Cultural Appropriation: It's What's For Dinner

A few years ago, I asked for an Ancestry.com membership for Christmas.  It didn't take too long before I realized that it wasn't very smart for me to ask for such a thing at that point in my life, when I had a very young child who never slept or sat still, but for a few months I did my best to enjoy it in what little free time I had.  I hope to pick up where I left off with it some day, but in the minimal research I was able to do then, I definitely learned something about myself.  I am white, y'all.  I'm the whitest white girl on the planet.  I'm whiter than rice on a paper plate.  At least that appeared to be the implication from what I've found so far.  I ordered Ancestry DNA kits for my dad and I a few days ago, and I'm really hopeful there will be some kind of bombshell surprise ethnicity in there, but that's probably unlikely, given what recent immigrants most of my ancestors are.  I will admit to being a little disappointed at being so monochromatic.  While I'm definitely proud of the people I descend from, all white is just kind of boring.

So who is this white girl to teach anyone to make Indian food?  Who is she to make Indian butter chicken and serve it over basmati pilaf with naan?  Who does she think she is stocking her pantry with garam masala and turmeric?  What an elitist bitch.

Ok, I'll make you a compromise.  I'll let someone who actually knows Indian food school you on the butter chicken, because hers is amazing and needs no improvement (https://twosleevers.com/now-later-butter-chicken-pressure-cooker/), and I'll handle the basmati.  Ask your friend, Trader Joe, to make the naan for you.  Some day, when I'm feeling like usurping someone's culture again, I'll teach you how to make pressure cooker chicken tikka masala to go with your basmati.  Mmmm....diversity is delicious.

Pressure Cooker Basmati Pilaf

I like my rice to have some chew, so this is not super soft when it's cooked.  I think you'd probably need to add a bit more water and maybe 1 more minute of cook time to get a softer texture.  But that is a guess on my part.

4 tsp. coconut oil
3 whole cloves
1 stick of cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 of a large onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
1 1/2 cups water
1 tsp. salt

Turn the pressure cooker to saute mode and add the coconut oil.  Once the oil is melted and hot, add the cloves and cinnamon stick.  Cook for about 2 minutes, until the spices are sizzling.  Add the cardamom and cumin and cook another minute or so.  Add the onion and cook until it is softened, another 2 or 3 minutes.  Stir in the basmati and cook for 2 or 3 more minutes in the hot oil, stirring frequently.  Add the water and salt and give it a good stir.  Lock on the lid and turn the pot to manual on high pressure and set for 4 minutes.  Once the cook time is over, do a quick pressure release.  Serve immediately and try not to bite into those whole cloves. :)

Winter Is Coming. No, really. It is.

When I say winter is coming, it's not a Game of Thrones reference.  I've never even seen that show because I suspect it has way too much gratuitous blood and boobs to interest me.  No, I mean winter really is just around the corner.  Are you prepared?  Are you stocked up on freeze-proof washer fluid and pet safe sidewalk salt?  Do you have Pinterest-worthy crafts on hand for the inevitable cabin fever that will overcome the kids when school gets called off for half an inch of snow for 3 days in a row?  Have you pulled all the tank tops and maxi dresses out of your closet, to be replaced by sweaters and wellies for sloshing around in half melted snow?  Ugh.  What a wretched, soul-sucking season.  Thank goodness for warm bowls of homemade soup.

But perhaps you never learned to make homemade soup.  Perhaps it all just seemed like too much work, what with the long simmering and occasional stirring and all.  Well, have I got great news for you!  Turns out your pressure cooker makes throwing together a pot of hearty, steaming hot broccoli cheese soup so easy, it's even less work than driving your ass to Panera to go through the drive-thru.  Especially those of you who, like me, have young children that you'd have to bring with you if you left the house in search of soup.  I mean, think about it.  Do you want to remind everyone to go potty and/or change diapers, ask them 800 times to please, for the love of all that is holy, just pick a flippin' pair of socks and shoes already and put them on, get screamed at when you turn off Bubble Guppies before the episode is over, and then finally wrestle everyone into their carseats?  Or do you want to cut up an onion and a few crowns of broccoli and then run your pressure cooker for 8 minutes?  Because that would literally be the choice I would be facing.

When I first started imagining how this soup would come together, it seemed pretty straightforward in my head.  I read a few recipes online to get some ideas and do you know one version called for 2 cups of half and half and 1 measly cup of broccoli?  No kidding.  I submit to that person that their recipe ought to be called cream of half and half soup with broccoli garnish.  But I digress.   I imagined my version to be thickened with a flour and butter roux.  But then I remembered all of the warnings I've read about how you never EVER thicken anything you make in the pressure cooker until after it's been cooked.  I'm not sure what happens if you thicken first, but, given the dire warnings I've seen, it apparently involves some sort of opening of the gates of hell from which chaos and evil rain down upon your children and your children's children.  Or maybe the pot never comes to pressure; I don't know.  At any rate, the advice was duly noted, and that's why I went for a non-traditional cornstarch thickener at the end.  I briefly considered still making a roux in a separate skillet like I do for my potato soup, but this was super easy and gave the desired endpoint with very little fuss.  "Very little fuss" is the key phrase for this recipe in general.  Just the way Instant Potheads like it.      

There now.  We're all one step closer to being ready for winter.

Pressure Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup

I used my 6 qt Instant Pot and this made a nice quantity for 4 people.  I used fresh broccoli, but I'm guessing frozen would work out fine with possibly a small sacrifice in flavor.  I also used homemade stock because I had homemade veggie stock in the freezer that I had made in the Instant Pot previously, but you can certainly use canned broth.  Thanks to my friend Sue, I've recently become a fan of Better than Bouillon instead of canned broth.  That would be a good choice, too.  Chicken broth is fine if you don't need your soup to be vegetarian.  For the milk, I used evaporated because I like that it doesn't break when you stir it into the hot soup.  You can use 2% or whole milk instead if you want, but you always run a little risk of it looking curdled.

