The Ultimate Rice Cooker (72 page)
Prunes poached in burgundy wine is a traditional country dessert in France, where prunes have a better reputation than they do in America. In the seventeenth-century
Culpeper’s Herbal
, a compilation of foods and their properties, prune plums are defined as the fruit of Venus, and the dried fruit of the meaty Italian plum has lived up to its reputation. Serve this intensely flavored compote cold with a spoonful of whipped cream and grated semisweet chocolate on top, alongside angel food cake, or over chocolate ice cream. You can even tuck a few next to sautéed pork chops or roast lamb.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: About 6 cups
3 cups Pinot Noir
1 cup water
½ cup sugar
1½ pounds pitted jumbo prunes
1. Place all the ingredients in the rice cooker bowl. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle. Carefully open the cover twice during the cooking to allow a burst of steam to be released from the wine burning off its alcohol.
2. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, carefully open the cover, allowing the steam to escape. The fruit should be delightfully plump. Remove the bowl from the cooker and let cool. Pour the prunes into a storage container, cover, and refrigerate overnight. Keeps for up to 1 month in the refrigerator.
Adapted from an elegant restaurant dessert menu, this is an entirely different interpretation of prunes than the ones poached in wine. It is a heady, luscious, and decadent relative. For your fancy dinner party, serve this sauce over vanilla ice cream with some butter cookies on the side.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: About 2½ cups
¾ cup Armagnac or Cognac
1¼ cups water
1½ cups sugar
2 star anise
1 vanilla bean, split
One 4-inch cinnamon stick
One 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
1 pound pitted jumbo prunes
1. Place all the ingredients in the rice cooker bowl. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle. Carefully open the cover twice during the cooking to allow a burst of steam to be released from the brandy burning off its alcohol.
2. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, carefully open the cover, allowing the steam to escape. The fruit should be plump and tender. Stir a few times with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. Remove the bowl from the cooker and let cool. Remove the whole spices. Pour the sauce into a storage container, cover, and refrigerate overnight. Keeps for up to 1 month in the refrigerator.
Great for kids, great for the buffet table with baked ham, great over pancakes or cottage cheese for breakfast, even great with a square of plain cake or ice cream for dessert. Any combination of dried fruit will do—prunes, apricots, apples, pears, peaches, light or dark raisins, dried cranberries, cherries, or currants. We especially like dried apples in this. You can also leave out the honey, if your diet dictates, and the compote will still be excellent.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: About 8 cups
5½ cups water
⅓ cup honey
3 slices lemon
One 4-inch cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, split
1½ pounds mixed whole dried fruit of your choice
1. Place the water, honey, lemon, and spices in the rice cooker bowl. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle. Set a timer for 15 minutes; when the timer sounds, add the dried fruit. Close the cover and let the cycle complete.
2. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, carefully open the cover and allow the steam to escape. The fruit should be delightfully plump. Stir with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. Remove the bowl from the cooker and let cool. Pour the fruit into a storage container, cover, and refrigerate overnight. Keeps for up to 1 week in the refrigerator.
Blueberries are a common sight on American tables from May to September. They grow wild in the pastures and meadows in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, and are part of diets in Scandinavia and near the Arctic Circle. Think of references to “gathering berries” and it usually is in reference to the blueberry. Blueberries, also known as bilberries or whortleberries, can be made sweet, in jams and pies, or savory, as an accompaniment to game and meats. Blueberries have been cultivated only since the early twentieth century and mass cultivated since the 1950s, so we have nice big, plump berries not only fresh, but frozen. Blueberries take well to being stewed; just look at the blue lips and teeth with all of the smiles after eating a bowl of these with yogurt. This is a favorite recipe for use with the extra-large frozen berries.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: About 4 cups
4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries, picked over for stems
½ cup sugar
½ cup orange juice
3 slices lemon
1 tablespoon orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg or ground mace
1. Place the blueberries, sugar, orange juice, and lemon slices in the rice cooker bowl. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes or in the refrigerator for an hour to give the berries a chance to exude some liquid (this is especially important for the frozen berries).
