Rice cooker question- once a week cooking?

[ellozz]

I have now been told by a third Asian friend that often rice is cooked in quantity once a week, or once every several days in their country. (Korea, Vietnam). They say that you have to have a good quality cooker to do this, one that will keep the rice warm. The ones I find only keep warm for about 12 hours. I think having warm rice available all day long for several days is wonderful, but haven't a clue what cooker will do this. (I am in USA).
Does anyone know?

 

[lov2cook2]

Rice is a staple food for me I cook jasmine rice exclusively because it is delicious.
Rice is so easy to cook! i cook the amount for the whole day but no more just cooked rice is so great but when I have had lefovers,I put it in a ziplock bag either in the fridge or freezer and zap it in the microwave and it is as good as just made!
I don't know about keeping it warm for a whole week, I honestly would be concerned about bacteria becasue rice does sour

 

[Claire]

In Hawaii, most of my friends put rice in the cooker and started it every morning. The rice was then available for kids coming and going during the day, but mostly it was there for supper when you got home from work. Leftover rice was refridgerated and used for soups, stews, and mostly ... fried rice. Also anywhere a recipe calls for bread crumbs you can substitute it. Everyone I knew made rice every day. An old-hawaii days friend visited recently and his first question (he was fixing dinner) was ... where is your rice cooker! Haha! It was quite hot out, so I told him I was making our rice in the microwave oven. I was pleased that that would have been his second choice as well.

 

[lov2cook2]

Really? how do you make your rice in the microwave?

I love to recycle rice in to yummy dishes too, I make "red" rice it is soo easy to make and fit for company

Cook 2 c of rice
1 lb bacon
1 large onion chopped
1 can tomato sauce
salt and cayenne to taste

Chop bacon in 1" pieces,render and drain the fat,
add the chopped onion and cook till translucent.
Add the tomato sauce to deglaze the pan
pour over the cooked rice, stir gently to mix it all well and heat it thoroughly

 

[htc]

I know some people who have constant batches of rice going as well. Though in most Asian households, the rice stays in the warmer until finished, about a day and a half or two days. Like Claire said it's always available to eat so gets gobbled up pretty fast. If you eat a lot of rice, I 'm a big believer of getting a high quality rice cooker. I've never had success with non-Asian store cookers. It cooks the rice fine, but doesn't seem to know how to maintan a good heat w/o scorching the bottom of the rice.

 

[urmaniac13]

Rice being kept warm for some days??

Personally the idea doesn't seem very appealing...
I would cook them just as needed, chill the leftover and make fried rice or pudding etc. later. They are not that much of a trouble or time consuming to make each time...

 

[lov2cook2]

yea but you are talking aout people that cook 3-4 lb of rice at a time for a couple of days!
I have used the rice cooker but I changed to a "rice pot" it looks like a dutch oven but it is shallow
I parch my rice in penut oil and salt and then when it smells like pop corn i add the water 1x1 cover it back up and turn the fire to low and let it rip
fluffy fluffy rice every time

 

[gemgirlco.com]

I have one of those rice cookers that keeps the rice warm after cooked. I will only keep the rice there for 8 hours. Longer than that I find that it tends to get spoiled. If I have leftover rice after 8 hours I put in the frig, then just lightly fry it with a little soy sauce to reheat it.

 

[Yakuta]

There are rice cookers that keep rice warm for the entire day and we had one of those. I am not sure I would keep rice in there any longer than a day (I am with urmaniac). Rice does spoil and will go sour and funky if you keep it at a low temperature for too long.

We are not a huge rice eating family so I donated my rice cooker and now just make fresh rice in a pot. It's not that difficult and it's one less big appliance to declutter my kitchen.

 

[Claire]

I use the same water-to-rice that I'd use for making rice anywhere. Sometimes (not usually) I actually rinse the rice first (just when I'm unfamiliar witht he type of rice). It is basically 2:1 water to rice, but the water can be chicken stock, andyou can spice it and put in vegetables. The hairy part is that it tends to over-boil. So maybe a little more water than normal, but definitely a much bigger glass bowl than you'd need on the stove top. The hard part is that microwave ovens vary a LOT in power. With the oven I have now, I start with 4 minutes, then let it sit for a few minutes, then do a couple more minutes, then let it sit. Rice cooks in the sitting time, NOT in the coooking time. You mostly want to keep the water hot. It turned out OK, I think. But the times vary so much from microwave oven to microwave oven (believe me, I've owned at least a half dozen of the darned things!!).

