Smoke Under Pressure

Pressure Cooker Red Salsa

2011-02-20T10:38:00.000-05:00

This morning I was looking through the fridge and found that I had a few things that were soon going to expire if I didn't use them up. Handily, they were the perfect ingredients for making a red salsa - vine ripened tomatoes, jalapeno peppers and some leftover onion. Since I wasn't exactly prepared to have red salsa with anything specific, I thought I would opt for a cooked version which can be saved versus a fresh version which needs to be used up right away.

I prefer to make cooked salsa like this in the pressure cooker. This is mostly because it allows you to significantly reduce the amount of water required, which in my mind means you save on flavour that may go to waste in excess water. It also makes for a super easy and fast method of cooking.

I popped the tomatoes, jalapenos, and some garlic into the pressure cooker, along with the requisite 1/2 cup water (pressure cooking wisdom advises, that no matter what you are cooking, 1/2 cup of liquid is required - the picture below is an attempt to show how much liquid comes out - about 3/4 cup). I cooked as I outline below, then finished in a blender with onion, cilantro and salt.

This sauce is so delicious and versatile. Depending on the heat of your jalapenos (you really don't know how hot until it's done as jalapenos can vary), it may be a super spicy dish or just an even jalapeno flavour. The onion and cilantro bring a fresh flavour.

You can use this sauce straight up with nacho chips, use it to top eggs or other dishes, or as a sauce for enchiladas. It also freezes well to pull out at some future date when a craving sets in.

Pressure Cooker Red Salsa
This recipe isn't an exact science in terms of proportions and is completely scaleable - so feel free to mix it up ingredients and quantity require.
*No matter what quantity, the 1/2 cup water remains the same - don't scale it up as there'll be too much liquid if you do.

6 small-medium sized vine ripened tomatoes
2 jalapeno peppers
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup water*
1/2 medium onion
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1 tsp salt

Place the tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic and water into the pressure cooker. Secure the lid, set to high pressure (15 psi), and bring to pressure over medium-high heat. Once pressure is reached reduce the heat to medium-low, but not so low that you lose pressure. Cook for 10 minutes. You can let the pressure drop on it's own or use a quick method.

One the pressure has dropped, use a large spoon (large so that the ingredients don't break apart on you) to scoop the ingredients into a blender. It's good to take a bit of the water with your on this, but don't take it all otherwise your sauce will be too runny.

Once in the blender add your onion, cilantro and salt. Blend until smooth. Voila!

Triple Smoked Ham with Jam Glaze

2011-01-30T12:36:00.000-05:00

Don't let the name fool you, this recipe is not a lot of work where you have to cook something three times over. In fact, it's just the opposite, it's a super easy way to spruce up your usual ham roast.

I started with a double smoked ham roast from the grocery. Traditionally you just reaheat these in the oven, maybe with a brown sugar glaze and cloves. This is fine, but lacks the depth that an extra round of smoking brings out.

I didn't trim the ham as keeping the fat serves two fantastic purposes: i) it prevents the ham from drying out; ii) it forms a delicious crackling crust upon extra smoking. I mixed together some jam -a mango/peach blend - with some mustard powder and allspice. A rubbed the jam glaze on the roast and voila it was ready for smoking.

I prepared the smoker with pecan pellets (you could use any light-medium smoked wood, but I wouldn't go for the stronger options on this one). Heated it on high for 15 minutes then reduced it to 250F and plopped the ham on.

Three hours later I returned to a gorgeous ham roast. This likely could be done in 1-2 hours, but I like the extra bit of time to really form that crackling crust.

When I make this roast I make sure I have lots left over, I've even done two at a time just for the extras. I never buy the processed ham anymore. The leftovers are great for sandwiches, pizza, quiche, you name it. They also freeze nicely (I vacuum pack them into smaller portions for meals).

Triple Smoked Ham with Jam Glaze

1 - 6 lb double smoked ham roast (I'm sure single smoked would work just fine)

For Glaze:

1 1/2 cups mango, peach, or apricot jam

1 tbsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp allspice

Pecan pellets (or apple, cherry, alder)

Place the ham on a large cutting board or baking sheet. (This is just to catch juices and help carry it to the smoker. Mix all glaze ingredients in a small bowl and slather all over the ham.

Prepare your smoker with pecan pellets. Preheat your smoker on high for 15 minutes then reduce to 250F. Place the ham on the smoker and let cook for 3 hours.

Smoked Turkey

2011-01-01T14:52:00.000-05:00

Although we had turkey on Christmas day, we opted to make turkey again. But we didn't want a repeat of the same meal, but rather something different, and what better way than to smoke it. This a no frills, straight up smoked turkey. We didn't try spicing it or anything different so that we could compare it to roast turkey. In the end I would have to say that if you are ever juggling items in an oven when roasting a turkey, this makes a perfect substitute for cooking the turkey without tying up your oven.

We've made smoked poultry before (chicken, duck), but never a turkey. When I researched recipes there weren't a heck of a lot. So I figured I'd wing it (pun intended) using my knowledge of birds of Christmas past. For this round I have a 16 pound turkey.

Step1 - thaw the bird (if not fresh). I mention this step only because it's not your usual procedure when dealing with a large bird. It's one of those times when the auto-microwave feature falls short. The main trick with thawing a large bird is keeping it cool enough so that no bacteria forms. The optimal way is to thaw it in the fridge, but that not only requires lots of pre-planning, but lots of fridge room (which particulary at Chrismtas, tends to be a premium entity). Instead I went with the cold water method where you keep the bird in cold water. My preferred way for this is to use a cooler. I have a perfect coleman sized one for this task. Note, you should be using a proper cooler and not a foam cooler as it will not keep the bird cold enough. You put the bird in the cooler and fill with cold water, then cover with the cooler lid. Check the bird every few hours to make sure the water is very cold. You can add ice to keep cold, however, if you have a good quality cooler you'll be surprised how cold it keeps the bird especially because the bird is frozen. I didn't have to add any ice for this step. Either way, keeping it very cold is imperative to ensuring no bacteria forms.

Step 2 - Brine the bird. I only started brining turkies about a year ago and I am converted. It really makes a difference in terms of flavour and a juicer texture. Again, I use a cooler for this step. Again, you should be using a proper cooler and not a foam cooler as it will not keep the bird cold enough. Place 2 cups of salt and 2 cups of brown sugar into a cooler. Remove any wrapping and inside packets from the bird. Add the bird to the cooler and fill with ice cold water (you can also add some ice cubes to ensure very cold) and cover with the lid. Let the turkey soak in the brine for at least 12 hours. Check the bird occasionally to make sure the water is very cold. You can add ice to keep cold, however, if you have a good quality cooler you'll be surprised how cold it keeps the bird. I added ice at the start with ice cold water and didn't have to add more ice for 12 hours. Keeping it cold is imperative to ensuring no bacteria forms. Note: if you have just thawed your turkey using the cold water method, do not use the same water for brining - start fresh.

Step 3 - Smoke the bird. I decided to do a heat combination for smoking the bird - first some higher heat, followed by the traditional low and slow. Here is my process:

Prepare the smoker with apple pellets. I find anything heavier can overwhelm poultry and make it taste more like ham than turkey. Then heat the smoker on high to 400F.
Place the whole bird, breast side up, on the smoker. Let smoke on high for 45 minutes.
Becaues we all know that poultry can easily dry out while smoking, employ extra resources in the form of a cheesecloth. Prepare a four-layer piece of cheesecloth, large enough to cover the breasts of the bird, by soaking it in 1/2 cup melted butter.
After 45 minutes on high heat, cover the bird with the cheesecloth then turn to low or 250F (see picture below - it's not pretty, but it is efficient). Finish the bird on this temperature. 3-4 hours.
About an hour before the bird is ready remove the cheese cloth so that the top can brown. The meat will be cooked, it just won't be the lovely brown. If needed, turn the heat up higher, or even do a quick hit under the oven broiler - no one like an un-golden bird.
The turkey is ready when an thermometer stuck in the thickest part of thigh between the leg and body registers 170F.

Stinchetti di Maiale Arrosto - Italian Pork Shanks adapted for the Pressure Cooker

2010-11-21T10:39:00.003-05:00

The air has the cool bite to it. Although I'm not thrilled with the prospect of several winter months ahead, it does inspire comfort food. What better than slow cooked pork shanks. Or, if you don't have time for the slow cooking, the perfect alternative is to do them in the pressure cooker.

I'm not familiar with the Italian name in the title, but had found this recipe and thought it would adapt well to the pressue cooker. It reminds me a lot of my pork osso buco in the pressure cooker recipe but without the tomatos. What I really like about this one is that you can use your bounty of fresh herbs from the garden (as long as you still have them). In this case, rosemary, thyme, parsley, sage.

It's quite simple, you use pork shanks, trimmed of the thick skin and seasoned with salt and pepper. Brown them along with the rosemary. Add veggies, wine, more herbs, bouillion. Bring your pressure cooker to pressure and 25 minutes later you have a delicious comfort food dinner.

Italian Pork Shanks - in the Pressure Cooker

4 meaty pork shanks, trimmed of fat
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 sprigs rosemary

1/2 cup dry white wine (pinot grigio)
1/2 cup chicken boullion
2 large carrots, 1/4" slice
1 stalk celery sliced
1 onion, diced
2-3 sage leaves
2 sprigs thyme, stem removed
1 small bunch parlsey, chopped

Heat the olive oil in the pressure cooker. Season the meat with salt and pepper then sear on all sides alongside the rosemary. Remove the rosemary and add the remaining ingredients to the pot. Secure the lid and bring to pressure, reduce heat enough to keep pressure. Cook for 20 minutes and then let the pressure drop on its own.

