In Which I Make Vegetables Taste Less Terrible than Usual

There's nothing I love more than a big plate of beautiful, fresh-cut vegetables.  Hahaha, just kidding, I hate vegetables.  I mean, honestly, it's not the vegetables' fault.  Mother Nature made them very important nutritionally, but she also generally made them taste awful.  That's just rude.  So I'm always on the lookout for ways to actually enjoy eating vegetables since I would prefer to not be a fat slob.  One of my favorite ways to do that is with stir fry.  I make a darn good stir fry, but I was looking for a quick, hands-off, less oil-consuming way to enjoy some of the same flavors.  Less splatter on my stove would be appreciated, too.  Sounds like a job for Instant Pot!

In regards to not being a fat slob, I recently started following Weight Watchers.  I did it once before about 10 years ago, and I remember always being hungry and crabby.  But I heard they had made some big changes recently, and I was pretty desperate to not feel like a gross blob anymore, so I jumped in with both feet.  So far, I am liking it a lot.  I feel like it's teaching me to be more mindful about what I eat and drink.  And given how much I love to cook, I needed a plan that let me still have some freedom to cook with all the food groups and be as creative as possible.  Telling me I have to eliminate dairy, or gluten, or whatever is guaranteed to make me cry.  (Believe me.  It's happened.)  So, hey, if you're doing Weight Watchers, this makes 6 servings which are 5 SmartPoints each, according to their points calculator.  Let the good times roll.

I call this dish "teriyaki."  Is that really what it is?  I have no idea.  I think traditional teriyaki sauce has mirin in it, and not pineapple juice.  Probably no lemongrass either.  But the flavor profile is exactly what I was going for, and the little baby cans of pineapple juice in my pantry got a chance to do something other than make cocktails.

 Pressure Cooker Teriyaki Chicken & Rice with Non-Terrible Tasting Vegetables

I used my 6 quart Instant Pot.  You'll need a steamer basket that fits inside your pot.  I have the Oxo Good Grips stainless steel steamer and it's awesome.  Cut the chicken into very thin strips and this will be plenty of time for them to cook through.  I actually started with chicken cutlets, so they were really thin.  If you want bigger pieces of chicken, you should probably brown them on saute mode first to make sure they get cooked through in time.  I like to use the ginger and lemongrass paste that comes in a tube because it's so easy and ready to go.  They will probably be in a refrigerated area of your produce section.

2 tsp. canola oil
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. ginger paste
2 tsp. lemongrass paste
2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup pineapple juice
1 Tbs. packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups long grain white rice
1 1/2 lb. chicken cutlets (or breasts), cut into very thin strips
1 cup baby carrots, cut into thirds (about 1/2" long pieces)
2 cups small broccoli florets
1/2 cup sugar snap peas, cut in half
1/2 cup red bell pepper strips
chopped green onions for garnish (optional)

Turn the pressure cooker to saute mode and add the oil.  Once the oil is hot, add the onion and a pinch of salt.  Cook until the onions are softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic, ginger, and lemongrass and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  If any fond has developed on the bottom of the pot, add about 1/4 cup of the chicken broth and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits.  Then add the rest of the broth, soy sauce, pineapple juice, and brown sugar.  Add the rice and stir everything up.  Scatter the chicken strips over the rice.

Next, put your steamer basket in on top of the rice mixture.  Put all of the veggies except for the green onions in the steamer basket.  Secure the lid and cook on high pressure for 3 minutes, then do a quick pressure release.  Carefully dump the steamed vegetables from the steamer basket into the rice mixture and stir it all together.  Serve, garnishing with green onions.  I also added a small sprinkling of chow mein noodles because they look good in the picture.  They taste good on there, too, but if you're counting points like I was, you can't do very many because they add up fast.

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.

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.