Your rice cooker has hidden talents?it can make breakfast, poach fruit, even turn out risotto. Cooking foods other than rice in a rice cooker is like baking a layer cake in an Easy-Bake oven: best approached with patience, curiosity and something to snack on in the meantime. A basic rice cooker consists of a nonstick metal bowl set inside a plastic-and-metal housing, with a heat source on the bottom. To cook plain rice: add rice, measure water, press start, and walk away. The machine brings the mixture to a boil, reduces the heat for a prolonged simmer, and then switches to a very low setting to keep the cooked rice at serving temperature. How does the machine know when the rice is done? A built-in thermostat tracks the temperature of the bubbling mixture of rice and water. When the water boils and turns to steam, the temperature in the pot begins to rise, which signals the cooker to switch to warm. But it’s easy to override the rice cooker’s small brain. Press the “cook” button, melt butter in the bowl, and sweat a finely diced shallot in it until soft — then add rice, broth and saffron strands, and start the machine again to make a daffodil-yellow pilaf. In "Ultimate Rice Cooker Recipes" you will find More than 150 Surprising recipes you have to see to believe. The recipes, ranging from simple Oatmeal cooking to pilaf, Sweet and Savory Quinoa , Chorizo Paella, Jambalaya, breakfast, meals and of course lots of ways to cook rice also.