Lily Flowers and Steak Slow Cooked in a Rice Cooker

Yes, you read that correct the first time?lily flowers!

Dried lily flowers are a great accompaniment to a meal; they rehydrate when cooked and add a really nice flavour to your dish.  

Do you remember the delicious ox cheeks from last week?  Well the butcher had sold out, so opting for another cheap, but yummy cut of meat, the purchase of ?chuck steak? was made. 

But, what is Chuck Steak I hear you ask?

Well, chuck steak is a rectangular cut of meat that contains part of the shoulder bones and contains a lot of connective tissue, including collagen. Collagen melts during the cooking of the meat, making the flavour intensely stronger, which is one of the reasons this is such a great meat for stewing, slow cooking, braising, or pot roasting.

As for the lily flowers?also known as ?golden needles?, the dried lily flower is usually left to rehydrate in water for 20mintues or so before cooking and is a common ingredient in many Asian dishes. 

So?how to make Lily Flowers and Steak in a rice cooker?

First chopped onions and a bit of garlic go in the rice cooker on ?braise? then in goes the chunks of chuck meat and when the braise function comes to and end (after a few minutes) add some water?

?give it a few minutes then in goes the standard Japanese base of soy sauce, dashi, mirin and cooking sake so you get some sauce when the whole thing has finished cooking?and some seasoning and the lily flowers.

Once the ?braise? as run its course the rice cooker reverts to ?keep warm?, leave the food on this function until its ready to eat ? in our case it was a few hours before the kids ate dinner, and a couple more until I got home to polish off the rest?.

All in all, a great cut of meat, lovely lily flowers on a bed of nice fluffy perfectly cooked rice.  A wonderful dish.