Brown Rice
April 5th, 2009 | 
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Brown rice is one of the staple foods for a healthy eating plan. Many cultures throughout history have recognized its nourishment value and you will easily find many delicious recipes that use brown rice. We decided to buy a rice cooker (see photo to left) because making rice with a rice cooker is very easy. You simply add measured amounts of rice and water, turn it on and it will cook perfect rice every time – automatically. This is an older model made by the Zojirushi company (a Japanese manufacturer). This model was about $80 several years ago. It has a built in "keep warm" cycle and has push button controls for brown rice and white rice.
Most rice cookers nowadays are fully automatic with a built-in warmer and timer with cooking options for brown rice and white rice. We recently purchased one at Costco as a gift for someone for about $30. That was a pretty good deal, but we don’t have any actual experience with it. Just reading some of the online reviews, Zojirushi models seem to be the best.
If you don’t want to buy a rice cooker, then you will have to use a regular stainless steel cooking pot with a good sealing lid. You add measured amounts of rice and water (approx 1.5 cups of water per cup of rice), then you set the flame high to boil the water and rice. Then you will turn down the flame and partially cover the rice (allow a gap in the lid) to allow steam to escape. After the rice has been cooking for a few minutes, open the lid and look for gaps or holes ("craters"). At this point, put the lid on tight and turn the flame way down low and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Do not open the lid during this time. Keep it on tight. When the rice is done, open the lid and fluff the rice.
Here’s how to cook brown rice in a rice cooker. Start by measuring out the amount of rice you want to cook. I will be making 3 cups in this example.
Rinse the rice thoroughly – several times – until the rinse water is clear.
Strain the rice after each rinse … I will usually rinse about 5 or 6 times.
After rinsing, add water. The cooker has marks on the sides of the cooking pot. I will add water up to the 3-cup mark.
Place the cooking pot in the cooker. Here it is just before closing the lid.
Set the cooker for cooking brown rice and push the button to start cooking. This model has a red LED indicating that the rice is cooking and a yellow LED for the rice to "keep warm". Just before the rice is done, the yellow LED will flash, indicating that it is almost finished cooking.
When the rice has finished cooking, this model will beep out loud to alert you. Open the lid and fluff the rice as soon as it is done to allow excess steam to escape. Close the lid back down to keep warm.
Fluff the rice and serve.
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