2. Place the drained rice in a bowl and add cold water to cover by several inches. Let the rice soak at room temperature for at least 3 hours, and overnight if possible.
3. Drain the rice, discarding the water. Add the salt to the rice and toss it gently to mix. Fill the rice cooker bowl about half-full of water. Close the cover and set for the regular cycle. When the water comes to a full boil, you are ready to begin.
4. Lay the cloth or a double or triple layer of cheesecloth in the steamer basket or tray. Pour the rice onto the cloth and spread it out as evenly as possible. Make a shallow depression 2 inches in diameter in the center of the rice. This allows the steam to circulate and cook the rice evenly. Fold the corners of the cloth over the rice to cover it completely. Place the steamer basket in the rice cooker and close the cover. Set a timer for 40 minutes. After 15 minutes of cooking, open the cover, taking care to avoid steam burns, and fold back the cloth. Sprinkle ⅓ cup water over the rice. Re-cover the rice with the cloth, close the cover, and proceed with the steaming. Repeat the water-sprinkling process once or twice during the cooking. When the timer sounds, open the cover and taste some rice. It should be tender. If it’s not, or if you are not sure, let the rice steam for 10 minutes more.
CLICK TO SEE REHEAT IN GRICE IN THE RICE COOKER
5. Transfer the cooked rice to a large bowl and fan it to cool the rice quickly.
6. Serve the rice immediately or, if you are making it ahead of time, cover it with a clean, dry tea towel and store it at cool room temperature. (If you have made the rice a day ahead, refrigerate it, tightly covered.) You can reheat sticky rice in the steamer or microwave oven.
Medium- and Long-Grain Brown Rice
Most rice cookers are not really engineered with brown rice in mind, although some sophisticated models have a setting for it. Nevertheless, all rice cookers can and will do a wonderful job of cooking it, as long as you keep a few basic points in mind. (If your machine is one of the relatively few models with a Brown Rice cycle, then by all means use it according to the manufacturer’s instructions.)
Brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice because its protective outer bran layer is intact. It also requires more water. Your brown rice will taste better if you have time to let the rice and water soak for about an hour before cooking, but this is not necessary. (Some fuzzy logic rice cookers have a soaking cycle built in.)
After much testing and deliberation, we came up with a rule of thumb for adapting the basic stovetop recipe for brown rice to the rice cooker. For white rices you adapt by using ¼ cup less water than the package says; for brown rices, start with ¼ cup more water.
As with white rice, the long-grain brown cooks up fluffier with the individual grains more separate, while the medium-grain is a bit stickier and moister. Wash the rice first, if you wish; washing will reduce stickiness by rinsing off some of the surface starch.
If you have the time, do soak your brown rice for 30 minutes to an hour before you cook it. This allows the rice to cook more evenly and quickly. If you don’t have time or you forget, don’t worry. Just push the button and go. Your brown rice will still be fine.
Use the proportions in the chart below as a guide; you may need to make adjustments for your rice cooker or for a particularly dry or moist bag of rice. Of course, personal taste varies, too. If you like softer rice, add more water; for firmer rice, use less. If the water boils over while you are cooking, try reducing the amount of water slightly (start with 2 tablespoons less water, and continue in 2-tablespoon increments). Note your adjustment on the chart to jog your memory the next time.
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
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
brown basmati 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
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
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
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 rice
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
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, 1 tablespoon of the butter, and the salt; swirl to combine. Close the cover and set for the regular/Brown Rice cycle.
CLICK TO SEE AN IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT MEASUREMENT
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, with the remaining 1 table spoon butter nestled on top.
bhutanese red rice
Heirloom, unhulled short-grain red rice (eue chum) is an ancient grain from the remote and beautiful Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, and has been a staple daily grain in that country for centuries. It is imported exclusively by Lotus Foods. It is as colorful as it is flavorful, a lovely salmon red after cooking. Naturally colored, red rice is served at festive occasions. Red is the color of the rajas, bearers of a title of nobility in India. The red color is a long-standing Hindu and Buddhist symbol for creativity and the energy of life. We found the rice to have an aroma like that of a robust brown rice. It is a slightly moist rice, so be sure to let it rest for 10 minutes after cooking to firm up a bit.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup red rice
1¾ cups water
¼ teaspoon salt
1. Place the rice in a fine strainer or bowl, rinse with cold water twice, and drain twice. The water will be foamy and a dull red.
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 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 up to 1 hour. Serve hot.
black rice
Forbidden Black Rice is a Chinese black rice. This rice was the first grain to be imported by the fledgling company that would be called Lotus Foods. While traveling in China, owners Caryl Levine and Ken Lee went on a marketing tour of the upper Mekong area, Laos, and Burma. In an area populated by 26
autonomous tribes, they ate this rice at the Dai minority village. This rice is unusual because black rice is usually sticky; Forbidden Rice is not. It is known as having medicinal qualities. Because it still has its colorful bran layer, it turns an intriguing purple-black color when cooked. It is a
sweet, rather moist rice with an ever so slight crunch and is perfectly addicting. Note: This rice will stain the sides of your mouth for a short while, just like blueberries. Serve under stir-fries and with grilled poultry.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup Forbidden Black Rice (China black rice)
1¾ cups water
¼ teaspoon salt (optional)
1. Place the rice in a fine strainer or bowl, rinse with cold water twice, and drain twice. The water will turn grayish.
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 and salt, if using; swirl to combine. Close the cover and set for the regular/ Brown Rice cycle.
3. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, open and dry the inside of the cover. Crumple a clean paper towel and place it over 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.
black japonica rice
Black Japonica is another specialty rice developed by the Lundberg brothers in the upper Sacramento delta in central California. It is an unhulled, unmilled blend of a medium-grain red rice and a short-grain black rice; it cooks just like brown rice. When fresh, the rice has an attractive natural sheen and very earthy smell. This rice turns a dark mahogany color and ends up with a bit of a bite after it is cooked, so don’t expect it to be soft or mushy on the tongue even though it is quite moist. This is an assertively flavored rice, much like pure wild rice, with a strong vegetable/grain taste that is almost mossy. Serve with roast venison, prime rib, or as part of a stuffing.
The Ultimate Rice Cooker Page 8
