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.

Adrift in a Sea of Tomatoes

Garden season really got off to a bang here with a cucumber crop which was the stuff of legends.  Apparently cucumber plants like hot weather, because it had been hotter than the pits of Hades around here, and they were thriving.  I'm glad someone likes it.  I've made pickles and relish twice already, neither of which I eat, but there were just too many fresh cucumbers to keep up with.  Then came the squash bugs.  Those jerks have nearly killed my zucchini plant after only getting 3 zucchinis from it, and you know that's some quick devastation since a mature plant will grow 3 zucchinis in about 5 minutes.  (Or, at least it seems that way.)  Then they started going after the cucumbers.  We're fighting back as best we can, but those little bastards are pretty proficient, so our cucumber days may be winding down prematurely. 

Luckily the tomato harvest is really picking up steam.  I have MANY tomato plants this year, because a lot of little volunteer plants came up and I was too much of a softy to rip them all out.  Eating a fresh tomato plain, all by itself, does not interest me in the least.  (It's a texture thing.)  But cooking and preserving tomatoes is my jam.  Salsa, seasoned tomato sauce, roasted tomato slices, etc....the sky is the limit.  Today, tomatoes were taking over my kitchen counter.  I needed to take action, and I decided on tomato soup.

The way I've made cream of tomato soup for years (on my other blog here) is labor intensive.  It makes an amazing soup; a rich, complex, bisque-like bowl of hearty goodness.  But, as I've mentioned before, many things in my life have had to get quicker and easier as the chaos has increased with the addition of 2 young children who hate sleep.  And now I have a job, too.  I am much more enthusiastic about "chuck it in the pot and press start" recipes than I ever was before.  So that's what I really wanted to create here.  I used some proportions from my other recipe, but relied on the Instant Pot to do the work for me.  I took another 3 tomatoes or so and sliced them really thick, drizzled on olive oil, sprinkled with kosher salt and Penzey's frozen pizza seasoning, and roasted them to put on grilled cheese and peppered bacon sandwiches.  So it was like a sophisticated, grown up (but still easy) version of tomato soup and grilled cheese, which is still one of my most favorite meals, hands down. 

Much to my amazement, my almost-5 year old tried the homemade soup.  "Mommy, I do like it," she said.  "Wonderful, honey!  I'm so glad you tried it!" I answered.  "Can I have my regular tomato soup now?  The stuff in the can?" she asked.  So, yeah.  One bite.  I got her to take one bite of the good stuff.  Sigh.

Easy Pressure Cooker Tomato Soup

I used my 8 quart cooker and made a lot because I had tomatoes coming out of my ears.  I see no reason why you couldn't use a 6 quart cooker and cut the recipe in half.  As written, I fed 4 adults and had a decent amount of leftovers.

4 lbs. tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 large onion, rough chopped
1 Tbs. minced garlic
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 bay leaf
1 Tbs. tomato paste
2 Tbs. brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 to 2 Tbs. fresh chopped basil
salt and pepper to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion, garlic, veggie broth, salt, bay leaf, tomato paste, and brown sugar in the pressure cooker.  Cook on manual, high pressure, for 15 minutes and then do a quick pressure release.  Blend the soup with an immersion blender until it's pretty smooth.  You could also stop at this point, chill the mixture and blend it in a blender once it's cooled.  Then heat it back up on the stove top to finish it.  Or, if you're doing the immersion blender method, blend until smooth and see how you feel about the consistency.  You may want to turn your pot to saute and cook off a little bit of the water if it looks too watery.  This will depend on your tastes and your tomatoes.  I let mine simmer another 5 minutes or so to thicken up a bit.  Turn off the heat and stir in the cream, and chopped basil.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

 

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.

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.

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.