Sanyo ECJ-HC55H 5-1/2-Cup Micro-Computerized Rice Cooker and Slow Cooker, Grey Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this model to replace my $12 reject rice cooker. Clearly, a hundred bucks does make a bit of a difference, the most obvious and pleasing of which is the thick, non-stick cooking vessel. There are two that come with this appliance, a rice cooker with graduations for different kinds of rice, and a slow cooker, both non-stick. No more soaking with soap and attacking the pan with a scouring pad after every batch of rice. Being an electronic rice cooker, the other noteworthy advantages over its cheapo predecessor are the timer function and truly hands-off operation, which translates into more food being prepared at home. If it costs $8-10 to buy a modest lunch, and perhaps a dollar or so to prepare one in the cooker (which is likely more nutritious anyway,) the savings quickly add up. Using a device like this to prepare meals really saves time.
So far, I've cooked several flawless batches of brown rice, a process that the manufacturer has made near-absolutely idiot-proof. There's no point going into detail here--just read and follow the instructions and you'll get a nicely-made batch. I also used the high slow-cook setting to prepare some buckwheat, which came out fine, but the quicker rice-cooking modes will work equally well on buckwheat or other grains with some experimentation. Dig around online to find recipes. I look forward to making some soups with this thing.
Construction is typical for the Sanyo brand: solid and refined. Zojirushi appears to be the favored brand in this category for whatever reason, but the cheaper Sanyo offerings have the same features and careful attention to detail.

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The latest in micro-computerized technology combines with innovation in this new multi-use kitchen appliance from Sanyo. Cook top quality rice dishes, slow cook stews or soups, steam veggies, boil eggs and even make tofu in this impressive machine! The unit includes two separate inner pots and inner lids to keep slow cooked dishes separate from rice, thereby maintaining the integrity of the rice flavor. To help the need for perfectly cooked rice, the 5.5 cup (11 cups cooked) rice cooker has a variety of multi-menu, one touch selections, including programs for white, brown, mixed, rinse-free, sushi and haiga rice. Depending on the program entered, automatic adjustments in the temperature and cooking times are done by the micro-computer chip technology in the cooker to insure great tasting rice. The steaming function steams veggies with a timer programmable for up to 58 minutes. It will also take on the tasks of a slow cooker. For cooking soups or stews, you can program slow cooking for up to 12 hours on either the high or low temperature setting. The slow cook functions allow you to prepare the components of aThe retractable cord and carrying handle make it easy to store and also enables taking the cooked food right to the table! Ideal for home chefs who like to display kitchen appliances on the counter, the good looking cooker is elegantly styled to blend in with a wide range of kitchen designs. Included is a special container for making homemade tofu, steaming tray, measuring cup and spatula. Also includes exclusive Martin Yan Recipe Booklet with 16 original recipes from the celebrated master chef.These recipes have been specially selected for creating easy and delicious dishes with Sanyo small kitchen appliances.

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Sanyo ECJ-HC100S 10-Cup Micro-Computerized Rice Cooker and Slow Cooker Review

