Cuisinart Rice Plus Multi-Cooker – Review

OMG, I’ve been dying to tell y’all about this product. I’m seriously in love, and not just because I’m a kitchen gadget whore either. The Cuisnart Rice Plus Multi- Cooker with Fuzzy Logic Technology is just beyond cool. Let’s start off with the fact that it can cook soups, make rice, steam veggies, and even cook rice and steam veggies at the same time. You can also use it to make oatmeal and risotto. All the functions of this cooker are just amazing. Oh! And it has a delayed start function, and it’ll keep your food warm after it’s done cooking. Next let’s talk about kitchen space. I have none. I have nine full sized cabinets in my kitchen (I don’t count the ones above the fridge). The small cabinet above the stove houses my cookbooks. They call our neighborhood Smurf Village for a reason. With the Cuisnart Rice Plus Multi- Cooker with Fuzzy Logic Technology, I not only now have a rice cooker, but I can pack my crock pot away because I can make my soups in this cooker as well.

Ok, now let’s talk about actually cooking in this thing. I can cook you a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings, I can make a flaky pie crust from scratch, but I cannot make rice to save my life. My rice is always either burnt or soggy despite my following the directions exactly. In the Cuisnart Rice Plus Multi- Cooker with Fuzzy Logic Technology, I of all people, made sushi rice! It was sticky and perfect sushi rice! Just like the kind that they have in the Chinese restaurants! That was a major accomplishment for me. Our dinner of lettuce wraps was so good that night. I julienned up some zucchini, yellow squash, and carrots, and sauteed them in some oil with garlic, salt and pepper and soy sauce. We put the veggie mixture and rice in the lettuce leaves and wrapped it up and ate it. Oh so good, and about the only way I can get anyone in this house to eat veggies.

I tried the Cuisnart Rice Plus Multi- Cooker with Fuzzy Logic Technology a second time to make Spanish rice. No such luck. It wasn’t cooker error, but user error on this one. I used a mix from a box, but added my onion and cilantro too early. If I had read the manual more, I would’ve seen they need to be added the last ten minutes of cooking. The cooker cooked the rice perfectly again. I honestly just can’t say enough good about this product. I haven’t been this excited about something in a long time.

The good people at Cuisinart gave me a recipe to try with my family from Chef Hubert Keller. I thought for sure they’d go for it if I changed the shrimp to chicken. I live with such picky eaters that they vetoed me on the soup. So it’s back to the drawing board for me, but I will post the recipe for you to try.

The recipe below for Brazilian Chicken and Shrimp Soup was developed specifically by Chef Keller using the Rice Plus™ Multi-Cooker. The inspiration for this dish came from the two years in which Chef Keller worked in Brazil with Master Chef Roger Verge at Cuisine du Soleil. There, he began to integrate some of the bright, bold flavors of Brazilian cooking that make this soup so unique and flavorful: combining chicken and jumbo shrimp, while using coconut milk and lime juice to deepen and enliven the stock base, and ultimately, adding a final flourish of cilantro.

Brazilian Chicken and Shrimp Soup

A medley of aromatic spices, chicken and shrimp gives this hearty, Brazilian-inspired soup a burst of flavor; great as a one-pot meal.

Serves 8

5 chicken thighs, skinned

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup finely chopped onion (about 1 small)

1 cup diced green bell pepper (about 1 medium)

1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes

1/3 cup finely chopped toasted peanuts

1 medium jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped

2 bay leaves

1-1/4 teaspoons salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 cups chicken broth

1-1/2 cups coconut milk

8 ounces raw shrimp (medium size), peeled and de-veined

10 ounces frozen peas

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro

4 cups cooked jasmine or basmati rice for serving

1. Prepare rice using the long-grain directions on the cooking chart for Cuisinart’s Rice Plus™ Multi-Cooker. Rice can also be prepared the day before.
2. Place the chicken in a medium mixing bowl and season lightly with salt and pepper. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the lime juice and rub chicken with minced garlic. Mix thoroughly and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
3. In the cooking pot of the Cuisinart Rice Plus™ Multi-Cooker, add the olive oil. Set to Quick Cook and press start. Once the olive oil is hot, after about 3 minutes, add the onions and peppers and sauté for about 4 minutes until soft and fragrant.
4. Stir in the canned tomatoes including juice, peanuts, jalapeno, bay leaves, salt, pepper, broth, and coconut milk. (Note: be sure to stir the coconut milk prior to pouring from can). Add the chicken and marinade and stir until well combined. Turn the unit off. Close the lid and select the Soup function and set the timer for 5 hours.
5. 15 minutes before the timer is done, rinse the shrimp well and pat dry. Place in a mixing bowl with the remaining lime juice and a pinch each of the salt and pepper. Refrigerate for 5 to 8 minutes; no longer or the acid of the juice will begin to cook the shrimp.
6. Once there are 5 minutes remaining on the timer, open the lid and add the frozen peas and the shrimp, with the juices, and close again to finish cooking.
7. Once the timer tone sounds, open the lid. Discard the bay leaves. Take out the whole chicken pieces and place on a cutting board. Remove the meat from the bone, cut into bite size pieces, and return to the pot. Stir in the cilantro to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
8. To serve, place some warm cooked rice (approximately 1/3 to 1/2 cup depending on portion size) in the bottom of each soup bowl and ladle the soup on top. If desired, sprinkle with additional chopped cilantro and/or chopped peanuts.

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Category: food, review