fine, but when I woke up, I discovered an overflowing gelatinous starch mess covering the countertop and thoroughly coating my rice maker. That was 4 years ago and still haven't been able to fully clean every nook and cranny of the appliance. The actual oatmeal remaining inside the mush cocoon was pretty good though!
posted by TomFoolery at 12:31 PM on June 16, 2017

Oh, nobody's mentioned it yet--you can put some fish in the steamer tray while you cook the rice underneath. Especially if you put some flavoring in the rice, that's a pretty decent meal.
posted by 8603 at 2:01 PM on June 17, 2017