Over the last year or so at Parkinson Manor, we’ve begun eating a lot of rice bowls. I think the primary driver behind this is that Lou eats with her eyes first and it’s very easy to assemble something quite pretty. There are also seemingly infinite variations of toppings, generally following the protein, veg, pickle format. The format naturally lends itself to portion control too. There’s only so much space in the bowl for each pile of topping, which stops me going nuts.
Because of the amount we’ve been eating a month or so ago we invested in a rice cooker, the YumAsia YumCarb. I couldn’t be more pleased with it as it produces really tasty results with virtually zero effort. Whilst it wasn’t a massive issue, I no longer have to juggle taking a pan on and off the heat with preparation of the toppings. It’s also useful for those times when I’m not sure exactly when Lou will return home - I can make the rice and just let the cooker go into it’s warming mode once it’s cooked 1.
The cooker comes with a steamer basket which I’ve used to cook frozen edamame alongside the rice, for one of our emergency edamame, kimchi, fried egg rice bowls. I expect I’ll try frozen gyoza soon.
The cooker has mostly been used with sushi rice, but the results with long grain rice to go with chilli were also excellent. I haven’t tried the ‘YumCarb’ carbohydrate reduction settings, nor, if I am honest, am I likely too. I’m more likely to try the porridge settings or to cook other grains in the cooker, but I haven’t done as of yet.
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We tend to eat warm rice bowls, although I have taken cold bowls into work for lunch. ↩︎