Zojirushi.
http://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-NS-ZCC10-Cooker-Warmer-Premium/dp/B00007J5U7/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1334447880&sr=1-1
This never fails. Brown rice, sweet rice, white rice, mixed rice, sticky rice—perfect. You can cook a week’s worth at one go, keep the extra in the fridge, and microwave what you need for the current dish, or an individual serving. Fill to appropriate water line, add rice by measure (included) This is a cooker popular in Asia, Thailand to Japan, and there’s a reason. Spoon, cord, spoonholder all detach and store in the interior, and the little handle lets you lift it and put it away with no fuss at all. Load it, push cook, walk off and leave it. THere’s, I believe, also a timer.
I love this thing.
This, while I’m at it is my other kitchen machine:
http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CBK-200-2-Pound-Convection-Automatic/dp/B0009VELTQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1334448294&sr=1-1
Between these two, predictibly fresh bread and perfect rice of any type. That eliminates a lot of ‘surprise’ dinners as you have to cope with what didn’t work.
Hahaha, OOPS! I was most of the way through eating when I realized…I forgot to fix the rice! Hahahah, d’oh! Such a ditz.
Well, that was very good, and the curry and coconut milk combo matches my other experience of curry. (See the Cargo Bay Rice and Beans recipe on my site at http://www.shinyfiction.com/ courtesy of Browncoat fans.)
The rice would’ve made the curry quite mild enough, hot/spicy wise. This was not overly hot and spicy, even without the rice, and I tend to prefer mild to hot.
Hmm, the potatoes had cooked down to about a stew or potage consistency. The veggies I added did fine, though the mix of al dente snow peas and carrots with nearly saucy potatoes felt a bit odd. This came across as a spicy stew with lots of chicken and a potato base.
I think I’ve become a fan of curry spice and coconut milk. The house smells wonderful.
I have plenty for a couple of days upon fixing the rice tomorrow for lunch. I might fix rice for breakfast, come to think of it.
Good stuff. Exotic Thai flavors all around, and homemade. The chai-vanilla tea made a nice compliment to the dish.
BTW, the rice brand I have is Tex-mati, which (I think) began as an import from (East) Indian-American immigrants who brought native rice from India. Texas and California are major rice growers here in the USA. (Yes, I buy Uncle Ben’s and other rice brands. I just happen to have the Tex-mati, and think it would be suited to a curry.)
If there’s a flour you need that your local store doesn’t have—believe it or not, go to Amazon.com and type in Red Mill flour. You can get brown rice, quinoa, probably amaranth, definitely barley, rye, whole wheat, wheat bran, etc.