Neil Saavedra

big Rich on Tech fan, love me gadgets, it doesn't mean all of them are worthy of your counter space.

However, if you burn rice like the rest of us, no matter what you do and doing all the different techniques, you end up getting that lower level of that crusty rice, then get a rice cooker.

Rice cookers are great and they cook rice perfectly.

That is their job.

The problem comes in when you think that that is their only job because rice cookers can be used for everything, for other things, which makes them, you know, usable across the board.

It doesn't mean that they're what our friend Alton Brown calls them a uni tasker.

He doesn't like unitaskers, and although I like them in theory, in practice they're a pain.

You want things on your countertop that can do more than one thing.

So what can you cook in a rice cooker other than just plain rice?

Well, you can do flavored rice, and you can put veggies in there with it.

You can do all those things, of course, but you can also do porridges, you know, oatmeal, that type of thing.

You can do grains like quinoa, barley, dahl,

You can do one-pot meals, curries, stews, risotto, even chili you can do in a rice cooker.

I've seen people do frittatas.

I've seen omelets.

I've seen pancakes done in there.

You can do desserts, things like rice pudding.

You can even do cakes in there.

You can steam vegetables.

You can cook pasta.