The Ultimate Rice Cooker
Page 27
5. Spoon the hot grits into a large serving bowl. Immediately spoon the shrimp over the grits and drizzle with the sauce from the pan. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and chives and serve hot.
HOMINY
The premier gift from Native Americans to the colonists, hominy is dried whole corn kernels that are cooked in a solution of ashes or slaked lime in water to loosen the hulls. Hominy became a staple food for generations in the Appalachian backwoods, bayous of the Louisiana delta, and rural Deep South, made with wood ashes. While Mexican-Americans remember the large pot of beans always cooking on the back of the stove all day, southerners have the same memory about a pot of hominy.
Today commercial hominy is made by boiling the corn in a solution of sodium hydroxide, which acts the same way as the organic alkali ash bath. The germ and hulls are washed off, leaving a plump, soft kernel the size of a chickpea that is chewy in texture and earthy in flavor, as well as easy to digest. Also known by its Spanish name, posole, in the Latin community or the Indian name of nixtamal in the southwest United States, hominy is now chic peasant food. It is available dried, fresh or frozen ready-to-eat (both must be reconstituted), and canned.
fresh hominy
Fresh or partially cooked frozen whole hominy needs to be cooked before using. Fresh is usually available in the meat department of supermarkets, especially around the holidays. Do not add any salt while cooking, or the kernels will never soften properly. You can use fresh hominy instead of canned in soups and stews. If you happen to use dried hominy, you will need to double the amount of water and double the cooking time. You can double this recipe in the large-capacity rice cooker.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) or large (10 cup) rice cooker; fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Re gular
YIELD: About 4 cups
1 pound fresh or frozen hominy, thawed overnight in the refrigerator
1. Place the hominy in the rice cooker bowl and cover with 2 inches of cold water. Close the cover and set for the regular cycle. Cook until it is tender and the kernels burst open, but are still slightly firm to the bite, 1 hour or more.
2. Remove the bowl from the rice cooker, drain off most of the liquid by pouring through a colander, and let cool to room temperature. Store in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 2 days.
posole nuevo
Posole, the spicy New Mexican stew that is based on hominy, is usually a long-simmered dish made with pork or beef. This version is quicker and lighter, yet just as hearty and comforting. Because canned hominy is already cooked, this posole can be ready to eat in less than an hour. The carrots and chayote are not traditional. Two chiles make a slightly spicy version; add more than four at your own risk. Serve in bowls with crusty bread or rolls.
MACHINE: Large (10-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Regular
YIELD: Serves 8
Two 30-ounce cans white hominy or 4 to 5 cups Fresh Hominy
2 to 4 large dried New Mexico chiles
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat, and cut into bite-size pieces
3 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 medium-size onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crumbled
2 to 3 carrots, to your taste, sliced
1 medium-size chayote squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into bite-size pieces
¼ cup fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon salt, or more to taste, if needed (depending on saltiness of stock)
1. Coat the rice cooker bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Place the hominy in a colander and rinse with cool water; allow to drain.
2. Meanwhile, rinse the chiles with cool water if they appear dusty. Pull off the stems and shake out most of the seeds.
3. Place the chiles, hominy, chicken pieces, stock, water, onion, garlic, and oregano in the rice cooker bowl. Close the cover, set for the regular cycle, and set a timer for 40 minutes.
4. When the liquid comes to a boil (open the cooker to check if yours doesn’t have a glass lid), add the carrots and chayote. When the timer sounds, the chicken should be cooked through and the vegetables tender. Add the lime juice and salt. Remove the chile pods and discard, or slit open and scrape out the red pulp and return it to the pot, discarding the skins. This dish will hold on Keep Warm for up to 1 hour. Serve hot.
ABOUT OLD-FASHIONED STONE-GROUNDGRITS
Crushed kernels of dried corn with the consistency of coarse sand and a shiny luminescence rather like that of seashells is the best description of grits. They are made from either white or yellow corn, although they both taste quite similar despite the difference in color. Yellow grits look a lot like polenta but are coarser, and polenta is cleaned of all flour and milling dust; you can’t substitute one for the other. Instant grits is a degerminated cereal with its bran and germ sifted out. Out goes the character and taste as well.
When you get a bag of old-fashioned grits, they might be labeled “speckled” on the bag. The black speckles in the yellow are the sign of stone-ground grits, residue from the black base of each kernel. White grits, traditional in the Carolinas, are often flecked with yellow. Some cooks (like us) aren’t bothered by the earthy look of the flecks, while others skim the grits after covering them with water before cooking.
