My friend, Matt, asked me to do some rice cooking experiment – cooking long grain Indian Basmati rice and medium grain Arborio rice in my high-tech IH. I did all measuring in a plastic measuring cup which comes with a rice cooker. I rinsed rice (even arborio rice) before adding to the rice cooker, but,….I omitted the soaking process.  Zojirushi IH is such an advanced machine that we can omit the soaking process which is a crucial step when we cook rice in an ordinary pot or other less advanced rice cookers.
1) Cooked 1 cup Basmati rice with added water to 1 cup regular polished rice cooking water level: I have added pinch salt and 1/4 ounce butter
2) Cooked 1 cup Basmati rice with 1 cup water; I have added the same amount of salt and butter as above
3) Cooked 1 cup Arborio rice with added water to 1 cup regular polished rice cookign water level
4) Cooked 1 cup Arborio rice with 1 cup water
RESULTS:
1) Cooked rice was moist and tender side. Not watery. This is wonderful for someone who does not like long grain rice cooked too dry/firm.
2) Cooked rice was dry and fluffy. I liked the result.
3) Cooked rice was too tender but not watery. The rice cooker is so advanced that it does not leave rice with al-dente texture! There is no creaminess in the cooked rice.
4) Cooked rice was firmer than the one of 3), but there is no al-dente texture left in the center of the rice. There is no creaminess in the cooked rice.
From this experiment I concluded that;
- Zojirushi IH cooks perfect long grain rice
- Zojirushi IH cooks Arborio rice to tender, proper texture
- Unique creaminess of risotto rice is only achieved by cooking Arborio rice in a pot with constant stirring – makes sense.
To learn more about Zojirushi IH rice cooker, click it at Hiroko’s Amazon store.