Does anyone have a rice cooker?

[Enid]

are they good?

nigella waxes on about them.

do they keep the rice hot for aggggggges?

No but the woman on Ching's Kitchen (uk food) does and she raves about hers. Hers belonged to her gran and is eons old.

My Mum loves hers.

Great if you want rice to stay hot for ages, or if you're having folk round and want to cook rice in advance or if (as in my Mum's case) you think rice is tricky to get right...

I've got one and I never use it.
There are only two of us plus toddler and I never seem to get it right. Rice always comes out dry.
If I leave rice in the thing it goes rock solid.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong.
Friends of ours love theirs. They do big family meals so maybe they work better for larger quantitiies? Dunno.

Yes it does keep warm for ages, and it's really handy because normally you have to watch rice and stir to make sure it doesn't stick etc. You just switch the cooker on and that's it!

(if it isn't it should be, oliveoil!)

dh cooks rice in advance and then puts a kettle of boiling water through to reheat just before serving.

Rowlers, maybe you're not measuring right? Depends on the machine, but it can be two cups water/one cup rice. Usually there are little guide lines on the cooker bowl to show you.

I bought my lovely baby blue rice steamer in Kuala Lumpur in 1993 and it is used almost daily. Perfect fluffy rice every time.

Rowlers, the trick with rice is to rinse it until the water is clear before you steam it.

I use 2 cups of rice and 3 of water to steam.

Best thing I ever brought back from abroad (Straw donkey, smelly greek leather bag, 5 litre tin of olive oil from Spain etc, etc)

I have always followed the measuring quide, and I have also added extra water just in case but nowt seems to work.
Maybe I got the Friday nighter.

Oh blobs, go on then, I'll try it again.
(Wanders to the kitchen to wipe the dust off the horrid rice cooker...)

I dont have a prob cooking rice

but just thought it might be labour saving

I love my rice cooker, my dh is Malaysian and can't imagine not having one. In fact we have two, a small one just for the 3 of us and a big one for dinner parties. I find it very handy that it doesn't need to go on the hob and you don't have to worry about timing as it keeps the rice warm. Also I'm happy to take the inner bowl straight to the table and serve from it, which I'm not keen to do with saucepans, so it saves on washing up.

Rowlers, what kind of rice are you using? Some kinds need quite a bit more water than the recommended amount.

Basmati.

Yes yes yes and it has saved my life. (I hate cooking.) Never any trouble anymore with rice turning out to be either porridge or burnt. I love it. Dunk the rice and water in, flick the switch and forget about it until you want to eat.

(Mind though, not all ricecookers have a 'keep warm' function.)

try jasmine rice instead. Basmati is drier, but tends to disintegrate if you put too much water in - due to amount of starch.

Bran - I think every home and eatery in malaysia has one.

In Thailand the kids fight over who gets to eat the crunchy brown bits left at the bottom of the rice steamer!

I have one and love it just wack it in and turn it on.

I love mine too!

You get what you pay for: mine is a Japanese fuzzy-logic one that makes risotto and porridge too! Rice stays good for up to 2 hours after cooking. They're expensive though.