2 Tbs. butter
1 small onion, diced
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 to 2 lbs. broccoli, cut into large florets and stems cut into 1/2" slices
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 cups water
8 oz. mild cheddar cheese, grated  (I prefer to buy a block and grate it myself for better melting)
8 oz. cream cheese, cubed  (that's 1 whole block)
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 tsp. cornstarch

Turn the pot to saute and add the butter.  When the butter is melted, add the onion and the 1/2 tsp. salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add the broccoli, stock, and water.  Put the lid on the pot and cook on manual for 8 minutes.  Do a quick pressure release and then turn the pot back to saute.  Stir in the cheeses a little at a time. Keep stirring until they are completely melted.  Whisk together the cornstarch and milk until smooth.  Slowly stir in the milk mixture and continue stirring until the soup thickens.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

If a Lasagna Falls Into a Pressure Cooker and No One is There to Put it in Layers, is it Still a Lasagna?

You would never know it if you walked into my house now, but I like things to be very neat and tidy.  I hate clutter.  And messes.  I like everything in its place, and I love organization.  Then I became a mother to 2 young children who hate to sleep.  Now my house, and my person, perpetually look as though they have just been ransacked.  I'm too tired to try to tame the shitstorm that develops every day, so I just try to ride it out and make sure my kids are still alive at the end of the day.  I've had to reach a place where I can at least tolerate, if not appreciate, a little chaos and messiness.

This is even evident in my cooking.  Back in the days of entertaining friends as a young, childless wife, if I had been asked to make a lasagna, I would've made a long simmered Bolognese sauce and lovingly layered it with a béchamel sauce and perfectly par-cooked lasagna noodles.  It would've been a thing of beauty.  But a lot of things in my life are a lot less beautiful now.  (Not my kids though; they're flipping adorable.)  So have I come to tolerate enough chaos and clutter that I can abide by a pile of lasagna components in a big sloppy mess on my plate?  Heck yeah, I can.  Well rested people can boil lasagna noodles and patiently layer them into a masterpiece while sipping a fine Chianti.  The rest of us can break uncooked noodles into pieces and chuck them into a pressure cooker while we refill a plastic cup of boxed wine from Target.  When your life is messy, I think it's totally cool if your food is, too.

Deconstructed Pressure Cooker Lasagna

I used my 8 quart Instant Pot and made a lot of this because I was feeding 4 adults plus wanting leftovers for lunches.  So this makes a lot, as written.  To use a 6 quart cooker, cut the ingredients in half (including the water) but keep the cooking time the same.  If you use Italian sausage, expect that you may need to drain the grease after you cook the meat.  That can be slightly annoying, so if that step bothers you, just use a very lean ground beef and you shouldn't need to drain it, but the flavor is obviously a bit more interesting with the sausage in there.  FYI, I think this would be great with a bunch of curly leaf spinach thrown in after cooking and wilted down briefly.  Definitely going to try that next time.

1 Tbs. oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 yellow and 1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic
1 lb. lean ground beef  (or 2 lbs. if you're not using Italian sausage)
1 lb. Italian sausage  (optional)
28 oz. diced tomatoes seasoned with basil, oregano, and garlic (do not drain)
24 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce of your choosing
4 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt
1 lb. lasagna noodles, uncooked and broken into approx. 1" to 2" pieces
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese

Turn the pressure cooker on saute mode and add the oil.  Once the oil is very hot, add the onion and bell peppers and cook about 5 minutes until the onions are softened.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add the meat and cook until no longer pink.  Drain away the grease, if needed.  Add in the diced tomatoes and their juice, spaghetti sauce, water, salt, and uncooked lasagna noodles.  Give it a good stir so that all the noodles aren't sitting in a big pile on top of each other or they may stick together.  I like to try to get them as submerged in the liquid as possible.  Lock on the lid and change from saute mode to manual and cook on high pressure for 4 minutes, then do a quick pressure release.

Stir in the Parmesan and mozzarella cheese until well distributed and melted.  Add salt to taste, dollop spoonfuls of the ricotta on top, and serve.

Meat and Potatoes: Their Greatest Hits, Disc 1

I haven't mentioned my Grandma, Marguerite, much on this blog yet, but she was the central inspiration for my other blog, Vintage Kitchen Recipes.  She was a wonderful person, and an exceptional cook.  She and my Grandpa, Otto, were a great team in the kitchen, and I think they loved nothing more than feeding us and my uncle's family a big meal on Sundays.  Almost every weekend, and certainly every holiday, we were there, and they were feeding us.  Playing with my cousins at their house and then everyone sitting around the dining room table enjoying whatever delicious meal they had created are my very best childhood memories.  Boy, do I miss those 2 people.  (Sniff.)

There are many foods I associate with my Grandma.  She made a fantastic lasagna, which I'm sure incorporated her amazing homemade Italian tomato sauce.  (See my other blog for a recipe for the sauce!)  My dad still dreams of her pork roast, and I haven't been able to successfully replicate that one yet, despite some valiant efforts.  There was a cake she often made for our birthdays that was like a Boston Cream Pie that was amazing, and I could go on and on.  But if there was a gathering where friends or my mom's side of the family would be there and they knew Marguerite was coming, the one thing they were all going to request was BRISKET.  She was truly the brisket queen.  Once she was gone, (and she was mentally gone even before she was gone physically) I took up the brisket banner and carried it on in her place.  She wrote the recipe out for me by hand (what a treasure that is), and I've made it often, relishing a chance to read her handwriting and relive such wonderful memories.  Mine tastes just like hers, so it makes me feel like a bit of her lives on through my coking.  The brisket queen is dead; long live the brisket queen.

And then came my Instant Pot.  And it dawned on me that that sucker was MADE for brisket.  A tough cut that needs a ton of cooking to be enjoyable?  Not anymore, sucker.  Move over, oven.  Get lost, roasting pan.  This was, in fact, the day that I fell in love with my Instant Pot.  I had no idea what I was making for dinner.  It was already after noon when I found myself digging through the freezer, looking for inspiration.  I found the chunk of brisket and thought, what the hell.  I'll take a stab at converting Grandma's recipe, which is a multi day ordeal, what with the marinading, cooking, cooling, slicing, rewarming, etc.  Turns out I did it in 90 minutes total, and it was every bit as good as hers.  I was almost as impressed with myself as I was with the pot.

