Chef JJ Johnson owns Fieldtrip, a rice-focused eatery in Harlem, New York, and is obsessed with heirloom and heritage rice varieties. But he wasn’t always a fan of rice.
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“My first memories of rice are of my grandma walking around the kitchen drinking asopao out of her coffee cup,” Johnson says. “I loved that Puerto Rican soupy rice.” But when his grandmother passed away, Johnson says his working mother started cooking parboiled rice from a box because it took only 10 minutes. “Those were probably my worst memories of rice.”
A short- to medium-grain Italian rice used to make risotto. The grains are translucent with a white center that stays al dente when cooked while the outside softens, absorbs flavorful liquids, and releases starch to give risotto its creamy consistency. Risotto grains have little amylose, the dry starch that makes rice hold its form, which allows it to achieve this texture.
Best uses: risotto and soupy rice dishes such as asopao and risi e bisi.
A long-grain rice that is highly regarded for its fragrance and dramatic elongation when cooked. True basmati is grown—and considered a minor god—in India and Pakistan. Many hybrids are grown elsewhere, including the U.S., but they don’t grow long like basmati.
Best uses: in Indian, Pakistani, Nepalese, and Mediterranean dishes; in dishes where you don’t want the grains to stick together, such as biryani, sabzi polo, and arroz con pollo; any recipe that calls for long-grain rice.
Not actually a rice type, because all rice is brown before it’s milled. Brown rice still has its outer bran layer, which has nutrition, fiber, and a nutty flavor. You can find brown versions of all rice varieties. This layer of bran acts as a shield to cooking liquid, which means you need more water and more cooking time to get it tender.
Best uses: as a heartier, more nutritious substitute for any white rice variety.
Golden-yellow long-grain rice cultivated by African slaves in South Carolina during colonial times (not to be confused with the Carolina brand rice). In the s this rice was a valuable export commodity that made plantation owners very wealthy, but it barely survived the Civil War. Carolina Gold became near extinct but has found a recent revival thanks to the Gullah Geechee people, descendants of the original West Africans, who helped preserve this grain. Today it’s produced by Anson Mills. What makes this rice unique is its japonica makeup and indica appearance. When cooked, it has notes of roasted nuts and fresh bread.
Best uses: as an accompaniment to low-country dishes and for porridge, pilau, purloo, jollof rice, and red rice.
Rice that has been pressure-steamed before milling to reduce breakage and force nutrients from the bran into the endosperm. This light tan rice is trademarked as converted rice by Uncle Ben’s. Parboiled rice isn’t to be confused with instant rice; it must be fully cooked and results in a dry and firm rice.
Best uses: dishes that require separate, firm grains with minimal stickiness, or when you want a nutritious grain that isn’t as fibrous and chewy as brown rice.
Where your rice comes from matters, not only in terms of quality but also for health. CR’s investigation of arsenic levels in rice found that type and origin play a major role in the amount of arsenic in rice. Arsenic is a metal found in soil and groundwater all over the world. When ingested over a long period of time, it has been linked to an increased risk of cancer and metabolic problems in adults and neurological problems in children.
“Since rice is grown in flooded fields, it absorbs a lot of arsenic,” says Tunde Akinleye, the lead tester in CR’s investigation of arsenic levels in rice. “Rice from the U.S. South tends to be high in arsenic because insecticides were widely used on the plantations, and that stuff stays in the soil for a long time.”
Akinleye says basmati rice from California, India, and Pakistan have much lower levels. Japanese rice is also generally low in arsenic, and any type of white rice has about half the levels found in brown rice because arsenic settles mostly in the bran (the brown part of rice).
Washing rice helps reduce exposure, but also consider reducing your intake. If you choose better rice, you can safely eat up to 3 cups per week. If you love your Carolina Gold or Texmati, that’s fine; just limit your servings to 1½ cups per week.
4 TIPS to Choose the Right Rice Cooker
How do you choose the right rice cooker to last a lifetime? You'll need to pinpoint your personal cooking habits and preferences.
1. Identify your Size Requirements
Firstly, understand how many cups of rice - the standardized cup that comes with rice cookers - you will cook on a daily basis, not on occasions when you have guests over (more on that later). This is important because rice cookers come in various sizes. A 3-cup rice cooker is the smallest capacity common for major brands such as Panasonic, Tiger, and Zojirushi to carry. The next common size up is a 5-cup and the biggest size (for household use) is 10 cups. For some brands, there are 4-cups and 8-cups available. Each cup of raw rice will yield two bowls of cooked rice:
So here's our first tip. If you only cook about 1-2 cups of rice daily, a 3-cup rice cooker would be the most suitable size for you. If you cook around 2-5 cups of rice, a 5-cup cooker would be most suitable. And finally, if you cook any more than 5 cups, then a 10-cup cooker would be most suitable.
