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Going With The Grain: Testing Rice Cookers

Photo by JADEN HAIR

Chinese sausage rice is wonderfully smoky/sweet/salty and its fat melts and flavors the entire pot of rice.

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By JADEN HAIR

Tribune correspondent

Published: February 17, 2009

It seems that many of you are in the market for a rice cooker, as my e-mail inbox is full of requests for recommendations.

I've been in carb overload the past couple of weeks testing rice cookers to help with your choice. I've highlighted three faves.

There are basic things I look for in a rice cooker:

1. The appliance must have a reservoir for the excess water to drip into after steaming. After you steam rice and open the lid, a lot of steam water droplets cling to the lid. That is, until you open the lid. Then the water drips down, and if you don't have a path for the water, it's going right back into your perfectly steamed, fluffy rice (resulting in too-wet, soggy rice.)

2. The next thing I look for is a "quick cook" function, which skips the rice soaking time. It's not necessary to soak rice before you cook it, although it makes for a more tender, evenly cooked grain. Still, a time savings of 20 percent is worth it, and the rice comes out just fine.

3. Of course, how well it cooks the rice is extremely important and I'm not just talking about conventional white rice. How about brown jasmine rice? Brown short-grained rice? Wild rice? Each of those rice grains cooks differently. If you try to cook the brown rice the same as white rice, you'll end up breaking your teeth trying to eat it. That's because the hard bran is still on brown rice. A machine should accommodate different grains.

Here are my picks:

1. My brother, a young, handsome bachelor doctor, loves Zojirushi's Rizo Rice Cooker ($134 at www.Amazon.com) It's a sleek and stylish little thing … so cute. Rizo has a small footprint on the counter and is perfect for a household of one or two adults. It makes white rice, brown rice and risotto. Do you how fabulous it is to just push a button and — poof! — no stirring, no watching, no worrying about time. It comes with a little steamer basket, so you can steam a small chicken breast or veggies. The only bummer is it doesn't have a quick rice function. However, since you're only cooking one or two cups of rice grains, it cooks pretty quickly anyway.

2. On the other end of the spectrum, the Aroma Professional Rice Cooker ($29.99 at Costco) has everything a family of up to eight needs. This plain white cooker has no frills, but is a solid machine that cooks white rice, brown rice and steams. It has a quick rice function and a delay timer. Aroma includes a cookbook with recipes such as Steamed Southern Corn Pudding, Maine Fisherman's Chowder and even Dark Chocolate Truffle Cake. This model is only sold at Costco, so if you don't have a Costco membership, find a friend who does. It's worth it because other brands with this many functions are typically $60-plus.

3. My favorite, the mac daddy of 'em all is the Zojirushi Induction Heat Rice Cooker ($334.99 at Target.) Oh, I know you just winced! But for me and many other kitchen geeks, it is an everyday appliance. Why so pricey? Because it has a computer inside. Instead of a heating plate, it uses some magnetic Jedi force-field to cook the rice evenly and to make adjustments based the cooking progress. Plus, its cooking technique allows for even better nutritional extraction from brown rice. All the bells and whistles are included.

CHINESE SAUSAGE RICE

Chinese sausage is one of my super-secret ingredients in Chinese cooking. The sausage is cured and lasts for months in the refrigerator. You'll find them packaged as links, and I like the regular pork sausage. The sausage cooks in the rice cooker! It's wonderfully smoky/sweet/salty and its fat melts and flavors the entire pot of rice. The sausage is meant to be a condiment or a little side dish.

3 scoops jasmine rice (use the small measuring cup provided with your rice cooker, which is about 3/4 of a standard measuring cup)

water

4 Chinese sausage links

Rice Cooker

Soy Sauce

Remove the rice cooker pot from the appliance and at the sink, add the rice. Fill the pot with cool water and swirl with your hands to clean the rice Carefully pour the water out, leaving the rice in the pot. Repeat washing two to three more times. After pouring out the water the final time, fill the pot with water up to the number 3 for regular rice.

Snip apart the sausage links if they are linked together. Snuggle the links inside the rice grains and water. Place the pot in your rice cooker and push the Quick Cook or Regular Cook function.

When the rice is done, remove the sausage with tongs and slice on the diagonal. Serve with rice and a bit of soy sauce.

Serves 4 as a side dish

Steamy Kitchen Faves:

I love finding fanatics, especially when their obsession is brewing the perfect cup of coffee. That starts with perfect roasting. No, wait. It starts with the best beans. Actually, for a company like Storyville, it's all of the above and then some. The company roasts and ships your beans in small batches the same day, because freshness is the secret to smooth, balanced coffee. You won't need cream and sugar in this coffee. There's no need to doctor this brew to hide bitterness; there is none. I've enjoyed Storyville coffee for seven weeks now and it's such a huge difference that I now treat my morning coffee as a welcome ritual. Storyville Coffee Co. is at www.storyville.com.)

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