Slow Cook and Steaming Guide

What is Slow Cooking?

A rice cooker can be used for so much more than rice and grains. Some rice cookers have a SLOW COOK function which can replace your traditional slow cooker – the benefit of using a rice cooker as a slow cooker is because it is a sealed unit and very heat efficient. Your food cooks faster but still at that low tenderising heat and the flavour / juices get retained or reabsorbed. The slow cook setting can be used for cooking full joints of meat, soups or casseroles/stews. It’s a versatile function that can also be used for lentils/beans making cooking them easier. For most slow cook recipes you an literally throw in all the ingredients at the start and let the slow cooking do the work.

Make sure your rice cooker has a SLOW COOK function All Yum Asia rice cookers have a full SLOW COOK function. The only Zojirushi model to have a similar function is the NS-YSQ10/18 however this can only be used with liquid dishes for up to 4 hours and does not keep warm.

How To Slow Cook In A Rice Cooker

PORK

You can cook pork with just seasoning, or you can use our spice rub for example which is great for pulled pork. Massage the spice rub (optional but recommended) into the pork and leave it for at least 3 hours . Put the pork into the inner bowl and cook for 6-8 hours – the longer the better (no matter how much pork you are cooking). Make sure you use the SLOW COOK function on your rice cooker. Once cooked, shred the pork joint with two forks and optionally add barbeque sauce.

Yum Asia Pork Spice Rub

1 tbsp ground black pepper

1-2 tbsp cayenne pepper

2 tbsp chili powder

2 tbsp ground cumin

2 tbsp dark brown sugar

1 tbsp dried oregano

4 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp table salt

1 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tbsp ground white pepper

BEEF

Season the beef well on all sides with salt and pepper. Place the beef inside the inner bowl and cook for 4-6 hours on the slow cook setting depending on how large the joint is and how well you want the beef done. No water is needed as the meats own juices will be sufficient. and because the unit is sealed the flavour gets recycled through the meat to intensify things.

Don't open the lid too many times! This applies to all meat slow cooking. The more you open the lid the more the flavourful moisture used to cook the meat will escape.

CHICKEN

Whole chickens are usually too large to fit into a rice cooker inner bowl, but you can cook chicken breasts, chicken thighs (bone in or out) or legs on the SLOW COOK setting. Cook for 1-2 hours depending on how much chicken you are cooking. The bigger the amount the longer you have to leave it on slow cook.

We would recommend using a marinade or a spice rub on the chicken and place inside the inner bowl with some chopped up vegetables on the bottom, you can then shred the chicken with two forks and use in a salad, quesadillas, burritos, wraps. A simple and tasty trick! Fancy something to get your taste buds tingling then try something like our Piri Piri recipe.

FISH

Fish doesn’t take very long on SLOW COOK. The better way to cook most fish is actually to use the STEAM function and cook the fish using hot steam (see below). This prevents drying out. If slow cooking a fish stew then you can use the slow cook function but maybe add the fish further into the cooking cycle.

SOUPS, CASSEROLES AND STEWS

Any soup/casserole/stew that can be cooked in a pan can be cooked using the SLOW COOK function of a rice cooker. Create heart warming soups such as chicken and pearl barley or Minestrone, stews such as this Moroccan and chickpea delight. You can also use the SLOW COOK function to make tender flavour rich dishes such as our recipes for chilli con carne or beef goulash. Trust us when we say that these slow cook recipes are simply amazing!

How To Steam In A Rice Cooker

A lot of rice cookers have a STEAM function and you can usually use a rice cooker as a stand alone steamer. If doing this use 1.5-2 cups of water in the inner bowl for steaming alone. Alternatively, you can cook rice at the same time as steaming food.

If steaming whilst cooking rice, you would use the rice function for the type of rice you are cooking and add the steaming basket to the inner bowl above the rice. Cooking rice and steaming at the same time is a quick and very easy way to prepare full, one pot healthy meals. Below is a guide for estimated cooking different types of food on the ‘STEAM’ function.

REMEMBER! - If steaming at the same time as cooking rice The maximum capacity of rice you can cook decreases. There will be guidance in your rice cooker manual for how much rice you can cook and steam at the same time. If you cook rice and steam at the same time, you can open the lid (very carefully, minding the steam that is released from the unit) to add the steaming basket part way through the cooking cycle so the vegetables are not over-cooked.
Here is a guide to the maximum number of cups you can steam. This is because the rice expanding during the cooking cycle may cause the steaming basket to push the lid open.
Panda - 1 cup,Kumo - 1 cup,Sakura and Bamboo - 3 cups,Fuji - 2 cups,NS-TSQ10 and NS-AAQ10 - 2 cups,NS-TSQ18 and NS-AAQ18 - 4 cups

Steaming Guide

INGREDIENTS	AMOUNT	COOKING TIME (mins)	TIPS FOR STEAMING
Carrot	200g / 1pc	20	Cut into bite size pieces
Broccoli	200g	15	Cut into bite size pieces
Spinach	100g	15	Cut into bite size pieces
Punpkin	250g	20	Cut into bite size pieces
Potato	450g	40	Cut into bite size pieces
Sweet Potato	300g	35	Cut into bite size pieces
Corn	200g	35	Cut into bite size pieces
Chicken	200g / fillet	30	Make cuts on side touching the steam basket
Fish (white fish and salmon)	150g	20	Slice to less than 2cm and wrap in foil
Prawn and Scallops	15 pcs / 150g	20	Prawns - steam without removing shells Scallops - remove from shell
Refrigerated Meat Dumplings	200g	15	Leave space between food
Frozen Meat Dumplings	200g	20	Cut into bite size pieces

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What size are the rice cooker steaming trays?

Please check the rice capacity guide page for information about sizing.

What's the maximum amount of rice I can cook in my rice cooker when steaming at the same time?

There is a maximum number of cups you can steam because the rice expanding during the cooking cycle may cause the steaming basket to push the lid open.
Panda – 1 cup,Kumo – 1 cup,Sakura and Bamboo – 3 cups,Fuji – 2 cups,NS-TSQ10 and NS-AAQ10 – 2 cups,NS-TSQ18 and NS-AAQ18 – 4 cups

Do you have a chart where I can compare all your rice cookers?

You can use the in built Çompare feature of our website’. Every rice cooker has a compare icon you can click. Alternatively you can check our rice cooker comparison page here.

If you are still stuck you can get more guidance from our Choose a rice cooker page here

You can also use our rice cooker advisor tool above. It will ask you a series of questions and then based upon your answers will curate some rice cooker choices for you.

Are the manuals multi language?

For Yum Asia models in Europe the manual is supplied in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

For Yum Asia models in the USA the manual is supplied in English, French and Spanish.

For Zojirushi models the language of the user manuals are English only

Do you have a recipe blog or book?

We have our free to access Greedy Panda food blog which is at www.greedy-panda.com

We also sell our Greedy Panda cookbook in paperback, hard cover and eBook versions. This book complies all our tips, tricks, recipes, ideas and knowledge into one place. You can get that by clicking here.

What kind of rice should I buy?

We have a guide to rice grains on this page here.

We also sell rice that have been chose to work well in saucepans but even better in our premium rice cookers and are some of the very best grains you can buy (and at great prices too!). Take a look at our rice here.