Pepper Lunch in Rice Cooker

Pepper Lunch is a popular Japanese fast-food chain specializing in teppanyaki-style dishes. The signature dish at Pepper Lunch is a “pepper steak” or “pepper rice” meal, typically consisting of thinly sliced beef, vegetables, and their house special sauce. This recipe is a take on Pepper Lunch, and all you need are a few ingredients and a rice cooker.

Pepper steak is usually served on an individual sized sizzling hot iron plate, and customers are encouraged to mix and cook the ingredients themselves at their table. If you have a teppanyaki grill at home, then you can replicate the teppanyaki style pepper lunch. However, this recipe is intended to give the quickest and most efficient way of enjoying pepper lunch style meal.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• 1.5 cups (or 2 rice cooker cups) Japanese short grain – Wash and drain rice 3-4 times before use. You can use your choice of uncooked rice, however, I recommend using Japanese short grain.
• 1/3 thinly sliced onion – I am using brown onion. I would avoid using purple onion as it will change the color of the dish.
• 1/2 cup sweet corn
• 1/2 lb thinly sliced beef—I like thinly sliced ribeye beef because it’s tender, and the fat from the beef mixes in with the rice, making it even more flavorful.
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup stock (1.25 rice cooker cups) —This can be substituted for water. Using beef or chicken stock will add more flavor and protein to the dish.

SAUCE

• 4 tbsp soy sauce – I am using Japanese-style soy sauce from Kikkoman.
• 3 tbsp mirin – mirin is sweet sake and is used in many Japanese dishes. I highly recommend this product for flavor. However, if you cannot get a hold of it, substitute with 3 tbsp water and 1 tsp sugar. You can find the product on Amazon.
• 3 tbsp sake – cooking sake is another item that is commonly used in many Japanese dishes. If you cannot use this item, you can substitute it with 3 tbsp water; however, the flavor will not be the same.
• 1 tbsp dashi powder – this adds more flavor however, it is optional.
• 1 tbsp sugar – you can use any sweetener of choice
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tbsp grated garlic

TOPPINGS

• chopped green onion
• butter 
• shichimi togarashi – Shichimi togarashi is a Japanese seven spice. It will add a little heat to the dish. If you like spices and heat, try this out.
• corn add more corn 
• pickled red ginger
• salt and pepper to taste

Tips on making best Pepper Lunch in Rice Cooker

There aren’t many tips needed when making this recipe because it is so easy to make—however, one thing to keep in mind is that the order of placing ingredients matters. You want to think of it like you are stacking on the ingredients that take the longest to cook at the bottom. For example, place rice at the bottom first because it is the hardest to cook. It also cooks better submerged in water, like how you cook regular rice. Then, I put thinly sliced onions or other vegetables, which will also cook better in the water, along with rice. Place thinly sliced beef last because it cooks the fastest and will cook with the steam in the rice cooker. 

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