 

[lov2cook2]

That is the good thing about the way i make it, it doesnt foam up and boil over
your pot is hoooot when you are parching your rice, add the same amount of water as rice it will fizz and spit for a second, stirr, cover and turn heat to low in 20 minutes or so you will have a pot of fluffy very loose rice fit for a king and of course you can use stock instead of water or what ever else you want to add

double water to a measure of rice turns out a graing that tends to be too soft and the integrity of the rice is compromised to an extent (for my liking that is)

of course, to each its own we all like things in a diferent way and so there is no wrong way

 

[ellozz]

thanks!

Thank you for all of your replies, I appreciate the response.
I went to school recently with a girl from Korea, then when I graduated, I started working for a couple from Vietnam. Both times I was told about how rice is kept in the household in a cooker "that you have to get from Japan or China, a really good one". My fellow student promised to get the brand, but alas, never did.
I suppose I am not too lazy to cook rice every day, I was just intrigued by the possibility of having it last several days. The Korean girl was talking out how she loved to go home for dinner, her mom would have all these dishes on the table. I said, "She must spend HOURS in the kitchen then!". She said no, the food is cooked all on one day, then stored in the fridge, the rice in the cooker. At each dinner, they get rice out of the rice cooker, then their mom sets on the table the dishes she chose for that night. So basically, mom was cooking once a week...sounds lovely.

 

[lov2cook2]

it was fun! lol

 

[Steve A]

Another FYI, bad (spoiled cooked) rice can and will give you a foodborne illness.

It's just as easy to make batches often, refrigerate what you don't use for another use.

Ciao,

 

[Billy Cea]

I like to make a little extra rice for dinner in my rice cooker and then the next morning I add a bunch of water to the rice that's left in the cooker and cook away. The rice gets real mushy and water logged. At that point you have porridge or congee. From there you can add all sorts of goodies to make breakfast, leftover meat from dinner, pickled vegetables, eggs, and on and on just be creative.

This is especially good stuff if you are sick, at least that's what my Chinese friends tell me.

 

[Claire]

I'm afraid I saw congee made with fish heads and it put me off of the concept!

 

[VeraBlue]

Cooked rice is potentially hazardous and should be handled carefully. Once it's cooked, it has to be maintained at 140 degrees. If it should cool below that temperature, you have 2 hours to consume it or reheat it above 165 (quickly) and then hold it at 140 again.
Normally, professionally, I would never suggest saving cooked rice. First, it's so cheap to begin with, a little waste is not that bad. Second, unless you chill it quickly you run risks of food borne illness. If you want to save cooked rice spread it thinly onto a baking sheet and refrigerate it immediately. Stir it every 20 minutes or so until it is cooled, completely. Then, wrap it and use within 24 hours.

 

[Restless N8tiv]

okay, since we'er on the subject of rice, I gotta throw in my two cents. I grew up in Hawaii where rice is a must with every meal, even breakfast...yes breakfast. Here's what you can do with leftover rice that has been refrigerated over night. A dish that I call the breakfast of champions. It called "loco moco":

Put the cold rice in a microwavable bowl and set it for "defrost" for 8 to 10 minutes. This should warm up the rice a little bit. While the rice is defrosting, fry a hamburger patty (two if you are really hungry) and set it on top of the rice when it is done defrosting. Next, add an "over easy" egg on top of the hamburger patty. Then to top it all off....add gravy! Now that's what I call a big breakfast!

Restless

 

[college_cook]

If I'm in the mood for rice come breakfast time I always add a little bit of sugar and milk to it... makes a great cold cereal.

 

[philso]

here in japan, rice is definitely not held in a rice cooker for a week, or even for 2 or 3 days. most people make at least a batch per day, sometimes two. even then, it's not usually held at temperature for more than an hour or two. if there are left-overs, they go into tupperware in the fridge and are reheated in the microwave and are finished the first thing next day. i'll admit that on the rare occasion, it may mistakenly be left in the rice cooker overnight, not at temp, but it's eaten up pronto.

beyond the obvious health hazards, there's little reason not to have a fresh batch. the containers used to store the rice, measure it out automatically with one push of a button. then it's washed until the water is clear, the appropriate amount of water added and then cooked with 1 push of a button or set to start cooking so it will be just finished at whatever time you want to eat. total prep time is maybe 2 minutes or so.

and beyond that, rice is consumed 2 or 3 times daily. multiply that by a family of 4 for a week and you come up with around 60 bowls, but of course teenagers and husbands usually eat at least 2 bowls, so you're looking at maybe 100 bowls of rice cooked at 1 time and held for a week????? you'd have to have a couple of institutional sized rice cookers to even attempt making that much.