Hearty Sausage and Beans in the Pressure Cooker

2010-11-06T20:44:00.000-04:00

I love reading food magazines. In fact, I don't recycle each issue (unless its truly boring) but rather save them for re-reading in the same season each year (not in a hoarder sort of way, I do have limits). So with fall upon us with all of its brilliant, leafy splendor, I pulled out my small stack of issues from seasons gone by. In the Bon Appetit, October 2009 issue, I re-found several recipes that I immediately was compelled to dive into, but the one that took off was the White Beans with Sausage recipe.

I didn't follow the recipe exactly stated as it was one that requried several hours of time. Instead I modified it and employed the pressure cooker to expedite the process.

First I prepared the dried white beans suing a quick soak method by adding them to a lot of water and bringing them to pressure for two minutes followed by an hour of sitting to absorb. Finally you drain them.

Meanwhile I prepared the sausage by browning it with garlic.

I put the drained beans; sausage, garlic and drippings; along with red wine, canned tomatoes, more garlic, sage leaves, salt and pepper. Brought it all back to pressure for 20 minutes, then let it drop pressure on its own.

When I took off the lid it smelled fantastic - spicy, homey, delectable. The sausage didn't look as attractive as when it is when fully sauteed or roasted, but the taste was brilliant. It's best meaty flabours came through along with the sage and garlic. The beans and tomato sauce were also amazing and flavourful. The beans I think would have been better (softer vs. al dente) if soaked overnight in traditional fashion, but still tasted great.

Final verdict: comforting, tasty, great smell.

Hearty Sausage and Beans in the Pressure Cooker
adapted from Bon Appetit, October 2009

1/2 pound dried white beans
5 cups water

1 tbsp olive oil
3 links sweet Italian sausage
2 large cloves garlic
1/4 cup water

3 sage leaves
1/2 cup red wine (California merlot)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
14 oz canned diced tomatoes with their juice
1 tsp kosher salt
fresh cracked pepper to taste

Prepare the beans using the fast method in the pressure cooker as described above or soak overnight. Drain.

Prepare the sausage by sauteeing with the oil and garlic until browned, but not cooked.

Put the beans, sausage along with garlic and any browned bits, and remaining ingredients in the pressure cooker. Bring to high pressure and let cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let reduce pressure on its own.

Serve with a crusty break for mopping up sauce.

Smoked Stuffed Turkey Breast

2010-10-13T21:26:00.002-04:00

I stumbled upon this recipe in the Barbecue Queens "Big Book of Barbecue" cookbook. It's an interesting one as it's basically a modified Saltimbocca recipe. Italian meets turkey meets smoker. It screamed try me (or perhaps it gobbled try me)!

It's an embarrasingly easy recipe for a terrifc product - right up my alley. You take a whole turkey breast and cut a slit lengthwise through the middle. This is nice and easy to do with a turkey breast compared to a chicken breast and also makes for much better stuffing potential.

You then put into the slit a good slice of brie (you could substitute another cheese such as fontina) and a couple of sage leaves. Then wrap the whole thing with thinly sliced prosciutto. Easy pleasy.

Preheat your smoker on high for 15 minutes, then reduce to smoke or 275F. Put the prepared turkey breasts directly on for 1.5 - 2 hours.

This looks like a gourmet dinner. Each bit has a smoky taste which seems to mostly to come from the prosciutto vs. the turkey. Also, unlike other smoked poultry, the poultry meat doesn't turn pink from smoking. The brie doesn't melt in a messy way (due to the proscitto wrapping) and stays nicely contained. The only thing I would change is to chop up the sage so that it's better distributed.

I served this dish to a girlfriend who had joined me for dinner and she loved it so much we were concocting how to replicate this without smoker. You certainly wouldn't duplicate it, but it would be worth the try as it was so delicious.

Smoked Duck

2010-09-29T21:47:00.000-04:00

I've only made a whole duck once before. It wasn't a particularly good experience. This was a few years ago, before we had access to some quality duck, so I had bought a frozen imported one that was exceedingly small. I roasted it, trying an a l'orange recipe, but I think that duck was not destined for success from the get go.

Fortunatley, this time, was a much better experience. I had an absolutely gorgeous, proper sized duck from Mariposa Farms about 45 minutes outside of Ottawa. As an aside, Mariposa Farms is a lovely farm that raises a variety of animals. They provide their meats to many of the best restaurants in the area. They raise their animals in a wonderful environment. When we went there, I had the pleausre of meeting one of the owners (originally from Saskatchewan) who showed us around. You could tell that the animals are a priority and extremely well treated. This, to me, should be a consideration for all carnivores.

As you know, duck is a fatty bird. This can be beneficial for getting a crispy skin, but only if done right. One method that I found that I thought would be perfect for the smoker, was to pour a good amount of boiling water over the bird, before putting it on the smoker. First you cut several tiny slits in the skin, then pour at least 1.5 - 2 litres over the bird. This starts to melt and reduce the fat.

I opted to go for a more Asian style duck for the smoker. I prepared a standard teriyaki sauce, spiked with five-spice powder. This would be used for basting the bird while it cooked.

To cook the bird I employed the "beer can" method. I didn't actually use beer as my liquid, just some watered down orange juice (keeping with the teriyaki recipe). I like this method on the smoker as it seems to cook the bird quite evenly and the liquid helps to keep it moist. In addition to the baste, I also sprinkled a bit of five-spice powder on the skin of the bird.

I smoked the duck with cherry pellets for 5 hours. I think it didn't need this long, but other obligations prevented me from taking it off sooner. Fortunately my husband was available to assist as the official baster. He basted the bird every hour.

When done, the whole bird isn't the prettiest sight. I think the beer-can format has something to do with it. Fortunately, this isn't an indicator of taste.

The duck had crispy skin as it should. I actually don't think it would have achieved this as well without the boiling water part of the recipe. The flavour was well balanced. The teriyaki glaze came through but was not overpowering. The meat was tender - not too juicy, not too dry.

Bonus: Although I had to freeze my leftovers, my plan is to use the extra meat to make Mesa Grill's duck quesadillas.

Smoked Teriyaki Duck
4-5 pound duck
1.5 litres boiling water

1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup soya sauce
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup sherry
juice of one orange
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 knob of ginger, minced
1 tsp five-spice powder, plus extra to shake on the bird

Extra orange juice for beer can cooker

Make several small slits in the duck with a sharp knife. Place the duck breast side up in a clean, disinfected sink and pour the boiling water over it slowly. Let drain. (be sure to clean and disinefect the sink again once you remove the duck)

Prepare the sauce by mixing the oil, soya sauce, honey, sherry, orange juice, garlic and ginger in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and let reduce 2-3 minutes. Let cool.

Place the duck on a beer can cooker filled half-way with orange juice. Baste with sauce, then sprinkle with five spice powder.

Prepare the smoker with cherry pellets on a high heat for 15 minutes, then reduce to 250F. Put the duck on its beer can cooker onto the smoker. Baste every hour and cook for 3-5 hours until the internal temperature (measure at the thigh) is 160F - 170F.

Sunday Gravy in a Pressure Cooker

2010-09-12T12:53:00.002-04:00

You will see at No Smoke No Pressure that I got a very cool pasta press for my Kitchenaid mixer. When I first went to use it I was so excited about the pasta, that I forgot about the sauce, so when it came time to get the sauce ready I was short on time, but didn't want to compromise. The pessure cooker came to the rescue.

Sunday Gravy is a traditional Italian term to describe a sauce that was usually made on Sundays. It was primarily based with several meats and would simmer all day and fill the house with terrific aromas. You can find all sorts of Italian-American recipes for this dish. Don't worry about exactness, use what meats you might have on hand including bracciole and meatballs. It's more about combining great ingredients and feasting with friends and family.

For my Sunday Gravy I went with on-hand ingredients. I coarsely chopped some carrots, garlic and onions and sauteed them in the pressure cooker. I then added my meats: hot Italian sausage, meatballs, cut-up pork spareribs. I also added 1/2 cup water. I sealed the pressure cooker, turned to med-high heat and let it come up to pressure - at that time I reduced the heat to med-low (high enough to sustain pressure) and let it cook for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes I used the quick-release method to release the steam (where you open the vent - be sure its pointed away from you). I then added tomatoes and my seasoning. I re-sealed and brought to pressure againa and cooked an additional 10 minutes.

This sauce was a gorgeous meat based sauce. Each meat provided its own texture and flavour. The tomatos and seasoning weren't prevelant, but played a strong supporting role. Topped on my homemade rigatoni it was a hearty, delicious, comforting meal.

Sunday Gravy - Pressure Cooker
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, large dice
1 large carrot, large dice
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 lb meatballs
1/2 lb spareribs, chopped up
1/2 lb hot Italian sausage, chopped
14 oz tin of tomatoes
14 oz tin of tomatoes
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil
4 leaves fresh basil (if available) plus some for garnish
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper

Heat oil in the pressure cooker and saute the onions, carrots and garlic for about 2-3 minutes until softened. Add all the meats at once along with water. Secure the lid and turn heat to medium-high. Once it meets pressure, reduce heat to medium-low and cook at pressue for 20 minutes. When ready, use the quick release method (release steam away from you).

Add the remaining ingredients to the pot. Resecure the lid and bring back to pressure and cook for 20 minutes. Use the quick release method again and serve.

Garnish with chopped fresh basil and grated parmesan.