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A common concern that we often hear in the store is, "what if we have guests over"? If you have guests over and you frequently have guests over, consider buying a slightly larger capacity rice cooker. Why shouldn't you buy a larger rice cooker which is much larger (ex. 10-cup) for when you have guests over? Well, you could buy a much larger rice cooker, but because you would not cook that much daily, it would damage the inner pot of the rice cooker and shorten its lifespan. Furthermore, if you only cook a small amount of rice in a large rice cooker, the heat will not be evenly distributed and the rice will not come out as well.
BONUS TIP: Do not try to keep your rice warm in a rice cooker overnight, this will dry out your rice. They are only designed to keep warm for 4-5 hours. If you cook too much and want to have the leftover rice the next day, put the extra rice in a container and put it in your refrigerator. You can re-steam the rice in your rice cooker or microwave the next day.
2. Choose your desired rice cooker types and features
A second cooking practice that you have to be aware of is the kind of rice you usually cook, and the features you need for your rice cooker. There are four kinds of rice cookers: traditional, jar-o-mat, micro-computerized, and induction heated (IH).
Traditional Type
Jar-o-mat Type
Micro-computerized
Induction Heating (IH)
BONUS TIP: Porridge is different from 'congee'. If you have been to a Cantonese restaurant, you may have tried congee. This is a thick rice porridge, cooked at low heat for at least 3-hours. Do not try to make congee in a traditional or jar-o-mat rice cooker, as they do not have this function and will overheat the congee, causing the contents to spill over, potentially damaging your rice cooker. Tiger and Zojirushi micro-computerized rice cookers do not make congee as they are programmed for Japanese congee, which only cooks for one hour. If you want thick congee, choose one of the Panasonic micro-computerized models, which have the slow cook function which will allow you to cook for up to 4 hours.
All computerized rice cookers come with a timer that allows you to preset a cooking time for when you want your rice to be cooked and ready. Some models will have a count-down timer, so you would enter how many hours you would want to eat your rice. Other models have a built-in clock, and you set what time you want to eat your rice. For example, if you first have the rice and water ready inside your rice cooker, plug it in, and set it to 7:00 pm, the rice cooker will turn on to automatic mode and the rice will be cooked and ready to serve at 7:00 pm. If you work during the day and do not want to wait for the rice cooker when you get home, this feature can save you a lot of time.
Some brands and models of computerized rice cookers also have features for cooking sweet rice, rinse-free rice, sushi rice, and even baking cakes. This brings us to our second tip - if you never cook brown rice, sweet rice, porridge, and don't need a timer, you would probably be happy with a jar-o-mat rice cooker. If you don't cook rice very often and are not picky about the quality of your cooked rice, a traditional rice cooker may suit you. However, if you value special functions and would find a timer useful, then we recommend a micro-computerized or IH rice cooker.
3. Understand the differences of inner pots
The inner pot of your rice cooker will not just determine the fluffiness and taste of your rice, but also the speed at which your rice will cook. Figure out what you value in inner pot types: Non-stick, stainless steel, and ceramic.
Non-stick
Stainless Steel
Ceramic
4. Know your rice cooker brands
Are you starting to have an idea of what kind of rice cooker you want? Here's our fourth tip. When you choose a rice cooker, consider choosing a brand name that is reliable and well known to you. We carry many brands which are made from many different places: Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, and China. Japanese brands (Panasonic, Tiger, Zojirushi) often have the best design, quality, and durability. Although many models from these brands are no longer made in Japan, they have been able to maintain their reputation for quality and efficiency. Just take Panasonic (known as "National" in Asia) - many customers that come into our store tell us that they have been using this brand of rice cooker for more than 10 years, and that their products still function properly. When these customers purchase a new rice cooker, it is because they want to upgrade to a rice cooker with new functions, and they tell us that they will not consider buying another brand.
We hope that at this time you have an idea of which rice cooker will fit you and your needs. Remember our question, "how to choose a rice cooker that would last a lifetime?" As a disclaimer, there are chances for rice cookers to breakdown, because they are electronic appliances. Please check out our FREE Extended Warranty on small appliances, and adopt the following practices, to maintain the longevity of your rice cooker:
All the best in finding your most suitable rice cooker - a helping hand to share the joy at your dinner table!
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