Books |
Zojirushi Micom Rice Cooker
By
Published: Nov 16, 2016
Category:
Food and Wine
We now live in East Harlem, a chip shot from the only Costco in Manhattan. There are few grocery stores in this neighborhood, so I often shop there. I find myself in a jaunty mood at Costco, a feeling I experience in no other store. I think I know why: Because people are forced to buy staples in large quantities, they feel… comforted. The word that comes to mind is larder — the kind of storeroom I picture in pioneer homes, full of fruits and vegetables put up by women in aprons. That’s not East Harlem, but…
Maybe it’s now my 11/9 vision, but I see more and more families pushing carts with what looks like 500 pound bags of white rice. I’m baffled. But curious. There are budgetary and cultural reasons for some of these rice purchases. But there’s also this: Ask ten friends who have lost significant weight and look freshly bright-eyed how they did it, and more than a few will say, “I cut out gluten.” These are not words you may want to hear. No more bread. No more traditional pasta. No more cheese. And must you drink your coffee with so much milk? But there it is. Unpleasant? Maybe not if you substitute rice — the cereal grain that fuels most of the earth’s population — for some of your wheat-based favorites. [You might want to read about Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar — Your Brain’s Silent Killers.]
I know all that. I resist. When I make rice — the old-fashioned way: boil water, add rice, cover, cook until done — it often tumbles onto the plate as a starchy, soggy mess. And from what I’ve read, most steam cookers don’t produce better results.
Then I had dinner at the home of a friend who has a Zojirushi rice cooker.
Zojirushi? For years, Butler has been a champion of the Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug — the single greatest product I’ve ever championed, for the simple reason that it does exactly what it’s supposed to. Hot stays hot. Cold stays cold. For hours and hours and hours.
The cheat sheet on Zojirushi: It’s a venerable Japanese company, almost a century old. In 1970, it introduced a rice cooker. It was immediately popular. In 1983, it launched a breakthrough product, a micom rice cooker. These rice cookers are now their biggest sellers.
Micom? It’s short for micro computerized. Utilizing “fuzzy logic” technology, the cooker can judge how your rice is cooking and adjust time and temperature to give you the kind of rice you want — from plain white rice to brown rice to sushi rice. Magic? No. Pressurized steam heated by the induction coil. Which is beyond the comprehension of this home cook. And maybe yours, so watch this:
And rice is just the beginning. Zojirushi cookers can steam vegetables. They can make porridge. They can be slow cookers. They can raise the dead. (Not really.)
The tough question: which one makes sense?
My choice — because I’m shallow and it looks so good — is the Zojirushi NS-LGC05XB Micom Rice Cooker & Warmer, in chic Stainless Black. Ideal for smaller families and couples — holds up to 3 cups of uncooked rice. [To buy it from Amazon, click here.]
Or consider the 1-liter Micron Rice Cooker. [To buy it from Amazon, click here.] Or the 1.8 liter cooker. [To buy it from Amazon, click here.] Or the less expensive 3 cup cooker, with a smaller footprint and fewer features. [To buy it from Amazon, click here.] Or — last gasp, the cooker big enough for 5.5 cups of rice. [To buy it from Amazon, click here.]
Want a cookbook? The author of “The Everyday Rice Cooker: Soups, Sides, Grains, Mains, and More” is Diane Phillips, the Julia Child of slow cooking cookbooks. [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.]
(Many thanks to KMM.)
