The Ultimate Rice Cooker (40 page)
4. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, let the kasha steam for 5 to 10 minutes. Stir gently with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon to combine the kasha and pasta. This dish will hold on Keep Warm for up to 1 hour. Serve hot.
kasha varnishkes with mushrooms:
Add 1 cup (or more) thinly sliced fresh mushrooms to cook along with the onion.
Millet has a fluffy texture, is very easy to digest, and has a very sweet, delicate, almost imperceptible nutty flavor. It can become bitter and sticky when steamed raw, so here it is first dry-toasted before steaming, turning a bright golden color. Food writer Elizabeth Schneider describes the flavor of millet as having “a hint of cashew and corn.” Native to China, millet was being gathered around 7000 B.C. in Japan. Reflecting the importance that millet has maintained over the centuries, there is a beautiful family crest design of a foxtail millet plant in a book of Japanese textile emblems that adorned battlefield identification banners and court kimonos in the Middle Ages. The Stone Age Lake Dwellers, in what is now Switzerland, had wild millet. It is still the grain of choice in Central Asia, Africa, and India, while virtually unknown as a cereal grain in America. As an alternative to rice, cook up some millet. Toss it with some chopped fresh cilantro or basil leaves right before serving.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: About 31/ 2 cups; serves 4 to 5
1 cup whole millet
1¾ cups water or chicken stock
1 tablespoon unsalted butter or margarine
Pinch of salt
1. Place the millet in a dry skillet over medium-high heat. Toast, stirring constantly, until the color deepens a few shades and the grains pop, about 4 minutes. Immediately place the hot millet in a deep bowl, fill with cold water, and swirl with your fingers. Drain in a fine strainer.
2. Place the millet in the rice cooker 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 millet steam for 10 minutes. Fluff the grains with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. This millet will hold on Keep Warm for up to 1 hour. Serve hot.
In Quechua—the language of one of the main native Andean peoples and descendants of the Incas—the word
quinoa
, like so many other grains, poetically translates to “mother grain.” Quinoa was a staple grain of equal importance to maize, and was considered a source of strength and endurance for working in the thin mountain air of the altiplano. After the Spanish conquest, quinoa crops were destroyed and the grain was virtually lost to the world until it appeared in the United States through the work of visionary horticulturalist Luther Burbank. The “forgotten cereal of the ancients,” as he dubbed it, did not catch on as the food source he predicted. It is now imported from Bolivia by the Quinoa Corporation under the name Ancient Harvest Quinoa.
The grains are coated with a resiny natural pesticide and preservative compound, saponin, which is bitter and soapy flavored. The grain needs to be rinsed well before cooking. The seed is a round, flat disc with a very mild flavor that has a gentle tangy aftertaste. Quinoa turns translucent and fluffy when cooked. A hoop-like bran layer surrounds each grain, and it looks like a half-moon-shaped crescent or curly tail in the pot with the grain after cooking (a sure sign it is cooked enough). Quinoa is very light and extremely digestible, with a surprising crunch despite its tiny size. If left to rest after steaming on the Keep Warm cycle, the grains will swell a bit more. You can add tamari soy sauce, minced fresh herbs, garam masala, or cumin to the cooking water to vary the flavor. Try this exotic grain; we think you will be pleasantly surprised by how much you like it.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: About 3 cups; serves 4 to 6
1½ cups imported quinoa
2 cups water or chicken stock
¼ teaspoon salt
1. Place the quinoa in a deep bowl, fill with cold water, and rub between your fingers. Drain in a fine strainer. Rinse two or three times, until the foam disappears.
2. Place the quinoa in the rice cooker 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 quinoa steam for 10 minutes. Fluff with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. This quinoa will hold on Keep Warm for up to 1 hour. Serve hot or let cool to room temperature and chill.
Quinoa is fantastic cooked in fruit juice. This recipe was adapted from the food writer who first brought quinoa to the attention of the grain-loving public 20 years ago, Rebecca Wood. This is good drizzled with a bit of organic heavy cream.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: Serves 4 to 6
1½ cups imported quinoa
2 cups orange juice or passion fruit– orange juice combination
1 tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons chopped nuts, such as macadamia nuts, almonds, or pecans, toasted
1. Place the quinoa in a deep bowl, fill with cold water, and rub between your fingers. Drain in a fine strainer. Rinse two or three times, until the foam disappears.
