Cooking in a rice cooker - Part 1

And I'm not just talking about rice, flavored rice and steamed veggies or dumplings. I mean beef stews, soups, casseroles, etc. This one will address how a rice cooker does that and some basic recipes. Part 2 will follow with more elaborate recipes.

A rice cooker is simply a somewhat insulated base with a thermostat and a heating element and a pot that sits inside the base along with a lid. Rice and water goes in the pot, the pot goes into the base, cover with lid, and press the cook button to enjoy perfectly cooked fluffy rice in a short time.

The rice cooker does this by heating the water until it reaches a boil, then the heat is turned off but will come on again when it senses the temperature will fall below a simmer. At this point the water is kept at a simmer. Without going into a thermodynamic lecture, the pot's termperature will be at the same temperature as the water until the water has evaporated.

At this point, the temperature will rise with any additional heat, and at that point the rice cooker knows the water has gone and switches to a warming mode, well below simmer but just perfect for braising. Quick side note about braising. The connective tissue in the meats breaks down into lip smacking collagen at 140 F. So a braise should be done at 140 F or above until most of the connective tissue is gone before simmering the liquid away for the flavorful gravy.

Now that we know how the rice cooker works, we can use this information to easily cook the following in a rice cooker:
- braised meats
- simmering soups
- flavored rice
- rice with veggies and meats that can be boiled/steamed together

Level 1 expertise:
- you can use chicken broth instead of water
- season the water with your seasoning of choice (ie spanish rice)
- add chunks of left over chicken
- add egg or quick cooking fish on top of the rice after it's done and make sure it's in the warm mode
- use coconut milk, lemon grass and clove to make Indonesian rice

Level 2 expertise:
- in the cook mode, you can add oil and aromatics and sautee (small diced onion, garlic, carrot, celercy, etc) before adding your water and rice
- in the cook mode, sautee aromatics and add chicken broth, veggies, starches and seasoing to make soup
- in the cook mode, sautee aromatics and add water, chicken/chicken bones/wings and necks and veggies to make chicken broth
- in the cook mode, sautee aromatics and add water, beef bones or pork bones to make beef or pork broth

Level 3 preview:
- poaching stuff
- sous vide
- braising recipes
etc...

Additional tips:
- consider adding things to your rice, but remember how long it takes for them to cook. Add canned beans at the beginning of the rice cooking, but frozen peas should be added after it's done
- playing on the above idea, making mock pilaf is easy. Add cubed sausages, chunks of veggies, chicken broth, seasoning, nuts, dried fruits
- replacing water with more flavorful liquid is the easiest way to change the rice (coconut milk or tomato juice/veg juice or beef/chicken broth or ???)
- adding spices and herbs in addition of or independent from water replacement is another good way
- don't forget that you can also steam at the same time (for some rice cooker models), this makes for an easy chicken rice. Replace water with chicken borth, steam quartered chicken above to let the juice fall down, voila)
- don't forget you can also cook oats and polenta
- anything that can be done in a rice cooker can be done on the stove top (or the oven even). Or if you prefer you can also do it in a pressure cooker.