Took the plunge into a sea of automatic rice cookers today with this Black & Decker 6-cup rice cooker, almost the smallest you can get (there’s a 3-cup, too), only $20 (on sale for 15!). It comes with a steamer basket, so you can steam veggies as well. And you can use it for things like soup, and reheating.
There’s a whole little universe of cool cookery devices, and they’re surprisingly inexpensive. Once you get rid of the idea of a central STOVE, a typical multiburner-plus-oven set-up, as a compulsory bit of living gear, things get interesting! There are all sorts of tabletop ovens, slow cookers, grills and griddles, electric woks, blenders and food processors. I’m sure there’s more.
As soon as I started focusing on these little devices as a primary means of cooking, the way I looked at food automatically changed. Thoughts naturally turned to individual ingredients, cooking methods, nutritional value, diet. You don’t want, don’t have space for, a whole clutter of equipment and things to wash up, and this thinking naturally extends to food itself. And you can only fit so much into a tiny fridge.
This is pretty exciting. Then again, maybe they ARE all just overspecialized gadgets, and I’ll end up embracing a simple pan or wok and a burner. It’s an experiment. More on my first rice cooker after I’ve actually used it for a while!
Funny, I just posted about how useless a rice cooker is. But if you are using it in place of a stove, I give you lots of credit!
http://bunnybites.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/how-to-not-waste-your-money-part-1/
[...] I would love to hear about it – leave me a comment). Update 7/30/09 – I found this tiny-living blogger who feels differently about rice cookers, but proposes using them in place of a stove! So, here it [...]
Consider this; Some of these devices are a single purpose, not recyclable at end of life, this one exposes you to aluminum during the cooking process and pvc or styrene on the outside.
One cast iron or stainless steel pan and a small single burner counter top heating pad will provide you several lifetimes of utility, and flexablity. I have a dutch oven that is 60 yrs old no cracks as good as the day it was purchased. Cooking rice is simple, boil water, add rice, boil for two more minutes at full roll. then turn off the heat, don’t lift the lid for 20 minutes(depening on type of rice) it continues to cook and the waste heat can heat your room or seat, or bed.
“Sometimes its how you look at the problem that make it a problem or a solution” Mike Mac
Hello am Larry Miller,
Am actually interested in rice cooker and i will be very happy to hear a fast reply from you if u have it in stock. Reply me with pictures of samples,sizes as well as prices of those u do have in stock and hope to hear from you soon.
Best Regards
Larry.
Try a single-burner, portable stovetop and a collection of one-pot recipes.
I have one of the tiny ones, and I love it! Honestly, if you’re any good at cooking rice I can see going without one, or how it might seem unnecessary, but this has saved me from burning rice 3-4 times/week for five years. I just couldn’t master the ‘boil, then simmer, but don’t set it on fire’ aspect of rice cooking. I hope you enjoy yours!