Like a lot of things I make, this is very versatile.  You can put it on a crusty roll to make sandwiches out of it.  You could opt for shredding the meat more as opposed to slicing and eat it over egg noodles or mashed potatoes.  My Grandma's original recipe had mushrooms, but we've been over how those make me want to vomit, so naturally I omit them.  But, hey, if they don't make you want to vomit, you could toss some of those in there.  You could roast some baby potatoes and carrots and eat it almost like a pot roast.  The sauce is more thin like a jus than it is thick like a gravy, but it would still work.  Go nuts.  Make extra if you want; it's fabulous left over.  Speaking of that gravy...good golly.  I'm not sure I can even think of a superlative that is appropriate.  I could just drink it with a straw.

I'm a huge fan of the traditional meat and potatoes pairing.  Tonight when I made the brisket, I took the opportunity to use an America's Test Kitchen recipe for smashed potatoes as a basis for a pressure cooker version of smashed potatoes.  Super easy, super delicious, and perfect with the brisket.  Hopefully they don't sue my ass for posting it.

Since I got mine, I've often wondered what my Grandma would've made of this electric pressure cooker trend.  She wasn't much into new fangled things.  One year my dad got her a cordless phone as a gift so that she could take the phone out with her when she worked in the yard.  It was back in the days of having to pull out the antenna when you answered.  The image of her attempting to use it with the antenna pointing down as she yelled into the earpiece (and the laughter that ensued from the rest of us) will forever be burned into my brain.  So I have a feeling all the buttons and the beeping and such would've been a bit much for her.  But I have no doubt she would be super proud of the meals I've churned out of mine.  But then again, she was proud of everything I did.  One year, as I tried fruitlessly to think of a good idea of something to give her for Christmas, my mom said, "You could wrap a turd in foil and she'd say, 'well, you made it yourself!'"


Pressure Cooker Brisket with Onion Gravy

I used my 6 quart Instant Pot.  This makes a lot of gravy, so you could do a bigger chunk of meat if you want, but cut it into several pieces to keep the cooking time the same.  Either that or bump your cooking time up.  The 2 1/2 lb. brisket will easily feed 4 to 6 people.  This is really good leftover, too.  

2 1/2 lb. (give or take) brisket, cut in half
Accent flavor enhancer
Meat tenderizer powder
Granulated garlic
2 tsp. oil
1/2 large onion, sliced
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup beef broth
1 can beef gravy
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix
1/2 cup Italian dressing

Sprinkle the brisket all over with Accent, meat tenderizer, and garlic.  No need to measure; just sprinkle liberally.  Mix the canned gravy, onion soup mix, and dressing together; set aside.

Heat the oil in the pressure cooker on saute mode.  Once the oil is hot, add the onions and cook until browned and some fond is on the bottom of the pot, about 5 to 8 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about a minute.  Pour in the broth and scrape up the fond from the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon.  Add the brisket pieces to the pot and pour in the gravy mixture.  Put the lid on and turn the pot on to manual set for 75 minutes.  After the cooking time is over, allow a 10 minute natural pressure release, and then remove the brisket from the gravy.  Let the brisket rest for a few minutes before slicing.  Return to the gravy and serve.  The meat may shred apart as opposed to making nice slices unless you let it sit and cool for a while.  Or, if you really want nice, neat slices, I suggest you cook it a day before you need it and refrigerate it overnight.  Then, to reheat it, just put the gravy and the sliced meat in a sauce pan and heat it on the stove top.

Pressure Cooker Smashed Potatoes

I used my 6 quart Instant Pot.  I just want to say again in hopes that they don't take me to court for posting this, I based this recipe very closely on an America's Test Kitchen recipe.  I'm not going to do what a certain popular food blogger does and just barely tweak a recipe and then pass it off as if it's mine.  I won't name names. :)

2 1/2 to 3 lbs. small red potatoes, washed but not peeled, and make sure you cut out any bad spots
1 cup water
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. salt
1 stick of butter
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, well softened
3 Tbs. fresh chives, chopped

Turn the pressure cooker on to saute mode and add the stick of butter.  Melt the butter completely and then pour it into a large serving bowl.  You can rinse out the pressure cooker pot if you want, or don't.  Whatevs.  Add the water, bay leaf, and salt to the pot.  Insert the trivet and pile all of the potatoes on top.  Lock on the lid and set to manual for 12 minutes.  While the potatoes are cooking, add the cream cheese to the serving bowl with the melted butter and do your best to whisk it together.  It may look a little curdled or separated, and that's ok.  When the cooking time is up, do a quick pressure release.

Remove the potatoes and trivet from the pressure cooker.  Scoop out 1/4 cup of the hot water from the bottom of the pressure cooker pot and add it to the butter and cream cheese mixture in the serving bowl (make sure you don't grab the bay leaf in your scoop o' water).  Whisk again until the mixture is about the consistency of runny sour cream.  Whisk in the chives.  Add the hot potatoes to the serving bowl with the cream cheese mixture and smash each potato with a stiff wooden spoon.  Smash as much or as little as you want.  I like to leave some really big chunks of potato intact.  Add pepper and adjust the salt to taste.  Stir until well combined.

15 is My Limit on Schnitzengruben

I'm guessing every family has those people who are known for certain dishes.  The ones that make the best, most delicious version of "whatever" that it's just a given that no one else but them makes it in the event of a family gathering.  In my family, my Aunt Linda makes the best apple pie.  (Check out my other blog to learn her method: http://vintagekitchenrecipes.blogspot.com/ )  My Aunt Kathy makes amazing fruit salad.  My Grandma Marguerite, among other things, was the brisket queen.  And I?  I make the German potato salad.  I am the potato salad Jedi, and you are my padawans.  Let's begin.  First, don your finest tutu.

Ok, that part is optional.  But it is my daughter's preferred method.

I love German food.  Sausages, schnitzel, potatoes, pretzels, beer.....lots and lots of beer.  Then more pretzels.  One of the joys of my husband's active duty Army years was that you were never too far from good German food.  Near an Army base you can always find it.  But I was never going to get potato salad at a German restaurant because that was something I could make an excellent version of on my own.  I'd leave it to them to cook me the things I didn't know how to make.  So, is my recipe authentic?  Beats me.  I mean, it's got Miracle Whip in it, so probably not.  But it's tasty, and it's by far one of my most requested dishes when I'm being asked to bring something to share to a big gathering.  