Easy Smoked Salmon

2010-09-01T19:04:00.002-04:00

I don't mind salmon. In fact I quite like it. But I have to say that when it's prepared on the smoker, it's a new beast (or fish I guess) that I absolutely adore.

This round is an easy smoked salmon. A real no fuss no muss recipe.

Although the low and slow method of smoking can produce fabulously tender results, depending on the meat, it can also leave it quite dry. Spritzing during cooking helps this, but sometimes I don't want that level of commitment in my cooking adventure. That's where this recipe comes in.

You simply mix some mayonnaise and dijon mustard and rub it onto the salmon evenly. This not only provides a nize glaze on the salmon, but also seems to help prevent it from drying out. I'm using a skinless fillet of salmon, so I've placed it on a heavy duty piece of foil. To be extra sure it doesn't dry out, I turned up the edges of foil and added a bit of white wine.

I prepared the smoker in usual fashion using apple pellets - turn to high for 15 minutes then reduced to about 250F. I put the salmon on foil right on the grill and let it smoke for 2 hours.

The final product was a lovely browned piece of salmon that wasn't too dry, but had a delicate flaky texture. The mayo/dijon spread provided a mild, creamy flavour. The aplle smoke wasn't overpowering, but provided a subtle smoky flavour.

Bonus: the cold leftover salmon proved to be both an excellent addition to eggs benedict, as well as an appetizer with cream cheese and crackers.

Easy Smoked Salmon
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 cup white wine
Skinless salmon fillet

Prepare a large piece of heavy duty foil (or double a piece of regular foil) sized big enough to hold your salmon fillet. Fold up the edges of the foil. Mix the mayo and mustard and spread generously and evenly over the fillet. Pour the wine around the salmon.

Prepare your smoker and smoke the salmon, on foil, for 2 - 2.5 hours at 250F.

Cherry-Smoked Chicken Thighs

2010-06-22T22:34:00.000-04:00

The thing about smoker cooking, and I think I've said this before, is that it's not exactly a quick method of cookery. So if you find yourself craving something smoked for dinner just an hour or two ahead of eating time, the smoker may not be able to deliver.

This was Sunday night's predicament. I was craving something from the smoker, but only had about 1.5 hours - all in - to make it happen. So I reckoned I'd give chicken thighs a try. Why chicken thighs? Well they are not overly large for short time cooking (short in smoker world being 1 hour) and they tend not to dry out as quickly as, say chicken breasts, which is a bonus on the smoker.

I went for the easy option of doing a simple sweet rub and letting them stand for 15 minutes while the smoker preheated on high. After sitting, I turned the smoker to 275F and put the thighs on. I'd like to say that I did some wacky and tricky in-between cooking stuff here. But I didn't. I came back an hour later, checked the internal temperatture of the chicken and dinner was served. Easy pleasy.

Cherry-Smoked Chicken Thighs
2-3 chicken thighs per person, boneless and skinless
Rub of your choice

Coat the the thighs with your choice of rub. Let stand 15 minutes while the smoker preheats on high using a mild wood such as cherry or apple. Reduce the heat to low or 275F and let the thighs cook for 1-1.5 hours. When the internal temperature reaches at leaszt 165F they are ready to serve.

These taste just as good, if not better, the next day.

Smoking in Cuba

2010-03-08T20:44:00.000-05:00

No, I'm not talking about Cuban cigars. And, it's not exactly smoker cooking, but awfully close. Close enough to be worthy for a post.

We recently embarked on a family trip to Cuba. For me, when travelling , no matter where, I'm always intrigued with the cuisine. Unfortunately, Cuba isn't a culinary powerhouse . I had read this on many websites prior to our trip, so didn't have high expectations. This actually surprised me because of their location. They have a climate that would support lots of tasty plants year round. They are also very close to other regions with amazing food (Mexico to name one). I find it fascinating how food really does take on characteristics in rather narrow geographic settings.

Anyhoo. One highlight on our trip was a backcountry excursion where we got to dine along the shores of a tropical river. At this place there was a large hut for cooking meat (typically pork, chicken, lobster). I couldn't resist snapping a few shots of the operation as it seemed to capture the best of Cuban cooking. I also reveled in the notion that although food cultures are geographically narrow, some techniques are primal and similar everywhere. The basics.

Here are a few snaps of the operation. The lobster is definitely being grilled, but the other meats are being done more in a low and slow barbecue style. The fuel in both instances is a lovely hard charcoal. Indeed a delicious form of cooking.

Grown-up Lasagna

2010-01-02T19:19:00.003-05:00

The thing that I love about lasagna is that there are no hard rules on its composition. I'm sure in some family/household traditions there are hard and fast rules, but what I'm referring to is the fact that you won't find a repertoire of common methods on how to make lasagna. The possibilities are endless.

Tonight's lasagna is comprised of a form of a Bolognese sauce (another recipe with countless variations), spinach, cottage cheese (in lieu of ricotta), and of course cheese to top it with. Why on this blog vs. my other one? Because I used the pressure cooker for the sauce.

You see, a good Bolognese sauce, needs at least 45 minutes of simmering for the flavours to meld. Although this is a comforting process, when you want to get on with the rest of the meal it can be daunting. So a speedy approach brings a new form of comfort.

For the sauce, I sautéed a smoky alder bacon in the pressure cooker. This is the grown-up part. The smoky bacon imparts a flavour that is quite distinct from traditional meat sauces. It's obvious and subtle at the same time. After just cooking the bacon (not crisp though) I finished the sauce in the pressure cooker via the instructions below.

Note, I used an unneccesary amount of mushrooms, only becaue I had to use them up. The end result was still yummy so I wouldn't deter from using a large amount.

Pre-Pressure Cooking Picture:

10 Minutes Later - a finished sauce!

I assembled the lasagna in usual fashion (again, have a gander at the instructions) and baked for 35 minutes.

This was delicious. A grown-up meal as the smokiness lent a stronger flavour.

It was kitty-licking good (note we generally don't allow our cat to eat any human food, let alone lick our plates, but this was so funny, we took time out to take a picture).

Grown-up Lasagna
Bolognese Sauce in the Pressure Cooker

6 strips alder smoked bacon, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
8 large mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 large carrot grated
1.5 lbs ground beef
2 cans tomato paste
1 tbsp bouillon powder
1 cup water

Cottage Cheese Filling - mix all together:
2 cups cottage cheese
1 egg
1/2 cup grated parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste

4 cups spinach, steamed and seasoned
Lasagna noodles prepared according to package directions.
Grated cheese (mozzarella, marble, jack or mixture).

Bolognese Sauce:
Heat the pressure cooker over med-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until cooked but not browned. Add the onion and mushroom and cook until softened. Add the grated carrot and mix through. Add the ground beef and stir to mix. Cook until there is no more pink in the beef, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato paste and bouillon powder and stir to mixed. Add the water. The water is important to ensure enough liquid in the pressuer cooker for cooking under pressure.

Secure the pressure cooker and keep on medium-high heat until it reaches pressure. Once at pressure reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pressure reduce on its own.

Assemble the Lasagna, adding layers as follows:
Line the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of the bolognese sauce.
Lasagna noodles.
Bolognese sauce.
Lasagna noodles.
Cottage cheese filling.
Spinach.
Lasagna noodles.
Meat Sauce.
Cheese to top.
Sage leaves to garnish.

Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes until bubbling and browned.

Smoked Chicken Wings

2009-12-03T21:15:00.000-05:00

The Canadian Foot League (CFL) recently had the big game - the Grey Cup with the Saskatchewan Roughriders (Go Riders) vs. Montreal Allouettes. Although I'm not a football fan, I'm a bandwagon fan, so this was the perfect opportunity to put together some football party fare.

The star of the show: chicken wings.

But not any chicken wings. Smoked chicken wings.

Now there are many schools of thought on the chicken wing. From super hot, tears in your eyes, blowing your nose, taste not the issue wings to sticky and sweet wings with a multitude of options in between. Of course, if you want to go into sauces (blue cheese dip?) and accompaniments (carrot and celery sticks) just adds to the list and dimension of chicken wings.

For the "Game" my husband requested hot wings - specifically, Louisiana hot sauce wings. So the challenge was on (beyond the Grey Cup).

I have made wings on the smoker before, but not of the hot wing variety. I figured I'd apply some of the same principles from previous. I also didn't want the super hot for the sake of hot wings, but hot with some taste wings. Here's how it went down.

I figured I would want the wings to smoke awhile without any sauce - as any chile based or tomato sauce will char and make a bitter flavour. So I brought in a trusty sweet spice rub for the initial job.

Once the wings were close to being cooked, I added sauce. To get flavour and not just heat, I determined to combine the Louisiana hot sauce (1 part) with some French dressing (2 parts). The dressing would add flavour, but temper the full-on heat.

The end result was terrific. Fall off the bone wings, with good flavour, but good heat. Mmmm. Would I change anything? Next time I would try doing the sauce as a baste instead of a pan sauce, to ensure extra crispiness of the wings (but that’s just personal preference).

Smoked Corn Casserole

2009-11-22T12:16:00.001-05:00

This was an experiment. But I'm happy to say that it was a rather successful one. I've made hashbrown/potato casseroles before, but I wanted something different. I also wanted something with a bit of spice to complement other Southwestern dishes I had on the go.

Corn. Jalapenos. Leftovers. All the fixin's for a brilliant corn casserole - but done on the smoker.

What I did was throw a bunch of stuff together. Literally. This became a bit of a "using up the leftovers" dish (or eating down the fridge as it were), but with enough thought to ensure tastiness . I also wanted flavours that would take smoke well.

