Rice cooker magic

Editor's note: To understand China, sit down to eat. Food is the indestructible bond that holds the whole social fabric together. It is also one of the last strong vestiges of community and culture.

The tiny white grains are the staple diet of more than half the population of China, as well as millions of ethnic Chinese distributed all over the world. Rice is the hub from which the Chinese meal radiates, with savory dishes created to complement the sweet starchy grain.

That is why the rice cooker is by far the most important appliance in any modern kitchen, and also why the Chinese collective term for the dishes is song, which means to "chase down the rice".

Preparing rice is one of the first skills a Chinese cook learns, and a rice cooker eliminates the guesswork, turning out perfect, plump, fluffy rice every time.

This is the piece of equipment that will start them on their journey of innovative culinary discovery.

Apart from steaming rice, a rice cooker can braise, stew, boil, brew and stir-fry. It can even bake a cake, as generations of inventive college cooks have discovered.

In my own college days, a rice cooker delivered me from the cruel fate of eating hamburgers and fries every day, which was all a poor struggling student on a scholarship budget could afford. With my trusty rice cooker, I could buy cheap meats and vegetables from Chinatown and eat like royalty.

Most college dormitories banned cooking back then, but a rice cooker could be surreptitiously plugged into a bathroom socket. The only problem was the tempting aroma that wafted out as it merrily bubbled away, which meant my dormitory mates had to be bribed with a shared meal.

My young friends in China tell me how they would secretly use a rice cooker for hotpot in winter - the cook-as-you eat dish that quickly warms up cold bodies, especially before the central heating kicks in.

You just needed to wash and cut the ingredients, drop a stock cube into boiling water and start a meal with lots of vegetables and as much meat as you can afford.

There is a wide repertoire of one-dish meals that can be prepared in the rice cooker.

A favorite of mine was, and still is, Hainanese chicken rice. The chicken is first boiled in the pot with the herbal trinity of ginger, garlic and spring onions. Then the chicken is removed and the liquid is used to cook the rice.

Stews are also easy in the rice cooker. A college favorite in China is chicken wings stewed in a tin of cola, something which I am sure mothers probably never prepared.

The more experienced may attempt braised trotters in soy sauce, steamed meat patties, stewed beef brisket, tea-cooked eggs, scrambled eggs, stir-fried vegetables and even curry.

To prepare a meal in the rice cooker, you need to understand how it works, and also understand the texture of ingredients. This appliance uses indirect heat, which tends to dry up ingredients.

But let's start at the very beginning, as they say. The simplest way is to place a plate or bowl of food to steam while your rice is cooking.

Add washed rice to the pot and the water needed to cook it.

Normal rice, such as jasmine or most short-grained varieties, needs a ratio of one part water to one part rice. Long-grained rice such as basmati needs a little more water.

Plates that can be steamed on top of the rice include fresh mushrooms and chicken marinated in oyster sauce, minced meat in custard, seasoned minced meat patties, root vegetables such as potatoes, taro or pumpkin seasoned with your choice of sauces.

You can also do seasoned rice dishes, adding meat and vegetables directly on top of the rice after the water has dried up slightly.

Suitable flavorings include finely shredded bokchoy and chopped ham or bacon, minced beef with sweet corn kernels, green peas and carrots, or cabbage and dried Chinese anchovies. The secret is to season your meat quite heavily before adding to the rice, remembering that the saltiness will leach into the rice to flavor it.

You can also place Chinese sausages and cured meats on top of the cooking rice. The oil from the sausages will scent the rice with an appetizing fragrance.

Can you stir-fry in a rice cooker? Yes, but it takes a little patience and a lot of cleaning up. The rice cooker must be heated up enough for the oil to be sizzling before you add the ingredients, and it will never have the speed or heat of an open fire. Your vegetables, especially, will tend to stew.

Here are a couple of recipes that do work well in a rice cooker.

paulined@chinadaily.com.cn

Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice

Serves 2-4:

2 large fresh whole chicken drumsticks

2 sprigs spring onions, lightly smashed and knotted

5 cm piece ginger, smashed

5 cloves garlic, also lightly crushed

2 teaspoons sea salt

3 cups water

2 cups rice

Rub the salt thoroughly over the drumsticks. Use your fingers to lift the skin from the meat so you create a pocket into which to stuff the garlic and ginger.

Place the chicken with garlic and ginger inside the rice cooker and top with spring onion knots. Add the water and press button to cook.

Keep an eye on the rice cooker. When you see steam rising, set the timer to 10 minutes. When time is up, switch off the rice cooker but don't open it. Keep it covered for another 10 minutes so the chicken keeps cooking.

Remove the chicken and place the rice into the stock left in the rice cooker. It should have reduced to about 2 cups. Top up with more water if needed.

You can remove the ginger and garlic, but cooking it together with the rice will give it the distinctive chicken rice flavor.

Chop up the cooled chicken drumstick and serve with the warm rice when it's ready with a salad of cucumbers and tomatoes.

Savory Vegetable Rice with Minced Beef

Serves 2-4:

500g minced beef

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp oyster sauce

Salt and pepper

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 cup of freshly diced vegetables

(Choose from potatoes, carrots, beans, peas, carrots)

2 cups rice plus 2 cups water

Prepare minced beef. Mix in oyster sauce and cornstarch as well as salt, pepper and sesame oil. Thoroughly mix until well blended.

Place rice and mixed vegetables into rice cooker. Add water and cook until water has reduced beneath the surface of the rice.

Spread out the minced beef on top of the rice and finish cooking.

Mix up beef and vegetables before serving.

If you are using frozen vegetables, you must add them only with the beef or they'll turn to mush.

This is a nice savory, one-pot dish that saves a lot of washing up.