2. Place the quinoa in the rice cooker bowl. Add the juice, brown sugar, 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 quinoa steam for 10 minutes. Fluff with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon and stir in the nuts. Serve immediately.
Rye has a characteristically bitter-strong, earthy-grassy flavor, usually with a pleasant sour aftertaste. Whole-grain rye berries are the whole kernels and are used in pilafs like rice or wheat berries, in salads, or for a breakfast cereal. Whole-grain rye is known for flourishing in cold countries with rocky, acid soil and, for that reason, rye has been a flour of choice for centuries in Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, and Russia; it is grown up to the Arctic Circle and mountain areas above 14,000 feet, which is highly unusual for a grain!
Because the grain is so soft and does not have a hull as tough as wheat, it is traditionally “parched” or roasted to bring out the best flavor. Food writer Bernard Clayton describes rye berries as having “a look like suntanned oatmeal” after cooking.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: About 3 cups; serves 4
1 cup rye berries
2 cups hot water
1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil
Pinch of salt
1. Place the rye berries in a dry skillet over medium-high heat. Toast, stirring constantly, until the grains pop and deepen in color, about 4 minutes.
2. Place the toasted rye berries and water in the rice cooker bowl; let soak in the machine for 1 hour. Add the oil 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 rye berries steam for 15 minutes. Fluff with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. The rye berries will hold on Keep Warm for up to 1 hour. Serve hot.
This recipe came from Beth’s friend Mary Cantori, who is an inventive and intuitive cook. She never writes her recipes down, but luckily Beth did when Mary told her the details of this wonderful pilaf served with Thanksgiving turkey at Yosemite one year.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: Serves 6
1 cup rye berries
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup chopped yellow onion
½ cup chopped celery
½ cup coarsely shredded carrot
1¾ cups chicken stock
Pinch of salt
½ cup chopped pitted prunes, preferably moist-pack
1½ cups cooked long-grain brown rice
3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves, for garnish
1. Place the rye berries in a dry skillet over medium-high heat. Toast, stirring constantly, until the grains pop and deepen in color, about 4 minutes.
2. Place the toasted rye berries and hot water to cover in the rice cooker bowl; let soak in the machine for 1 hour.
3. While the rye is soaking, heat the oil in a medium-size skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrot and cook, stirring, until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside.
4. Drain the rye berries and return them to the rice cooker bowl. Add the stock, salt, sautéed vegetables, and prunes; swirl to combine. Close the cover and set for the regular/Brown Rice cycle.
5. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, open the cover and stir in the cooked rice. Close the cover and let the grains steam for 15 minutes. Fluff with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. Serve the pilaf immediately, sprinkled with the parsley.
Wheat berries, whole-grain wheat with all its natural bran and germ intact, are well known to health-food enthusiasts and people who grind their own flour. Sadly, wheat berries are little known to many other well-versed cooks. We use so many wheat products, from whole wheat flour and commercial cereals to farina and bulgur, but wheat berries are still rarely used. But one taste of a simple wheat berry salad with orange zest and red onion in a plain Dijon vinaigrette, and you will be hooked. Wheat berries have a chewy texture and lovely sweet aroma and flavor. They are good in casseroles, in soups used like rice or barley, as part of a grain stuffing, in pilafs, and as the base for salads or even sprinkled over them. They make a natural pairing with rice. Wheat berries have the best aroma when they are cooking in the rice cooker; they fill the kitchen with a perfect grain-sweet scent. The berries really need the presoak to soften the outer layers.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice
YIELD: About 3 cups; serves 4
1 cup wheat berries
2 cups water
Pinch of salt
1. Place the wheat berries in a dry skillet over medium-high heat. Toast, stirring constantly, until the grains pop and deepen in color, about 4 minutes. (This step is optional, but many cooks like this flavor a bit better than the untoasted grain.)
2. Place the wheat berries in the rice cooker bowl and cover with hot water; let soak in the machine for 1 hour. Drain the wheat berries and return them to the rice bowl. Add the water and salt; swirl to combine. Close the cover and set for the regular/ Brown Rice cycle.