I started with some frozen corn. Then I chucked in some chopped ham - not the icky processed stuff, but some ham that I had actually previously smoked (but that's another blogpost). From there a last chipotle chile in adobo sauce that I had leftover, 1/2 jalapeno pepper that I had leftover, some green onions (just on hand, not leftover), and a tex mex blend of cheese (semi-leftover) . I mixed all these great ingredients together, then finished with a blend of cream and eggs.

I topped with additional cheese and put on the smoker. This was a bit tricky as the heat was first at 275F for another dish for 1 hour. But when that was done the corn didn't' look quite ready, so I cranked the heat to 400F and let it finish for 1 hour. Perfect.

This was yummy. I find that some veggie dishes really take smoke well, and corn is definitely one of them.

My new leftover go to dish.

16 Spice Smoked Chicken

2009-10-25T22:14:00.007-04:00

I've gotta be up front, right from the start. This was actually 15 spice smoked chicken, not 16. It's not that I have anything against 16. In fact, I would have been more than happy to have truly been 16 spice, but the sad fact is that I was unable to locate one of the spices, hence 15.

It begins with Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill cookbook. Actually, that's not right. It begins with a dinner at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in August.

You see, I've not watched a lot of Bobby Flay's Food Network shows, and up until that point I had only flipped through his cookbooks - from a design perspective they didn't do much for me, so I never bought one, despite my ever increasing collection of cookbooks with celebrity chefs.

But after eating at Mesa Grill New York in August and delighting in the incredible spice blends (subtle, spicy, interesting) I had another look at the book. Again, the look didn't entice me, but actually seeing the recipes I had tried drew me in. IN the end, a quick visit to Amazon.com and I was the proud owner of the Mesa Grill Cookbook.

I've made several dishes from this book, but this was the first on the smoker. You see, I was looking for a recipe that would lend itself to the smoker, but have that southwest, spicy feel (I should admit here that I may be addicted to spicy, Mexican food, and the southwest varietal is supporting this habit).

Another interesting fact is that in preparation for this blog, I had a looksee on the web to see if any site had posted this spice blend recipe. Indeed they did, including Bobby Flay's own website, but with a noticeable difference. Instead of the 3tbsp of cinnamon called for in the actutal cookbook (which I had no intention of using as it seemed extreme to me) it called just for one. I'm assuming a correction - likely much needed.

One more tidbit, the spice I didn't' have on hand was chile de arbol. After doing a quick check on the spiciness of the chile de arbol (15000-30000 scoville units) I determined that this one was more about the heat than the flavour, so I substituted additional cayenne in place.

I basically prepared the chicken in usual smoker fashion, but substituted the 16 (actually 15) spice blend as my rub. So quick rundown:

• Spatchcock chicken, rinse and pat dry

• Rub with spice blend

• Meanwhile prepare smoker - put in a light smoke varietal (apple, maple, alder) - heat to high

• Wait 15 minutes

• When chicken is ready to go on reduce temp to 275F

• Put the bird on

• Sprtiz every hour with apple juice until ready (depends on size)

• Mmmmm

The end result was a wonderfully smoked chicken (as usual), with an entriguing taste. The spice rub reminded me of 5 spice rub, but a bit more complex (likely the additional 10 spices contributed to this).

I served topped with a roasted red pepper sauce, and a rendition of Sophie's Salad, both from the Bobby Flay Mesa Grill cookbook and a yummy smoked corn casserole (but that's another blogpost).

Gourmet Magazine Closes

2009-10-07T22:20:00.003-04:00

It's not about smoking. It's not about pressure cooking. But it is significant in the world of food.

Gourmet magazine, published since 1940, is closing. A sad day indeed.

Smoked Mixed Nuts

2009-09-13T10:02:00.007-04:00

Ever since we got out smoker, I've been wanted to try smoked nuts, but just never got around to it. But faced with a fast approaching cocktail hour with friends - I figured it would be the perfect time to try.

A bit of background.

We have a few friends coming over for cocktail hour. Knowing the players, I thought it would be fun to try to do a traditional type one where instead of the usual beer and wine we opt for some classics like bourbon manhatten's (one of our friend's favourites) and cosmopolitans or the like. Of course beer and wine would also be availalbe.

So with these classic drinks I thought some proper accompanients would be in good order. Although the drinks have that 60s flair, I wasn't quite in the mood for appies with toothpicks in them. I figured cocktail nuts with a twist would be good.

I've made nut appetizers before, but not on the smoker. I'm not crazy about nut recipes that use melted butter as they get a bit greasy and for nibblies and that's not convenient. So I went with a trusted eggwhite recipe.

The trick here is two fold (no egg white pun intended).

One: Proper egg white beating,

Two: Yummy spices. The latter is the funnest part as you can be super creative or just use what you have available. Today's line up included sugar, chopped fresh rosemary, chile

powder, cumin and garlic powder.

I won't go into details as it's easy pleasy and the recipe is below.

What I will tell you is that these were delicious. Not super smoky, but more of a hint of smoke. And did I mention easy?
Smoked Mixded Nuts

2 egg whites
1/3 cup white sugar
2 tsp chile powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp garlic powder
4 cups mixed nuts such as walnuts, pecans, almonds

Preheat your smoker to 300F.

Beat the egg whites until frothy in a large bowl (as you'll be adding the nuts to this bowl later). You're not aiming for stiff peaks here, but you don't want any clear eggy goo either. Then you mix up your spices in a separate bowl and fold them in with the egg whites.

Add your nuts and mix well. Note, I used slivered almonds instead of whole and this worked very well. When you mix you will find that the egg whites are almost stringy - that's ok.

Pour into a disposable aluminum pan and spread around evenly. Place on the smoker and cook 15-20 minutes. Mix about. Reduce heat to 250F and cook another 10-15 minutes.

Remove from heat and cool before serving (although you can cheat and taste while warm as they are good then too).

Smoked Beef Finger Ribs

2009-08-11T15:35:00.007-04:00

I am finally back at home for a stretch where I can resume some cookery of the smoker and/or pressure cooker variety! On the menu, smoked beef finger ribs

At this juncture I would like to give you some details on what Beef Finger Ribs are in terms of cut, but I can't as I just don't know. I tried to look online, but didn't find any further details, and many items discussed "boneless beef finger ribs" which these aren't - they have bone. I would like to say that the obvious is that they are a product from the cow that comes from the ribs, but then using that logic one may also think that they are a cow fingers product as well. What I can confirm based on visual (vs. the logic scenario) is they are definitely a rib product. But not the usual large ribs, so likely from a different area or a different trim.

I approached the ribs in usual smoker fashion. Dry rub marinade; sprtizing, basting with sauce. Here's the rundown.

I first used a plain basic (lazy) dry rub of salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. (In hindsight, I should have used something more zesty and less salty such as my ancho dry rub or spicy dry rub which I make in supply so I always have it on hand). I let the dry rub absorb for about 1/2 hour.

I used a grapvine wood pellet and let the ribs cook at 225F for about 4 hours. I would normally suggest sprtizing with apple juice every 1/2 hour for the last 3 hours, but we ended up going for a motorcycle ride and I was able to only sprtiz for a couple of hours.

Finally, I made a yummy Chipotle Raspberry bbq baste/mop type sauce which I mopped the ribs with 3 times during the last 45 minutes of cooking. I also served a bit on the side for extra dipping (if you do this, be sure you aren't using any that's had the potential of cross-contamination).

The result. Pretty delicious. Served with some corn on the cob and beets with fresh dill all from the farmers market. Does it get any better?

Chipotle Raspberry Mop Sauce

14 oz can tomatoes with sauce
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
4 cloves garlic minced
2 cups frozen raspberries
3/4 cup ketchup
3 tbsp molasses
1/4 cup raspberry vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp onion powder
2 tsp celery seed
2 tsp black pepper

Process the tomatoes and chipotle peppers together until smooth and pour into a large saucepan. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil stirring often. Reduce heat, and let simmer for 30-60 minutes.

Up-State New York n' Smokin'

2009-08-01T19:08:00.020-04:00

No I'm not being lazy and avoiding posts. I've been travelling through New England/Up-State New York / and the Mid-West for all of July and blog-posts haven't been at the top of my to-do list (they fall short of lobster rolls, incredible architecture, and tall ships).

Although I plan to jump back into smoker recipes and pressure-cooking recipes, I thought I'd do a quick blurb on smoker cooking during my travels.

When you think of smoking, you don't normally think of Up-State New York and/or New England - you'd be more apt to think of Kansas or the deep south. But let me tell you, smoking is alive and well in the North East.

We passed many a smoker places - in hindsight I should have taken pictures of all that I saw as it truly is surprising. But what I will tell/show you is the place where we did stop and partake of a delicious smoker meal.

The Tail o' the Pup is a smoker joint just north outside of Lake Placid. We had seen it a couple of years ago when driving through, and always regretted not stopping. On this trip, we made it our initial destination (shortly followed by Lake Placid).
The Tail o' the Pup not only does smoked foods, but also seafood boils. Very cool. It's not upscale, but it is delicious, and the perfect outdoor eatery. The outdoor space (which is much larger than the indoor space) is perfectly designed for some laid-back hanging out while chowing down on big food. Since we were there around 2:00 p.m. we didn't see it, but they do have live entertainment on an outdoor stage.

In order to maximize our tasting of all things smoked, we shared the meat platter. Complete with pulled pork, beef brisket, chicken, and ribs. All were tasty, and had a delicious charcoal flabour. If I had to pick the pulled pork would be my fav (my husband voted for the beef brisket).

