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.

Wherein I Finally Conquer Pork in the Instant Pot

While my successes in the Instant Pot have certainly outnumbered the failures, I have definitely had a few regrettable experiences.  I've tried really hard to adapt a recipe that has rice noodles, and friends, they just do not work.  Rice noodles + pressure = mush.  Even if you set the time to zero.  Even if you do low pressure.  Even if you sacrifice a virgin into the depths of a raging volcano.  (I assume.)  You can of course cook them separately, but then it feels like, what's the point?  Someone smarter than me may still conceivably figure it out, but I, for one, am admitting defeat on that issue.  Pork has beaten me multiple times as well.  It kept turning out dry and tough.  I knew I was going to eventually come out on top with that one, but I didn't think my first victory would be so spectacular.  I invite you to please share the spoils of my triumph by trying out this marvelous pork roast recipe.

I've mentioned before that my Grandma, Marguerite, was a wonderful cook.  I can vividly remember so many of the fabulous things she used to make:  lasagna, homemade applesauce, a poke cake that she made with Vess Whistle Orange soda, appetizers made from wontons baked in a muffin tin and filled with a yummy sausage and cheese mixture, and of course the famous brisket.  But one thing I really don't remember is her pork roast.  My dad loved it and talks of it fondly.  And I love my dad and talk of him fondly, so I've always wanted to make it for him, but the memories of it (for me) are so vague.  He can describe his memories of it to me, but in the past that still wasn't enough for me to make anything I was terribly pleased with.  Oddly enough, the thing I remember best is the pot she cooked it in.  It was oblong and covered, like a Dutch oven, but it wasn't made of cast iron.  It was a shiny-ish metal, kind of with the look of aluminum, and it looked like it had lived a bit of a hard life and gotten a little beat up.  Admittedly, that is very little to go on.  So I said, well, hell, I'm just going to make something that my dad will love, even if it's nothing like the ones of his past.  Yes, I'm 38 years old and my life still mostly revolves around pleasing my parents.  That and trying to raise my children to not be assholes.

As I often do, I consulted my America's Test Kitchen cookbooks for ideas.  Then I took a leap of faith and winged it for Christmas dinner, which I was serving to 12 people.  My gamble paid off.  So, maybe someday my pork roast will become a great food memory for my kids.  Things like that always keep me coming back to the kitchen.

Apple Cider Braised Pork Roast with Onions

With 6 pounds of meat, obviously this makes a lot as written.  I used my 8 quart Instant Pot.  You could certainly do just one roast in a 6 quart pressure cooker, but since I have not personally done it that way, I would suggest you still stick with the same amount of cider and water to make sure there is plenty of liquid to braise it and make it really tender.  It would be a lot of gravy for that amount of meat, but the words "too much gravy" really don't make sense to me anyway.  Kind of like "too much cheese."  I mean, that's just silly.  I honestly think the best way to make this is overnight.  That's how I did it on my first try.  Put all the liquid in cold, turn on the pot and off to bed with you.  When you wake up in the morning, it will still be warm but the pressure will be long gone, so just remove the lid and carry on with the step where you stick everything in the fridge.  Then reheat at dinner time.  Easy peasy.

2 (3 lb.) boneless, rolled Boston pork roasts
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried sage
2 large red onions, sliced pole to pole into 1/2" wedges
1 cup apple cider
1 cup water
1/2 cup apple jelly
1 Tbs. apple cider vinegar

Remove the netting from the roasts and discard.  Tie pieces of kitchen twine around the roast to hold it together.  (See pictures below.)  In a small bowl, mix together the garlic, pepper, salt, and sage.  Pat the roasts dry with paper towels and rub them all over with the garlic mixture.  Dump some of the onions into the pressure cooker pot, place the 2 roasts in and then add in the remaining onions.  Pour in the apple cider and water.  Lock the lid in place and cook on high pressure for 180 minutes.  (That's 3 hours for those of you who hate math.)  Allow a natural pressure release for at least 45 minutes, but several hours is fine.

Carefully remove the meat, as it may be falling apart, and put in a container or bowl and cover.  Pour the liquid (with the onions) into a separate container and cover.  Chill both for several hours.  About an hour before serving, preheat your oven to 250 degrees.   Scoop out any congealed fat from the liquid, and pour the liquid into a saucepan.  Dispose of the fat into your trashcan or your dog's stomach as you see fit.  Add the jelly to the liquid and bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.  Meanwhile, cut the twine off of the roasts and slice into approximately 1/2" pieces.  Arrange the slices in a glass baking dish, ladle in a bit of the cooking liquid/onions, and cover tightly with foil.  Heat the pork in the oven until the liquid that you're simmering in the saucepan has cooked down to a consistency you are happy with.  I simmered it for about 45 minutes, which reduced it by almost half.  The pork in the baking dish was plenty hot by then.  Once you take the onion gravy off the heat, stir in the cider vinegar.  Serve the onion gravy in a bowl separate from the sliced pork roast so everyone can add as much as they like.  It's great over potatoes, too.

This is what the roast will probably look like when you buy it from the store.  You want to remove this netting because it has something akin to elastic in it.  You want it tied with just plain old kitchen twine.

This is what it should look like after you tie it and rub it with the garlic mixture.

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.