RICE COOKER - ZOJIRUSHI

To cook rice, I have been using a few different methods.  I stopped using the pot on the stove to cook rice some time ago.  I didn't have luck or timing in making sure the rice didn't boil over or that it would stick to the bottom of the pot.  I started to use either a rice cooker or the oven.  The rice cooker was the basic cooker with the glass lid and steam hole.  There would be a mess around the counter where the cooker sat as when the rice was cooking away in the nonstick bowl, the steam and the liquid would be spewing out the stem hole and sometimes around the glass lid.  And when the rice would be finished, there would be a rice crust on the bottom of the cooking bowl.  The oven method was easy, no overflow of steam, liquid or rice and no rice crust on the bottom of the corel casserole dish that I used to cook the rice.  But heating an oven and using it to just cook rice seemed a little much.  

Recently I was describing my rice cooking experience to a friend of ours.  He promptly provided me with information and rationale on the rice cooker that he has been using for the past ten years.  He said that this was the best cooker and that the quality of the rice made was very different from the basic cooker I have been using.  I was intrigued about the model he recommended - Zojirushi.  I started to do my own research on what is the best rice cooker and I read a number of reviews.  The Zojirushi rice maker did get high marks.  Reading all of the information prompted me to buy a new rice cooker.  

I did buy a Zojirushi rice cooker and I bought a model made in Japan.  There are many different models made by this company.  I bought one that has advanced fuzzy logic technology and is the 5.5 cup capacity.  The technology figures out the time required to cook the rice.  The cooker has multi menu cooking functions for different kinds of rice and also for porridge.  The times will change depending if you are cooking white rice, sweet rice, brown rice and quick rice.   I am looking forward to testing the cooker to make steel cut porridge.  The cooker also has a steamer basket.   The design of the rice cooker is interesting.  It looks like a tub and has a handle that you use to lift and carry it around.

Last night I made basmati rice and I think it was the best rice I have ever made.  The rice was fluffy, each kernel was separate from the others, it was not gummy and there was no mess around the counter.   I am looking forward to try brown rice and sweet rice made in this cooker.  The reviews I read said that this cooker makes excellent brown rice.  Rice does take longer to cook in this style of cooker versus the basic rice cooker.  It took 50 minutes to cook the basmati rice.  I did make a bit of rice in order to have left overs.

Cooked basmati rice.