Kitchen Essential

Today's post is especially dedicated to a friend who will get married soon this year and she requested me to write more about daily dishes recipes so she could try to cook them after married. Yeah, we're Indonesian ladies rarely cook at home, as we live with parents and have maids to do the kitchen job :-D I will combine the recipe with a product review, though. And just to be clear, this is purely a review from a customer perspective, of course I don't sell the product, but if you want to know where I bought it, you surely could ask me here :)

I noticed that few months ago, I am looking for recommendation of type of kitchen appliances as I want to buy them for my kitchen in Copenhagen. I've searched them through the internet, but couldn't find any clear and comprehensive review. Therefore I got a little bit confused when going to the store and should do the research myself through asking the sales assistant, which is a little bit time consuming and you wouldn't know if what the sales person said is true or just a marketing speech. So here I am, trying to help you, who might be in the similar situation, providing the review from a customer point of view.

The first product I am going to review here is rice cooker. This is an essential one for me, I even brought this in my baggage, instead of putting this in container, as I have to eat rice in order to have a full stomach. This one is from Yong Ma, Korea. The type of product is Magic Com and the series number is MC-1100. Here is mine:

What I love most about it is the small size, which is suitable for my husband and me. The maximum capacity is only 3 cup of rice or equal to 0,7 liters. I usually only cook 1 cup of rice for both of us so the size of the pot is perfect for us. Another point I consider excellent is the inner pot has black coating technology which make it non-sticky pot. Sometimes when we cook only small portion of rice, in most rice cooker, we often find the rice stick to the pot, which would be hard to clean. However, it never happens with this rice cooker. So I'm pretty satisfied with the cooking result.

The products is completed with accessories such as: scoop, measuring cup and steam pot. The measuring cup is also match to the measuring of water written in the inner pot. In the picture below, you would see that the inner pot has a water measurement, which helps you determine how much water should be pour into the pot based on the amount of rice.

Did you see there are stripes with number 1 until 3? That is the measurement of water, so if you put 1 cup of rice (measured using measurement cup), then you just need to feel the pot with water up to the number 1 limit. You don't have to predict anymore whether you pour the right amount of water and in consequence, you will get perfect cooked rice :) It is very easy, especially if you want to teach your husband who never cook rice with a rice cooker before. LOL.

The picture of the other accessories (scoop, measuring cup and steam pot) that I've mentioned above is as follows:

With the steam pot, you could steam cold food, such as dimsum or perhaps leftover rice from yesterday. You just need to fill the inner pot with 2 cups of water and put the food in the steam pot and push the cook button. Voila! the food will be hot and ready to eat in a few minutes. Ow and the best thing is, I bought this for only Rp169,000, it is very cheap for a product with quality, right?

Besides for making white rice, I have tried making Hainan Chicken Rice with this rice cooker. The result was perfect and it tasted good. So here is the recipe:

Hainan Chicken Rice (for 1 person):

Ingredients:
1 cup of rice
1 piece of chicken drumstick
2 slice of ginger
2 cloves of garlic, 1 clove is smashed, 1 clove is chopped into small slices
1/2 cup of onion, slice into small pieces
1/4 tsp of pepper
1/2 tbsp of sesame oil
1 tbsp of soya sauce

Method:

1. Boil 2 cups of water and heat the chicken drumsticks to make chicken stock. Add the smashed garlic and 1 slice of ginger into the sauce pan.
2. Heat a pan, add the sesame oil. When hot, add onions, garlic and ginger, stir fry until it smells good, then add the soya sauce and pepper.
3. Wash the rice and put the rice into the inner pot of the rice cooker, add the stir fry mixture, chicken and chicken stock into the inner pot, as well. Ensure the chicken stock liquid is reached the 1 cup measurement of water, as stated on the inner pot.
4. Push the cook button of the rice cooker and wait until the cook indicator turn off and change into warm.

It's very simple dish and you could add vegetables, such as carrot, into the inner pot, if you like. Just eat the dish with the soya sauce and coriander leaves.

Hope you'll find it useful!

Cheers,

Indispensable Lady