Since a few years, we use every day our fireless cooker to prepare rice, oats and other grains, and also for beans, lentils and other legumes. It looks like nothing, but it has really changed our lives in a way.
A fireless cooker is simply fabulous!
First of all, it makes your life so much easier. It reduces the time YOU have to spend cooking significantly AND it never, ever burns your food, even if you forget it completely. And secondly, it uses no energy at all. So it's easy, economical and ecological at the same time.
With a fireless cooker you need only to spend 5 minutes to cook a whole pot of whole rice (instead of 45 minutes) - and you only need as much energy as necessary to bring your ingredients to the boil. Once it is boiling, no need to keep it boiling - just turn off the stove, put the pot in the fireless cooker, and you can even take a walk outside or go to sleep without worries while your fireless cooker does the rest. When you come back from your walk or wake up in the morning, your rice is perfectly cooked, and still hot, ready to serve.
However, using a fireless cooker needs some organization. While YOU need a lot less time, the whole process needs more time. Whole rice or lentils can cook in about 1,5 to 2 hours in a fireless cooker, beans need easily 6 hours, and maybe even a second turn (bringing it to a boil and putting it in the fireless cooker again) of a few hours. You can of course find compromises: cook your beans during two hours on the stovetop, and another two hours in the fireless cooker, instead of 3 hours on the stovetop for instance.
On the other hand, it doesn't matter at all if foods stay longer than necessary in the fireless cooker, even for several hours, whereas on the cooking stove it is rather crucial to take them off the heat at the right moment - a few minutes late can cause them to burn and spoil the whole pot. So in this respect it is a lot less stressful to use the fireless cooker...
And don't forget to soak your grains and legumes 8-12 hours first - not only for improving digestibility and mineral absorption, but also to reduce cooking time. Otherwise your whole rice will remain chewy, and your beans will be very hard to get well done.
So here is how to make a simple fireless cooker. The principle is dead simple: insulate your hot cooking pot from the outside colder air, and retain the heat inside. So instead of heating it from the bottom and letting the heat escape all around (as on the stovetop), simply retain the heat already present.
1. The easiest and simplest way is to just wrap your cooking pot into one or more warm blankets, in such a way that the package doesn't open by itself. You can do this with a piece of string, or a rope, or fold the tips back in, ... (Apparently in the old days people just put their hot cooking pot in their bed during the day). Or you can take a cardboard box (cardboard also insulates), line it with one or more thick blankets, put in your pot, and close the blankets on top of it. The box will also add stability, and is higly recommended for ease of use and security - without it, you risk turning over the whole contraption with the pot inside. But in terms of cooking efficiency, it is just as good as any other fireless cooker.
2. If you feel like making a more lasting and practical one, you can sew a kind of cloth bag in which your pot easily fits (better too big than too small), and which is at least 10-15 centimeters higher. Then sew another bag that is 3-5 (or more) cm larger on all sides, and put the smallest bag inside the largest and fill the gaps in between with wool (loose, or clean pieces of old sweaters or socks) or any other insulating material. Sew the bags together on top, so that the insulating material can't get out. Then make a kind of cushion, filled with the same insulating material, that fits on top of the double bag, well tucked in, in a way that the heat and air inside the bag can't escape. The idea is simply to make a kind of "thermobag".
Have fun cooking while you sleep.
More information: google for "fireless cooker"...
P.S. A word of caution: we have been cooking grains and legumes for years with a fireless cooker, and never had any problems. However, if foods stay too long in a fireless cooker without reheating them (more than 10 hours for instance), they can fall below temperatures that are safe for food to be kept for longer periods. Micro-organisms flourish at temperature ranges from 50-70°C, so no food should stay longer periods of time in or below these temperatures in uncontrolled circomstances. We also used to cook vegetables this way, but refrained from doing so, since it is of little use (vegetables cook very quickly anyway), and also having the nitrate question in mind. And finally, we would certainly never prepare any animal food in a fireless cooker (especially fish, seafood, meat and eggs...). We only share our own experience here. We have been using fireless cookers for more than 3 years without any problem, but cannot give any guarantees as to its safety of course. One way of increasing safety, is bringing foods cooked in a fireless cooker to a boil before eating them.
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