窩蛋牛肉飯 (Eggs & Beef Over Rice)

My parents were pretty worried that I was going to starve to death in grad school, or that I would die of malnutrition because I wouldn’t have time to make food for myself. Hence, they alerted me of the wonder that is known as rice cooker meals. (And what Asian household is complete without a ricecooker?) Although I guess, technically, it isn’t actually an all-Asian household, but we take our shoes off at the door, use the dishwasher for storage, own a ricecooker, and use the heater as sparingly as possible. It’s close enough for me.)

I will admit, though, this is pretty freaking awesome. I knew you could make congee with a ricecooker, but for some reason, I never stopped to think about the fact that you can use a ricecooker to make things other than, or more than…rice. Who woulda thought?

窩蛋牛肉飯 (Eggs & Beef Over Rice)

Ingredients:
-½ lb ground beef
-2 tbsp soy sauce
-1 tbsp sugar
-1 tsp cornstarch
-1-2 tbsp cold water
-½-1 tbsp oil
-preserved vegetables (if none, add ½ an onion, minced, and/or sparing amounts of salt)
-1 egg

Instructions:
1) Start cooking rice. Combine beef, sugar, cornstarch, soy sauce, vegetables and oil. Compress into cake-like form.
2) Add beef mixture into rice cooker (make sure there’s still water in rice cooker to steam the beef). Break an egg over the top while the rice is still hot. Wait until rice is done cooking, then serve.

A variation of this can be done with chicken, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp cornstarch, 1 tbsp sugar, and green onions. Just marinate the chicken overnight, or at least for a couple hours.