Oh, Tacos....I Can't Quit You

I have a very bad habit when I plan meals of deciding what I want to make first, and then checking the pantry and freezer to see if I have the things to make it.  I also have a bad habit of picking up packages of meat at the grocery store that say "Price Cut Now!" because they're about to go past their sell-by date.  Then I wrap them up and freeze them to use later.  Very rarely do I go to my favorite grocery store and not come home with several packages of meat I wasn't planning to buy.  I cannot pass up a cheap brisket, y'all.  I can buy these things with impunity because I have TWO giant chest freezers to store it all in.  (One I inherited from the previous owners of my house; I didn't purchase them both.  I'm not *that* crazy.)  But the freezers are filling up, so this week I was determined to check the freezer for some kind of meat to use first, and then decide what to cook.  I made my selection, a couple packages of stew meat.  Now, what to cook....

Problem was, I was already thinking about tacos.  There are certain food items that, once I've got a hankering for them, I can't think of ANYTHING ELSE until I get them.  Stew meat isn't necessarily screaming out to be made into tacos, but the thought was already in my head.  So here's how the recipe selection conversation went in my head:

I could make the obvious beef stew.  Dad really likes that.  Doesn't sound that great to me, though.

Tacos.

Or maybe goulash.  Haven't had that in a while.

Tacos.

<Searches internet for "stew meat recipes that aren't stew.">

Gurl.  Tacos, dammit.

Beef stroganoff?  I could do that in the instant pot.

Bitch, seriously. TACOS.

I could make mom's awesome vegetable beef soup.

YOU GET YOUR BITCH ASS IN THAT KITCHEN AND MAKE SOME TACOS GOD DAMMIT.

What the heck, I'm going to try to make shredded beef tacos!

Jesus, *finally.*

Is it ridiculous to make shredded beef tacos from stew meat?  Maybe.  But here we are.  And I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Bonus Recipe alert:  The salsa verde is totally optional, but it's a pretty nice accompaniment, and it's easy.  It's good just used like a regular salsa with chips, too.  And I'm planning to use my leftover and some rotisserie chicken to make enchiladas verdes.  If you want to get tipsy with your tacos, Dogfish Head SeaQuench Ale would be a fantastic pairing.

Pressure Cooker Shredded Beef Taco Filling

I envisioned this served on soft corn tortillas.  It was good that way, but most of us ended up liking the flour tortillas better.  The new little street taco tortillas that Mission makes were great.  I think it would be good with crunchy taco shells as well.

2 tsp. oil
1/2 a large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbs. tomato paste
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. Mexican oregano
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. coriander
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1 cup beef broth
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
2 lbs. stew meat

Turn the pressure cooker to saute mode and add the oil.  Once the oil is hot, saute the onion until softened.  Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add the tomato paste, cumin, oregano, chili powder, coriander, cinnamon, and cloves and cook for a minute or two.  Pour in a little of the beef broth and scrape up the fond from the bottom of the pot.  Pour in the rest of the broth and stir in the salt, pepper, and bay leaf.  Add the stew meat.  Put the lid on the pressure cooker and set to high pressure for 45 minutes.  Allow a natural pressure release for 10 minutes and then release the remaining pressure.  Serve as you see fit.  We topped with pickled onions and jalapenos, salsa verde (recipes below), monterey jack cheese, cotija cheese, sour cream, and cilantro.

Pickled Onions and Jalapenos

1 large red onion, sliced
1 or 2 jalapenos, sliced
1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup sugar

Put the sliced onions and jalapenos in a bowl, or in two separate bowls if you live with wimps like me who can't handle jalapenos.  Pour the red wine vinegar, salt, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Simmer until the sugar is totally dissolved.  Pour the hot vinegar over the onions and jalapenos and cover with plastic wrap for at least 30 minutes.  You can make these ahead of time and chill them, or use them still warm.

Pressure Cooker Salsa Verde

1 tsp. oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 large onion, rough chopped
2 poblano peppers, stem and seeds removed
1 lb. tomatillos, husks removed, washed, and cut in half
1/2 cup water or chicken broth
1 tsp. sugar
salt

Turn the pressure cooker to saute mode and add the oil.  When the oil is hot, add the garlic and cumin and cook for a minute or two.  Add the onion, peppers, tomatillos, and water or broth.  Put the lid on the pot and set to high pressure for 15 minutes.  Allow a natural pressure release for at least 10 minutes.  Blend the mixture until smooth with an immersion blender.  Stir in the sugar and salt to taste.

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.

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.