Perfect Rice

 A nice rice side dish for fish or chicken.

1 cup uncooked rice
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup water
2 tsp. oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbs. lemon juice
1/2 tsp dried oregano
6 cups shredded fresh spinach leaves
4 oz. feta cheese crumbled
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped roasted red pepper

Combine rice, broth, and water in your rice cooker. Cook until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed.  The ‘cook and hold’ style rice cooker will switch over to warm setting and chime when ready.  The ’steam type’ cooker, set timer to 20 minutes and check.  The time depends on the type of rice used in recipe.  Brown rice takes longer than most white and converted rices.

Heat oil in large skillet.  Saute onion, mushrooms and garlic until onion is tender.  Stir in lemon juice and oregano. Add cooked rice, spinach and feta cheese; season with pepper.  Toss lightly until spinach is wilted and rice is heated through.
Garnish with roasted red pepper.

Yield: 6 servings

These are more additive than potato chips.

I use my Oster Steamer/Rice cooker for this recipe, but a rice cooker with a steaming tray will work just as well. Place a layer of small new potatoes, 1 to 2 inches in diameter( scrubbed and unpeeled) in the the steamer basket.  Filling the water resevoir that goes underneath this basket, and replace basket on the steamer. Cover.

Set the timer for about 20 minutes. Test when time is up. If potatoes are not completely cooked, simply allow to steam a little longer with lid on.

If using a rice cooker with the tray, add about 3 cups of water to rice pot, place tray in cooker and arrange the layer of new potatoes on tray and replace cover.Turn on the rice cooker, and start timing from the time water starts to boil. Takes about 20 minutes as well.  If all the water evaporates add more water to pot to increase steam time if needed.

Put cooked potatoes in a serving bowl and serve hot with butter, a little salt and pepper.

OR

Steamed New Potatoes with Butter and Parsley.

Mix 2tbs. mellted butter/olive oil with 1 tsp. lemon juice, add 2 tbl. chopped fresh parsley.  Pour over the potatoes in serving bowl, toss to coat and see if you can eat just one. 

A slightly chewy textured side dish with a pleasant combination of sweetness ( barley) and bitterness (Wild rice).
Yield: 4 to 6 servings.
Provides 7 gms protein, 6 gm of fiber, 17 mg calcium, 0 mg cholesterol, 233 calories  (66 from fat), 591 mg sodium if 1tsp salt
added.

2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups chopped mushrooms

1/2 cup uncooked wild rice, rinced
1/2 cup uncooked pearled barley, rinced

3 cups water
1 tsp salt optional, I didn’t use any
fresh ground pepper

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium/high heat.
Add shallots,garlic and mushrooms and saute for about 2 minutes. Mixture should be well coated with oil.
Add wild rice and barley, continue to saute until barley looks toasted and wild rice becomes fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Put mixture into a rice cooker. I used the Oster Rice Cooker
Add water, pepper and salt.  Turn cooker on.
When the rice cooker shuts off or switches to warm cycle check to see if grains are tender.
If not, add a little more water and let cook a little longer.
When done, fluff  and serve hot.

Just a thought:
 I don’t see why you couldn’t use 3 cups of stock instead of water. I would leave out the salt then as well, because most stocks have sodium.

Protecting the nutritional quality of our food is important when we cook, so why pour it down the drain when we cook our veggies in boiling water.

Steaming foods retain these water soluble vitamins and minerals.

Steamed veggies look bright and very appetizing, and they taste great because their natural flavors are retained.  These are some things I particularly enjoy cooked this way: small red potatoes, carrots, green beans and peas in pod.

Need to watch those calories.  You can steam without using fat.  That means you can eliminate 100 calories every time you omit 1Tablespoon of fat. That’s awesome! But you won’t miss it because the food tastes great, because its steamed.

Using a rice cooker like this is great way to steam your food.  This particular model comes with a steaming tray included.  Pour water in the pot, place the veggies, fish, etc., on the tray,  cover ,turn on and steam.  The booklet included gives the best times for the different foods.

 I was going over the internet to find a great deal on rice cooker, I noticed that all of them tell the same with regards to the quality of their products which I thought as biased way to promote their product and then the truth in advertising comes in my mind.So I think a better way to compare the competitiveness of each product is to search for independent reviews from actual consumers, like in my case, I searched the net for rice cooker reviews and came up with so many views and opinions that helped me in making the right choice.

Asians are well known not just in their great culture and heritage but also from their being “rice eaters” or what most would call them as “rice people”.  Being an Asian myself, a Filipino actually; a days’ meal is never complete without the serving of rice in every meal.  As Americans favors mashed potatoes with steak, for us Asians, rice is the best match with any great dishes served.

I guess eating rice comes with the tradition also, which I believe started way back from our early ancestors. I can honestly say that one of the best talents of most Asians is that with or without rice cookers, we are capable of cooking the perfect rice you could think of.