“Life-Changing”?–Eh, Not So Much (Beef Stew)

I poked fun at the title of this recipe a few days ago on Facebook, but the truth was that I was already planning to make it.

I wouldn’t call it “life-changing,” but it certainly was easy.  And it turned out OK, not great, but part of that was my fault.

I didn’t thaw the stew beef first, and I was curious to see how the meat would do if I used the normal meat/stew setting (35 minutes after coming to pressure).  The answer was “not great.”  The meat was tough, though it was cooked on the inside. The veggies were perfect. The recipe suggested finishing the dish in the oven (I did 18 minutes at 375 degrees). I also threw in some leftover roasted potatoes I had from another meal (during the oven-finishing phase). I don’t think the potatoes changed the outcome at all, either way.

I wasn’t happy with the texture of the meat, and the sauce/gravy was just OK. It was a bit sweet, I guess from the sugar and tapioca. I could have used a bit more kick from garlic or cayenne or some herb mixture.

Overall I don’t think I’d make this again. I might try another beef stew recipe that looks better to me, or I might just stick with the slow cooker for stews.

A Whole Meal in the IP: Baja Pork Stew, Jasmine Rice, and Broccoli Florets

I haven’t gotten up the nerve to try cooking two dishes at the same time in the IP (veterans on Facebook call it PiP or Pot-in-Pot). But for last night’s dinner I staged the meal and cooked all three dishes in the IP, serving it up by 6 p.m.!

Step 1:  Veggies (Broccoli Florets)

I had some broccoli florets from Trader Joe’s that I needed to cook up.  I did it thusly, following advice from this site:

• 1 1/2 cups of water into the IP
• insert steamer basket
• Put broccoli into the steamer basket
• Lock and seal lid; push Steam button and set timer for 3 minutes
• Quick release when done.

I tossed the broccoli with some melted butter, garlic salt, and pepper, covered the dish and put it aside, and quickly rewarmed it in the microwave when it was time to serve dinner. I thought it was delicious. Same exact instructions for cauliflower florets, I take it.

Step 2: Jasmine Rice

I frequently cheat and buy microwavable frozen jasmine rice packets from Trader Joe’s, but I decided to try to make it myself. I looked up a bunch of different sites on this, and here’s what I did:

• 2 cups of water in the IP
• 2 cups* of jasmine rice, rinsed and then into the IP with the water
• Cook on Manual setting (high pressure) for 6 minutes**
• Natural release for ten minutes, then quick release
• Fluff rice with a fork

*I wanted extra rice for my leftovers (butter chicken and bourbon chicken, as well as my main course). For just one meal I’d stick with one cup rice and 1 cup water and reduce the time to 4-5 minutes.

**I actually cooked it for 5 minutes, but some of my rice was a bit hard and undercooked. With two cups of rice, I’ll try six minutes next time.

Step 3: Main Course (Baja Pork Loin Stew)

I used this recipe.  The original blog post is a bit to wade through, so here’s what I did.

1. In a bowl, mix 3/4 c. chili sauce, 2 T spicy brown mustard (Gulden’s), 2 T Worcestershire sauce, and 1 T maple syrup.
2. Cube a boneless pork loin (mine was around 1.4 lbs; the recipe calls for 1-2 lbs) and put it in the sauce to marinate, stirring to coat the cubed meat.  Cover the bowl and put it into the refrigerator. The recipe says to marinate it for at least 30 minutes; I actually left it in there for several hours, and it turned out great.
3. Heat 1 T olive oil in the IP on Saute. Then I added diced onion (supposed to be 1.5 cups for one large onion) and sauteed it, stirring, for a couple minutes (2-3 min., per the recipe).
4. Add peppers. I used 1.5 c. of the diced frozen pepper strips from Trader Joe’s and a fresh habanero pepper, which I seeded and chopped. (The recipe also calls for two chipotle peppers, diced, and 1 T adobe sauce. I misread and forgot the chipotle peppers. I’d use them next time, but it turned out great without them.)  Saute the peppers for a couple more minutes.
5. Peel a large sweet potato and slice off four thin slices. Cube the rest and put the cubes aside.  Add the four sweet potato slices to the peppers and onions along with 1/2 c. water; stir everything up.
6. Remove the cubed pork from the marinade and put into the IP on top of the peppers and onions mixture. (The recipe says “do not stir.”)
7. Close and seal the IP; cook for 8 minutes (Manual, high pressure). Then quick release the pressure.
8. Open the IP and add the cubed sweet potatoes. Add a bit of salt and pepper (about 1/8 tsp each).
9. Cook on high pressure for 5 more minutes and then quick release again.

