Travel cookers over portable gas stoves. Useful not only for business trips and overseas travel, but also for living in your car and cooking during power outages [PR]

Electric "travel cookers" are convenient when staying in business hotels on work trips or traveling abroad.
As long as there is an outlet in the room, you can boil water, make simple meals, and even cook rice.

When I was doing farm work on a working holiday, I used to move between cheap hostels, but the shared kitchen was always too crowded to cook in.
I often had to wait for the kitchen to clear and cook in a rush while worrying about other people's gazes, so I think it would have made a big difference if I had a "travel cooker" back then.

Travel cookers are also convenient for living in your car or camping.
Since you can cook without using an open flame, it is easy to handle even in a cramped car, and you don't have to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning.

Travel cookers have a strong image of being for business trips and travel, but they truly show their worth during emergencies.
As long as you can secure electricity, you can cook without worrying about fuel.

Especially when considering long-term power outages, stockpiling portable gas stoves and a large number of gas canisters leaves concerns regarding storage space and safety.
The more canisters you have, the more space they take up, and since they are flammable, you have to be careful about storing them in the summer or keeping them in a car.
They also have expiration dates, so the longer you store them, the more management effort is required.

A travel cooker feels similar to a small electric pot.
Since you can use it as a bowl after cooking, it also saves on washing up.

First, to see how it works, I'll try boiling water to make coffee.
I'll try using 140ml of water, which is enough for one cup of coffee.

I pressed a stopwatch the moment I plugged it in to measure the time.
Using the included lid makes it easier for the water to boil.

After about 6 minutes, I could hear the sound of the water starting to boil, and the lid felt hot to the touch.

After about 7 minutes, steam started coming out, and when I removed the lid, fine bubbles were appearing one after another, indicating it was boiling.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but I was able to make a piping hot cup of coffee.

If you can boil water, you can boil noodles or eggs, or simmer ingredients like in a hot pot dish.
What I'm curious about is whether a travel cooker can actually cook rice properly.

Since I'm at it, I'll try it with brown rice, which is harder to cook than white rice.
There is an image that brown rice can only be cooked with high-end rice cookers, but it can be cooked in a regular pot or a travel cooker.

The trick to cooking brown rice is to let it soak for a sufficient amount of time.
It's best to wash the rice and let it soak the day before, then cook it the next day.

When washing brown rice, try rubbing it against the mesh of a colander with the back of your hand.
By lightly scratching the surface, it becomes easier for the rice to absorb water.
If you soak it for a long time, the water may become cloudy or develop an odor, so change the water a few times.

Considering the nutritional value, you can also eat brown rice after letting it sprout.

The one in the photo is in a state where germination has progressed intentionally so that the sprouts are easy to see.
In reality, it is best to eat it when it has just started to swell, before it has fully sprouted.
This is because if it sprouts too much, the nutrients in the brown rice are used for the growth of the sprout.

Even without a brown rice cooker, you can adjust the germination time regardless of the season by using warm water and a thermal food jar.
As a general rule, it takes about 6 to 8 hours in water around 40°C.

This time, assuming a long-term power outage in an emergency, I tried cooking stockpiled brown rice using a portable power station.
The amount of rice was my usual 0.8 go, and the amount of water was 200ml, equivalent to 1 go of white rice.

When cooking brown rice, I also add Okinawan sea salt.
I prefer to use "Nuchimasu" from Miyagi Island or "Yukishio" from Miyako Island.

The power consumption of the portable power station is about 250W.
Around the 10-minute mark, steam starts to appear, and it begins to boil.

It finished cooking in about 25 minutes.

If you cook in a pot over high heat on a gas stove, it takes about 10 minutes, so this takes about 2.5 times longer.
Because the power consumption is low, boiling water and cooking rice take a little more time.

When I took a bite, it was fluffier than I had imagined.
If you let it soak properly, you can eat it normally and deliciously even without steaming.
I have cooked rice with it several times now, and it has never burned.

The travel cooker can be used as a bowl as is.
On this day, I made a yellowtail bowl with yellowtail fillets topped with shiso leaves and broccoli sprouts.

For breakfast, it is also delicious to mix natto, a raw egg, and mekabu seaweed and eat it.

The heater surface remains hot for a while even after unplugging it.
It cools down if you leave it for about 40 minutes, so it feels just right to clean it up after you finish your meal and wash the dishes.

After use, it can be stored compactly in a lunchbox-sized container (approx. 16x16x8 cm).

Since I don't use it every day, I store it in the back of a small drawer in my system kitchen.

Because the travel cooker is an overseas-compatible product, a voltage converter is not required (though plug adapters for each country are necessary).
Depending on the country you are using it in, switch the voltage selector on the bottom to 100-130V or 220-240V.
Please be careful, as forgetting to switch it will cause a malfunction.

There are several types of travel cookers, but the one introduced in this article is the Yazawa Corporation Travel Multi-Cooker "TVR70BK".

Because the power consumption is as low as 250W, it is easy to use with a portable power station, and this low power consumption is a major strength in emergencies.
If you want to reduce power consumption, you can heat it for about 5 minutes and then steam it using only the residual heat.

Travel cookers are often thought of as tools for extraordinary situations like business trips, overseas travel, sleeping in cars, or camping, but they are quite practical in emergencies.
In particular, if you combine a portable power station, solar panels, and a low-power travel cooker, you can continue to have warm meals even during long-term power outages without relying on portable gas stoves or large amounts of gas canisters.

Rakuten Ichiba: "Travel Cooker"
Amazon: "Travel Cooker"

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▼ I have summarized information on disaster prevention stockpiles for living alone, such as water, food, and electricity, here.