Arghh week days = work days

Not much time these days to update the blog. Today I didn't even have time to use the rice steamer today. Incredible indeed!

But a couple of things have hit me. As a general advice to my recipes always stay critical to chili, curry and garlic amounts. You should always space food to your own taste, some might think my food is to strong others might think its to weak. So if an amount seems high or low, stay true to yourself.

Coming up soon is a chicken dish cooked with lemon grass and curry powder.

Chili con pescado (Fish Chili)

So here is the first evidence, I am definitely not a person to keep what I am saying. I start a blog dedicated to making meals with a rice steamer. My main argument is it is because the rice steamer makes it fast and easy. I even said that I love it because its fast and its necessary in my weekdays.

And what do I do. The first recipe is a slow cooked meal. OK I know just under 2 hours for other people might not be slow cooked. But it definitely is for me. Anyways I hope you can forgive me. Included in todays recipe is a way to make a chili in your steamer. The dish is very customizable to any taste and any types of meat. Yes even as a dish without meat it is proper (gulp did I write that?)

Ingredients:

• 2 Leaves Celery

• 1 Green pepper

• ½ Red pepper

• 1 Small carrot

• ½ Onion

• 1 Fresh chili (Ex. Jalapeno)

• 2 cloves Garlic

• 200 g /7 oz. Pinto or red kidney beans (precooked)

• 1 Cube Vegetable stock (Check for Gluten and Dairy)

• 2 tsp Ground cumin

• 1 tsp Ground coriander

• 1 tbsp Tomato concentrate

• 400 g /14 oz. Canned crossed tomatoes

• ½ cup Rice (Basmati is good)

• 300 g /10 oz. Low fat fish (Cod or flounder works)

• Salt to taste

• Pepper to taste

Description:

1. Chop up all the vegetables in your own preferred sizes (the larger the pieces the more rustic).

2. Add 2 cups water to the Rice Steamer Casserole and transfer the vegetables to the water. Add Beans, vegetable stock, cumin, coriander, tomato concentrate and crossed tomatoes and give it a quick stir before you turn the steamer on.

3. Let the mixture come to a boil, give it a quick stir and the turn the rice steamer to the “keep warm” function.

4. Stir the mixture once every 20 minutes and otherwise leave it unattended for approximately an hour. If necessary add water to maintain it as a liquid.

5. When the hour has passed stir the casserole add the rice and add water to keep the mixture liquid and turn the Rice Steamer on.

6. After approximately 15 minutes (depending on the sort of rice), stir the mixture, taste it to check the rice and add pepper and salt to taste. Put the fish on the Steaming basket and lower it into the steamer.

7. 10 minutes later the fish should be ready, break it into pieces and stir it gently into the mixture and serve it!

Notes:

Remove the fish to make a decent vegetable chili; Use 2-3 as many beans and remove the rice; Do not remove the celery its essential! Time from start to serving: approx 1h 45min; Human interaction; approx 30minutes.

Pdf:

The Machine

So before starting the blog with the first recipes I will have to share with you my gadget. Yes... I am a gadget person and I do own things like automatic espresso machine and a robotic vacuum cleaner.

To be frank we did not put much research into the first machine that we are running on. And I think the result is a machine that lack some of the luxury features. Iḿ thinking of things such as variable temperature and timers which could have been nice to have.

Our machine is a Tefal Automatic Rice Cooker (Comfort, model R07):
It is very basic and its main feature is its non stick boiling casserole and the fact that everything but the machine itself can go into the dishwasher limiting the time we have to spend cleaning up.

The machine comes with the impressive gear of a casserole, a plastic stirrer, a cup for measuring rice and a steaming basket for fish and vegetables. It has a total of 2 different settings "cook" and "keep warm" with the option of pulling out the plug so that there is no heat that makes it 3 settings. All in all no its not a high tech wonder. And it definitely lacks features. But its what I have, what I use and it does not seize to amaze me how easy cooking in it is.

The Beginning

Not so long ago my better half fell ill. The doctors advices while waiting for the final diagnosis was to avoid fat in the diet.

Now that to me was kind of challenge. Now it was no problem to use a lot of vegetables or even using lean and low fat meat cuts. But I am normally home after 6 pm and therefore I am a big fan of the fast home cooked dinner.

Normal dinner at the time pretty much came in 2 variations and both included frying something on a pan. With a no fat restriction on the diet this option was pretty much eliminated. I know that oven cooking is an option, but this simply takes too long.

With great sadness I came to a silent conclusion that a rice steamer able to steam rice, vegetables and fish was a probable solution. But my idea of the food that come out of such a machine was that it is boring and bland. Furthermore I have always had problems coping with the taste of rice.

But nevertheless a sacrifice was made and we chose that we had to follow the doctors directions and "unfortunately" we had to eat. So off we went to the local hardware store and bought us a 550 SEK (80$) rice steamer. We off course made sure to buy a model that was fully machine washable and had a non stick coating. As I said; Food preparation and cleanup should not take up too much of ones valuable time off from work.

The first dinner was steamed frozen vegetables and rice. It was boring! It lacked the punch and the fullness that only meat could add to a dish.

In desperate need to find other options I spend the night online reading various reviews and advices. I found that some people actually had luck preparing dishes and meals in the rice cooker some with minimal human interaction. Inspiration struck me hard and the next day we tried. We made our first regular dish in the steamer. It was still with low fat, but boy the "Rice Cooker" food just made a comeback.

Now we use the machine regularly, and I have deemed it time for me to share my experiences online with you!