When I first got my Instant Pot and saw that people were cooking the potatoes for potato salad in their pressure cooker, I immediately knew I wanted to convert my own recipe, and it did not disappoint!  If the only thing I ever used my IP for as long as I owned it was to make this recipe, it would still be worth it just to avoid peeling and cutting up a bunch of burning hot potatoes.  Now you can peel and cut ahead of time, cook your hard boiled eggs right along with potatoes, and then continue on by cooking the dressing right in the pot using the saute mode.  Sehr gut, ja?

Pressure Cooker German Potato Salad

I used my 6 quart Instant Pot and an Oxo Steamer basket.  I prefer red potatoes for this recipe, but I like Yukon Golds pretty well also.  No russets.  I don't feel like they hold up to the cooking well enough. If you like really eggy potato salad, throw in a third egg.  Start with 1/2 cup of sugar and you can add more during the taste test at the end, if needed.

1 cup water
2 1/2 to 3 lbs. potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes around 1/4" to 1/2"
2 or 3 eggs
half of a medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
salt and pepper to taste
12 oz. package bacon, diced
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 Tbs. Miracle Whip

Pour the water into the pressure cooker.  Insert a steamer basket into the pot and add the potatoes.  Place the eggs on top of the potatoes and put the lid on the pot.  Cook on manual for 4 minutes and then do a quick pressure release.  Remove the eggs.  I like to immediately crack them when they come out and then put them in an ice water bath.  This both stops the cooking process and makes them easier to peel.  Peel and chop the eggs.  Remove the steamer basket from the pot and put the potatoes into a large serving bowl.  Add the eggs, onion, sugar, salt, and pepper to the potatoes and stir gently, making sure not to mash up the potatoes too much.

Dump out the remaining water from the pressure cooker pot and turn on saute mode.  Add the diced bacon and cook until the bacon is crispy.  Do not drain the grease.  With saute mode still on, add the vinegar and Miracle Whip to the bacon and grease.  Stir until it is well combined and bubbly.  Pour the hot bacon mixture over the potatoes and stir until the potatoes are all well coated with the dressing.  Give it a taste and adjust your sugar, salt, and pepper accordingly.  Serve warm or room temperature.

I Love Things that Start with the Word "Lazy"

Recently there was a really great sale on the Instant Pot on Amazon, and I personally had a part in talking somewhere around 7 people into buying one.  A couple of us who use ours a lot teamed up to deliver an irrefutable list of talking points on why they are so indispensable to the modern home cook.  I'm starting to feel like the big wigs at the Instant Pot company owe us some manner of commission or stock option, because let me tell you, we can take the most hesitant potential consumer, wow her with promises of quick meals and homemade stock, and have that girl guzzling the figurative pressure cooker Kool-Aid within several days of getting her pot out of the box.  Welcome to the cult, bitches.

So, here's the thing:  I'm lazy about a great many things, but almost never is one of those things cooking.  Cooking is my greatest passion and joy.  It's where I love to put my energy.  My laziness comes across in other places like, say, my appearance.  Putting on makeup?  Styling my hair?  That sounds like a lot of effort.  But even I need quick meals that require a minimal amount of effort.  I just still want them to taste homemade.  Recently I had plans to make Mark Bittman's excellent Vegetables au Vin with Coq from his Food Matters Cookbook.  I had yet to start paring up the green beans or anything when all of a sudden it was 4:45.  I was home alone with 2 kids, one of which says, "mommy, watch this!" every time she even sticks her tongue out, and one of which is 1 year old and is the biggest shit disturber on the planet.  I was NOT getting that meal made and I knew it.  So now it's approaching 5:00 and I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner.  So I took the chicken that I had thawed to be the coq in my coq au vin and just threw it in the pressure cooker with some broth, BBQ rub, and sauce.  I got out my second Instant Pot and made pressure cooker macaroni and cheese (which is so amazingly good and easy it's *criminal,* you guys), added a veggie, and voila!  Dinner was made.  But the key is, it didn't taste like something prepackaged and full of mystery ingredients.  It didn't taste like a frozen bag of something that was cooked in the microwave.  It tasted like something I made.  Because it was!  Just because you need your meal to be ready fast doesn't mean it can't be great.  And, sometimes I need to remind myself, just because you love to cook, doesn't mean you have to invest a ton of effort to end up with something tasty.  We can all be lazy once in a while.

Lazy (Wo)Man's BBQ Pulled Chicken

Use a store bought BBQ rub if you want to be truly lazy.  I used my 6 quart Instant Pot and have doubled this recipe with great success.  If you want to double, keep the cooking time the same but double everything else.  I've used combinations of dark and white meat and just used the same cooking time for all of them and they've come out great.  I don't think there's any need to be too finicky with the cooking time because there's plenty of liquid to keep things from drying out.  If you're using breasts and they're huge (heh heh, huge breasts...) cut them into 2 or 3 smaller pieces.

1/2 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thighs, or tenderloins
1 Tbs. BBQ dry rub--my recipe follows, if you're not feeling *too* lazy
1/4 to 1/2 cup BBQ sauce

PAY ATTENTION CLASS, this is difficult.  Pour the broth into the pressure cooker.  Add the chicken and sprinkle on the BBQ rub.  Pour in the BBQ sauce.  Put the lid on and set to manual for 10 minutes, then allow a natural pressure release for 10 minutes.  Remove the chicken and turn the pot to sauté to reduce the sauce a bit.  Shred the chicken while the sauce is simmering and add it back once the sauce is at the consistency you like.  Listen to your children complain that they don't like BBQ sauce.  Try not to be too mean when you tell them you guess they're just going to be hungry, then eat their portion with gusto because it's so damn good.  It's like I've got a flippin' crystal ball, right?

All Purpose BBQ Dry Rub

This recipe makes way more than you need for just the BBQ chicken, but it keeps almost forever and is good on any kind of meat, so I like to make a lot and just keep it in an airtight container.  This is a great time to use good quality spices, when you're *really* going to taste them.  I love Penzey's spices.  Their Mexican oregano, smoked paprika, and chili powder are all dynamite.  And if you happen to have smoked salt, YES.

