The Pot and How to Use It

November 15, 2010
Americas foremost film critic confesses to obsession with the pot, an electric rice cooker whose application hes broadened to create his kitchens most versatile appliance. Ebert caught on early that the rice cooker is the crock pots virtual twin and can readily duplicate it as a time- and labor-saving appliance. Ebert touts the rice cookers health benefits by inventorying its friendliness to low-sodium, high protein, reduced-fat cooking. Eberts blogs many fans have contributed cooker-adapted recipes running the gamut from quotidian boxed macaroni and cheese to spicy beef chili. A few recipes, such as mushroom risotto, call for preliminary action in a skillet before everything gets dumped into the cooker. Scrupulous cooks may find Eberts expansive use of the rice cooker the gustatory equivalent of watching Lawrence of Arabia on ones iPhonea lot of the products flavor and textural detail disappears.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)