[Recipe] Rice Cooker Beef and Mutton Stew

Beef and Mutton Stew

I have never cooked anything other than rice on a ricecooker before or a slowcooker for that matter. I have read articles about how you do not need a dedicated slowcooker to enjoy slowcooker recipes. All you need is a ricecooker. That is fine if you only cook rice occasionally but for an Asian that eats rice breakfast, lunch and dinner, when will you have that time to not be able to use your rice cooker for 6 or so hours. 

Having also just moved in to my new house and the rest of my stuff isn't due to arrive for another week, my cooking options are pretty much limited. The first thing I bought after arriving here? You guessed it. A ricecooker! (well actually it was a laptop computer followed by the ricecooker). After cooking rice manually for a few meals I missed the convenience of getting that perfect batch of steamed rice every time. 

This is my first attempt at cooking with a ricecooker. I did it overnight and just added a few additional ingredients when I woke up. It turned out better than I expected. The vegetables did not turn into mush and the meat was quite tender. One thing to note though is that mutton releases a lot of fat/tallow so you will need to remove that after.

Ingredients:
1/2 Kilo Beef Spare Ribs
1/2 Kilo Mutton (cut into cubes)
2 big Potatoes (cut into wedges)
1 Cup beef broth
1 small can Tomato Sauce (about 8 Oz)
2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 medium Onion (chopped)
4 cloves Garlic (chopped)
5 ripe small tomatoes
2 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup cane vinegar (or distilled white vinegar)
3 teaspoon Spanish Paprika
2 teaspoon dried basil
2 teaspoon dried mint
1 teaspoon ground peppercorn
Asparagus spears (chopped stalks leaving the tips about 1 and 1/2 inch length)
3/4 cup of frozen mixed diced carrots, corn and peas (if you prefer to use fresh ingredients go right ahead)
Salt to taste
Cayenne Pepper to taste for that extra kick 
(optional: you may want to add red and green bell peppers and some sliced mushrooms to add flavor, texture and color to the dish. I didn't have these on hand at the time but I would have wanted to use those additional ingredients)

Directions:
In a non-stick frying pan, saute garlic and onion with olive oil until onion starts to caramelize, add in the meat to brown slightly. Add broth to the pan and transfer the entire contents to the rice cooker pot. Add in all of the remaining ingredients ingredients except for the asparagus. Add enough water if necessary just to cover all of the ingredients.

Set to "cook rice" and once boiling just leave on for another 30 minutes. The just switch it to keep warm mode and leave for 5-6 hours.

Remove the fat or tallow accumulating on the top of the pot with a ladle. This is mainly due to the mutton but if you are only cooking beef then it should not be too much. Set it to cook again for 20 minutes placing the remaining asparagus with tips to the pot. Serve piping hot.