2 Tbs. smoked paprika
2 Tbs. sweet paprika
2 Tbs. chili powder
2 Tbs. cumin
3 Tbs. dark brown sugar
2 Tbs. salt
1 Tbs. oregano
1 Tbs. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. cayenne pepper

Well Kids, When a Banh Mi and a French Dip Sandwich Love Each Other Very Much....

Do you ever wonder where people get their ideas for new recipes?  I do.  Like those recipe videos your friends are always sharing on Facebook--I saw one once where they made monkey bread out of canned cinnamon rolls.  The one my mom made when I was growing up used canned biscuits.  But instead, this video showed the obligatory mysterious pair of hands doing the slow motion pull-apart of gooey cinnamon roll bites, icing dripping down the sides.  Why didn't I think of that???  Why haven't I done it yet???  Why am I not doing it RIGHT NOW????  I didn't think of it because creativity is not my thing.  The only way I'm going to get a good idea is to steal it from someone else.  Which brings me to this sandwich.

My family just came back from a trip to Hawaii.  Most of my vacations result in at least one amazing food memory; the one that sticks out in my mind above all others.  The authentic boeuf bourguignon I had in France the first time I went there, for example, or the picnic lunch of fresh baguette and cider that my husband accidentally sprayed all over me when I went back years later, the amazing fried chicken with a drizzle of honey from the Bryce Canyon Lodge, the freshly caught and prepared shrimp I had on the beach in Honduras after an ocean kayaking trip......the list goes on and on.  I'm fortunate to have seen, and eaten in, some amazing places.  This trip we cooked at our rental home for almost every meal because, in case you've been living under a rock and don't know it, Hawaii is really damned expensive.  The days were dwindling down and, despite how super cool it was to watch my brother and husband hack open a fresh coconut right out of the backyard while my daughter squealed with delight, no food memory in regards to an actual meal had yet been made.  Luckily, at what was quite literally the final hour of our trip, before heading to the airport, I had a sandwich so good, I resolved to go home and recreate it.  I've been home less than a week and I already gave it a whirl.  I guess you could say it made an impression.  I will give credit where it is due, to the amazing chef at Uncle Bo's in Haleiwa, Hawaii on the north shore of Oahu.  I believe he called his version the Mekong Dip.  It was so amazingly good.  It seemed to have a bit of a Vietnamese flair to it (although our server told me the chef is from Laos, so it's probably more likely that I don't understand the subtle differences between Vietnamese and Laotian food).  My version ended up tasting more Thai-ish, which is unsurprising to me, given that I am a fanatic for Thai food.  The overall concept, however, is still the one I stole from Uncle Bo, which can be stated as the following:  what if a banh mi did it with a french dip, and they had little bastard sandwich babies?

I was totally winging it, and I have to say, I'm pretty proud of my first effort.  The "dip" part of mine tastes a lot like tom kha gai soup, in my opinion.  I'm sure mine is never going to be as good as Uncle Bo's, so I'ma name mine the Tom Kha Gai Dip.  If you want to get tipsy, pair it with an Incline Cider Company Lemongrass Cider, or a Kona Brewing Company Lemongrass Luau.  Yay for stealing other people's creativity!  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go buy 4 cans of cinnamon rolls.

Pressure Cooker Tom Kha Gai Dip

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 cans unsweetened coconut milk, divided
2 Tbs. prepared red curry paste
2 tsp. brown sugar
2 kaffir lime leaves, dried
a generous handful of fresh cilantro--leave the stems attached so it's easier to fish out after cooking
1 Tbs. fish sauce
1 lime, juiced
salt to taste (I used a little less than 1/2 tsp.)

4 crusty rolls

Possible Garnishes

sliced fresh tomato, cucumber, yellow or white onion, jalapeno, red bell pepper
fresh bean sprouts
fresh cilantro or basil

Whisk together one can of the coconut milk with the curry paste and brown sugar.  Add the chicken to the pressure cooker, along with the cilantro and lime leaves.  Pour in the coconut milk / curry paste mixture.  Put the lid on the cooker and set to manual for 10 minutes.  Allow a natural pressure release for 10 minutes and then release any remaining pressure and open the pot.  Use tongs to remove the chicken and set it aside.  Remove the cilantro and kaffir lime leaves and discard them.  Turn the pot to saute and whisk in the remaining can of coconut milk and fish sauce.  You just need the sauce to get hot again after adding the room temperature can of coconut milk; it won't take long.  While the sauce is reheating, shred the chicken.  After the sauce is hot, remove it from the heat and stir in the lime juice and salt to taste.  Build the sandwiches using a good hard roll with a nice, crusty exterior that won't immediately fall apart when you dip it.  Pile on some chicken and your garnishes of choice.  Serve with a little bowl of the coconut curry sauce, dip, and nosh.

Make Tomorrow Taco (Soup) Tuesday!

I have a marvelous soup recipe for you.  What I don't have is sparkling wit and insightful commentary.  No funny stories.  No relatable anecdotes.  I got nothing.  I drank 2 martinis and more than a full bottle of wine on Saturday night and I swear my brain is still fried.  I went out to the front of the restaurant I was at when they closed at 1 am to wait for my cab, reached into my purse and pulled out the half-full bottle of wine that my friend and I still had on our table when they closed the place down.  I don't even remember putting it there, and I'm pretty sure I broke the law by carrying it out of there.  But you better believe we drank it from the bottle while we sat on the curb and waited for our ride, because we are classy bitches.  You can take the girl outta north St. Louis county.... 

So, yeah.  I think I'm still recovering from that outing.  I was still functional enough to make this recipe perfectly on the first try, but that must have used up the last of my operational brain cells.  Therefore, bon appetit.  Hopefully I'll recover some semblance of writing ability in the near future.

 
By the way, I just want you to know, it's hard to take a good picture of soup.  Granted, I don't really take very good pictures of anything, but soup is particularly hard.  My husband and I both absolutely devoured this, and the best picture I could take makes it look a bowl of barf.  So pardon how unattractive this looks.  I promise it is very tasty.