I served the pork stew over rice; the recipe suggests egg noodles. I like rice better, and I thought the jasmine rice flavor paired well with the sweet/spicy pork stew.

I thought this meal was great. The pork stew was delicious and not that hard to make. The broccoli turned out perfect.

Shrimp Risotto

I’ve heard that the IP is fabulous for risotto, which I love. To try it out, I used a recipe I’d saved on Facebook (from a blog): 5-minute Shrimp Scampi Paella Risotto.  Love shrimp, love paella, love risotto.

I followed the recipe as written, including the writer’s strong recommendation to leave the shrimp in the shells while cooking, to get the flavors into the risotto.  The risotto part turned out great. I didn’t love the shrimp. For one thing, my husband hates peeling shrimp, so I peeled all of them after cooking, and since they were piping hot, this delayed getting dinner on the table and was messy and tedious. But I peeled them and put the shrimp back into the risotto.  I also found the shrimp a bit rubbery and bland.

I definitely will keep making risotto recipes in the IP. This turned out perfect. But I’m not sure about the shrimp–might be better to make it separately and mix it into the risotto at the end.

More from Laurel Randolph’s Book: Oatmeal & Fried Rice!

In my last post, I mentioned The Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook by Laurel Randolph. I made two more recipes out of it over the last week.  Again, I’m not typing out exact recipes out of respect for her copyright.

Steel-Cut Oatmeal

I decided to try oatmeal (which I adore and eat almost daily in the winter), using the Apple and Cinnamon Oatmeal recipe on p. 22.  It included steel-cut oats, chopped up and peeled fresh apple, cinnamon, and a bit of brown sugar. It cooked for 7 minutes–Manual setting–and then a 10-minute natural release.

I thought it tasted fine, though I found myself adding more brown sugar for topping–I wanted it a little sweeter.  It took a long time, though, and I’m not a big breakfast person, so I don’t know that I’d go to the trouble very often. Hubbs had a bowl, and I had a generous serving as leftovers a couple days later. I actually enjoyed it a bit more as leftovers.  So it was fine and the recipe worked perfectly, but I just don’t know that I loved it.

Fried Rice!

A few days ago, I made Faster-Than-Fast-Food Fried Rice (p. 63), to accompany orange-flavored chicken I was doing in the oven. A bit of background: I’m allergic to sesame and never eat at an Asian restaurant. This was an adult-onset allergy (mid-30s), and before that, we adored eating Chinese food. I loved the Panda Express Orange-Flavored Chicken, but I had a horrible allergic reaction from eating there. But I discovered that you can buy the orange sauce, bottled, at the checkstand there, and the sauce doesn’t have sesame. I found a recipe for Baked Orange Chicken, which I follow except that I use the Panda sauce instead of making my own. I’ve made this a number of times with great success.

I decided it would be fun to have fried rice to go with my orange chicken.  This recipe turned out great. Not much to it–white rice, water, salt, scallions/green onions, 2 eggs, and soy sauce.  You cook the rice, then push the steamed rice up the sides of the pot, leaving space at the bottom to cook the scallions and eggs on Saute.  You scramble the eggs and mix everything together and then throw in the soy sauce.

I thought it was great, and with the orange chicken, I really felt like I was eating Chinese food again.  The only downside was that the stuff stuck like crazy to the bottom of the pot and was a pain to clean. On a related note, I just found out from one of my IP Facebook groups that there’s a nonstick ceramic liner pot you can order. I ordered mine from the Instant Pot site (the Amazon site is severely back-ordered), and it should be here shortly ($29.95 with free shipping). This will be great for stickier stuff like the fried rice.

So I still think this cookbook is great, even if I didn’t love the oatmeal and my husband had to apply elbow grease to clean up after the fried rice. The recipes work perfectly so far.

P.S. I think I’m also going to experiment with making the orange chicken in the IP instead of the oven. I’d think the settings would be similar to the chicken tikka I made before.