Canada is a Commonwealth nation, and as such, shares many traditional British comfort foods such as shepherd's pie. My Canadian partner has been disappointed by mediocre shepherd's pie on numerous occasions, but he loves my version so much that he recently asked me to make it 4 nights in a row. This recipe is something I made up when I still lived in the States, and I used to bake it in an oven to brown the top, but now that we live in a place that doesn't have a kitchen, I scaled it down so I could make it in a humble $10 rice cooker!
You can use ground beef instead of steak if you want, it tastes just as good. Also, if you don't have powdered milk you can cut the water to 1 1/2 cups and add 1/2 cup of milk.
Rice Cooker Shepherd's Pie:
makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup mushrooms, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon liquid beef bouillon concentrate
- 1-2 teaspoons Sriracha hot sauce (the one with the red rooster on the bottle)
- 1 medium-sized boneless steak (or 1 lb. of ground beef)
- 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables (carrots, peas, corn, green beans)
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cups instant potato flakes
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoons powdered milk
- 2 cups water (or 1 1/2 cups water and 1/2 cup milk, if you don't have powdered milk)
Preparation:
- Chop onion and mushrooms, add them to the rice cooker pot along with the chopped garlic, oil, Worcestershire sauce, Sriracha hot sauce and bouillon concentrate. Put the lid on the rice cooker pot and flip the switch to "Cook". Simmer 3 minutes.
- While the onion and mushrooms are cooking, chop up the steak into pieces the size of your fingertip, then add the chopped steak to the rice cooker pot, stirring to loosen any bits from the bottom of the pot. Flip the switch to "Cook" again if the switch flips to "Warm" when you're adding the steak or stirring the pot. Simmer for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- While the meat, onion, and mushrooms are cooking, boil water in an electric kettle, and combine the potato flakes, butter, powdered milk, and a dash of pepper in a small mixing bowl. Add the boiling water, stirring to moisten all the flakes. Add more water if the potatoes are too thick.
- Add the frozen veggies to the rice cooker pot, stirring to distribute them evenly, then replace the lid. Let simmer for 4-5 minutes.
- Combine 1 cup milk with 2 tablespoons cornstarch, mixing until cornstarch completely dissolves, then pour into rice cooker pot. Stir for 4-5 minutes until everything thickens up, then spread mashed potatoes on top of mixture in rice cooker.
- Serve hot, with crusty bread and porter or stout beer.
Tips for Using a Rice Cooker
When stirring the meat/vegetable mix, you may wish to wear or use a potholder to hold the extremely hot rice cooker pot down, as rice cookers have a tendency to flip to "Warm" if there is not enough weight on the pressure sensor. If it does flip to "Warm", don't panic. Just stir the pot, replace the lid, and flip the switch back to "Cook".
A silicone pot holder will allow you to hold the rice cooker pot without burning your fingers while you stir it.
Jessica Slover - Medicine, cuisine, travel, voluntary simplicity, and helping others are my specialties! Some of my other interests include fat activism, ...
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