Pressure Cooker Taco Soup with Cilantro-Lime Sour Cream

Notes:  I used my 6 quart Instant Pot.  I call for fresh corn, but you could easily substitute canned or frozen corn.  I just love the crunch of the fresh stuff, and since it's still plentiful right now, I went for it.  I always fry (or sometimes bake) my own tortilla strips, but you could certainly use a bag of tortilla chips.  They don't hold up as well, but I understand what it's like to be busy. :)  Don't drain the cans of Rotel.  I used fire roasted, but choose any version you like.  Also, don't soak your beans.  Both the dried beans and the meat have a similar cooking time and will come out perfect together.

2 tsp. oil
half of a large onion, chopped
half of a large poblano pepper, diced
salt
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 lbs. round steak, cut into small (~1/2") cubes
2 (10 oz.) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, such as Rotel
1/2 lb. dried black beans
1/2 lb. dried pinto beans
4 cups water
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 pkg. ranch dressing mix
1 (15 oz.) can cream style corn
2 ears of fresh corn on the cob, corn kernels cut off

1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. lime zest
2 Tbs. fresh cilantro
pinch of salt

Possible toppings:
shredded cheddar or monterey jack cheese
tortilla chips or fried tortilla strips
diced avocado
chopped green onion
fresh lime wedges

For the cilantro-lime sour cream, combine the sour cream, lime zest, cilantro, and pinch of salt in a food processor and process until cilantro is completely chopped and incorporated.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the soup, turn the pressure cooker to saute mode and add the oil.  Once the oil is hot, add the onion, poblano pepper, and a pinch of salt.  Cook until the onions and peppers are softened.  Add the garlic and cook for a minute or so until fragrant.  Add the round steak, Rotel (with its juices), beans, water, taco seasoning, and dressing mix.  Cook on high pressure for 55 minutes.  Do a natural pressure release for 10 minutes, then finish with a quick release. 

Stir in the cream corn and fresh corn and heat through.  If you're adding frozen corn, you'll probably want to turn on saute mode to make sure it heats through.  If you're adding fresh or canned corn, the soup will probably already be hot enough to heat the corn without turning the pot back on.  Serve with the cilantro-lime sour cream and other desired toppings.

Cheese, Pasta, and Moar Cheese! Disgusting Fungus, Optional

STOP THE PRESSES.  My daughter ate what I made for dinner tonight!  It was probably only about 6 bites, but still.  She's not quite 4, and about as big around as my pinky finger, so that was probably enough to fill her up anyway.  It's a big deal when she eats things I've cooked from scratch, though, whether it's 6 bites or a hundred.  I've tried to get her more interested in eating homemade foods by getting her involved in making them.  She really is becoming my little kitchen buddy.  She helps measure, dump, stir, and is happy to sample certain fresh ingredients to make sure they're tasty.  She's even learning to crack eggs.  You would think being so invested in the meal prep should make her excited to try it when it's done.  And you would be wrong. 

 Usually she declares, before ever trying a bite, that she doesn't like it (whatever "it" is), and ends up eating a hot dog as I shed a silent tear.  "But Violet, you  helped me make this!  Remember when you helped me dump the <insert ingredient name here> in and stir it up?"  "I don't LIKE it," she says, in her little super sass-mouth way that leaves me both snickering and infuriated.  Kids are such assholes.

Tonight, things were backwards.  She didn't help me with any meal prep at all.  She was too busy "making crafts," i.e. scribbling furiously and claiming that somewhere in her chicken scratch was a drawing of a sea monster who lives in a castle at the top of a beanstalk and inexplicably has mashed potatoes on top of his head.  "Isn't that so silly, mommy?"  But then she DID try what I cooked.  And--wait for it--she said, "mommy, thank you for making this yummy supper," in a sweet, dainty voice.  Aww....kids aren't always assholes, thank goodness.

And she was right; it was yummy.  If you like fully intact, crisp-tender chunks of broccoli, this is not for you.  If you want to feel like you're eating broccoli cheese soup-covered noodles, pull up a chair.  I love recipes that I can tweak, and this is nicely tweakable.  Change the pasta type to rotini or penne, maybe.  Leave out the asiago if it's not your favorite and bump up the amount of one of the other cheeses.  Shred up some rotisserie chicken to toss on top after you serve.  Put in more broccoli.  Put in less broccoli.  Your family hates fancy cheese that vaguely tastes of sheep but loves Velveeta so that's the only cheese you're going to put in?  You do you, babe.  I'm not here to judge your cheese choices.  Live and let live, and all that.  If you make a homemade dinner for your family, you're already doing well in my eyes.

P.S.  I HATE mushrooms.  Hate. Them.  I'm told they're perfect for this.  I'll have to take my mom and my husband's word for it.  Because there was no way I was going to cook the entire dish with mushrooms in it, I sauteed them in a skillet and let the fungus lovers add their own after serving.  I do not know how it would work out if you threw raw mushrooms in your instant pot, so don't even ask me if you can do that.  You're on your own there. Side note:  I suspect that would taste like shit.  Because mushrooms.

Four Cheese Pasta with Broccoli

Note: I started with blocks of cheese and grated them fresh on a microplane grater.  This is my favorite way to cook with cheese because I think the flavor is better.  If you're going to start with pre-grated cheeses, measure them out by weight, because freshly grated hard cheeses are super fluffy and might measure differently in a measuring cup than pre-grated would.  Pecorino romano and asiago are both strongly flavored cheeses.  Real pecorino romano is especially full of character.  It's made from sheep's milk and is very salty and kind of pungent.  I think it's awesome, but it's worth admitting that it's not for everyone.  If you find an American version it will most likely be made of cow's milk and taste milder, so keep that in mind.  I used my 6 qt. Instant Pot.

1 lb. pasta--I usually use shells
4 cups water
4 Tbs. butter, cut into a few pieces
1 tsp. salt
12 oz. broccoli, cut into large florets
1/2 oz. pecorino romano cheese, grated (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 oz. asiago cheese, grated (about 1/2 cup)
1 oz. parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
4 oz. fontina cheese, grated (about 2 cups)
4 oz. processed cheese, like Velveeta, cubed
12 oz. evaporated milk--you may only need part of the can
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
pepper, to taste
10 oz. mushrooms, optional

Add the uncooked pasta, water, butter, and salt to the pot.  Scatter the broccoli over the top.  Cover and set on manual on high pressure for 4 minutes, then do a quick pressure release.  Turn to saute mode and begin to slowly add evaporated milk and cheeses, stirring constantly.  If you feel like it's getting too hot and starting to stick, just turn the pot off and use the residual heat to finish melting the cheese.  You'll likely need most of the can of milk, but maybe not all.  Add until you've got a consistency you like.  Add garlic powder and pepper to taste and stir to combine. 

