Dinner from the Rice Cooker - NEW!
Okay, brown rice. Brown rice should not be scary. Brown rice is still just rice. I mean, it's just a different color (and taste, and consistency, and nutritional value), kinda like those brown eggs. And yet, we had developed a real aversion to brown rice. Almost an anti-brown-rice household. This had to change.
A large part of the problem rested in our faith in the rice cooker. The rice cooker is heaven. The rice cooker is a gift from above to the lazy folk. The rice cooker was... well, our rice cooker was technically broken and probably a fire danger. Let me explain. We got a fabulous new rice cooker for Christmas one year from a lovely uncle. It was bigger, newer, and fancier than the old one I had inherited from some friends (which is, btw, still working at the lab, i think....). It worked GREAT for about 6 months. Then some fuse blew and it stopped working. We called the manufacturer and they sent us a new one - under warranty. Great. The second one lasted only 4 months (if that).
It was time to take things into our own hands. I mean, so a few had snapped... we could by-pass that circuit. And we did. Got out the soldering iron and disabled the safety fuse circuit. There - now we could cook rice without fear of the cooker shutting down due to overheating. Of course, we also ran the risk of fire. Fire! I don't take fire lightly for many reasons. Reason #1 may be that our entire house is made of wood - floors, ceiling (yes, ceiling), walls, paneling, everything. Reason #2 may be my ex-landlord in El Cerrito, who lived in El Cerrito only due to her house burning down in the Oakland Hills fire. She was paranoid about fire. She taught me about the fancy outlets that make a 90-degree turn, so you could put them behind beds and such. Reason #3 could be a little kitchen fire in our new kitchen while flambeing some shrimp... that led to the burning of our exhaust hood and subsequent replacement thereof.
But I digress. The point is, the rice cooker we had was not good at cooking brown rice. We tried several times. And it was always burned at the bottom and crunchy and, well, just not very good. Many years passed. We cooked basmati rice. We avoided brown rice.
Finally - maybe it was my brother's visit with his insistence on all things brown and whole or reading Michael Pollen's book or just the desire to branch out in the rice kingdom - I did a little search on the internet (on my iPhone, in fact) for "brown rice cooker". And guess what showed up? A lovely little thing... an irresistible (if you're a gadget-freak japanese-loving person of some wealth) little thing: The Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy.
I read the online reviews. The reviews, all the reviews, were glowing. They made it sound like a mystical machine that could take any rice (or porridge, or oatmeal, or any grain), some water - nearly any amount of water - and make it into the best tasting, most pleasing-consistency rice you have ever had. Ever. Like ever. Seriously, people were in love with this thing. It was a little weird. Similar to the Roomba. People were smitten. Yet, they all admitted the pricetag was absurd... and yet, somehow worth it. The best rice ever! No matter how idiotic you are. No matter what kind of rice. No matter if you want to eat it 3 days later. The reviews were surely a scam, and yet what kind of a company could make this stuff up? People who have never liked brown rice. People who can't cook. People who have tried every other rice cooker on the planet. People of Asian descent. I mean... really, anyone who cared about rice... *this* was their choice.
It was clear I needed to set aside some funds. That was May. In June, I met someone who owned one. He was effusive! And he was a foodie. A New York foodie. Possibly the only thing worse than a Bay Area foodie. I had to have it.
And so, I present to you, a whole new concept in dinner from the rice cooker. It's dinner from the Neuro Fuzzy. Anyone want to help with a name for it? I feel it should have a name.
Anyway, here was the first dinner made completely from the rice cooker: brown rice (aahh-ahhh), sausage, onion, and some chopped parsley on top.
A large part of the problem rested in our faith in the rice cooker. The rice cooker is heaven. The rice cooker is a gift from above to the lazy folk. The rice cooker was... well, our rice cooker was technically broken and probably a fire danger. Let me explain. We got a fabulous new rice cooker for Christmas one year from a lovely uncle. It was bigger, newer, and fancier than the old one I had inherited from some friends (which is, btw, still working at the lab, i think....). It worked GREAT for about 6 months. Then some fuse blew and it stopped working. We called the manufacturer and they sent us a new one - under warranty. Great. The second one lasted only 4 months (if that).
It was time to take things into our own hands. I mean, so a few had snapped... we could by-pass that circuit. And we did. Got out the soldering iron and disabled the safety fuse circuit. There - now we could cook rice without fear of the cooker shutting down due to overheating. Of course, we also ran the risk of fire. Fire! I don't take fire lightly for many reasons. Reason #1 may be that our entire house is made of wood - floors, ceiling (yes, ceiling), walls, paneling, everything. Reason #2 may be my ex-landlord in El Cerrito, who lived in El Cerrito only due to her house burning down in the Oakland Hills fire. She was paranoid about fire. She taught me about the fancy outlets that make a 90-degree turn, so you could put them behind beds and such. Reason #3 could be a little kitchen fire in our new kitchen while flambeing some shrimp... that led to the burning of our exhaust hood and subsequent replacement thereof.
But I digress. The point is, the rice cooker we had was not good at cooking brown rice. We tried several times. And it was always burned at the bottom and crunchy and, well, just not very good. Many years passed. We cooked basmati rice. We avoided brown rice.
Finally - maybe it was my brother's visit with his insistence on all things brown and whole or reading Michael Pollen's book or just the desire to branch out in the rice kingdom - I did a little search on the internet (on my iPhone, in fact) for "brown rice cooker". And guess what showed up? A lovely little thing... an irresistible (if you're a gadget-freak japanese-loving person of some wealth) little thing: The Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy.
I read the online reviews. The reviews, all the reviews, were glowing. They made it sound like a mystical machine that could take any rice (or porridge, or oatmeal, or any grain), some water - nearly any amount of water - and make it into the best tasting, most pleasing-consistency rice you have ever had. Ever. Like ever. Seriously, people were in love with this thing. It was a little weird. Similar to the Roomba. People were smitten. Yet, they all admitted the pricetag was absurd... and yet, somehow worth it. The best rice ever! No matter how idiotic you are. No matter what kind of rice. No matter if you want to eat it 3 days later. The reviews were surely a scam, and yet what kind of a company could make this stuff up? People who have never liked brown rice. People who can't cook. People who have tried every other rice cooker on the planet. People of Asian descent. I mean... really, anyone who cared about rice... *this* was their choice.
It was clear I needed to set aside some funds. That was May. In June, I met someone who owned one. He was effusive! And he was a foodie. A New York foodie. Possibly the only thing worse than a Bay Area foodie. I had to have it.
And so, I present to you, a whole new concept in dinner from the rice cooker. It's dinner from the Neuro Fuzzy. Anyone want to help with a name for it? I feel it should have a name.
Anyway, here was the first dinner made completely from the rice cooker: brown rice (aahh-ahhh), sausage, onion, and some chopped parsley on top.
Wow - fancy! I think you should call it the Rice Pod. Here's to the crazy thing lasting you a long time!
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