Apart from that, I should mention, Lake Placid is a beautfiul place.

We stayed a few nights at this great hotel called High Peaks resort which is right on the main street and overlooks Mirror Lake. Fantastic. The little townsite is very nice with all the essentials (Starbucks). Also, the roads around the area are amazing, particulary if you have a motorbike or a sports car (twisty, smooth and scenic).

I should also mention this fantastic side-trip we did to Burlington, Vermont where we had a smoked meat sandwich at Leunig's downtown. It was beyond amazing.

So there it is boys and girls. A quick update.

Pressure Cooking in Jamaica (Curried Goat)

2009-06-26T15:41:00.014-04:00

I'm currently on vacation in Jamaica mon and had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be doing any posts as I wouldn't be doing any cooking. But as fate would have it, a pressure cooker appeared on the scene and I reckoned a post was order.

We're on this amazing holiday in Jamaica in June. Not your usual time for a "hot holiday" if you're from the northern hemisphere, but our travel companions are from the southern hemisphere (Australia) and it indeed is winter there.

We're staying at a gorgeous estate called Hammerstein's Highland House (HHH). It's a private estate so it's just us eight friends (old and new) here. We have incredible amenities, including all of the meals prepared for us at the times we specify. In fact, they ring a bell when a meal is ready - which we all love. It actually makes you conditioned to start salivating when you hear it and wander zombie-like to the dining area. I can now relate to my cat and why she gets so excited at the sound of her food jar coming out.

The food has been exceptional - and we haven't had any desire to seek out other eating establishments. In fact, we tend to plan everything around our meals, and often spend a good chunk of our time talking about what we've eaten or what's coming next!

Back to the pressure cooker.

We were all sitting on the Terrace enjoying cocktail hour and the gorgeous view of Montego Bay.

Steve slipped into the kitchen and came back to announce that a pressure cooker was going. As any normal person would do given such news, I grabbed my camera and ran to the kitchen. Sure enough, a pressure cooker was toiling away. Even more exciting it was a Fagor brand 6 qt. - almost like what I have at home.

We enquired what treasure trove simmered away in this vessel. Just as I suspected, it was the curry goat that was one of the dishes on this evening's menu. The chef, Sherry-Anne, said it helps to keep it tender .

When we sat to dinner, the curry goat not only looked fantastic, but also smelled and tasted fantastic.

It was served alongside broccoli, cho cho (a local squash-type vegetable which is very good) and rice. I must confess though, I pretty much focused on eating the yummy curried goat and didn't dabble to much into the side dishes! Dessert was a delicious and perfect lemon soufflé!

I will definitely be trying to recreate this curried goat recipe in the future using my pressure cooker at home!

OMG - Pulled Pork Tinga

2009-06-03T22:08:00.010-04:00

UPDATE: See the end of this post for another instalment of using up the leftovers - smoked pulled pork pizza. This is a teaser photo right below - it's not pork tinga!

This would be an instalment in my using up the leftovers of the "Cheap Ass Monday" Smoked Pork Picnic Roast. Although I've been using up the pork, I'm pacing myself on the postings. (Pacing=lazy)

Oh my god.

That was my first reaction to my first bite of this recipe.

After mulling over my leftover options, I decided to text one of my girlfriends from Mexico to get an idea. A simple text saying "I've got a bunch of left over pulled pork - any Mexican recipes for using it up" led to a flurry of texts for Tinga. And baby, it was so worth piecing together the multiple texts.

In fact, making this dish was thrilling on so many levels - and I can honestly say that doesn't happen every day in general cookery.

My first thrill was using a brand new All-Clad 3 quart cassoulet that I added to my collection. What the hell a cassoulet is for, I don't know (surely not just cassoulet), but it was a thrill to use. So I started by sautéing some diced onions until just starting to brown then added some of the pulled pork leftovers.

Meanwhile, thrill number two arose, when I used a food processor to puree 2 large tomatoes, a large clove of garlic and 2 chipotles in adobo sauce. This was a thing of beauty. The resulting sauce was such a deep luscious colour, I knew I was onto something good.

I added the puree to the pork mixture, along with 1/2 cup of orange juice and salt and pepper and let it simmer. Again, it just looked completely fantastic. Thrilling, in fact.

I had zipped to the grocery after work to buy tostadas (actually Wal-Mart - a store which is a negative thrill, but they actually carry proper tostadas) so after the Tinga had simmered for 1/2 hour I was ready for assembly.

My girlfriend is travelling right now, so I can't confirm the proper, traditional way to serve Tinga. So I simply put some pork on a tostada, added lettuce, cheese and sour cream. I would have added avocado but the one I had on hand wasn't quite ripe.

Then I had a bite. Oh my god. It was amazing. I couldn't believe the flavours. To coin a phrase from

Moe the Bartender on The Simpsons "It's like a party in my mouth and everyone's invited". That Moe, he knows how to call it.

Pulled Pork Tinga Recipe
1 tbsp oil
1/2 large onion diced
2 cups pulled pork (leftovers)
2 large ripe tomatoes, cored
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (with sauce)
1 large clove garlic
1/2 cup orange juice

To serve: Tostadas, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, chopped avocado, sour cream

Heat the oil in a large saucepan (or cassoulet pan if you have) until just starting to brown. Add the pulled pork and mix. Meanwhile, combine the tomatoes, peppers and garlic in a food processor. Add to the pork along the orange juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer a 1/2 hour until somewhat reduced.

LEFTOVER UPDATE:

Smoked Pulled Pork and Pineapple Pizza

I won't go into the prep details for this (I'll save that for another blog - but I used more of the smoked pork picnic roast to do a smoked pizza. The result was pretty good. I really liked that it didn't have the processed flavour of bought pork product, but it wasn't exactly like ham and pineapple pizza either. It was pretty much unto its own.

"Cheap Ass Monday" - Smoked Pork Picnic Roast

2009-06-01T21:22:00.004-04:00

You may be wondering why the "Cheap Ass Monday" bit in the title. Well it's to flag that this post is intended to be a submission to Michelle over at Thursday Night Smackdown for her "Cheap Ass Monday" (formerly "hobo Mondays") monthly event - where a dinner for six can cost no more than $13.

It is pure coincidence that I'm making a smoked pulled pork dish on the heels of Michelle's recent smoke-a-thon. You see, I was at the grocery yesterday and they had these pork picnic roasts (hock removed) on sale. How could I resist. It was screaming "smoke me" I'm cheap!

Usually when I make pulled pork, I use a pork blade shoulder roast . But when I saw these big pork shoulder picnic roasts, I figured I should throw all caution to the wind and give it a whirl.

I began by trimming the excess fat from the roast. EXCESS fat, not ALL. This is critical to the end product. Not only does it keep the meat tender during its long cooking process, but it also creates the most amazing crispy crust on the outside that is worth the whole dinner in itself.

I slathered one of my favourite spicy dry rub recipes. This is a concoction I created by picking and choosing things I liked from different recipes. I make it in bulk and use it on various meats/cuts including chicken and pork ribs. I've even contemplated packaging it as a gift for friends and family at Christmas, but the lazy side of me always interferes.

I wrapped the rubbed roast in plastic wrap and let it sit for an hour to "marinate." I should note that it was 9:00 a.m. as this is one of those low and slow recipes. Then it was smoking time. I preheated the smoker, filled with maple pellets for 15 minutes. I then put the rubbed roast on (plastic wrapped removed- in case you are silly enough to think it stay) and turned the heat to 225F. A bit of basting and 8 hours later you're ready to eat!

For sides dishes I made a smoked potato casserole (yes I just made this last week, but it was so delicious I was craving it and had to make it again), and a simple tomato salad (yayyyy - I finally have productive basil in the yard to do this).

When the pork roast was ready it looked amazing, and tasted even more amazing. I had originally planned to drench it with a bbq sauce, but it was so good on its own I didn't - turns out this was an opportunity. . . .

As for the pork picnic roast - I will choose it over the pork blade roast from now on for pulled pork. It was much better for "pulling" and had tonnes of meat.

This was originally a dinner for 6 (that's what the math is based on), but the pork roast turned out to be so big that I've got enough leftovers to get me through numerous meals. A Challenge! I plan to use the leftovers in various meals for the next few days (i.e. Before I get sick of eating pork or before it starts to grow some crazy bacteria that will make me sick).

Stay tuned. . . .

The Math:
for Cheap Ass Monday, Smoked Pork Picnic Roast for Dinner for 6 per instructions
Pork Roast $6.00Potato Casserole Ingredients ($1.59+$.59+$1.5+$1.89+$.25)
Tomato Salad ($1.15 + $1.5)
Total: 14.47 CDN - converted to USD $13.29*
*yes its slightly over the limit, but if the CDN dollar hadn't strengthened this last week it would have been well over

Spicy Dry Rub for a Plenitude of Purposes
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon thyme
Mix all ingredients together. If making the bulk mix using a strainer to remove any lumps. Store in airtight container.

Smoked Pork Picnic Shoulder Roast
1 6-8 lb pork shoulder picnic roast
1 recipe dry rub mix (above)

Trim the roast of excess fat - but not all. Be sure to leave a thin layer to keep the roast moist during cooking and create a delicious crackling whilst cooking. Rinse with water.

Rub the roast all over with the dry rub and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Let sit for one hour to "marinate." 15 minutes before it's ready prepare the smoker by heating it on high with maple wood. Turn the heat to low or 225F and put the roast on. Baste with Raspberry baste every hour for 8 hours until the roast is cooked.