No Carb Left Behind!!!

It's the weekend.  That means I indulge.  It means cocktails, or ice cream, or homemade tortilla chips.  It means cinnamon rolls for breakfast, nachos for lunch, steak with a big dollop of herbed butter on top for dinner, and German chocolate cake for dessert.  Some people go out to eat on the weekend.  I, on the other hand, usually have 3 or 4 decadent, fattening recipes on deck, waiting for a turn to be tinkered with.  I don't have TIME to eat out most weekends.  I have too many things I want to cook.

Enter this loaded potato soup, and it's carby, calorie-laden goodness.  It screams weekend.  (It also screams winter, but screw that.  That's still a long way away.  I can eat soup on a hot day if it's this good.)  It's got bacon and butter and cheese and cream.  It's terrible for you, and I will not apologize for that.  You've been warned.  Luckily, after you eat it, you won't care.

Pressure Cooker Loaded Potato Soup

A few notes:  I used my 8 quart Instant Pot for this recipe, and it was fairly full.  I'm guessing it would all fit in a 6 qt., but it would be a close call.  You could cut the recipe in half without too much trouble to make sure it will fit into a 6 qt. cooker if you're concerned about it.  (The recipe as written makes a LOT, anyway.)  Keep the cooking time the same.  This is a lot of liquid, so it will take a few minutes to come to pressure.

1 lb. bacon, diced

4-5 stalks celery, diced

1 medium (or half of a large) onion, diced

5 lbs. red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into small cubes, about 1/4" (you can peel them if you want; I didn't)

4 cups water

4 cups milk

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground black pepper

12 Tbs. (1 1/2 sticks) butter

1 cup flour

2 cups heavy cream

crumbled bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, and sliced green onions for garnish

Add the bacon, celery, and onion to the pressure cooker and turn it to saute mode.  Cook until the vegetables are softened and the bacon is cooked through.  Add the potatoes, water, milk, salt, and pepper to the pot.  Set the cooker to manual on high pressure for 8 minutes.  

When the 8 minutes is up, do a natural pressure release for 10 minutes and then vent the remaining pressure.  Have a towel handy, because it's a full pot and will probably spit a little bit.  During the natural pressure release time, melt the butter in a 10" skillet.  Add the flour to the melted butter to make a roux and cook until the mixture bubbles, stirring constantly.  Take the roux off heat once it has bubbled for a minute or 2. Once the pressure has released and you can take the lid off of the pot, turn the pot to saute and slowly stir in the roux.  (The soup may look a little curdled at this stage; it will come back together after thickening and blending).  Cook and stir until the soup thickens, then turn the pot off.  Stir in the cream.  Use a stick (immersion) blender to blend the soup completely.  Serve and top with your desired garnishes.  Roll yourself from the table to the couch and spend the next hour or so in a carb stupor.

In Which I am a Jerkass to People Who Don't Like Pressure Cookers

I'm on several Facebook groups devoted to pressure cooker recipes and tips, and every once in a while you get a naysayer in the group who complains that the Instant Pot isn't really "instant."  Their argument is usually that it takes time for the pot to come to pressure, or that you might spend some time waiting for the pressure to release naturally after cooking.  They usually say something about how misleading it is to say, for example, that you can cook corn on the cob in 2 minutes because it takes 5 or 10 minutes or whatever for the pressure to build.  Bitch, please.  Do you not also have to wait for a pot of water to boil if you cook corn on the cob on the stove?  Do you not have to wait for your oven or your grill to preheat for some recipes?  Do you not have to wait for meat to rest if you've cooked a whole chicken or a roast?  Yes, you do.  Shut up.  Because you know you wouldn't buy the product if the company called it the Moderately Faster than Your Usual Method Pot.

Besides, in many cases, the electric pressure cooker actually does save you a ton of time.  This is especially true with tough cuts of meat that need a lot of cooking time to become tender.  Like brisket.  Holy cats, do I have an awesome brisket recipe in the pipeline for you.  The next time I make it, I will definitely take some pictures and post the recipe.  Stew meat, or chuck roast (from which stew meat is sometimes cut) are other examples.  This goulash takes about 2 to 2 1/2 hours to cook on the stove top.  And that's just the simmering time; no prep time included.  I made this, start to finish, in about 1 hour.  That includes about 15 minutes spent cutting one half of a damn onion because I kept having to stop cutting to keep the baby from ripping pages out of his sister's book.  Add the time savings to the fact that you never have to stir a pot, or fiddle with the controls on your burner to get the simmer at just the right level.  Hands off cooking?  Every mother (hell, every adult) can appreciate that.

Hungarian Goulash

2 Tbs. oil
1 medium onion, or about half of a big onion, sliced
2 lbs. stew meat or chuck roast cut into about 1/2" cubes
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cups ketchup
2 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs. brown sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tsp. Hungarian style sweet paprika
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dry mustard

Mix the ketchup, Worcestershire, brown sugar, garlic, paprika, salt, and dry mustard together in a bowl and set aside.  Turn your pressure cooker to saute mode and add the oil.  Once the oil is hot, add the sliced onion and a sprinkling of salt, and cook until the onions are softened.  Add the meat and cook until it is browned.  Add the water and ketchup mixture and stir to distribute the sauce all over the meat.  Turn the pressure cooker to the meat setting and set for 30 minutes.  When the 30 minute cooking time is over, do a natural pressure release for at least 10 minutes.  You can serve it right away, or you can thicken it at this point if you prefer.  To thicken, stir together 1/4 cup water and 2 Tbs. flour.  Turn your cooker back to saute and add the flour and water mixture slowly, stirring constantly.  Bring it to a simmer and let it bubble away for a minute or two until the sauce has thickened.  Serve over hot egg noodles.

