Chilli-con-Carne in the Rice Cooker

Still very cold, so after soup yesterday and with family round for dinner we figured a nice bowl of chilli would go down well with everyone.   Rather than messing about with pots, pans and keeping an eye of stuff as well the chilli was cooked in the rice cooker in the early afternoon with us safe in the knowledge we could just leave it to one side on “Keep Warm” to let the flavours build and develop until we were ready to eat…



So how was this enterprising dish made in our trusty Cook Japan rice cooker…
…first, using the “Braise” mode we cooked the onions and garlic…



…then in went the mince and some of left over ox cheeks we had from yesterday that didn’t make it into the soup…

                 

…with the meat nicely browned, in went some tomatoes, kidney beans, cheeky grating of chocolate, a glug of wine, salt and pepper, and some good old chillies and seasoning to give it that nice kick you want on a cold evening.



The rice cooker kicked into “keep warm” and it was left like this for about 5-hours until we were ready to eat dinner.  All that was left to do was make some rice in our other rice cooker (yes, we have 2 of these divine appliances), get out the bowls and chow down…



…with a couple of cold beers, what more could you want on a cold evening…



…and the best part is there’s a good healthy portion left for tomorrow when the flavours will be even richer – time set the rice cooker for a quick 10-15 minute cook cycle and then leave it on “keep warm” until ready to eat at lunch…
 

Braised Ox Cheeks and Meatball Soup

My word the weather here in Brighton is fast becoming rubbish – after a pleasant end to September the last three days have seen the skies open and buckets of rain descend…

…enough to make the most stout-hearted soul depressed, or at least take refuge in a hot bowl of soup.
Little admission…today was the first time we tried making soup in the Cook Japan rice cooker – it has a “soup function”, we just have not got round to trying it before.  The plan was to get some shin beef, but the butcher didn’t have any…slight downer, but what he did have was ox cheeks – an absolute steal at £1.56 for 400g!

If you hadn’t noticed yet, I love my Cook Japan rice cooker, the versatility is great…the ox cheeks, lamb mince meatballs, onion and garlic were cooked using the “Braise” function then the water, tomatoes, root vegetables, seasoning, bit of wine and splashes of random sauce bottles around the kitchen all got chucked in and once the appliance clicked into “Keep Warm” mode the soup was left for several hours to develop its flavour…

(not a perfect picture but you get the idea)

Look at these cheeky chaps, don’t you fancy one?  The flavour was so rich after 3 or 4 hours on a low heat, and really succulent and juicy…

Perhaps should have skimmed it before greedily diving into a bowl, but I quite enjoy the lip smacking aspect of the meat fat when its a thin soup like this – I like the way its adds more depth to the flavour when its not a hearty soup in its own right…



Very tasty and at £1.56 for 400g a true recession-boosting dish!

For more information visit: www.cookjapan.co.uk