![\"rice](\"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/rice-cooker.jpg\" "\\"rice")
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Meet one of my favorite kitchen helpers.<\/p>\n
If I were heading off for college this fall, a rice cooker is the one appliance I would pack for the dorm.\u00a0 No one-trick gadget, it can cook everything from macaroni and cheese to pot de creme.<\/p>\n
Rice, of course, is what it does best.\u00a0 I made rice in a saucepan for years and most of the time it came out just fine.\u00a0 Now, however, everyone in my family can make good rice every time.\u00a0 We also make terrific polenta, which only requires a few stirs while cooking.<\/p>\n
My mainstay this summer was this super easy recipe for Rice Cooker Chicken with Ginger<\/a> from Chef Laurent Gras that I spotted at the bottom of a page in Food and Wine.\u00a0 I hesitated writing about it since it came from a magazine. But it was so simple and so good that I can’t keep it to myself.<\/p>\n I’m addicted.\u00a0 Whenever I’m facing a tough day with little time to cook, I turn to this dish.\u00a0 I could say the ginger is the secret, providing wonderful texture and fresh taste to what is potentially a bland dish, but the coconut milk contributes haunting aroma and complex flavor.<\/p>\n The recipe is fairly flexible.\u00a0 Regular long-grain rice can be substituted for jasmine if that’s all you have on hand.<\/p>\n I’ve even made it with brown basmati rice and cubes of tofu, but that requires increasing the liquid slightly and adding the chicken and spinach about halfway through the cooking cycle since brown rice takes longer to cook.\u00a0 Introduce about 8 ounces of tofu, cut into 1\/2-inch cubes, in the last 15 minutes.<\/p>\n Don’t be tempted to substitute chicken breast meat for the thighs, however.\u00a0 It gets horribly dry with the long cooking.<\/p>\n You don’t need a fancy fuzzy logic cooker<\/a> like mine. It’s nice but fairly expensive.<\/p>\n Roger Ebert, the Pulitzer-winning film critic, swears by a simple pot<\/a> with “cooking” and “keep warm” temperature settings in his new cookbook, “The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker” <\/a>(Andrews McMeel, 2010), released this week.\u00a0\u00a0 Although Ebert lost his jaw to cancer and now receives his meals through a tube into his stomach, he used to carry a rice cooker with him when he traveled.\u00a0 He offers recipes for beans, curries, chili, jambalya, beef stew and more in his cookbook.<\/p>\n The book I turn to for all my questions about using a rice cooker is “The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook”<\/a> (Harvard Common Press, 2002) by my friends and former colleagues, Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann.\u00a0 This is where I learned to make the soft Italian style polenta I love.\u00a0 I usually cut the butter a little and stir in 2-3 ounces of goat cheese after the polenta has finished cooking.<\/p>\n If you like polenta but hate the stirring, try this recipe.\u00a0 You’ll be a convert, too.<\/p>\n 4 cups water Place water and salt in rice cooker bowl.\u00a0 Whisk in polenta until well-mixed.\u00a0 Close lid and set rice cooker for regular cycle or porridge cycle if you have a fancier model.<\/p>\n About 10 minutes into the cooking time, open lid and quickly whisk again. It helps to use a paddle-style whisk with widely-spaced wires.\u00a0 If your whisk clogs up with the thickening polenta, switch to a wooden spoon and stir briskly.\u00a0 Close cover and continue cooking.\u00a0\u00a0 Repeat about 20 minutes later.<\/p>\n If you use the porridge cycle, you’ll want to reset for a second cycle when the cooker buzzes that it’s ready.\u00a0 This cycle usually lasts only 5-10 minutes.\u00a0 Otherwise, wait for the regular cycle to finish.<\/p>\n Whisk or stir again to smooth out the mixture, then stir in pepper, butter, goat cheese and Parmesan, mixing well.\u00a0 Adjust seasoning and serve.<\/p>\n Polenta will hold on the “keep warm” setting for about an hour, thickening as it waits.\u00a0 If it gets too thick, stir in a little hot water until it reaches the consistency you prefer.<\/p>\n Adapted from “The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook” by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Meet one of my favorite kitchen helpers. If I were heading off for college this fall, a rice cooker is the one appliance I would pack for the dorm.\u00a0 No one-trick gadget, it can cook everything from macaroni and cheese to pot de creme. Rice, of course, is what it does best.\u00a0 I made rice … Continue reading Rice cooker to the rescue<\/span> ![\"rice](\"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/rice-cooker-chicken1.jpg\" "\\"rice")
Gras transforms jasmine rice with slender matchsticks of ginger, chunks of chicken thighs, fresh spinach and coconut milk.\u00a0\u00a0 Layer them in the cooker, turn it on and a delectable one-dish meal is ready in under an hour with no additional effort on the cook’s part.<\/p>\nITALIAN POLENTA<\/strong>
\nServes 4<\/em><\/p>\n
\n1\/2 teaspoon salt
\n1 cup coarse-grain yellow polenta
\nFreshly ground black pepper
\n2 tablespoons butter
\n2-3 ounces fresh goat cheese, to taste
\n\u00bc cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese<\/p>\n