What I Tested: The Rival 6 Cup Rice Cooker
My friend Timmy swears by this rice cooker, but I was a little skeptical -- only because I wondered how much I would actually use a rice cooker. But, as Tim explained to me, this not only cooks rice, but also steams veggies. At $16.99 (you can get it at Amazon, just click on the price) I figured it was worth a try. My goal was to really test this thing and prepare a full meal. Since I love brown rice, and think it is very difficult to cook, I decided to opt for brown rice to see how the appliance would do. I also wanted to steam broccoli and a piece of fish.
What I Made:
Broccoli, brown rice and a salmon fillet. I made the rice first, removed it from the pot and covered so that it would keep warm. Half way through the cooking of the rice, about 10 minutes, I added the steam tray and steamed my broccoli for about 5 minutes. Once that was done I added some water to the bottom of the pan with a the juice from 1/2 lemon. Then I added the steam basket to the cooker and steamed my fish for about 6 minutes. A little bit of soy sauce and sesame seeds and my lunch was ready to go. The whole process took about 30 minutes. Not the fastest meal in the world, but delicious and healthy all the same.
How it Rated:
This product is great. It is very useful and does a great job at preparing rice and other foods (like broccoli and salmon). There is a handy guide that tells you how long to cook veggies and the cooker just seems to know when the rice is done. It would be nice if there was some sort of timer on the machine that told you how long the food would take to cook. I kind of guessed based on the information in the directions booklet. Also, the lid does not fit firmly on top of the pot so when the rice is cooking the steam escapes from a hole on the lid, and also spatters out the sides and can get a little messy. All in all, this is a handy little product that lets you prepare a nice healthy meal with one appliance.
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