Consolation

We eat rice just about every day: brown rice, medium and long grain white rice, jasmine rice, wild rice mixtures, et al. Never had a rice cooker. Use a good saucepan with a tight fitting lid.

edvest1

This is off topic but does anyone know the way to make Paella using rice cooker ?

I make it in a skillet but gets burned bottom or rice near the surface is undercooked.

Now and then I ache for a good home-made Paella. Restaurant paella not that good because they dont really cook the rice with the ingredients but just throw everything together at the end.

HImom

I think most of the larger rice cookers we've owned are supposed to cook a minimum # of cups (> 1). I know the current one we own is a 10 cup cooker & supposed to cook at least 3 cups, so we just refrigerate & reheat in the micro any more that we make). I believe the 3 & 5 cup cookers may make only 1 or 2 cups if that's what you want.

JHS

Another vote here for not bothering. I have cooked rice at least 2-3 times a week for the past 30 years, and have never even touched a rice cooker. It really isn't a problem!

I heard a funny story last week. One of my son's best friends has three ethnic Chinese roommates. Every one of them has her own rice cooker. None of the mothers could believe that her daughter didn't need one. Needless to say, the four women only use one rice cooker at a time.

oaklandmom

Thank you all for the info! DS is living in a studio apartment this year, cooking for himself and I'm just looking for ways to make cooking easier for him. When he came home for Thanksgiving his first request was new jeans - his 31/36 jeans were falling off his waist. I took one look at the size and said no - you need to put on some weight. (and wear a belt while you work on putting on weight). A rice cooker is not the solution but I thought he might cook a little more if he could put the rice on and forget it until its time to eat.

oregonianmom

^It does make it very easy, and it switches over to "warm" mode when the rice is ready, so no worries about stirring or burning the rice. I think that would be a nice gift for your son.

HImom

Agree that the rice cooker is pretty mindless & handy for folks who get distracted and/or absent-minded. You start it & then don't have to hassle with it again until you're ready to eat. It is a staple in most households in Hawaii.