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(More customer reviews)I come from south India, which means that I grew up eating rice every day. This also means that for me, rice is not just an important food, but a way of life. At any given time, you can expect to find five different kinds of rice in my pantry at all times (10 kg long grain white rice, 10 kg white sushi rice, 5 kg Basmati, 1 kg brown sushi, 5 kg long grain brown). I still eat rice every day, although the noodles, pasta, and bread are easy to find.
When I was young, my mother would by the typical rice cookers, where it would have a flimsy aluminium pot, a cheap electric part, and a cheap glass lid that didn't actually keep the moisture in. Measuring the water was a game of roulette, because although the rice always got cooked, variations in the moisture levels inside the cooking pot were bound to get wonky rather quickly. Furthermore, they never lasted too terribly long if you weren't extremely careful with them.
When I moved out on my own, I continued the tradition of getting the standard, cheap rice cookers. I was unwilling to spend this sort of money on a rice cooker. Until my third one fried out on me.
This model keeps rice piping hot, and tender, and fluffy, for three days. It cooks up the following rices perfectly (as in, I've tested it myself): Jasmine, White Basmati, Parboiled Basmati, Haiga-Mai, White Koshihikari, Brown Koshihikari, long grain Brown, and long grain White.
When using the slow cooker pot, I can churn out a pot of lentil soup quickly or slowly, depending on how much time I have on my hands. The tofu cycle works for the Indian dish known as idli. You end up with rather a large idli, but it's easy enough to cut up into four pieces. It makes steel cut oats in one hour flat, but makes sure that they're tender but not mushy. The minimum capacity is 2 cups, and the maximum is 10. It comes with a steaming basket to steam vegetables, however, I doubt that I'll be using it any time soon for steaming vegetables. What that basket is good for is a no-fuss Chinese dim sum steaming, without having to turn on the stove. Just set your buns down on the little steaming tray, and set your rice cooker to do the work for you. No poking around and watching the water levels for you!
The instructions are easy to follow: measure the dry rice with the provided cup, and then fill water to the line indicated on the inside of the pot, depending on the type of rice (or porridge, as needed). Also, get used to measuring the rice out exactly, because that will get you more consistent pots of rice, especially when you're working with unknown rices. There is no guesswork.
You will be cooking with less water, because the steam is contained inside the chamber, and not flying out into the air. In the last few minutes of cooking, you will notice a bit of steam being vented from the top, but that's minimal in comparison to how much steam is produced from a conventional rice cooker.
The rice pot is EXTREMELY nonstick. For easy cleanup, wait for the rice and the starch and the rest to dry out. Then wipe down the inside with your hand, and watch everything fall away like magic. Then, go ahead and wash as normal.
The plastic chassis is easy to clean with a soft cloth and a bit of water. Give it a wipe down after every use, and it'll look sparkling clean and beautiful there on your counter top.
Go buy this now if you're considering it. You won't regret it.
UPDATE: It's now January of 2011, and I bought this in September 2008. The rice cooker is still a work horse, and we've been using it if not every single day, pretty close to every single day. Pot after pot of perfect rice. Nonstick surface is still going strong.

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Cook top-quality rice dishes, slow cook stews or soups, steam veggies, boil eggs, and even make tofu in this impressive micro-computerized machine. The unit includes two separate inner pots and inner lids to keep slow cooked dishes separate from rice, thereby maintaining the integrity of the rice flavor. The titanium-coated extra-thick (3mm) non-stick rice-cooking inner pot provides a round bottom for maximum heat distribution, optimum cooking, and effortless food release. To help ensure perfectly cooked rice, the 10-cup (20 cups cooked) rice cooker provides a variety of multi-menu, one-touch selections, including programs for white, brown, mixed, rinse-free, sushi, and haiga rice. Depending on the program entered, the cooker's micro-computer chip technology automatically adjusts the temperature and cooking times. Its steaming function steams veggies with a timer programmable for up to 58 minutes. The unit can also function as a slow cooker. For cooking soups or stews, program it to slow cook for up to 12 hours on either the high or low temperature setting.
Even more, the cooker comes equipped with an LCD clock and 24-hour preset timer, a keep-warm function, a retractable cord, and a carrying handle for taking cooked food right to the table. Accessories include a special container for making homemade tofu, a steaming tray, a measuring cup, a spatula, and a multi-language instruction manual, as well as an exclusive Martin Yan recipe booklet with 16 original recipes from the celebrated master chef. Ideal for home chefs who like to display kitchen appliances on the counter, the good-looking cooker elegantly blends in with a wide range of kitchen designs. The cooker measures approximately 14 by 11 by 10 inches.

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Back to Basics PC17581 Gourmet Treat Dipper, Red Review

