Review: Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook

I talked about this briefly over on frugalscholar, but I checked this out of the library again and would like to talk about it some more.


I haven't yet seen the much-awaited rice cooker book by Roger Ebert.

So far, of the ones I've seen and worked with a bit, I have to say that Ultimate is the best.

I judge a cookbook by how much it makes me want to jump up and start cooking. My first trip through this didn't have that effect: the first two chapters are kind of tedious, perhaps because so detailed. But 17 pages on rice cookers, followed by more than 40 pages on how to cook every kind of rice you've ever and never heard of,,,well, not inspiring to me.

This time, I looked at chapter 3, which to me makes the book worth its relatively low price: Simple Everyday Rices and LITTLE MEALS. This is the chapter that is of most use to the College Cook and to the harried home cook. Here are some of the ideas: Greek Lemon and Dill Rice with Feta, Mexican Rice and Beans, Chinese Sausage and Rice, Indonesian Rice Bowl.

Some of these are a little multi-step for the College Cook, but all can be simplified. All could be augmented as well. For instance, the Greek rice could become a complete dinner with the addition of some frozen or fresh spinach. And it would be fine without the dill.

This book has the Search Inside feature, so you can test drive the Greek rice and whatever else strikes your fancy.