Aroma 8 cup rice cooker Review

My husband had no idea what to buy me for Christmas this last year.  He asked some co-workers for advice and they asked him what I liked to do and he said that I liked to cook.  Someone recommended a rice cooker and thought that was a great idea. So he got me the Aroma 8 cup rice cooker.

Now I have never had trouble cooking rice the normal way, but I thought it might be fun to use.  I had no idea how easy it would be to use, and how much more I would begin cooking rice. 

The Aroma 8 cup rice cooker comes with a one cup measuring cup and a rice spoon.  It also has a booklet that tells you how to use the unit and how to measure things out.  You can make from 2 to 8 cups of rice, which of course increases in size when cooked. 

The directions are in Spanish, English, and French.  Unfortunately there are not any ric recipes included, that would have been nice. There are tips however on how to do certain things for different rices, like some you might want to rinse or soak so that the rice comes out less starchy.

For regular white rice you can give the rice a quick rinse, then pour it into the pan, then add the water.  For 2 cups of rice you would add 2 1/2 cups of water.  Then you push it closed, and lock the sealer.  It has like a little lock latch on it.  To open it back up you just push the latch. 

Once you close it up though do not open it again until the rice is done cooking.  Once you close it you push down the button in the front.  There are two indicator lights, one that says cook and one that says warm. 

When you push the button down the cook indicator light will light up.  You leave the rice cooker to do its thing.  When the indicator goes to warm you then leave it sitting for at least an additional 10 minutes. 

In other words set it and forget it.  At around the 15 to 20 minute mark just give it a look to see if it has switched to the warm setting, then just make sure you wait that 10 minutes before opening.

It takes between 15 and 20 minutes to cook plus the time you leave it on warm, the warm is just to make sure it is finished off.

The unit will stay warm and keep the rice warm as long as it is plugged in.  So make sure you unplug it if you are done cooking and eating the rice.  I left it on for several hours one day and the rice stayed fine for a couple of hours and then started to dry out, so you don't have an unlimited amount of warming time. 

I really love my rice cooker.  It is so easy to use, just pour the water and the rice in and walk away.  When it is done I season the rice up right there in the cooker.  It helps to melt the butter or margarine really easily when you are mixng that in.  The rice stays nice and warm in the cooker for about an hour. After an hour it starts to dry out a bit, but I find a little olive oil or butter will perk it back up again.

If you forget to unplug it, it only stays in warming mode, so it does not get to hot and nothing burns or anything like that. 

Before I had the rice cooker I only cooked rice occasionally but now I cook it at least once a week.  This was a good Christmas gift for my husband to get for me.