I have gifted Rice Cooker to my niece and she would like to know how to use it ?

I found that the best ratio for rice is 1.5 cups of water for every 1 cup of rice.

Rice cookers are pretty automatic.

Add rice and water...

Press the button...

The rice cooker does the rest and stops cooking automatically by switching to "keep warm" mode.

The main control you have for how the rice turns out is the amount of water. If you like your rice to be stickier and clumpy, increase the water to rice ratio, but I would not recommend using more than 2 cups of water per 1 cup of rice.

If the rice turns out undercooked, you can add a little more water to the rice (1/4 cup) and press the cook button again. The rice cooker will automatically switch modes to warm when done. However, I wouldn't expect any undercooked rice if you use the water to rice ratio suggested above, 1.5:1.

I grew up eating rice from a rice cooker every night. Tell her to use either jasmine, jeera or some type of Asian rice and wash it in cold water. Just fill over the rice and empty and repeat 4-5 times until the water is clear. Then, fill the water in with rice until it's about a fingertips' deep (hits the first bend of your finger). It should equal about 1 cup of rice to about 1 1/2 cups of water. The trick is to have really well rinsed rice and to use cold water. Then, just make the rice level in the container and push the button.

The two are not interchangeable. A slow cooker doesn't give the necessary heat required to cook rice. I have both, and if you eat a lot of rice a rice cooker is indispensable. But, then so is a slow cooker. Put your stew, chili or pot roast fixings in it before leaving for work and when you get home you have a hot meal waiting. Hope this helps.

::The Ratio Of Water To Cook Plain Rice::

Wash the rice 1st, but make sure you don't wash it more than twice or the flavor will be lost... Then, let's say you wanna cook 1 cup of rice, then you have to use 2 cups of water to cook it... If 2 cups of rice, then use 3 cups of water & so on... The rice will be just fine, not too dry & not soggy...

::Time To Cook::

Just set the rice cooker button to "COOK" & it will cook the rice automatically so need for you to worry of how long it will takes to cook the rice....

::Jeera Rice & Daal Fry Recipe::

Jeera means cumin, so you can guess what the dominant flavor of the rice is... The Daal fry is made with Toor Daal which is a yellow lentil with a mild flavor... These two dishes are meant to go together and they are so absolutely delicious and so easy to make...

6 servings

1¼ hours 20 min prep

Ingredients For the Jeera Rice:

3 cups basmati rice (long grain, fragrant rice from India)

6 tablespoons ghee or butter

2 tablespoons cumin seeds

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro

1-2 thin green chilies (depending on how much heat you can handle)

2 tablespoons salt

Ingredients For the Daal fry:

1 1/2 lbs toor dal (you can buy this at an indian grocer)

4 tablespoons oil

3 tablespoons cumin seeds

1 large onion

2 large fresh tomatoes or 1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes

2-3 thin green chilies (depending on how much heat you can handle)

1 teaspoon red chili powder

1 tablespoon garam masala (can also be bought at indian grocer)

3 teaspoons sugar

2 tablespoons salt

Directions:

1- Wash the daal in 4 changes of water, then set to cook. Put enough water in the toor daal to be about 1 1/2 inches above the daal. If you don't have a pressure cooker, it should take somewhere around 45 minute for the daal to become soft.

2- Set the rice to cook at the same time. The rice will cook a little faster and it will be perfect timing for you to add the spices to the rice and have it all prepared as the daal is becoming ready to have the spices added to it.

3- The ratio of water to rice is two to one. Add the salt to the water before cooking as it will be difficult to mix in later. The water should taste nice and salty.

4- When the rice is almost done, take half of the ghee or butter in a large sauteé pan.

5- Add the cumin seeds, cilantro leaves and chopped green chillies.

6- Saute for about 3 minutes on med heat, then add the cooked rice and mix.

7- Add the rest of the ghee or butter to the rice and mix until consistent.

8- Set aside and cover to keep warm.

9- Wash out the sauteé pan and begin the spices for the daal by adding the oil, cumin, finely chopped onion and green chillies.

10- Sauteé until the onions are transparent.

11- Add diced tomatoes and sauteé for 2 more mintues.

12- Check the daal to make sure it is soft, then mash with a potato masher until you have a porridge-like consistency. If you need to retrieve water from the pan, then do it beforehand. Just remember, you can always put the water back in if there isn't enough, but you can't take it out once the lentils are mashed.

13- After the daal is mashed add the sauteé mixture.

14- Add red chilli powder for more heat if necessary.

15- Add garam masala, salt and sugar. stir over heat for 2 minute and it is ready.

16- Serve over jeera rice with papad and mango pickle.

Since you have quite some good advices from other answers, I would stick to the recipe part.

You actually can cook rice with chicken soup and soon after the switch jumped from cooking to streaming, you can add marinated chicken and mushroom on the just raised rice, let it stream till cooked, toss chicken & rice till well combine and serve.

http://busycooks.about.com/od/sidedishrecipes/r/ri...

On the other hand, you can add beef stock or any other flavor to your rice, sometimes I mix butter and fried garlic mushrooms (a few different kinds of mushrooms) in my rice, sprinkle some chopped fresh parsley and serve with a meat dish or boiled vegetables.

Be imaginative, have fun and good luck

First you should wash the rice and soak it with proper amount of salt for one hour.

For the rice cooker, 1 cup of Basmatti rice needs 2 cups of water, and 1 tbsp of vegetable oil, and proper amount of salt. It will take about 45 minutes to be ready.

My grandma taught me this. Lay one hand flat on top of the rice and pour in just enough water to cover the top of the hand.

It works perfectly for me.

(also rinse rice until water runs clear)

the number of cups of rice is proportional to the number of cup of water. only plain rice can be cook in rice cooker. and for the time. rice cooker will automatically change when the rice is cook. check the user manual of your rice cooker.

The cooker should have come with instructions. They all work differently.