Additional ingredients
If you add any additional ingredients (raisins, fruit, nuts, etc.), you should reduce the amount of rice to compensate for the amount of water they’ll soak up. As raisins and dried fruit will soak up as much water as rice, put them into the measuring cup along with the rice. Nuts won’t generally take up much water, so you can normally add them after you’ve measured the rice.
Not ready to serve?
You can leave the rice on the Warm setting while you prepare the rest of the meal, but try not to leave it for too long. After a couple of hours or so the rice will start to dry and the flavour will fall off. Don’t worry too much, it’ll still taste good, but it’ll be “good” instead of “great!”.
Using the cooker as a steamer
1.Sit the rack on the bottom of the pan and lay the food on the rack.
2.Don’t leave food in the cooker after steaming — it’ll go soggy.
3.Follow items 1 to 4 under “Preparation”
4.Put the correct amount of water in the pan.
5.For uniform cooking, cut all pieces of food to roughly the same size.
6.Whole cabbage or cauliflower can sit on the rack. For sliced veg, peas, etc., or anything that’ll break up or droop into the water, make it into a parcel with aluminium foil, and lay the parcel on the rack. Take care when removing the parcel — wear oven gloves and use plastic tongs spoons.
7.Follow the Steaming times on page 7.
Steaming
8.Fit the lid to the pan.
9.Plug the cooker in (switch the socket on, if switchable). The Warm light will come on.
10.Press the control down — it’ll lock in the down position, and the Cook light will come on.
11.When the food is cooked, the Cook light will go out, the Warm light will come on, and the control will return to its original position.
12.Unplug the cooker.
13.Put on the oven gloves.
14.Steam and hot air will escape when you lift the lid. Tilt it slightly to direct the steam away from you.
15.Lift out the pan (or basket) and set it down on a dinner plate.
Timing
The times given on page 6 are for a single layer of food. You’ll need to experiment to find the times which suit your favourite foods and food combinations.
Ready?
Cook fish till the flesh is opaque and can be flaked easily. Cook meat till the juices run clear.
You should cook leaf vegetables as little as possible, to keep them green and crisp. Plunging them into iced water will stop the cooking process.
5
