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How To Cook Brown Rice In A Rice Cooker
A rice-cooker is capable of cooking brown-rice perfectly and easily but you will have to use a little more water than that used when preparing white-rice. In fact, using a rice cooker is the a quick and safest way to prepare rice compared to other kitchen-appliances because most appliances keep heat away from the user and they even switch to a keep-warm mode after cooking the rice so that the user can always serve the rice when it still warm. Additionally, you can also use a rice-cooker to make brown-rice medleys and brown-rice porridge. Below I have provided you with some of the methods that you can use to prepare brown-rice using a rice-cooker and i recommend you to take a quick look at some of these steps in order to achieve the best results.
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METHOD-1: HOW TO COOK SIMPLE BROWN-RICE USING A RICE-COOKER:
- Measure and clean your brown-rice: get a rice-measuring-cup and then measure the amount of rice that you would like to prepare and then place this rice into a fine mesh-strainer so that you can quickly rinse it under cold running water for at least 30-seconds. Make sure that the gaps between the strainer are not too-large because the grains may end-up running through hence losing a great amount of rice during the rinsing process. However, you may not always need to wash the rice in case it has been fortified with minerals.
- Soak the rice in hot-water: transfer the brown-rice into a bowl containing and then add 3-cups of hot-water to this rice then let it soak and soften for about 45-minutes. You can even decide to soak the rice for up to 3-hours if desired but 45-minutes are often enough. Soaking is actually very important because it reduces on the stickiness of the rice and even allows the rice to expand into longer and thin grains.
- Add salt to the rice (optional): you may decide to sprinkle salt over the soaked rice in order to add more flavor the rice to be cooked. But after applying the salt, stir-up the soaked-rice with a wooden-spoon in order to distribute the salt evenly.
- Place the rice into the rice-cooker and then set it: place your brown-rice into cooking-pot with enough water and put it the rice-cooker. Turn the rice-cooker on and then set the timer as recommended but if your rice-cooker features a brown-rice setting, then use that. In case it only has a timer, then set this timer for 30-minutes in order to achieve the best results. Cover the rice-cooker and then let the brown-rice cook for the selected cooking-time.
- Check on the rice: try to check on the rice being cooked after 30-minutes and incase the grains still look hard and the contents at the basin still looking soapy, then cover the rice-cooker and set the timer-function for another 10-minutes.
- Leave the rice to rest for sometime: when the rice-cooker timer goes off, let the cooked brown-rice stand for another 5-10 minutes so that the grains can absorb any remaining water in the basin but remember to leave the cover on as the rice sits for these minutes.
- Add some ingredients (optional): in case you wish to flavor-up the cooked brown-rice, then can add about 2-tablespoons of butter, margarine or soy-sauce and then stir-up the rice in order to evenly coat the grains.
- Serve your brown-rice: afterwards, transfer the cooked-rice into serving-dishes and then it will be ready to be enjoyed by the family members.
METHOD-2: HOW TO COOK BROWN-RICE MEDLEY WHILE USING A RICE-COOKER:
- Wash the brown-rice: put the raw-rice into a fine mesh-strainer and then begin rinsing it under cold running water for about 30-seconds. But in case your brown-rice has been fortified, then you may not have to wash it because you may end-up removing the useful minerals.
- Soak the rice: soak the rice by simply pouring it into a cooking-pot filled with warm-water. Let the rice soak for about 45-minutes because this will help to reduce on the stickiness of rice and even enables the rice to expand into thin, long grains.
- Rinse quinoa: as the brown-rice is being soaked, add quinoa to a fine mesh-strainer and then rinse it for about 30-60 seconds running tap-water. Rinsing the quinoa is very important because it helps to remove that protective coating called the saponin which can actually cause the grains to have a bitter flavor-taste. Remember to use a strainer with a very fine mesh in order to prevent the quinoa-grains from falling-out during the rinsing process.
- Add the quinoa and salt to cooking-pot: pour the quinoa and salt into the rice-cooker containing the soaked brown-rice. Stir-up the mixture so that the grains of quinoa and brown-rice are evenly distributed within the cooking-pot.
- Place the cooking-pot into the rice-cooker: put the cooking-pot containing the brown-rice and quinoa to be cooked into the rice-cooker and then press the brown-rice setting incase the rice-cooker has it. But if the rice-cooker has a timer, then set this timer for 30-minutes. Cover the rice-cooker and then press the start-button but leave this rice-cooker covered for the specified cooking-time. Additionally, the brown-rice and quinoa may require a total of up to 40-minutes in order to finish cooking the rice-cooker.
- Wait for the rice to cool: when the rice-cooker finishes cooking the rice- it will automatically switch to keep-warm mode but you will also have to wait for about 5-minutes for the cooked-rice to cool down before opening the rice-cooker because this allows the grains to absorb the remaining water inside the cooking-pot.
- Fluff and serve the cooked-rice: after the 5-minutes, open your rice-cooker and then gently fluff your cooked brown-rice using a rice-paddle in order to separate the grains and to get rid of excess moisture. Begin serving your rice and then enjoy your well-cooked brown rice medley.
METHOD-3: HOW TO PREPARE BROWN-RICE PORRIDGE USING A RICE-COOKER:
- Clean brown-rice: rinse your raw brown-rice by simply placing it into a fine-mesh strainer and then rinse it through cold running-water for about 30-seconds.
- Add rice and water directly into the cooking-pot: pour the brown-rice and water directly in the cooking-pot while making sure that the grains of rice are a bit submerged. Soaking is actually not needed when making brow-rice-porridge since the cooking-time will be lengthy.
- Place the cooking-pot into the rice-cooker: put the rice to be cooked into the rice-cooker and then set the cooking-timer. In case your rice-cooker features a porridge-setting, then use that setting but if it only has timer then set it for 6-8 hour of cooking-time. Leave the rice-cooker covered throughout the cooking-process for best results.
- Heat oil in frying-pan (optional): pour oil into a frying-pan or large skillet and then heat it over medium-to-high heat until the oil becomes glossy. But if you don’t wish to add any vegetables, then this step is not required.
- Cook the vegetables (optional): begin to cook the garlic, mushrooms or carrots in this hot-oil for about 3-4 minutes or until these ingredients get a tender-crisp and fragrance.
- Pour the cooked-vegetables into the cooked rice-porridge: when the brown-rice porridge has completed cooking, open the rice-cooker and then add the cooked-vegetables. Stir well in order to mix the vegetables and rice-porridge evenly throughout.
- Serve your cooked brown-rice porridge: use a rice-paddle to scoop the cooked porridge-rice into individual serving dishes and then serve with optional toppings like garnish with soy-sauce, chopped green-onions or even hardboiled egg slices in case you prefer to do so.