This submit initially appeared within the August 14, 2023 version of The Transfer, a spot for Eater’s editors and writers to disclose their suggestions and professional eating suggestions — generally considerate, generally bizarre, however all the time somebody’s go-to transfer. Subscribe now.
I really detest most dump-focused cooking. In the event you’re unfamiliar with that style of meals preparation, the obvious instance of its strengths and plenty of weaknesses can be dump truffles. To me, the horror is within the title: It’s a style of “non-recipe” cooking, popularized in mid-century America, whereby you are taking canned fruit or pie filling and, sure, dump it with some store-bought cake combine and, I don’t know… serve a texturally questionable dish to folks you like or one thing. At its greatest, it may be a easy, environment friendly path to an unadorned dessert.
The issue is the strategy: When folks apply this method of dumping no matter elements they’ve readily available with out a lot thought, as a rule the act leads to an inelegant, unpleasant mess, bereft of method and precision. In some ways it feels just like the non secular precursor to the viral movies of individuals cooking bizarre shit on TikTok, like Spaghetti-O pie or doing one thing carnal to a block of Velveeta.
Nonetheless — and it pains me to say it — there will be some advantage in cooking like this.
After I don’t need to feed the exhausted meat swimsuit that’s my physique, I dump no matter I’ve within the fridge into my rice cooker and hope for one of the best.
At this level, I’ve been doing it for years. I grew up with a rice cooker and have continued to make use of one as an grownup. Within the age of single-use home equipment, the rice cooker is something however. Its potential to rework a wide range of grains into a number of completely different rice dishes (due to my explicit rice cooker’s settings) has made it my go-to for meal prep, as I commonly batch up some rice for the week. Now I’m all the time prepared for fried rice, stir fries, grain bowls, you title it.
Someday, I felt like altering issues up. If including an onion or aromatics helps taste a pot of beans, why not rice, too? After washing the rice and measuring out the water (with the time-tested two-finger technique), I added half an onion and a few smashed cloves of garlic. They supplied a delicate taste and have been softened by the machine’s cooking cycle. The primary few instances I attempted this I eliminated the spent veg, however ultimately I simply ate it up somewhat than creating pointless waste. Oniony and scrumptious!
As I grew extra assured in making and flavoring rice this fashion, I experimented with some garlic, spices, a can of tomatoes, a dollop of tomato paste, and a canned chipotle. The consequence was a flavorful (albeit underseasoned) tackle tomatoey Spanish rice, minus just a few additional steps together with sauteing or toasting the rice in a separate pot beforehand. Including salt on the finish absolved me of my sins of underseasoning. Ever since that success, one-pot rice cooker meals have been my infinitely riffable back-pocket transfer.
Including some lap cheong (Chinese language sausage), edamame, frozen corn, precooked or canned beans, or different greens to your rice gently cooks every thing in a single go, which is ideal for nights whenever you don’t have the power to make something extra elaborate. Lap cheong is a good ingredient, as the warmth and steam soften up the sturdier meat superbly, and it contributes a candy, chewy chunk to the meal. Including soy sauce, sesame oil, gochujang, vinegar, hoisin, sambal — I consider in my coronary heart any sauce or condiment will do — earlier than you prime off with water takes the completed rice to a different degree. Or swap water to your most popular inventory to amplify the flavour. (I make a weekly hen inventory from store-bought rotisserie hen only for this objective.)
And your additions don’t must cease at aromatics or premade shares. On the subject of rice cooker riffs, your solely limitations are your individual creativeness, the scale of your pot, and the way tenuous your relationship with meals security is. I’ve even seen some TikTok creators nestle uncooked hen into their rice to cook dinner, too; I’m too nervous about contamination, however godspeed to them. I even have garnishes on deck always to jazz up these rice bowls. Each time I would like to spice up my taste, carry in additional colour, or differ the textures of a meal, I flip to pickled shallots, scallions, cucumbers, nori, you title it. In the end, all of it feels additional luscious, additional cozy. If I’ve leftover proteins like steak, tofu, or hen, I simply throw one on prime. Even when the ensuing dish won’t be journal cover-worthy, it’s nonetheless alluring sufficient to stoke my urge for food, a scrumptious, dependable canvas for low-effort cooking.
The distinction between this strategy and different dump-based preparations lies within the outcomes: On this fashion of one-pot cooking, every of the elements is balanced in every chunk — the ensuing meal feels nourishing, healthful, and unrushed. I can’t assist however extol its chief advantage: As a delicate cooking method, it by no means fails to offer high-yield nourishment on days when placing on the figurative oxygen masks appears like a monumental activity.
In fact, I don’t declare to have found something new with this technique. I’ve seen social media creators embrace related strategies by steaming salmon, utilizing tinned sardines, and even forgoing rice altogether to make dumpling noodle soup. With this fashion of cooking, so long as you’ve got the precise strategy, the sky’s the restrict.
