After much contemplation and research, I decided to take the plunge to purchase a very expensive smart cooker. You can get it from a Buffalo cookware shop. Here is a link to the location of the shops in Australia –https://buffalocookware.com.au/pages/our-stores.
In fact, my husband did not understand why I needed such an expensive rice cooker to cook my rice every day. When I say it is expensive, it is indeed pricey compared to any other rice cooker. It is $369.00. But it is a smart cooker, it is not only a rice cooker. I can cook my white rice, brown rice, basmati rice and porridge in this cooker. What is so amazing about this cooker is that I do not need to soak my brown rice before cooking. My family consume brown rice which high in fibre and this cooker produce lovely fluffy brown rice. All I need is 3 cups of rice with 4 cups of water and then press the menu button to select brown rice to start cooking. It will be ready approximately in 75 minutes.
If you are running short of time, you can select quick cook mode which takes up to about 30 minutes to cook 3 cups of rice. For this quick mode, it will produce better white cooked white rice than brown rice.
Apart from that, it has a clay pot mode, you can make clay pot chicken rice without having to use a clay pot BUT creating the same flavoursome clay pot chicken rice which is cooked in a clay pot. Isn’t that wonderful! With this clay pot mode, the cooked rice will form a brown crispy layer at the bottom of the stainless steel inner pot. That is what happens if you cooked clay pot chicken rice in a clay pot over a stove. Therefore, when you use clay pot mode, you will need to soak the inner stainless steel pot before you wash. For those who have not seen a clay pot. I have attached a photo of a clay pot.
The smart cooker can also whip out nutritious soups for your family, stews and bake cakes. It has 24-hour preset time. You can set a time before the food cooks automatically without supervision. Like all rice cooker, it also has a keep warm function and a reheat function. It does make cooking easier.
It has a removable steam valve and stainless steel inner lid. They can be washed easily after every cooking. Below are photos of them.
It comes with a stainless steel steaming rack which you can place your vegetables in it to steam. Below is a photo of it.
The main reason why I decided to buy this cooker is that the inner pot is made of stainless steel. It means that I do not need to worry about particles from nonstick rice pot chip off and get into food. Furthermore, it is unhealthy to consume rice that that is cooked in a nonstick chipped off inner pot. Based on my experience with nonstick inner rice cooker pot, they do tend to peel off after a while regardless how careful you have used it.
I was also wary of the fact that would I have problem washing off the rice that stuck at the base of the stainless steel pot and the answer was NO. If we leave the cooked rice in the pot for about 15 minutes or longer in a keep warm mode, washing the inner pot will be a breeze. No soaking is needed before washing.
After a lengthy explanation on my smart cooker, I would like to share a recipe on Clay Pot Chicken Rice.
Ingredients:
10 gram of dried shrimp which is soaked with Chinese cooking wine ( You can get it in the oriental shop).
3 cups of washed and drained brown rice
3.5 cups of chicken stock
4 pieces of chicken thigh fillets which I cut into smaller pieces
1 tbsp black cooking caramel sauce. (To cook authentic Asian food, you need this black soya sauce and you can get them from the oriental shop)
1 stalk of spring onion
2 slices of ginger
A handful of the soaked mushroom slice (You can get them in Coles in the oriental food aisle. The mushroom has to be soaked so that it is soft . If you do not have this, you can always use button mushroom).
Marinade:
A dash of white pepper
1 tbsp of light soya sauce
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine (You can get it in Coles and Woolworth)
1 teaspoon of sesame oil (You can get it in Coles and Woolworth)
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp of powdered chicken stock
1 tbsp black cooking caramel sauce
Sauce:
1 tbsp of black cooking caramel sauce
1 tbsp of light soya sauce
1 tbsp of garlic oil ( You make it by frying some chopped garlic)
Methods:
Firstly, marinade the chopped chicken pieces with the marinade ingredients for about 20 minutes.
Secondly, place the brown rice and chicken stock into the smart cooker.
Next add in the marinade chicken, dried shrimps, ginger, 1 tbsp of black cooking caramel sauce and soaked mushroom sliced except for the spring onion.
Then, close the lid of the pot and select the “claypot” function and press the start button to cook.
Finally, when the LED screen indicates that there are only 10 minutes of cooking time, add in the sauces and spring onion. Now is the time to mix all the ingredients well and leave it to cook until the time finishes.
