Exploring the Rice Cooker's Potential

Bored with plain white rice? How about adding other ingredients in it? That's what I did.

My mum used to make what we call "cai-bun" or 菜饭 in Teochew. But my mum's way is a bit complicated. She will first cook the rice using the rice cooker, then when it is half-cooked, she will add in other cooked ingredients like vegetables, prawns and meat, etc, and stir fry lightly in the rice cooker, and let the cooking of the rice continue.

My way... is much simpler. I just add them in my rice cooker, together with my uncooked grains, and then just let the cooker run its own course. :)

Here are some of my experiments:


Rice with pumpkin. I added some shouyu and sesame oil, too.


Corn and mushroom with seasoning.


Preserved sausage 腊肠 with mushroom, and of course seasoning like shouyu and sesame oil.


Seasoning with mushrooms and crab meat. An inspiration I got when I went for the crab buffet during my one-day trip in 愛知県.

From Youtube, there are lots of other ideas to explore your rice cooker further, like:

Baking bread!
Pasta, soup, fondue!
I have yet to try such adventurous recipes though :P Let me know if you have. :)