Once cooked, remove from smoker. Let rest for 5-10 minutes. Pull the pork into strip using a fork and a knife. Be sure to remove excess fat, but keep the crispy crackling (you may even want to snack on it as you go).

Raspberry Vinegar Baste
1/2 cup raspberry vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup salt
Mix all ingredients together.

Quick Smoked Ribs and Smoked Potato Casserole

2009-05-24T16:17:00.007-04:00

We are finally having some decent spring weather. It's been a crappy one, to say the least, that when we got a hot sunny day, the only thing that needed to be done (apart from a swack of yardwork) was to smoke something.

After finding out that both my neighbour and I were each baching it this weekend, we decided to do a girls dinner. We each had been working for hours in our respective yards, that by the time we were ready for supper we were exhausted, starving, and did I mention exhausted.

I figured ribs would make for a good supper, but I hadn't planned ahead to get them on for a long, low and slow event in the smoker. At 4:00 p.m. I figured, ribs were still the desired grub, but would have to be creative to make them work - that is cooked in such a way that they would still be tender and have some smoke flavour in under two hours.

Because ribs have a tendency to dry out on the smoker if they are not spritzed, I figured I would start them out in foil so that they wouldn't lose all of their steam. After coating the ribs in a ancho chili dry rub, I wrapped them in foil and placed them in the smoker for 1.5 hours, at which time I removed them from the foil and placed them back in the smoker and dowsed with raspberry bbq sauce.

Now you might be thinking, what a waste to have something in the smoker wrapped in foil, unable to soak up the smokiness and flavour. All was not lost , as I put together a potato casserole to smoke alongside of the ribs. Plus, because the ribs were finished outside of the foil on the smoker, they did get a bit of smokiness.

I love this potato casserole for two reasons. First of all, its actually made from hashbrowns - which I know come from potatoes, but I'm not fully convinced they have the same nutritional value as a real potato and I always feel like they're trying to pull one over on me. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't prevent me from making it, it just cracks me up. I also love it as it reminds me of a 1960s housewife recipe which should be served alongside a bunch of hors oeuvres - each stuck with a toothpick. Again, this isn't a criticism, it's endearing.

Sticking with the lack of planning for this dinner, I quickly realized I didn't have all of the ingredients for this recipe, so I stared ad libbing. With a bit of improvisation and some borrowed cheese from my neighbour, I got a yummy potato casserole. In fact, it was so good, I'm going to replace the former recipe in my repertoire with this one.

So there it is, some quick smoked ribs that were super tender and tasty and an extra yummy smoked potato casserole.

Quick Smoked Ribs
2 racks meaty baby back ribs
1/2 cup ancho chili dry rub*
3/4 cup raspberry barbecue sauce*

Coat the ribs with the dry rub and let sit until tacky, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the smoker with cherry or apple pellets on high heat. Wrap the ribs in a double layer of foil and place on the smoker. Adjust the temperature to 325F. Let cook for 1.5 hours. Remove the ribs from the foil and place directly on the smoker. Glaze generously with the barbecue sauce.
*I use recipes for the rub and bbq from this book.

Ad Libbed Smoked Potato Casserole
6 cups hashbrowns, frozen
1 medium onion diced
1 can cream of celery soup
1 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese
1 cup grated marble cheese, divided
Salt and pepper to taste
Mix the hashbrowns, onion, celery soup, cottage cheese, and 1/2 cup of grated marble cheese. Place in disposable tin. Cover with remaining grated marble cheese. Smoke at 325F for 1.5 hours.

Sous Vide Spring Meal

2009-05-17T19:53:00.006-04:00

I admit that chicken seems to appear much more often than other foods on this blog. It truly is a coincidence. Although I do like chicken, I don't rate it any higher than steak, baby back ribs, lamb chops or the like.

Today, the chicken had a purpose. It was my first foray into the world of sous vide. Time and location have not permitted me to blog on smoker cooking or pressure cooking, but given that sous vide is a form of cooking under pressure, I deemed it a reasonable substitute.

I'll begin first by telling you the menu - as that's how I'm going to group this post, and each has its own merit. Even if you aren`t interested in sous vide cooking, the other recipes are must tries.

1. Sous Vide Chicken with Wild Mushroom Sauce - a new form (for me at least) of pressure cooking.
2. Caramelized Asparagus - it's all about the cut and the taste makes it a whole new vegetable - a must try!
3. New Potatoes in Cream and Dill - it's spring and this is the dish you have to splurge on to make it so.

Sous Vide Chicken with Wild Mushroom Sauce

Sous vide is a relatively new term to me although its been percolating around North America for a few years. In Europe its been in practice much longer, just like traditional pressure cooker. Coincidence? It think not. The folks in mainland Europe seem to be several steps ahead in cookery preparation if you ask me.

I won't go into details on the concept, as there's lots on the web, and Thomas Keller recently published a cookbook that is exclusively dedicated to this process Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide. I can't say that what I prepared is anywhere in this league, but it was my first kick and it tasted pretty good.

I took two bone-in, skin on chicken breasts and vacuum packed them into a foodsaver bag. I then heated a large pot of water to 150F and dropped the bags in and let them cook for 35 minutes. You could see the chicken cooking in the bags. The water wasn't boiling, but warm enough to do the trick. I did have trouble maintaining the temperature as part of tonight's cooking adventure was a coil-ring stove - I think a gas cooktop would be much easier to maintain a consistent temperature at.

After the chicken cooked 35 minutes, I cooled it in cold water and then placed in the fridge. This part is important as you don't want the food to stay warm in the bag too long as it will fester with bacteria in this perfect environment. (Again, refer to some of the good details out there on this).

When I was ready to get the chicken ready (about 1/2 hour later), I put it under the broiler for about 10 minutes to get the skin very crispy.

Wild Mushroom Sauce

While the chicken was cooking I prepared the mushroom sauce. Yummy. I had found some fresh shitake and trumpet mushrooms at the grocery. I cleaned them and sliced them up. I sautéed them until just starting to brown and added a bit of gravy mix (yes you heard me, gravy mix, I cheated, but it was well worth it and I make no apologies), and white wine. It was yummy.

Caramelized Asparagus
There are a few vegetables that have surprised me over the last few years as whole new creatures when cooked an alternative way. In the queue already were beets, cabbage and cauliflower. Today, asparagus entered the realm.

I like asparagus, but prepared in a new way created a whole new veggie. I sliced the spears on an angle into thin strips. Unfortunately the bunch I had in hand were somewhat wilty at the the tops (damn you commercial grocer) and I had to dispose of many of them. Normally this would be quite distressing if you were serving the whole spear (topless asparagus! unheard of), but for this rendition it works. You simply sauté them in a bit of olive oil and butter, season with salt and pepper, and let cook until starting to brown slightly.

New Potatoes with Dill and Cream

I never had this dish until I met my husband and his sister and aunt taught me to make it. And it is unbelievable. It has to be with new potatoes and it has to be with cream. I figure, new potatoes only come around once a year for a short time so splurge.

For this version I mixed it up a bit with the addition of garlic. First, you boil the potatoes until just starting to soften, then drain them. Then, almost in fettuccine alfredo style you melt some butter, add some garlic, then the cream and mix. Return the potaotes and a bunch of fresh dill and let simmer to thicken.

The key is to not serve right off the burner. Let the dish rest for a few minutes. The cream thickens more and the whole dish has a much sweeter, spring flavour.

All of these recipes are for two people.

Sous Vide* Chicken
2 chicken breasts, bone-in and skin on
Salt and pepper to taste
Rinse the chicken breasts and pat dry. Vacuum pack*. Bring a pot of water to 150F. Put the vacuum packed chicken breasts into the pot and let cook for 35 minutes. Try to keep the temperature constant. When done, if not finishing them off immediately, plunge into a ice water bath to cool down and then put in the refrigerator. This is important for food safety .

To finish: Place the chicken breasts on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, and broil until the skin is crispy. If they are completely chilled, you may have to bake for a bit to get them warmed through.

If you don`t have a vacuum pack machine, or to learn more about sous vide, read this post at blog

Pork is my Friend.

Wild Mushroom Sauce
1 .5 cups mixed wild mushrooms (e.g. trumpets, shitake)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
.5 cup water
2 tbsp brown gravy mix (see comments above)
1 cup white wine

Clean and slice the mushrooms. Heat oil and butter in a frying pan. Cook the mushrooms until just turning brown. Add the water and gravy mix. Stir to mix. Add the white wine and mix. Simmer until thickened.

Caramelized Asparagus
1 lb asparagus
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter

Slice the asparagus into thin strips at an angle. Heat the olive oil and butter in a pan. Add the asparagus and season. Sauté until the asparagus just starts to turn brown.

New Potatoes with Dill and Cream
6-8 new potatoes (they are naturally rather small)
2-3 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup cream
1 bunch dill, chopped
Salt and pepper

Slice the potatoes in half and boil until just tender. Drain. In the same pot heat the butter and add the garlic. Sauté for 1 minutes. Add the cream and stir. Add the potatoes and dill and swirl to mix. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes to let sauce thicken. Remove from heat and let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Chicken Tacos with Mole Sauce, Pico de Gallo and Guacamole

2009-04-29T22:14:00.011-04:00

Do you ever find that those last-minute, spontaneous get-togethers often turn out better than the long-planned gatherings?

That's what happened a few nights ago. And in the end it turned into a pressure cooker Mexican extravaganza - with the pressure cooker participating in no less than three dishes!

A girlfriend of mine and I had determined that we would get together, but didn't know where or when. When she called in the late afternoon we determined to have dinner at my place. It was a good thing as I had been pretty lazy all day and it got me off my but.

