Category Archives: Pressure Cooker Recipes

Easy to Prepare, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Pressure Cooker Recipes, Recipes

Easy Ropa Vieja (Cuban Braised Beef)

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Shred Me to Pieces

I was born for sexy, sultry heat, which maybe has a lot to do with why I adore the kitchen.  And when the humidity cranks the knob a notch higher, my knickers turn a tizzy for a taste of something tropical.  The combinations of salty, sweet and spicy are so dizzyingly addictive, I want to break out into a salsa and shake my shit until it falls off.  Okay, maybe not until it falls out – I don’t really feel like dropping a co-pay for too much of a good time.  What I really want is a mess of this shredded beef simmered with bell peppers, sweet onions and a sexy-as-hell tomato garlic sauce to bind it all up.  And I want it with fluffy white rice and beans as dark as my intentions after too many pitchers of sangria.  I want some ropa vieja.  Stat. Continue reading Easy Ropa Vieja (Cuban Braised Beef) →

Impressive Dishes, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Poultry Dishes, Pressure Cooker Recipes, The Daring Kitchen

Red Chile Tamales

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Recipe for The Daring Kitchen
Maranda of Jolts & Jollies was our January 2012 Daring Cooks hostess with the mostess! Maranda challenged us to make traditional Mexican Tamales as our first challenge of the year!

Spreading Your Masa All Over the Damn Town

Back when I was little, my grandmother used to have a friend at her work who’s family would make tamales en masse at Christmas.  She’d give her a few dozen and we got to feast on the little parcels of majesty for what I’d love to say was weeks after, but they barely lasted a few days.  We had them steamed plain with nothing else to slow us down except for maybe some pinto beans or fluffy Spanish rice.  I’ve long been searching for a killer tamale recipe in the same way as I’ve wanted the PERFECT enchilada sauce recipe.  I’ve gone through MANY iterations and variations of ones that come close, but I’ve yet to hit perfection.  So of course, when I found out that this month’s Daring Kitchen competition was to make tamales, I was so excited to have the opportunity to get back in the lab and start tinkering again. Continue reading Red Chile Tamales →

Appetizers and Small Plates, Easy to Prepare, Low Brow Treats, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Pressure Cooker Recipes

Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs

Ribs require a hefty dose of patience to get them right, right? In order to achieve fall-off-the-bone tenderness along with a lacquered barbecue crust, you need to give them time and a lot of TLC.  Or do you?

These ribs are for the hungry and lazy – a troublesome combination that is often hard to please but will be bowled over by this ridiculously easy recipe. Parboil the ribs in a pressure cooker to cut down on the cooking time from hours to a mere 15 minutes. Paint with homemade glaze and broil for a few minutes for fresh off the grill goodness right from the kitchen and in a lot less time. Done and done.  I’m not kidding.  That’s really it.

Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs

1/4 c. of browning seasoning
3 tbs. of lemon juice
1/2 c. of apricot jam
2 tsp. of molasses
1/2 tsp. of dry mustard
2 tsp. of dark corn syrup
1/2 tsp. of ground ginger
2 tbs. of chili paste
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbs. of soy sauce
4 drops of mesquite liquid smoke

1 onion, quartered
6 dried apricots
2 c. of chicken stock
3 lbs. of ribs

Mix the browning seasoning, lemon juice, apricot jam, molasses, dry mustard, corn syrup, ginger, chili paste, garlic, soy and liquid smoke. Add half of the marinade, onion, apricots and 2 c. of chicken stock to the pressure cooker. Top with the ribs (cut into thirds to fit in the cooker) and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. Let pressure release naturally.  Remove ribs to a rack set over a cookie sheet and let dry while you make the sauce.  Add the remaining marinade to the pressure cooker and boil vigorously until reduced to a cup of liquid.  Brush the ribs on both sides with the marinade.  Turn the oven on broil and cook until lacquered and crisped.  Let rest for 5 minutes before carving.  Slice ribs into individual pieces and serve.

Impressive Dishes, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Pasta Dishes, Pressure Cooker Recipes, Recipes

Drunken Pasta with Blond Oxtail Ragu

Foodbuzz 24 x 24 | An Ode to Orvieto

This recipe was a part of a special menu for Foodbuzz’s June 2011 food blogger party, 24×24. Showcasing posts from 24 Foodbuzz Featured Publisher bloggers, the monthly Foodbuzz 24 highlights unique meals occurring around the globe during a 24-hour period. Read more about my meal along with all of the other recipes at An Ode to Orvieto.