2. When ready to cook, place the bowl in the rice cooker. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle. Set a timer for 35 minutes; when the timer sounds, add the orange liqueur and nutmeg, stirring quickly with a wooden or plastic rice paddle or wooden spoon. Close the cover and let the cycle complete.
3. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, carefully open the cover, remove the bowl from the cooker, and let cool. Serve the blueberries warm or at room temperature, or pour into a storage container, cover, and refrigerate overnight to serve chilled, ladled into dessert bowls. Keeps for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
poached rhubarb and strawberries
Don’t have time to make a strawberry-rhubarb pie? Well, this early summer fresh fruit compote has all the flavor and pretty color without any of the fuss. The best loved fruit in the world, the delicate strawberry, is paired with the thick pink stems of rhubarb, a flowering rhizome that is much more appreciated in European cookery than American. Note that the recipe says to be careful with the stirring, so that the fruits do not get stringy and mushy. The flavor is so very delightful and especially good with vanilla gelato.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: About 4 cups
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split
1 pound fresh rhubarb stems, cut into 1½-inch chunks (about 4 cups)
1½ pints fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and halved
1. Place the water, sugar, vanilla bean, and rhubarb in the rice cooker bowl. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle. Set a timer for 30 minutes; when the timer sounds, add the strawberries and stir once to distribute. Close the cover and let the cycle complete.
2. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, carefully open the cover, remove the bowl from the cooker, and let cool. Do not stir. Serve the compote warm or at room temperature, or pour into a storage container, cover, and refrigerate overnight to serve chilled, ladled into dessert bowls. Keeps for up to 4 days in the refrigerator.
poached pears with grand marnier custard sauce
Poaching pears is sometimes a hit-or-miss procedure; if the heat is too high, you have mashed pear floating in liquid when you want a perfect whole pear for display. Poaching them in the rice cooker was a pleasant surprise. The low, even heat is just right for the gentle cooking that the pear needs to stay whole. This is a favorite recipe, adapted from the now-defunct
Cuisine
magazine, poaching the pears in a lemon-water syrup and serving them with a divine custard sauce spiked with orange liqueur. Be sure to buy your pears hard, under-ripe, not close to the consistency you would want if you were to eat them out of hand. Use these same proportions to poach peeled peach halves (also buy them under-ripe).
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: Serves 4 to 5
3 cups water
1 cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
4 to 5 under-ripe Bartlett, Comice, Anjou, or Bosc pears, peeled and stem left intact
One ½-inch piece vanilla bean
1 slice lemon
Grand Marnier Custard Sauce (recipe follows; optional)
1. Place the water, sugar, lemon juice, and pears in the rice cooker bowl. The pears will be floating in the liquid. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle. Set a timer for 30 minutes. Do not stir at any time during the cooking. Check the consistency of the pears at 30 minutes by piercing their flesh with the tip of a small knife; you want them firm, but slightly soft. Remember, they will soften a bit more as they cool.
2. When the pears are the desired consistency, remove the bowl from the cooker. Transfer the pears to a storage container with a slotted spoon and let cool. Leave the poaching liquid in the bowl, add the vanilla bean and lemon, and let cool separately. When cooled, pour the poaching liquid back over the pears, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
3. To serve, using a slotted spoon, transfer each pear to a dessert plate. Serve chilled, plain, or in a pool of the custard sauce. Can be made ahead and refrigerated.
grand marnier custard sauce
YIELD: 2 cups
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half-and-half
⅓ cup sugar
3 large eggs
3 to 4 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur
1. In a medium-size saucepan or a glass measuring cup in the microwave, scald the cream and half-and half, heating them just until bubbles begin to form all along the edge of the saucepan or cup. Remove from the heat.
2. In a medium-size bowl or food processor, combine the sugar and eggs. Beat hard with a whisk or process briefly until light colored and foamy. Whisking constantly, or with the food processor running, gradually add the hot cream to the egg mixture.
3. Pour the sauce back into the saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook gently, stirring constantly with a whisk, until the sauce is just slightly thickened and coats a spoon; do not boil.
4. Pour the sauce into a storage bowl and stir in the liqueur. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate, covered, until serving time. Serve cold.