My friend is originally from Mexico (not to be confused with my other friend from Mexico). She had a rough week and was feeling a bit blue and homesick, so I decided to make a Mexican dinner for her (with her assistance of course). I ran to the store and got some kitchen essentials including tomatoes, avocados, cilantro, jalapenos, and limes. Does that grocery list not scream Mexican????

I also got some tortillas. I've mentioned before that I live some distance from Mexico. I think the search for tortillas is one of the more telling sure signs. It's hard to find corn tortillas here. You can find wheat, flax, three cheese, and pesto. But corn tortillas are a little more challenging. I suspect that this is a sign that the wrap-sandwich folks have a corner on the market. I did manage to get a package of jalapeno corn tortillas - a sure substitute.

I prepared a guacamole dip and a pico de gallo salsa so that we could have those as appetizers with nacho chips (corn nacho chips to be specific) and set the scene. I didn't have any specific Mexican music so opted for Buena Vista Social club music to add Latino charm.

I then set out to make refried beans. A simple, yet complex dish with 3 steps.

I employed the pressure cooker first to assist with a "quick soak" of some dried pinto beans so that we would be able make refried beans. To do this you bring the beans to a boil for 2-3 minutes in a good amount of water. You then turn off the heat and let them sit in the heated water for a good hour. Of course, if you are able to plan ahead, you would just soak them overnight instead of going through this step - but that would require much more than 2 hours notice like I had tonight.

You then go onto cook beans in the pressure cooker, then finish them on the stovetop (the "refried" portion of their name I assume).

I did a quick cleanup of the pressure cooker and then prepared two large, bone-in, skin on chicken breasts in the pressure cooked. I've done this before, so I won't bore you with the details apart from the fact of the great smell. Also, for this evening's meal, I kept the reserved stock from cooking them for the mole sauce.

It was roughly at this point that my friend arrived. Although I had done quite a bit of prep work, there was still lots to do so we divided the tasks. She finished the refried beans and prepared the mole sauce. I shredded the chicken and then used the pressure cooker, again, to cook white rice.

The final step before sitting down to our feast was to prepare the tortillas. I learned something new.

In other cooking demos I've been shown the method where you sauté each tortilla in oil to soften it and make it pliable. Tonight, my friend took advantage of the natural gas flame and cooked them right on the flame - flipping often. It was fantastic, no mess and less fattening. You don’t want to get distracted though lest you burn your tortilla.

As we were in the final steps of preparation we invited another girlfriend to join. She arrived just in time to partake of the meal and get a demonstration on how to assemble the chicken tacos.

Salut!

Pico de Gallo

1 large tomato diced
1/2 onion diced
1 jalapeno minced
1 small bunch cilantro chopped
Juice of 1/2 lime
Salt to taste
Combine all ingredients. Let sit for at least 1/2 hour for flavours to absorb. If you don't have time, dig in.

Guacamole
2 avocados peeled and pit removed, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 small bunch cilantro chopped
1/2 jalapeno minced
Juice of 1/2 lime
Put all ingredients into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade and process until desired smoothness.

Refried Beans
Step 1:
1 cup dried pinto beans
6 cups water
Bring beans to a boil in the water. Let boil 2-3 minutes. Then remove for heat and let soak at least 1 hour.

Step 2:
The absorbed pinto beans, drained
6 cups water
1/2 onion
1/2 jalapeno pepper
2 cloves garlic
Put all ingredients into a pressure cooker and secure the lid. Bring to pressure over med-high heat. Once at pressure, reduce heat (not so much that you lose pressure) and cook 6-8 minutes. Use a quick release method to reduce pressure. Discard, onion, pepper and garlic and drain beans. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Step 3:
1-2 tbsp oil
1/2 onion diced fine
1 cloves garlic minced
The cooked pinto beans, drained
Reserve bean cooking liquid
Salt and pepper to taste
In a sauté pan heat the oil and add the onion and garlic. Sauté until soft. Add the beans and mash. Add enough bean cooking liquid to make to a chunky-smooth texture. Salt and pepper to taste.

Mole Sauce
1/2 jar prepared mole sauce
45 grams unsweetened Mexican chocolate
1/2-3/4 cup chicken broth
Heat the mole sauce in a small saucepan with enough broth to make a thick liquid. When smooth, add the chocolate and stir until melted.

Chicken
See the recipe and method here to prepare and shred the chicken.

White Rice
1 cup white rice
2 cups water
Put the rice and water into the pressure cooker. Secure the cover and bring to high pressure . Reduce the heat, but don't lose pressure. Cook for 7 minutes and use a quick release method to reduce pressure.

Tortillas
Prepare by heating in oil in frying pan or over an open flame on the cooktop. On open flame keep rotating every 20-30 seconds so they don't burn.

Sour Cream
Thin with milk to make a more fluid consistency.

To assemble the Tacos add shredded chicken, mole sauce, guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Roll up and devour.

Chicken Bouillabaisse a la Pressure Cooker

2009-04-23T23:21:00.007-04:00

Do not try this at home.

At least, not just yet.

A few weekends ago I was flipping through the Barefoot Contessa's latest recipe book, Back to Basics. In usual style it is filled with beautiful pictures of beautiful foods. Inspiring. To say the least.

The one photo that made me pause was her Chicken Bouillabaisse recipe. It looks sooooo amazing. And I was particularly thrilled that one of the ingredients is Pernod, as I had just been reading about Pernod use in Anthony Bourdain's book "Kitchen Confidential". Coincidence. I think not. It was a sign that I should pursue this recipe.

First I had to pursue Pernod.

It's a lovely French liqueur that has a strong licorice nose and fennel (or perhaps anise) taste. How could you go wrong?

Now that I've been on the pressure cooker bandwagon for a good two months, I figured I was ready to jump right into the recipe modifying it appropriately for pressure cooker purposes utilizing my arsenal of lessons learned.

I began by sautéing chicken parts seasoned with salt, pepper and rosemary (I used bone-in, skin-on, chicken breasts with the back attached) right in the cooker with olive oil. Once browned, I removed them to a plate.

From there I added lots of garlic (yummy), fennel (more licoricey goodness), saffron (very exotic), white wine (always a winner), Pernod (even more exotic), tomato paste (not so exotic), whole canned tomatoes (even more not so exotic), and chicken bouillon (the right thing to do). All of this was a variation on the book recipe but with reduced liquid, and more tomatoey flavour, and 10 minutes on high pressure vs.30-40 minutes simmering on the cooktop. Again, not just a time savings, but an energy savings (after all, yesterday was Earth Day).
After simmering, I made use of my latest favourite appliance (at least it is now that my sister-in-law taught me proper usage skills), the hand blender, and blended it all together. I then added cubed red potatoes and the chicken back to the pot. I brought the concoction back up to high pressure and cooked 17 minutes under pressure.

This is where I return to my initial statement - do not try this at home. Although the dish looked fantastic and smelled fantastic, I was less than impressed. But where did I go wrong? I haven't made this dish using the traditional recipe so was it my pressure cooker conversion? Did I add to much tomatoey goodness? Should I have added sugar to offset some of the acidity? Maybe I snacked too many crackers and other snacks while making the dish that I really just wasn't that into it?

I don't know.

Maybe it tasted as it should (the Pernod flavour did come through). But it just wasn't as good as it looks.

So I don't know, you can try it. Or not.

Ottawa Pizza

2009-04-17T19:58:00.004-04:00

I'm wayyyyy past due for a blog-post.

I do plan to get right back on track with the pressure cooker and/or smoker cooking a.s.a.p. In fact, I'm in the process of buying another pressure cooker (but that's another blog). I do digress.

My delay is a function of a combination of a lot of travel and and a lot of eating out. I s'pose I could have blogged on some of the fantastic restaurants I've enjoyed in Eastern Canada and the New England area, but I was to busy eating and enjoying to take pictures.

But, I did manage to squeak out a few pictures of this evenings feast.

It's a bit of an interesting story. A local (sorta) freebie newspaper called The Metro had recommended two wines for drinking relative to the movie "Bottle Shock". (Have you seen this movie? It's really good and worth the watch). Anyways, we bought the wines and were planning to do a fancy dinner and wine tasting with them.

But . . . We had a large lunch at our favourite Ethiopian restaurant, The Horn of Africa, and just didn’t have it in us to do a big dinner. We still did a mini wine tasting (and true to the movie, the American Cabernet Sauvignon won). As for food, something lighter and fast. The answer: Pizza.

Now when I'm at our primary residence, my favourite way to prepare pizza is on the smoker (watch upcoming blog-posts for this), but in Ottawa, I had to go more traditional. We bought a prepared crust, some terrific deli meats, and good quality mozzarella. We used up some stuff around the house including a tomato and some mushrooms. The end result was yummy.

Deeeeeelish.

Ottawa Pizza
Prepared Pizza Crust
Prepared Pizza Sauce, good quality
Good Quality Hot Salami, enough for a single layer
Good Quality Unprocessed Ham, enough for a single layer
Mushrooms (wild or crimini), sautéed with olive oil, garlic and kosher salt
Good Quality Mozzarella (North American) grated, to cover
Tomato, thinly sliced
Oregano, dried, sprinkled on top
Hot Pepper Flakes, sprinkle on top

The list of ingredients is in order of how they should be put on the pizza. You don’t want to make any of the layers thick, just to cover. Bake at 375F for 10 minutes. Then finish with the broiler for 4-7 minutes.