Of the many meals that I’ve eaten in my life time, only two do I consider truly transcendental. One of which, a dinner served al fresco on the cobblestone streets of Orvieto, was at a little haunt called L’Asino D’oro (Italian for “The Golden Ass”). We had decided to go, a group of us, on the cryptic recommendation of one of our professors, “It’s the most amazing meal of your life. Oh, and if they have the stinco, order it. I don’t know what stinco means, but it’s incredible.” A table was set right in front of the restaurant that looked more townhouse than dining space. Apparently, only two or three parties could dine each evening, and the process of making a “reservation” was literally informing the owner that you would be popping by. In a clammour of conversations in rapid-fire english and broken italian, it was accidentally (or maybe it was intentionally) relayed to the owner to bring us one of everything on the menu. Plate after plate of deliciousness, from fat little sardines dressed in tomato sauce to marbled platters of salumi to heaping mounds of toothsome fresh cut pastas, graced the table as we barely kept up.

One dish in particular gave me pause as for the life of me, I could not figure out the angle.  Gorgeous purple noodles were topped with a savory braised stew of sorts.  I peeked at the menu and saw that it was Tagliatelle all’Ubriaco con Ragu di Coda de Bue.  What the…?  I asked one of the guys on the trip who spoke fuent italian for a little translation help, to which he proffered, “It’s some kind of tail.”  Wait, wha?

I came home and did a little research – coda de bue was oxtail and the sauce was a ragu di carne bianche, or a tomato-less ragu.  In addition, the boozy pasta was purple from a bath in red wine as opposed to the traditional salt water jacuzzi.  What a revelation!  Between the absence of tomato in the ragu and the wacky purple pasta, I knew I had to take this dish on for myself.

Because oxtails need a lot of love and time to become tender, I like to make this sauce in the pressure cooker.  In addition, they tend to be fatty, so try to make the sauce the night before you serve it for simpler deglazing.  As for the pasta, the more that it cooks, the more purple it becomes.  Try fresh or dried pastas with different cooking times to see an array of lovely crimson shades.  And above all, make this meal for folks in need of a little wonder in their lives – from start to finish, this dish is really something magical.

Recipe for

Drunken Pasta with Blond Oxtail Ragu

Ingredients
3 lbs. of oxtails
3 oz. of pancetta
1 onion, minced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 carrot, finely chopped
3 stalks of celery, finely chopped
3 parsnips, finely chopped
2 tbs. of olive oil
1 c. of dry white wine
6 c. of beef stock
3 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves removed
2 fresh bay leaves
kosher salt and black pepper to taste

2 bottles of red wine
2-3 tbs. of chopped parsley
2 tbs. of butter

Add two tablespoons of olive oil to a pressure cooker and heat on high.  Salt and pepper the oxtails and sear on all sides in the olive oil.  Remove and set aside.  Add the onions and pancetta to the pot and cook until onions are translucent.  Add the garlic, carrots, celery and parsnips and cook until fragrant.  Add the wine and cook until alcohol cooks off.  Add the beef stock, thyme and bay leaves and put on the pressure cooker lid.  Cook on high pressure for one hour.  Turn off the heat and let the pressure drop naturally.  Using a pair of tongs, remove all the oxtails and put in a plastic tupperware.  Drain the vegetables using a strainer, reserving the liquid in a second tupperware.  Add the vegetables to a third tupperware.  Refrigerate overnight.

Pour two bottles of red wine into a large pasta pot.  Fill the rest of the way with water and bring to a boil.  While the water heats up, begin by taking the meat off of the oxtails, saving the bones and fat for a homemade stock.  Skim the fat off the reserved liquid and either discard or save for the aforementioned homemade stock.  Put the stock into a saucepan and cook on high, allowing to reduce by half.  Add the oxtails and veggies to the pot and let the liquid continue to reduce.  Cook your pasta according to the package directions and then drain.  Toss the hot pasta with the two tablespoons with butter and top with the oxtail ragu.  Serve with chopped parsley and grated parmesan.

