Monday, September 28, 2009

Rice n peas

I love rice. Plain and simple. Whether its boiled rice, pulao or in the form of biryani, rice has always been a staple dish in our family. My dad owes our love for all kinds of carbs (especially rice) to our Kashmiri heritage. It's an old saying that people of Kashmir like most other cultures love to cook and to eat, and appreciate good hearty, soulful meals. We don't eat to live, We live to eat! :)

My mom is in town these days and recently bought me a mini rice cooker on sale at Canadian tire (love you Mom! :) I figured I'd try it out and make my staple, rice n peas. I have to say I am a bit skeptical of all these kitchen gadgets..not really a big techy at heart. But I was really blown away by the results.

There is no real recipe, the cooker comes fully equiped with a removable, dishwasher-safe, non-stick bowl, a measuring cup and rice paddle. It also has a heavy-duty tempered glass lid for easy viewing (which I love). All I had to do was measure 2 cups of rice, wash em, and place them in the bowl. To this I added a cup of peas, 1 & 1/2 tsp salt and water (the bowl comes pre-marked with the water levels so you never have to think about how much water to add...I know!). And then I just stirred everything, placed the lid on top and set the cooker to cook. In about 30 minutes, once the rice is cooked, the cooker automatically shuts off (temp control) and goes to the 'keep warm' funtion that keeps the rice warm for a good while until you're ready to serve.

Yes, it was that easy, just add rice & water and set to cook. Definitely one nifty gadget, its a mini which yields about 6-cups of rice, perfect for a small family of 4. And since it was just mom and I, we made mini-packets to freeze the left-overs to be used conveniently at a later date.

The rice was delicious and perfectly cooked (neither too dry nor too mushy). And now I'm contemplating buying the 20-cup rice cooker, which apparently cooks pasta as well as rice. This rice cooker is looking more and more like a carb-lovers dream!

1 comment:

  1. I was a non-believer before my own mom bought me a rice-cooker ... but now I think it's a lifesaver .. isn't it great?! And I adore rice n peas pulao .. we usually have it with chicken korma or something similar .. to DIE for!

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