RC: Egg Drop Soup

I took a bit of a break over the summer, because, well, I wasn't living in a dorm. Even though some of my experimenting could have been done in a dorm room, it just didn't seem right. But now I'm back in school and what I do best: figuring out how to eat/cook what you want in a dorm room!

Today I made Chinese Egg Drop Soup in a rice cooker. It's a very straightforward thing to make, and it was really easy to do in the rice cooker. I started with one of these packets:


Dry stuff came out - I added a few cups of water and turned the rice cooker on. I just followed the directions on the package, and after it was boiling and all mixed up, I blended an egg (with a fork in a cup, I might add), and then stirred the egg in.

This soup smelled bad and tasted kind of bad, and then I added the egg and miraculously, both improved. It was also fun stirring the egg, because I could see how far the bits of a single egg could go in hot liquid before they cooked. You almost have to try making this just for the experience.



Edit: http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa090701a.htm
This article makes it seem really complicated to pour in the egg. However, it worked just fine for me on the first try. Beginner's luck? A perfect mix? Could it be that Egg Drop Soup is actually /easier/ to make in a rice cooker?

RC: Teriyaki Chicken Noodle

This was quick, easy, and rather lazy. I'll admit it. :) It's important to remember that you don't have to have the time or energy to create a full meal from scratch in order to 'cook' - anything you add or change, no matter how small, has the potential to make the finished product healthier or more delicious.

In this case I started with a canned soup - Teriyaki Chicken Noodle. I added a can of carrots (including juice), a little soy sauce and some extra noodles I had lying around. Even just the carrots would have added a lot to the soup, though, so you don't have to have any special noodles or anything.

RC: Chicken Tomato Noodle Soup

I had owned my Rice Cooker for quite a while when I first decided to try to make something other than rice in it. My first idea was to heat an instant Campbell's Soup, but I was a little freaked out by the fact that there was no information about doing so online, as surely there would be if such a thing were possible. Then I thought - the sides get hot, the bottom gets hot, if Campbell's soups are safe to eat raw, how bad could things get?



But, because I'm a hyper chef, I decided to make some rice while I was at it (chicken rice soup is good, right?) and to add some tomatoes. So first I cooked some rice the normal way, and when it was done I poured in a can of tomatoes.


Then I added the chicken noodle soup itself and cooked for a while. The end product had good flavour but was perhaps a bit too thick, and consequently a bit slimy. I would change some things if I made it again, but this goes down in history as my first soup made in a Rice Cooker.