Cheese Dishes, Main Courses, Pressure Cooker Recipes, Rice Dishes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

The Quickest Wild Mushroom Risotto Ever

Risotto is one of those dishes that when I see on chefy shows on tv, I perennially call shenanigans.  I have made many a stunning risotto in my day, and every single stinking one of them became glorious from the sheer amount of love (read: time) that was poured into the dish.  A good risotto required at least a half an hour of my attention and stirring, a goodly amount of time spent prepping the ingredients beforehand and guests ready to tuck in immediately while its piping hot.  As such, I only ever made for risotto for folks I truly loved (meaning that if you HAVE had my risotto, you can bet your cutie bootie I adore having you in my life).  So the thought that risotto could share a plate with any other dish, and as a side item at that, was preposterous to me.

Fast forward a bit to the day that Santa Claus decided to bring me a pressure cooker.  I was giddy at first, then frustrated with getting my new baby to do my bidding, but shortly thereafter, head over heels in love.  I mastered the darn thing with no true hiccups and questioned why I hadn’t used one sooner.  It was a dream!  As a means of learning more about it, I turned to the queen of pressure cooking, Lorna Sass.  As I poured through her book, Cooking Under Pressure, I found the traditional bevy of stews and braises alongside surprises such as meatloaf and bread pudding.  There in the mix, I also found a recipe for risotto that purported the cooking time at under 10 minutes!  And, even crazier, no stirring!  I felt as if the world had been turned on its head a la Alice in Wonderland – what was this whimsically nonsensical recipe?  And how could I wield it in my cooking arsenal?

This recipe below is based on my pressure cooker risotto experiments, and the result is mind-blowingly good.  Yes, it takes only 10 minutes to cook.  Yes, it frees you from 45 minutes of straight elbow grease.  And yes, it’s simple enough to serve as a side.  The only problem I now have is finding a dish complicated enough to cook for the folks I love for them alone.  I’m fine with going on a bit of a culinary hunt for a challenge.  But in the meantime, I’ll be whipping up this risotto.

Recipe for

The Quickest Mushroom Risotto Ever

Ingredients
1 c. of dried mixed mushrooms (porcini, chanterelle, shitake, hen of the woods or morels)
5 c. of chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 c. of dry white wine
1/2 c. of chopped onions
2 tbs. of butter
2 tbs. of olive oil
1 1/2 c. of arborio rice
3/4 c. of grated locatelli
1/4 tsp. of white pepper
salt to taste
4 tbs. of chopped chives

Bring 2 c. of chicken stock to a boil.  Add the dried mushrooms and cover.  Let sit for about 20 minutes, allowing the mushrooms to rehydrate.  Drain the liquid off of the mushrooms and reserve.  Pour the liquid into a quart measuring cup and add enough additional stock to make 3 1/2 cups.

Melt the butter and olive oil in a pressure cooker and add the onions.  Cook for about a minute or until softened and then add the rice.  Cook rice until slightly translucent.  Add the wine and cook until absorbed completely.  Add 3 1/2 cups of stock and white pepper.  Lock the lid on the pressure cooker and bring up to high pressure.  Cook for 5 minutes and then use a quick release method to bring pressure back to normal.  Open the lid and return pot to the burner.  Taste the rice for doneness and stir to allow the last remaining stock to be absorbed by the rice.  If the rice is chewy and the stock has all been absorbed, add a little extra stock and continue to cook until the rice is tender.  Stir in the cheese and taste for salt.  Sprinkle with the chives and serve immediately.

Note

If you do not have a pressure cooker and would like to make this recipe, use the same ingredients, but follow the instructions for Rock Shrimp Risotto.

Main Courses, Pressure Cooker Recipes, Recipes, Soups and Stews, Vegetarian Dishes

Potato Leek Soup

The lovely leek is a tricky little bugger.  While its cousin, the onion, smells fragrant and marvelous immediately upon entering the pan filled with butter or olive oil, the leek can be downright funky.  But the patient are always rewarded for their efforts, and the leeks become luscious and silken if you let them hang out and do their thing.  Crown this glory with white truffle oil and breadcrumbs toasted with a little butter and you are in for a real treat. Continue reading Potato Leek Soup →