Seiki 5 Cup Rice Cooker SRC-400

Cooks well on a low budget – This is my review of the SEIKI Everyday rice cooker, 5 Cup capacity, Model SRC-400 with a power rating at 400 watts. At the time of writing this review, I purchased this SEIKI rice cooker from Coles Supermarket over 3 weeks ago for $25. ( I didn't know a thing about the SEIKI so I searched online for them and their products. In the SEIKI Australia website it states that they also manufacture other electric appliances eg. Televisions, small appliances, refrigerators and washing machines etc ).

This SEIKI rice cooker comes with a removable inner pot with a non-stick coating, a metal steamer tray, a measuring cup, and a plastic spatula. It also has a removable round glass lid and this is good so I can see the cooking progress without touching the lid. I like that the steamer tray is made of metal ( instead of plastic ). The distributors are AYONZ and have mentioned that the non-stick coating is non toxic material and food grade quality. I like the simple setting, one large button to set it Cook or Warm. It has a light indicator. This is suitable for me because I didn't want a complicated a rice cooker.

This SEIKI rice cooker cost $25, so I set out to purchase this on a low budget for a rice cooker with a loose lid type. At the time there was one other 5 cup rice cooker with another brand, in this price range, but didn't come with a metal steamer tray. So it felt like this SEIKI rice cooker was the better deal.

• This 5 cup rice cooker would serve rice portions for 1 to 3 people, depending. 

• This rice cooker is suitable for cooking white ( polished ) rice using the Absorption method or otherwise known as Lid On method.

I've cooked long grained white (polished) rice in this and I've used the water ratio with the Measuring Cup mentioned in the SEIKI Instruction Manual and I felt this was a good water ratio for the way I like my rice cooked.

So the general Math Rice Ratio eg. 1 cup of rice to 1 cup of water and half a cup of water for the pot for the evaporation during cooking. I don't add any more than half a cup of water for the evaporation. I follow the measuring advice on page 10. You will need to try cooking your own brand of rice in this rice cooker and adjust the amount of water or liquid, sometimes it can be a little less liquid, say 1 third of a cup of liquid for evaporation; it depends on the type of rice and brand you prefer. The Instruction Manual also mentions cooking brown rice and wild rice with this rice cooker.

However, for successful cooked rice, I prepare my rice. I wash it in a separate bowl for about 5 times or flush it under tap water in a sieve and let it sit in tap water for only 15 minutes. Washing the rice is important because washing the rice washes away the excess starch. If you don't wash the rice, while it's cooking it will produce a lot more foam and boil over and can spurt out hot runny starch and the cooked rice will be sticky and clumpy. You don't want this to happen so wash the rice well. When the rice is washed well there should only be a very tiny amount of starch built up on the lid or rim ( please refer to my attached photos ).  There is some froth created while cooking plain white rice however I found that the froth settles after some minutes. When this rice is cooked properly it would absorb all of the liquid in the inner pot.   Preparation Tip: rice is very abrasive. So I always wash the rice in a separate bowl. I never wash it in the inner pot because it will wear the non-stick coating.

Cooking Tip: make sure the rice is evenly spread in the inner pot while you add the liquid. Once you've set it to Cook don't open the lid. Don't stir the rice. Leave it undisturbed until it finishes cooking. When the automatic setting switches to Warm I would leave the cooked rice, moisture and steam to settle for 5-10 minutes before opening the lid for the first time. After this, I like to fluff the rice a little with a plastic utensil before serving. At this stage the rice should be perfectly cooked.

I've also used my own recipe for cooking white rice with caramelized onion mixture and using vegetable watery broth or stock ( instead of water ) with my own liquid ratio and this turned out well too. 

Tonight I added my own caramelized onions with rice in the inner pot and used the steamer tray filled with 3x small frozen BBQ Pork Buns and slices of a small fresh carrot. It took 28 minutes to cook, after that the SEIKI rice cooker automatically switched to Warm setting. I let the rice cooker Warm setting for over 10 minutes before I opened the lid. Everything cooked just the way I like it ( see my attached photos ).  And there was no boiling over with this particular recipe.   I like using this type of automatic rice cooker because it knows when to stop cooking and this is good for me because I can be distracted in the kitchen while doing other things so I don't need to worry about me turning the flame off or overcooking the rice. 

For the price range, I got to say that I'm pleasantly impressed with the cooking results of this SEIKI rice cooker. It cooked everything well. The only thing that I would say is that it needs adhesive non-slip rubber on the bottom of the feet because when I try to scoop out the rice, the rice cooker can slip a little on the bench top. I don't know if this rice cooker is going to be trouble free or how long it will last but so far so good. Bon appétit !