Stone-ground grits can be mail-ordered from southern mills that have been grinding grits since before the Civil War (see Online and Mail-Order Resources), as well as some new mills that know a good thing when they taste it. You know the food world is getting wise when The New York Times describes grits as “good alone, with other foods, godly.” Southern cooks have never paid any attention to fashion; they have been in the know for generations.
hot breakfast cereals and PORRIDGES
Hot Oatmeal and Rice
Wheatena
Hot Oatmeal with Grape-Nuts
Hot Fruited Oatmeal
Breakfast Barley
Granola Oatmeal
Old-Fashioned Steel-Cut Oatmeal
Creamy Breakfast Oatmeal
Hot Apple Granola
Mixed Grain Porridge
Hot Cornmeal Mush
Sweet Breakfast Grits with Fresh Fruit
Morning Rice Pudding
Maple-Cinnamon Rice Pudding
Apple Granola
Four-Grain Flakes
Your Own Old-Fashioned Granola
Triple-Oat Granola with Dried Cranberries
Plain Rice Porridge
Rice and Sweet Potato Porridge
Savory Rice Porridge with Shiitake and Preserved Egg
Thanks giving Jook
Breakfast cereals happen to be the way the majority of people eat whole grains. When grains are cooked in water or milk, they become a porridge, a food that has sustained humans since the first wild grains were gathered. Hot cooked grains are traditional fare the world over. Who could have predicted the long nutritious future of a group of Seventh-Day Adventists who in 1877 touted a vegetarian diet and opened a sanitarium based on the principles of evangelist and whole foods advocate Sylvester Graham? Developing a breakfast cereal of wheat, oats, and cornmeal baked into biscuits and then ground up, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg made the first roughage-rich granola, a name later adopted in the health food–conscious 1960s (mixed and served at the first Woodstock music festival) for a sweetened combination of roasted rolled grains, nuts, and seeds.
Kellogg later cooked grains of wheat and rolled them flat, making the first rolled cereals. Steam-injected puffing guns made whole grains porous and were introduced at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. The highly original Minnesota food eccentrics were off and running with the cereal boom. Americans fell in love with cereal and the demand has not diminished to this day. Unfortunately, the ever-growing line of commercial cereals are laced with preservatives and lots of refined sugar products tailored to the tastes of we’re not sure whom.
Recipes for robust, luscious, or aust
ere mixed grain cereals abound and, whether served hot or cold, offer a tasty way to feed your body in the morning. Making your own cereal blends or using leftover cooked grains such as rice is a perfect place to practice improvisation with a dash of kitchen creativity.
The Porridge cycle in the fuzzy logic machines does a beautiful job of cooking a wide variety of whole grains into breakfast porridges. Most of your own special slow-cooked breakfast cereals can be on the table after you finish dressing.
The secret to making excellent porridges is to use very fresh whole-grain cereals, such as rolled oats and bran. Be sure to get residue-free organically-grown whole grains every chance you get for the maximum health benefit. Commercial brands like Arrowhead Mills’ Bear Mush is an excellent alternative to processed farina, and McCann’s imported quick-cooking Irish oats are rolled from whole oats. Look for real old-fashioned rolled oats (as well as barley and wheat flakes) rather than the quick-cooking varieties. We also love old-fashioned hot cereals like Maltex and Wheatena. And although the long-cooking rough-cut steel cut oats—chopped groats known as Irish-cut or Scotch-cut—can be intimidating to cook properly on the stove, they are easy to cook into a creamy cereal with no fuss in the rice cooker. Cracked grain cereal combinations—usually a blend such as cracked wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, flaxseed, and corn—cook up as beautifully as oatmeal with the slow cooking of a rice cooker.
A key to how cereals will cook is to look at how they were processed. If processed minimally, as is the case for cracked grains, they will need more water (because they must absorb more to soften) and longer cooking times. Processed grains, such as rolled flakes, are first steamed, then passed through rollers to flatten. Some require as little as half the amount of water as cracked grains to cook, and they become a smoother mush. Sometimes, though, they absorb a lot of liquid and you end up with a dry mixture, like rice; just add some more water and cook a bit longer. Make a note on the package for the next time. Toasted flakes, as in granola, absorb less water than the raw flakes. Thick-cut flakes will absorb more water than thinner ones. Whole grains, with their bran and germ intact, cook more slowly and take more water than grains that have been hulled and degermed, the difference, for example, between brown and white rice. Previously cooked grains require the least amount of extra liquid and will break down very quickly.
As with the cooking of all grains, we all have a way we like our cereal cooked: smooth and loose so it is a homogeneous mush, with milk, or a bit stiff, so that the milk is a moat and can be cut into with a spoon. Open the cover and check the consistency of the cereal; give a stir with your wooden or plastic rice paddle. If it looks too stiff, simply add another ¼ to ½ cup of water or milk. If it looks too loose, either set for a second Porridge cycle to continue the cooking (it won’t hurt the mush one bit) or hold the cereal on the Keep Warm cycle for up to two hours before serving. Hot cereals hold perfectly on the Keep Warm cycle.
How to serve your porridge is entirely a matter of personal preference. Dried or fresh fruit can be used as a topping or an ingredient to be cooked with the cereal. If refined sweeteners such as brown sugar are not in your diet, cereals can be made with pure maple syrup, date sugar, or honey. Create a moat of milk, half-and-half, rice milk, soy milk, or oat milk around your hot cereal. Whatever your choice, it’s good morning to you!
hot oatmeal and rice
We consider this porridge an oatmeal inspiration. It is Beth’s liberal adaptation of a Marie Simmons recipe from her wonderful book Rice: The Amazing Grain (Henry Holt and Company, 1991). You can use any leftover white or brown rice, long- or short-grain. An excellent grain combination and a breakfast favorite.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: Serves 2
1 cup rolled (old-fashioned) oats (not quick-cooking)
1 cup cooked white or brown rice
2 tablespoons oat bran
2 ¼ cups water
Cold milk or soy milk
Pure maple syrup or honey
3 tablespoons toasted wheat germ
1. Place the oats, rice, oat bran, and water in the rice cooker bowl; stir gently to combine. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle.
