Pressure Cooker Beef Stew

I often use the pressure cooker for making pot roasts, but to make it seem more fall-like I decided we should something more like a stew. This one inspired by Emeril's Beef Stew turned out really nicely and also has very little clean up as a one-pot meal.

Pressure Cooker Beef Stew
1 Tablespoon oil
1 Tablespoon seasoning salt
1 Tablespoon flour
500 grams beef or buff, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, diced (omit if you don't have access to this)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon rosemary
2 cups broth (1 chicken cube + 2 cups water)
1 1/2 cups red wine
Carrots, diced
Potatoes, diced

Mix the flour and seasoning salt in a bowl. Lightly toss the meat cubes in the flour mixture. Heat the oil in the pressure cooker and sear the beef cubes until brown. Remove the meat from the pot. Saute the onion, garlic, and celery until translucent. Add the beef back to the pressure cooker and add in the salt, pepper, mushrooms, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, broth, and red wine. You can substitute more broth for the red win, but omit the added salt. Clamp the lid on the cooker and raise the heat to high. When the pressure cooker whistle blows the first time, reduce the heat and cook 20 minutes. Release the pressure, open, and toss in the vegetables. Close the cooker again and cook an additional 20-30 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste and serve.

Ranch Dressing

I made this for lunch today and was reminded that it's definitely a recipe worth sharing. Several years ago, a local friend of mine was asking me how to make ranch dressing without packets. She had worked for foreigners most her life, and her kids had developed a particular taste for it. With foreigners the only source of the occasional imported dressing packets here, that means those packets are guarded as precious treasures for only the most special occasions. I find that often I guard those so much they expire before I get to use them! I did some digging for my friend back then and found this recipe. Having had packet dressing this week the night before making this one, I could really do a good comparison. Honestly, they taste very similar. So, here's a quick and easy ranch dressing with local ingredients. It takes literally about 3 minutes to make if that much.

Ranch Dressing
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried dill or 1 Tablespoon fresh, chopped finely
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley or 1 Tablespoon fresh, chopped finely
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together with a whisk to get out any lumps. Keep refrigerated up to a week.

A few notes about this recipe. First, make sure you get a decent mayonnaise as it will really affect the flavor of the dressing. American Garden seems to be fairly priced for a quality mayo. Fun Foods....not so good. Adapt the second ingredient to the thickness you like. For a more thick dressing, you might even drain yogurt over a cloth first. I like dips thicker and dressings thinner so I actually use almost 1/2 cup yogurt and add a little water to top it off. Lastly, if you want a classic ranch flavor, use the recipe as is or even cut back on the dill. If you want a dilly dip, omit the parsley and up the dill. The flavor will increase over time too so don't go overboard. I never have parsley on hand so I just use dill. This time of year, most of the people who sell a variety of leafy greens will also carry dill. Just sniff, and you'll know.

Meal Plan 3

Yes, we've had some silence in blog land thanks to hubby wishing I might apply my efforts elsewhere...such as writing more important blog entries pertaining to work. Since it only takes a few minutes to give you a meal plan and some links, I thought I'd share what's on our plate this week. With the changing of the weather, I wanted to take advantage of that fall feeling as long as I can so I've added a few more hearty recipes until the pumpkins get ripe enough to have truly autumn-inspired meals.

Monday
Loaded Potato Soup and Salad - This soup from Gina and Pat Neely is fantastic!

Tuesday
Pasta Agli e Olio and Garden Salad - Cut back on the parmesan to make it affordable.

Wednesday
Pressure Cooker Beef Stew

Thursday
Poppy Seed Chicken, Rice, and Steamed Vegetables

Friday
Homemade Takeout: Vegetable Fried Rice

Saturday
Apps Night: Hot Spinach Dip, Deviled Eggs, Crudite with White Bean Dip

Sunday
Pigs in a Blanket with Green Bean Salad in Mustard Dressing

For recipes with no links or the crescent roll dough called for in the Piggy recipe, I'll post as I use them.

Rotini with Greens and Beans

I grew up in the South where cooked greens were a part of most social gatherings. A lot of people I know don't seem particularly fond of greens, which I think is sad considering how packed with nutrition dark leafy greens are. I also know many others who only eat greens raw in salads. Thankfully, I live in a place where a variety of greens suitable for cooking are in plentiful supply and grow almost year round. I am always looking for more ways to use what grows locally and to think about vegetables in different ways than I already know. If you can get yourself to eat greens, this is a nutrition-packed easy weeknight dinner.