Summer Fruit Makes Me Feel Fine

As I've gotten older, I've gotten to where I really don't like heat.  I live in a place which is notorious for its summer humidity, so this is a problem.  The more of a spiky old biddy I become, the less and less tolerant I get.  I keep my thermostat set to 70, and I kid you not, when it hits 71 in the house, I'm like, WHY IS IT SO DAMN HOT IN HERE?  Seasonal summer beers are pretty boring, too.  Although that does build the anticipation for the eagerly awaited fall beers.  And the bugs...gah.  The Japanese beetles are terrible this year.  Those assholes are eating my magnolia blooms, and the squash bugs are chowing down in my garden.  Jerks.  So what's still to love about summer when it's 1,000 degrees out and the air is so humid, you nearly have to swim through it when you walk out the door?  Well, the frozen custard place near my house that I adore is open.  (Shout out to Fritz's; I love you guys.)  Our neighborhood pool is open, and I do like to swim.  Many of the most gorgeous plants are in bloom.  (Which is even more awesome when the blooms aren't getting eaten by asshole beetles.)  And then there's summer fruit, arguably the very best thing about eating in the summer.  Berries and stone fruit are a few of my most favorite edible things on Earth, and I love cooking with them.  Alright, summer.  You've redeemed yourself from your doucehbaggery.

During a recent visit to my awesome sister-in-law Leah's house in Arkansas, the blackberries were in resplendent glory.  I was given a sack of them, fresh picked, as a parting gift.  I knew as soon as I got home, I'd better have a plan for them or my daughter, Violet, would graze half of the bag away before I knew it.  While we were there, Leah made baked oatmeal, which she tops with Greek yogurt and fresh fruit, or fruit syrup; in this case she served homemade blackberry syrup.  It makes a splendid breakfast, and it got me in the mood for making some fruit syrup myself.  The best thing about using my precious blackberries in this manner was the versatility.  After all, if you make blackberry cobbler or pie or something like that, you have a great dessert, but when it's gone, it's gone.  If you make syrup, you've got pancake or waffle topping, and ice cream topping.  You can jazz up smoothies, granola and yogurt parfaits, or oatmeal.  You could stir some into lemonade (which I did, omg), or your tea, if you like sweet, fruity tea.  You could process it in a boiling water bath for long term storage, so you have fresh fruit syrup all winter.  And then there is the cocktail potential!  The mind reels from the possibilities!

Not long after I made my blackberry syrup, it was time for my son's first birthday party.  I decided to make homemade ice cream and lay out a make-your-own sundae bar, complete with homemade blackberry, strawberry, and peach syrups.  They were all wonderful, and so fresh tasting.  So feel free to experiment with your own fruit concoctions.  Blueberry, raspberry, or mixed berry would all be delicious.  You can taste it as you're cooking it to make sure it's sweetened to your taste.  I'm also including a few cocktail recipes I came up with using my blackberry syrup for those who feel like getting tipsy with their summer bounty.  Now, excuse me while I haul my sweaty self into the kitchen to finish off the last of the homemade ice cream.

Fresh Blackberry Syrup

6 cups fresh blackberries
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar, to taste
1/2 cup water 
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. low sugar pectin

Add the berries, sugar, water, and lemon juice to a pot and cook until the berries are completely broken down and the mixture is somewhat thickened.  I cooked mine for a good 20 minutes at a gentle simmer to try and reduce it a bit.  Slowly stir in the pectin and bring the mixture a full boil for several minutes, stirring constantly.  Strain the mixture in a fine mesh strainer, pressing out all of the liquid into a heat-proof measuring cup.  You can discard the solids, or, if you can tolerate the seeds, you can do what I did and save it to spread on toast.  YUM.  Cool the syrup, put it in a covered container, and refrigerate until serving.

Lady Leah

Yes, I named a cocktail after my sister-in-law.  I told you, she's awesome.  This makes 1 serving.

2/3 oz. vodka
1 2/3 oz. limoncello
1/3 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 oz. blackberry syrup

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice.  Shake well and strain into a martini glass.

Summer in Lexington

Again, 1 serving.  FYI, my favorite bourbon for cocktails is Knob Creek.  Not too pricey, good quality, and not too much character.

2 2/3 oz. bourbon
1/3 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 oz. blackberry syrup

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice.  Shake well and strain into a martini glass.




 

Taco 'Bout Yummy

Picture it: the kitchen table, taco Tuesday, 3 days ago.  Everyone is sick of ground beef and a packet of powdered orange stuff, but the love for tacos is definitely still there.  Because what weirdo doesn't love tacos?  So, what do you do?  You whip out your pressure cooker and throw together a delicious, homemade chicken taco filling, and suddenly you're a freaking superhero.

If there's anything I love more than a delicious, easy recipe, it's a delicious, easy recipe that makes enough for two meals.  This is really good leftover, so I make a fair amount at a time.  The possibilities for how you use it are nearly endless.  Besides the obvious tacos, you could use it as an enchilada filling, or pile it on top of rice and seasoned pinto beans in a bowl.  Heap it on a crusty roll with some cilantro and avocado crema to make a Mexican torta.  Or throw it into a large flour tortilla with some jack cheese, black beans, and corn, fold it in half, and cook it on a griddle for an awesome quesadilla.  There; you've got a menu for the whole week!  You're welcome.

Pressure Cooker Salsa Lime Chicken

If you were really in a hurry, I'm sure you could swap out the spice mixture for a pre-made taco seasoning, but I really like making it from scratch for that undeniable "homemade" taste.  If you want to get tipsy, grab a Dos Equis Amber.

1 Tbs. chili powder

1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. dried Mexican oregano

1/4 tsp. onion powder

3 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts

2 Tbs. lime juice

1 (16 oz.) jar of salsa

Mix the first 9 ingredients together and set aside.  Put the chicken, lime juice, salsa, and spice mixture in the pressure cooker.  Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes, then do a natural pressure release for 10 minutes.  Remove the chicken with tongs or a slotted spoon and shred.  Add back as much of the salsa sauce mixture to the chicken as you want.  For tacos, I don't add back much at all because it makes the tacos really messy.  The chicken will still have great flavor.  If I'm making nachos or taco salads and the like, I add a lot of the sauce back.  Serve with whatever taco fixings you want.  Cilantro, sour cream, queso fresco, pico de gallo, and a squeeze of fresh lime are super yummy on soft tacos made from flour or corn tortillas.