French onion soup in a rice cooker?

Grrrrrrrr. As always, the best-laid plans of mice and men (and sick Americans who want some homemade soup but are living in a developing country where they don't speak the language or have any control over their living environment) often go awry.

Feeling better enough to be ambitious in the kitchen, I attempted to make French onion soup in hopes that it would be a nice remedy for the cold day and my still-persistent cold symptoms. I chopped 2 pounds of onions and endured the stinging tears and burning in my throat (that only made my cough worse) and tossed them with some rosemary into the pot that was pre-heated on my one-burner with a generous helping of real butter. Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle- the onions were just beginning to sweat and turn a lovely translucent white when CRACK-POP! My electric burner broke. I'm not entirely sure what happened because I was following the recipe's instruction of "Let the onions cook on low for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally while waiting for them to caramelize" by ignoring the pot and watching my Friends DVD to pass the time. But, next thing I knew, the burner would not turn back on or show any indication that it was connected to a power source, and I had a pot of mostly-uncooked onions as my only source of dinner. Appetizing, right?

I called Chi Hang who re-delegated the task to Mr. Duc, who came and exclaimed that he knows nothing about mechanics and that he doesn't know what to do. So................... about my dinner, then? Is what I wanted to scream. It's wonderful when so many people are willing to help by re-delegating a task to an authority figure, but when that authority figure knows nothing about the problem at hand, I'm stuck in a bit of a bind. I appreciate Mr. Duc's visit to inspect the broken cooker, but his poking and prodding at buttons with the same layman's instincts that I have is not solving much of the problem at hand.

Mr. Duc left my room and promised that he would send someone to "fix" it or replace it tomorrow. A replacement would be nice; I've always hated this electric burner and how finicky it is.

However, the problem at hand was still that pot of uncooked onions and my rapidly-growing hunger (and crankiness). A quick Google search of "can I make French onion soup in a rice cooker?" led me to this link that mentions that you can, indeed, caramelize onions for soup in a rice cooker.

Now the onions are bubbling away in the rice cooker, and we will see, 45 minutes from now, if they have turned a nice caramel color that will make soup taste delicious. Otherwise, it is Plan B of cold bread and cheese (purchased to be accompaniments to my soup, but will suffice as my meal if no soup materializes).