Rotini with Greens and Beans
8 oz. or 1/2 pack rotini
Olive oil
8-10 garlic cloves, minced
1.5 cups cooked white beans (or 1 can rinsed and drained)
3/4 cup water
1 veg stock cube (I stock up on MSG-free cubes when they're available)
2 bunches leafy greens, washed, trimmed, and chopped
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions. To make this truly a one dish meal, I cook the pasta, drain it into a colander and continue with the rest of the recipe in the same pot. Saute the garlic cloves in olive oil until just beginning to turn golden. Add the leafy greens and stir to get the garlic off the bottom of the pan. Once the greens begin to wilt, add 3/4 cup water and the veg bouillon cube. Allow the greens to cook down in the broth for about 5-10 minutes or until a lot of the liquid has evaporated. Add the beans and pasta to the greens and stir to combine. Salt generously and add pepper. If you're not using canned beans, you will need more salt. Sprinkle each dish with parmesan cheese.

Balancing Act Plus a Meal Plan

In the course of a week here, I try very hard to create various balances: cost/variety, vegetarian/meat, electricity/no electricity, time required/payoff for time, and healthy/less healthy. That often means thinking a lot more about food than I would necessarily like to, but hopefully underscores your feelings that making and preparing for food in South Asia takes a lot of work. Here's this week's meal plan for dinners:

Wednesday
Italian Chicken Chowder with Crusty Bread
If you don't already follow Sara Beth at Market2Meal, you totally should. She's got loads of wonderful recipes that are practical to make here. 

Thursday
Spaghetti with Garlic Bread

Friday
Moroccan Chickpea Stew with Rice and a Mediterranean Salad

Saturday
Hamburger Helper - Don't be hating...

Sunday
Veg and Tofu Stirfry with Noodles

Monday
Tuna Rice Casserole

Tuesday
Eggplant Melanzane, Pasta, and Leafy Green Salad

Just a few comments if you're thinking something sounds gross, and you're wondering why I'd eat that if I like food. Yesterday, my husband and I were talking about weird foods that we missed--his Hamburger Helper, mine tuna casserole. He's not a big fan of the casserole, but we've never had it in the 11 years we've been married so it deserves a chance. I'm not a huge fan of Hamburger Helper, but I recently stumbled across a Make Your Own version that seems to be fast enough to work with our busy Saturday night Skype schedule. Will let you know how they turn out!

Pork Breakfast Sausage

I had lived in South Asia for about 5 years before I ever had breakfast sausage at someone's house. The woman had been making it for years and acted as though it was a cinch to make. Turns out, it is if you have access to ground pork. Pork was hard to come by where I lived in India so I guess that's why I never even looked into it. If you make sausage in America, you need to grind in extra fat because pigs are engineered to be more lean these days. In the less developed world where fat is not on everyone's radar, most ground pork comes with a hefty portion of fat, more than enough to make a good sausage. One ingredient, sage, is not so easy to find in South Asia, but some organic herb growers do sell it. That's one that I definitely bring from the States for holidays anyway, but it also grows really well here if you can get your hands on it. This is my adaptation of Alton Brown's Breakfast Sausage to make it a little more practical for every day use.

Pork Breakfast Sausage
500g pork mince (choose a pack with lots of fat)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp red chili powder, optional
1/4 tsp red chili flakes (thank you, Pizza Hut packets!), optional

Combine all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Mix until everything is thoroughly incorporated. Add the pork and mix by hand until the spices have been evenly distributed through the meat. Cover the bowl and pop in the refrigerator for about an hour or up to over night. At this point, you can either form into patties or use it as crumbled sausage and fry as you would any other breakfast sausage. If making patties, I like to make a small "test patty" first and adjust the seasoning for the whole batch based on that one.

I find that the red chili powder (not American chili powder) and the flakes really boost the sausage flavor to another level so I sometimes add a little more. Enjoy!

Breakfast Casserole

I love breakfast--all the time. One of my favorite breakfasts is the kind of casserole people make for holiday mornings. Why they only make them for those occasions, I totally don't get so I make them whenever. Since I only needed half a pack of ground pork last night, I mixed the rest up to make sausage. This made a large round casserole dish worth, more than enough for our small family for dinner and breakfast leftovers.

Sausage Breakfast Casserole
1/2 pound sausage
2 cups bread, cubed
1 cup cheese
5 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon mustard powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon onion powder

Brown the sausage in a frying pan and drain. Preheat over to 160C. Butter the bottom of your baking dish. Add the bread cubes. Personally, I prefer a heartier bread for this so it doesn't get soggy and has some bite to it. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, milk, mustard powder, salt, onion powder, and cheese. Pour over the bread. Top the dish with the sausage. Place in a hot oven and bake for about 1 hour. If the top begins to brown too fast, you can cover it with foil.

I do have a confession after making this tonight though. I just don't have the patience to wait one hour for eggs. So... if you're at all like me, considering electricity/gas consumption and not just being impatient (not!), bump up the heat to 180/200. Check it after 30 minutes to see if the eggs have set. If not, give it another 10-15 minutes. That's how I always do quiche so I assume it should work here as well.