What's in my rice cooker?: Lasagna
What is a rice cooker you ask? It's a wonderful kitchen appliance
which allows you to cook rice to perfection without the stirring and
babysitting. It originated in Japan but like any item of convenience spread
beyond the Asian continent into the Western world. In spite of all that,
I never encountered one in the Caribbean and it was quite the surprise to me.
It reminded me of the Anansi story of the magical pot that cooked any food at
command.
After using a rice cooker for four years, I wished I knew of this
as sooner. Unlike the name suggests, rice isn't the only food that you can cook
in this. Once you understand the mechanical working of a simple rice cooker,
you can manipulate it into anything: pot, deep fryer, steamer etc. Basically
the cooking takes place in a removable metal container which is surrounded by an
insulated pot. The metal container presses on a spring which controls the
thermostat and responds to temperature change. When the contents are in place, heating
is activated. When the food is cooked (all the water has evaporated into steam
and the metal container temperature begins to exceeds 100 C) the thermostat
responds by releasing the spring and altering the cooker to warm setting of 65
C.
As a college student, having one pot with the ability to cook everything, besides
one pot meals, is a relief. So let's get into dish numba one. Lasagna
baby.
Honestly you don't need a special recipe or particular
adjustment. Just prepare it exactly as you would for an oven lasagna and watch out for the extra fragile structure.
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| After second meat layer |
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| After final meat layer |
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| There you go!! |
Look out for more in this series...Up next Home Made Yogurt!
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