Experimenting with rice cooker cooking

Why, it's me!  I know it's been a while, but I don't get to cook nearly as much as I want to anymore.

Today I experimented with cooking something in a rice cooker, besides rice.

A rice cooker is just like a pot on the stove.  So, whatever you can cook in a pot on the stove, you can cook in a rice cooker.

I used a 16 cup rice cooker.  This was not a "fancy" rice cooker with any special features; It just had a "cook" setting and a "warm" setting.

What I made, was a form of beef teriyaki.  

I cut up a 2 pound chuck roast into cubes, and chopped up a yellow onion.  Put them in the rice cooker with 1 spoonful of minced garlic, and turned the rice cooker on the "cook" setting.

After the meat was browned and the onions were soft, I added some raw mushrooms, a can of beef broth, and a bottle of stir fry sauce.*  Added some onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper.  Continued to let it cook.

*Next time, I will use straight teriyaki sauce.

When it started foaming, I turned it to the "warm" setting and left the lid on.

After a while, I wanted to thicken the liquid.  So I added some corn starch, stirred, and turned it back on the "cook" setting until it started bubbling.  Then turned it back to the "warm" setting.

After a couple of hours slow cooking on "warm", it was ready.  Serve over rice and with crunchy chow mein noodles.

I read somewhere that a rice cooker on the "warm" setting acts like a slow cooker.  To some degree it does, but you may need to check periodically to see if it's getting lukewarm; If it is, turn it back to "cook" for a few minutes, then back to "warm."

I liked it, but next time I will use regular teriyaki sauce instead of stir fry sauce.   

"Have you ever made tartar sauce? Well, we're going to make tartar sauce!"

No, I have never made tartar sauce before today.

In fact, I don't even like tartar sauce.

Tartar sauce of course is not cooked in cast iron, because it's not cooked at all.  

I used olive oil mayonnaise, because I despise real mayonnaise.  You can use real mayo if you want; that's what the normal recipe calls for.

Add chopped green olives, minced onions, chopped parsley, dill pickle relish*, capers.

*the recipe called for "your choice of pickles" so I'm sure sweet pickle relish would be fine.

Also add lemon, or lime juice.  I used lime juice.

Mix it all together and chill.

I liked this tartar sauce, and I normally don't like tartar sauce.  So that should tell you something.