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(More customer reviews)What a TREAT this dipper is! We've used it for the first time today and already have so many other ideas to experiment with.
For starters, the 'set' consists of a burner 'pot' in a footed bowl. I was worried that perhaps since I have younger children and the bowl being wider at the top that it maybe top heavy but it's actually sturdy and doesn't wobble which is important to me. It has a very easy to use, large dial to turn the device: OFF, LOW or HIGH. It comes with a ceramic fluted inner bowl that you melt your food into and a glass top with a knob to hold onto and 2 dipper forks that look like mini forked ladles. The cord used to plug the device into is fairly short so unless you use some sort of extension cord, you'll have to find a sturdy surface to place the Gourmet Treat Dipper right by an outlet. Personally I like this feature so that there are less chances of one tripping on a cord if left dangling. We used it on our kitchen island that has an outlet and placed the Dipper in the middle of the island.
The directions have mentioned in at least 2 places to NOT allow ANY water at all in the chocolate so we were really careful to dry the lid, pot and any utensils and foods we had planned to use.
We first tried melting chocolate chips. Since the directions state that it takes approximately 40 minutes to melt a bag of chocolate chips or 1 bar of chocolate, we used 8 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips. We washed & dried our strawberries and had these mini chocolate chip cookies we wanted to try as well. Since I have had issues in the past melting chocolate on the stove and having it burn frequently, I decided to test out the higher heat and see if I could detect ANY chocolate burning at all and I couldn't - even with a small amount of chocolate in the bowl (8oz of chocolate chips melted to about 1/4 capacity in the bowl). I was pleasantly surprised that some of the chips started to melt after 5 minutes. After about 25 minutes, with some stirring every now and then, our we had nice, thick melted chocolate.
It may be because we are inexperienced with them but so far, the dipping forks are a bit awkward for us to use. We found that dipping the strawberries by hand while holding onto the green stems / leaves are best which is not much for the little ones because they had to simply stand by and watch since the white ceramic bowl AND the red, heating bowl tend to get very hot.
Next came the mini chocolate chip cookies. The boys were able to lower the cookies in the chocolate just fine but since the chocolate was fairly thick, they struggled in trying to 'drown' their cookies in the chocolate since the cookie tended to stay on top of the melted chocolate so we dumped the cookie in the bowl and had to push the cookie in the chocolate in order to cover it up then scoop it up with the dipper fork (it did come in handy for this!) and we dumped it on a plate covered with parchment paper.
On our second round, we added 1/2 tsp of coconut oil to the chocolate and it turned out to me MUCH smoother in consistency and was easier to 'dunk' the cookies into. The instruction pamphlet does mention that if you are going to add anything to dilute the chocolate, to not add anything but vegetable oil (no water or milk) or you will ruin your batch of chocolate.
After our chocolate experiment, we rinsed the bowl out (with hot water since our bowl was hot...we didn't want to wash it w/ cold before it cooled down and risk it cracking due to varying extreme temperatures) we then melted 5 caramel sheets (the instructions suggest 1 bag of caramel candies). These took a bit longer to fully melt, even with stirring encouraged because the middle tended to glob together. We started out with HIGH heat then I noticed that some of the melted caramel started to darken on the sides (slightly burned color) so we kept the temperature at LOW for the caramel until we finished. It took about 35-40 minutes to fully melt the caramel at LOW temperature, the book stated it would take this long so no surprised there. We then stuck popsicle sticks in our apples and sumberged them in the melting pot, pulled them out and smoothed over some areas that had excess caramel wtih another wooden stick and placed them in mason jars so they would dry without touching anything.
After we dipped a couple of apples, I wanted to see if the caramel would in fact burn at high heat...I could have missed it, but I didn't read anywhere in the instruction manual about NOT turning caramel specifically at high heat (it does state that some candy will burn at high heat but it does not state any specific foods). Sure enough after 20 minutes, half of our caramel burned and stuck to the ceramic sides.
I see endless possibilities with this little thing! There are chocolate stores in the mall that sell candy coated apples for $8-$14!! We could do our own at home and give them for gifts from $1-$3.00!! You could do one layer in caramel, coat it with crushed nuts, allow it to dry then do a second layer in chocolate with crushed toffee, wrap it and give it away as a really nice gift.
I happen to have a bag of these chocolate chips when I made some items for my son's school but we generally don't eat a lot of sweets...I make my own 'no sugar' chocolate from: raw cocoa powder, raw cacao butter and powdered lakanto or stevia...I'll be trying a version using the powdered Body Ecology powdered Lakanto and dip some healthier foods in it to experiment with some healthier options.
What I love about this little thing is that it's nice in appearance, it's VERY easy to clean, and most of all that it can be used for different foods - NOT just candy! You can use it for melted cheese / queso, other warm / hot dips from veggie dips to chili.
If I can make a suggestion to the manufacturer...I'd ask that they create a ceramic bowl with a SMIDGE deeper groove so that it's more seated and has less of a chance of sliding off should someone move it from one area to another. We kept it stationary so we didn't have any issues but I could see how the lid COULD slide off if being moved and someone weren't careful.
I would highly suggest this item - just test out the food at the LOW temp FIRST or just not leave your foods at the HIGH temp unattended to avoid burning your foods. Don't let the high temp issue deter you...we melted the chocolate on high and kept it at high with no issues at all. I think this would make a GREAT gift that you can use for anywhere from 2 people for an intimate setting to an entire large family gathering. I plan to use this for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine's Day! I CANNOT verbally express HOW DELICIOUS the chocolate covered strawberries are!!! YUMMY!!