2. At the end of the cycle, the cereal will be thick and will hold on Keep Warm for 1 to 2 hours. Spoon into bowls and serve hot, topped with milk, a drizzle of maple syrup or honey, and wheat germ.
wheatena
High-fiber Wheatena, a combination of wheat grits, wheat bran, and wheat germ, is a robust toasted wheat cereal that has been on the super market shelves for decades. Normal stove-top cooking is recommended at about five minutes, way too short, we think, to soften it properly; the coarse grain really tastes best when it has been slow-cooked. We use more water to get a smooth, thick porridge. Simple and delicious, Wheatena just needs some cold milk poured over it.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: Serves 2
1 cup Wheatena
2 ⅓ cups water
Pinch of fine sea salt
1. Place the Wheatena, water, and salt in the rice cooker bowl; stir gently to combine. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle.
2. At the end of the cycle, the cereal will be thick and will hold on Keep Warm for 1 to 2 hours. Spoon into bowls and serve hot.
hot oatmeal with grape-nuts
We love Grape-Nuts, but, well, sometimes they are just too hard on the teeth to eat cold. So, inspired by food writer Barbara Grunes, we put them in with oatmeal and ended up with a nice oat and wheat breakfast cereal.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: Serves 3 to 4
1 ¼ cups steel-cut oats
¼ cup Grape-Nuts cereal
2 ¾ cups water
Pinch of fine sea salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon or cardamom
Cold milk and brown sugar, for serving
1. Coat the rice cooker bowl with butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray. Place the oats, Grape-Nuts, water, salt, and spice in the rice bowl; stir gently to combine. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle.
2. At the end of the cycle, the cereal will be thick and will hold on Keep Warm for 1 to 2 hours. Spoon into bowls and serve hot, with a moat of milk and brown sugar.
hot fruited oatmeal
As you can surmise, just like the Scots, we love oatmeal in its many guises. It is the most heartwarming and nutritious of grains. This is the perfect place to use old-fashioned rolled oats (the ones that take longer to cook and are chewier) or thick-cut rolled oats (there is a brand packaged by The Silver Palate), rather than the quick-cooking variety, as the rice cooker lets them cook nice and slow with some fresh fruit.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: Serves 4
2 cups rolled (old-fashioned) oats (not quick-cooking) or Four-Grain Flakes
2 cups milk or buttermilk, plus more for serving, if desired
2 cups water
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 apples or pears, peeled, cored, and chopped, or 4 fresh apricots, pitted and chopped
¼ cup slivered almonds, chopped walnuts, or shelled sunflower seeds
1. Place the oats, milk, water, salt, and fruit in the rice cooker bowl. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle.
2. At the end of the cycle, stir in the nuts. Let the oatmeal steam on Keep Warm for 5 minutes. This cereal will hold on Keep Warm for up to 1 hour. Spoon into bowls and serve hot, with more milk, if desired.
CLICK TO SEE OATMEAL AND ROLLED OATS
breakfast barley
Barley flakes seem like a cereal relegated to the aisles of the health food store, but in early history barley was as central to the human diet as rice. When wheat became the
dominant grain, barley became more of a specialty grain. It has a sweet, nurturing flavor as a porridge; it makes a good alternative to oatmeal, especially nice for children. Please note that barley does not break down and dissolve into a traditional mush like oatmeal; the grains will be very soft, but stay distinct.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: Serves 2
1 cup barley flakes or Four-Grain Flakes
2 ¼ cups water
2 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon apple pie spice or ground cinnamon
Pinch of fine sea salt
Cold milk or soy milk, for serving
1. Place the barley, water, brown sugar, spice, and salt in the rice cooker bowl; stir gently to combine. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle.
2. At the end of the cycle, the cereal will be thick; let it steam on Keep Warm for 10 minutes. This cereal will hold on Keep Warm for 1 to 2 hours. Spoon into bowls and serve hot, with milk.
granola oatmeal
Granola, which is primarily lightly baked rolled oats, is excellent served as a hot cereal. Use your favorite brand of granola or one of our mixtures in the Custom Cereal Blends section. We favor one packaged by Cafe Fanny in Berkeley—it is sumptuous—but one of the lowfat versions will also work.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup rolled (old-fashioned) oats (not quick-cooking)
¾ cup granola, store-bought or homemade
1 tablespoon millet meal or farina
2 ½ cups water
8 dried apple rings
Pure maple syrup and cold milk, for serving
1. Place the oats, granola, millet meal, and water in the rice cooker bowl; stir to combine. Lay the apple rings on top of the cereal mixture. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle.