What's happened in the 7 months I've been gone? Well, I got a job, which is why I was too busy to post. I'm at college now. I go to Boston University, and I am living in the dorms with no access to a kitchen. However, I am making the best out of this situation.
BU is very picky with which appliances they allow in the dorms: we are not allowed to bring our own microwave, we can only use the microwave that BU rents out. We are not allowed to have any food preparation appliances except for a hot air popcorn popper, which I sadly do not have.
As a picky eater AND a vegetarian, I've grown tired of the dining hall food quickly, even though BU has three really great cafeterias. I've also nearly exhausted my supply of dining points, which you can use to purchase food at several on-campus locations (mainly the food court on campus). I've had to get creative with my limited budget and limited cooking options.
Two of the biggest things that I missed from home were rice and pasta. My family eats rice almost daily, and the rice in the dining halls doesn't even compare. The pasta in the dining halls is ridiculously overcooked and much too soft. So, I did some research, and I found a microwave rice cooker and pasta cooker. They are amazing, and you can make rice and pasta that is almost as good as something you'd make on the stove or in a normal rice cooker.
The rice cooker resembles a normal rice cooker without the electric part... it has holes that allow the steam to escape.
It comes with a handy chart that gives you the proportion of rice to water you should use, as well as the cooking times, for a few different varieties of rice. I've been using white jasmine rice and brown basmati rice and it's worked perfectly. I also made some congee (chinese rice porridge) that turned out pretty well, although the rice cooker overflowed a bit. The whole contraption barely fits into my microwave, but it still has room to rotate on the tray.
The pasta cooker is probably unnecessary... I could probably just get a casserole dish and heat up pasta and water in that, but the pasta cooker came with another chart with cooking times for different pasta shapes and it has lines for the water.
So here are some recipes for your microwave rice cooker, just the basics. Right now I am eating a lot of miso soup with rice, which has been a favorite meal of mine since I was little. The miso soup is just powdered stuff that you add to boiling water. If/when I get fancy with the microwave, I will post recipes. And when I get home, it will be recipe overload, I promise.
If you want to increase the amount of rice you are cooking, just keep the ratio of rice to water the same and increase the cooking time by a few minutes.
Microwave Steamed White Rice
Ingredients:
1 cup white rice
1 1/2 cups water
Pinch of salt
Instructions:
- Wash the rice until the water runs clear, it should take 2 or 3 washes.
- Combine the rice, the 1 1/2 cups water, and the salt in the microwave rice cooker and snap the lid on.
- Microwave for 12 minutes.
- Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
- Eat.
Microwave Steamed Brown Rice
Ingredients:
1 cup brown rice
2 1/2 cups water
Pinch of salt
Instructions:
- Wash the rice until the water runs clear, it should take 2 or 3 washes.
- Combine the rice, the 2 1/2 cups water, and the salt in the microwave rice cooker and snap the lid on.
- Microwave for 35 minutes, or until all of the water has been absorbed.
- Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
- Eat.
Microwave Congee
Ingredients:
3/4 cup white rice
3 1/2 cups water
Toppings (such as soy sauce, sesame oil, scallions, etc.)
Instructions:
- Wash the rice until the water runs clear, it should take 2 or 3 washes.
- Combine the rice and 2 cups of the water in the microwave rice cooker and snap the lid on.
- Microwave for 15 minutes.
- Add another 1 cup of water and stir until combined, then snap the lid back on.
- Microwave for another 10 minutes.
- Add the remaining 1/2 cup of water and stir until combined, then snap the lid back on.
- Microwave for another 10 minutes.
- Garnish with toppings as desired.
- Eat.