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Enjoy gourmet treats without leaving you house!The gourmet treat dipper is a fun easy-to-use appliance for making gourmet candy-dipped apples, pretzels and fruit at home

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Sanyo ECJ-HC55S 5-1/2-Cup Micro-Computerized Rice Cooker and Slow Cooker, White Review

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(More customer reviews)Purchased this rice cooker for my wife. We are both enjoying it a lot. The parts are solid and simply feel like high quality. There are two bowls. The rice cooking bowl has a better non-stick coating on it. The other bowl for non-rice cooking is easy enough to clean, but might take a little soaking for those challenging situations.
Selection is easy to understand. The slow-cook options are partially what sold me on this unit. You can cook so many things in this cooker, because you can manually cook instead of always having to follow a programmed option.
Rice can be kept warm up to 12 hours. It has a great sealing system, so it does stay fresh.
The unit looks very nice on the counter. The battery runs the clock, unless you keep the unit plugged into the outlet. The battery is suppose to run for 4 years or so.
Quality of rice cooked -- The rice has been PERFECT every time we have cooked rice. We are using a Jasmine rice bought from a local asian market. We simply wash the rice twice, put in the required amount of water, and set it to cook. So far it has been perfect each time.
I ended up buying this over the Zojirushi based on price and couldn't be happier. I saved maybe a $100 and am 100% happy with the product. We've been using this for 3 weeks now.
Cleaning is easy and fast. The removable lid/seal is great and easy to clean. It is not possible to latch the cover if the removable cover is not in place -- a nice feature and great engineering.
The steam collector works well. Be careful not to put your hand close to the exit hole as steam is not fully condensed coming out and could burn you. This is not really a safety concern for me and my wife. Cleaning the collector is not a problem so far. Simply remove and shake out the water. Any water dripping down is caught in a silicon seal. You can easily take a towl and soak up the very small amount of water that might drip out. It is only water and doesn't mess anything up.
I would buy this over again based on my experience so far. Can't speak about reliability yet. I can only hope Sanyo brand will be good. I don't usually buy their products.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Sanyo ECJ-HC55S 5-1/2-Cup Micro-Computerized Rice Cooker and Slow Cooker, White

Cook top-quality rice dishes, slow cook stews or soups, steam veggies, boil eggs, and even make tofu in this impressive micro-computerized machine. The unit includes two separate inner pots and inner lids to keep slow cooked dishes separate from rice, thereby maintaining the integrity of the rice flavor. The titanium-coated extra-thick (3mm) non-stick rice-cooking inner pot provides a round bottom for maximum heat distribution, optimum cooking, and effortless food release. To help ensure perfectly cooked rice, the 5-1/2-cup (11 cups cooked) rice cooker provides a variety of multi-menu, one-touch selections, including programs for white, brown, mixed, rinse-free, sushi, and haiga rice. Depending on the program entered, the cooker's micro-computer chip technology automatically adjusts the temperature and cooking times. Its steaming function steams veggies with a timer programmable for up to 58 minutes. The unit can also function as a slow cooker. For cooking soups or stews, program it to slow cook for up to 12 hours on either the high or low temperature setting.
Even more, the cooker comes equipped with an LCD clock and 24-hour preset timer, a keep-warm function, a retractable cord, and a carrying handle for taking cooked food right to the table. Accessories include a special container for making homemade tofu, a steaming tray, a measuring cup, a spatula, and a multi-language instruction manual, as well as an exclusive Martin Yan recipe booklet with 16 original recipes from the celebrated master chef. Ideal for home chefs who like to display kitchen appliances on the counter, the good-looking cooker elegantly blends in with a wide range of kitchen designs. The cooker measures approximately 13 by 10 by 8 inches.

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