Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

Previously, we showed you how WRONG it is to make rice directly in the InstantPot . Further experimentation has show how WRONG it is to use the "Rice" setting on the InstantPot. The InstantPot "rice" setting basically sets it to start boiling the water at a low heat, then it counts down 12 minutes on the Rice setting, then shuts off. At that point you can use the switch for rapid pressure release to open the InstantPot safely sooner and get at the rice. But is there an easier way? Absolutely. And save electricity doing it too. Of course everyone knows you can pre-soak rice. That's certainly one way to speed things up but what you don't even have to do that. Prepare the raw rice and water in the InstantPot. Either directly or using our pot-in-a-pot method  for smaller portions of rice. Set the InstantPot to STEAM for 1 MINUTE. Yes, just one minute. We're actually not even going to wait for the countdown. The Keep Warm setting is not necessary. Your rice w...

(UPDATED article:  Even easier and with less electricity! ) Like me, you probably make rice easily in the InstantPot : Throw in the rice, throw in the water, hit the "Rice" menu and come back when it's done. Easy, right? WRONG. Because afterwards you'll have to clean up that stainless steel base once you've scooped out all the rice. You can save yourself a bit of hassle by making soup and when it's done, scrape down the steamed-wet sides and deglaze the bottom of any rice stuck there. But you'll still have to rinse out the pot, etcetera etcetera. If you make a LOT of rice each time, that's great. But for my 8 quart InstantPot, even cooking four cups of raw rice seems like a waste -- and most especially as I'm a poor bachelor who eats one bowl at a time. What you actually want to do is make your rice in a bowl. Inside the stainless steel base of the InstantPot. (Slide 1) You can see I've put some water in the stainless steel base for steaming....

When my Japanese friend's children were still young, she prepared tasty rice snacks to put on standby for the hungry kids. Basically you mix rice with something tasty , pat a handful into a nice shape, and wrap it in seaweed so people eating it don't have to deal with the same sticky mess you did. Looks like sushi! The reason I remembered this is because I'm currently living alone on a tight budget, and if I were hungry I didn't want to reach for chips or other "snacks". They are expensive, of dubious dietary impact, and of course not really filling. Which would be what I need in a snack to banish any sudden hunger before a proper time for lunch or dinner. But I didn't have fancy ingredients, and devoting time to squeezing rice into nice shapes was just too much work for someone lazy like me. I even considered borrowing a ice cream scoop to shortcut the rice-shaping process, but... nah. So instead, I devised something simpler: Making them by the tray. Pr...