Linguine Carbonara

2009-04-03T21:49:00.005-04:00

Mmmmmmm carbonara. Is there a more perfect food?

Mmmmmmm bacon. Is there a more perfect food?

I know that's duplication, but the thing is, I think carbonara has to be my most favourite go-to food. It's got all the makings: simplicity, tastiness, quickness and of course, bacon (or bacon-like content) . What I haven't determined is if it is the bacon that makes this dish - as bacon pretty much improves any dish - or if it's just a great thing in its own right.

Either way, it's fantastic.

The great thing about carbonara, beyond its purist form anyways, is that you can swap ingredients in and out and still come out with a fantastic product. Once you've established a basic recipe - you can begin to play. Switch-up the pasta to a farfalle or orecchiete. Substitute prosciutto or pancetta for the bacon. Or add veggies such as zucchini, spinach, peas or arugula.

That's why you'll find all sorts of recipes with variations on ingredients and methodology. I encourage you to find the one that works for you. Here's mine (well at least the one I'm using today, I'm likely to change it up next time round).

Linguine Carbonara for Two
2 tsp olive oil
8 strips alder-smoked bacon, sliced in short, thin strips
1/2 medium onion, diced
9 oz dried linguine
2 eggs, at room temperature
4 tablespoons creams, at room temperature
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

In a large Dutch-oven type pot heat the oil on medium-high heat. (Using this kind of pot, serves two purposes, it reduces the splatter from sautéing the bacon and onion, and it serves as the final mixing bowl). Add the bacon and onion and stir to mix. Let the bacon and onion saute until the bacon is crisp and the onion is carmelized. Once ready, turn the heat off and let stand.

Meanwhile, start a pot for boiling water for your pasta. When the water is boiling add the pasta and cook as usual (9-11 minutes).

While the pasta is cooking mix your eggs and cream until blended. Then mix in the cheese.

This final step has to be done relatively quickly once all the pieces are ready. When the pasta is cooked, drain it. Then dump into the bacon and onion pot. Chuck in the egg mixture and mix through. Serve topped with more grated cheese.

Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Verde

2009-03-29T11:42:00.006-04:00

Hola!

I've recently had the pleasure of having authentic Mexican food prepared by a girlfriend of mine who is from Mexico City. (I was even so lucky on one occasion to have her mom cook as well - but that's another blog).

I'm a good 2000 miles from Mexico, and my friend swears that the majority of restaurants this far out, are not authentic (well at least 99% of them aren't). So as she did their cooking, I made sure to take lots of notes so I could recreate the recipes.

Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Verde has several steps. I managed to break them down over a couple of days using the pressure cooker. It's just a bit of laziness on my part, as there is no reason why this dish couldn't be prepared all in the same day.

Salsa Verde
Into the crockpot I put tomatillos, garlic and jalapeno peppers. I added a mere 1/2 cup of water (usually you would cover with water) and brought to high pressure for 4 minutes. I used the valve to release the pressure, so that they wouldn’t overcook. Although I had only used 1/2 cup of water, there was a lot of liquid in the pot. Out of curiosity I strained the veggies to measure the liquid and there was now more than 1 cup of liquid. You do want to retain some of the liquid, but this would be wayyyyy to much.

I transferred my strained ingredients to a blender, then added onion, cilantro and lime and blended until a smooth sauce. I put the sauce in the fridge, where it stayed for 3 days.

Chicken
Into the pressure cooker I put chicken, cilantro, onion and garlic.

I added about 1 cup of water, put the lid on and brought it to full pressure. I cooked it for 15 minutes, then let the pressure reduce on its own. When I removed the lid it smelled wonderful - the mix of ingredients had this incredibly fresh, fragrant smell. I strained the ingredients, again reserving the liquid as it was such a lovely stock. I shredded the chicken into a bowl, and discarded the skin, bones and strained ingredients.

Enchiladas
After sautéing corn tortillas in oil, I filled each with the chicken, folded in half and laid them out in a baking dish. I poured my prepared salsa verde over top and spread it around to cover, and put grated mozzarella cheese on top. I baked it for about 30 minutes, and had a yummy, spicy dish.

Salsa Verde
6 medium tomatillos husked
1 clove garlic
3 jalapeno peppers
1 small bunch cilantro
1/2 medium onion
1/2 lime, squeezed for juice
Put the tomatillos, garlic and jalapeno peppers into the pressure cooker. Add 1/2 cup of water and bring to high pressure and cook for 4-6 minutes. Let the pressure drop on its own. Strain the veggies and reserve the liquid. Place the veggies into a blender with the cilantro, onion and lime juice. Blend until smooth.

Chicken
4 chicken breasts with bone and skin on
1 small bunch fresh Cilantro
1/2 medium onion
1 clove garlic
Put the chicken breasts, cilantro, onion and garlic into the pressure cooker. Bring to high pressure and cook for 15 minutes. Let the pressure drop on it's own. Remove the chicken and shred the meat - discard the bones and skin. You can strain the remaining liquid and reserve for using to cook rice.

Enchiladas
8 small corn tortillas
Olive oil
Mozzarella cheese, grated
Sauté each corn tortilla in a bit of olive oil to soften. Fill each with shredded chicken, fold in half, and place in a casserole baking dish. Cover with the salsa verde, then top with shredded mozza. Place under the broiler to melt the cheese.

Champagne Chicken and Veggies

2009-03-24T22:19:00.004-04:00

You may have noticed a theme that my last two recipes have "champagne" in the title. But don't be mislead into thinking that I'm regularly sipping on champagne and munching beluga caviar. It's actually more of a using up leftovers thing. But I figured this title resonated more than "Using up Leftovers Chicken".

When I got home from work this evening I was hungry but not super hungry and my husband requested something light. I felt like having chicken so I pulled out two bone-in chicken breasts to defrost. I then searched my fridge to find accompanying ingredients. The first one to be found was the last bit of leftover champagne from Saturday's dinner (carefully capped with a specific champagne corker so that it wasn't yet flat).

I also found a red onion, garlic (yes I'm finally the proud owner of garlic again), mushrooms, carrots and celery. I knew I was onto something. And the best part is that I knew it would be easy and ready in no time.

I browned the chicken in right in the pressure cooker on both sides. As the chicken was browning I chopped the onion, sliced the mushrooms, chopped the garlic, peeled and sliced the carrots, and diced the celery.

I removed the chicken from the pot, chucked in my prepared veggies and let sauté until softened. I added my bubbly, let it simmer down, threw in some canned tomatoes, returned the chicken, secured the lid, and brought up to high pressure. Easy pleasy. After 15 minutes I turned the burner off and let the pressure fall.

Before serving I did a quick check of the chicken temperature to make sure it was cooked through. It was more than done at about 180-190F depending which part of the bird breast I was aiming for. Despite the high internal temperature it was super tender and infused with the yummy vegetable goodness.

And what to serve with? Why, leftover champagne and leek risotto of course!

Champagne Chicken and Vegetables

2 tbsp olive oil
2 bone-in, skin on chicken breasts
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
1 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
8 mushrooms, sliced
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 tsp thyme
3/4 cup champagne
14 oz canned tomatoes

Heat the oil in the pressure cooker. Add the seasoned (salt and pepper) chicken breasts and brown on each side for about 4-5 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate for now. Add all of the veggies except the tomatoes and they thyme. Let cook for about 5 minutes until reduced. Add the champagne and let simmer down for about 1 minutes. Add the tomatoes and mix through. Nestle the chicken breasts into the stew-like mixture and secure the pressure cooker lid. Bring to 15 psi pressure and let cook 15 minutes. Use the quick-release method to release the pressure.

Leek and Champagne Risotto

2009-03-22T21:18:00.008-04:00

It's Sunday.

Last night we hosted a wonderful multi-course birthday dinner for a dear friend with friends old and new in attendance. It was incredible, we had such a good time. But today I'm tired. Played out from a full-day cook-fest. For this reason, I had no intention to undertake a post for my blog. But here I am.

Let me explain.

In the wake of the dinner party, I spent a relaxing afternoon catching up on the various foodie blogs I watch. There was a common theme across several of the food blogs as First Lady, Michelle Obama, made a groundbreaking (literally) announcement on Friday for the White House Kitchen Garden - an organic garden at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue . Wow! This is the first time since the Roosevelt Era (1933-45) that the White House has had a visible garden. And this one is particularly remarkable as it will meet needs beyond the White House kitchen. I won't go into the details as there's lots already out there but have provided some links at the end of this post in case you're interested to read more.

Moving on.

Through my blog reading, Serious Eats New York put me onto, as they so often do, the New York Times food news - quick links to foodie articles without me having to do the looking. In particular, there were two very interesting articles centred around organic food and food consumption practices. Both quite thought provoking.

It got me to thinking (the thought provoking worked).

It's not that I read anything new that I hadn't read before, but it does seem there is a whole new energy to the writings. Some extra wind in the sails as a result of Michelle Obama's bold move (actually, planting a garden shouldn’t be a bold move, but perhaps the fact that it is bold, tells the story right there).

I decided to prepare a meal using the principles of minimizing waste and reducing my carbon footprint through vegetarian cookery. And that's how I got to Leek and Champagne risotto.

You see I had three leeks in my fridge that were about to expire (I've been here before) and some leftover champagne from last night's soiree. My leeks were originally intended for creamed leeks, but after a large, indulgent dinner last night, we weren't in the mood for another decadent meal. The topper, was that I was going to use the pressure cooker to make this risotto (another carbon footprint reduction).

I had heard the stories that a pressure cooker can make risotto, but was skeptical. Afterall, I actually find comfort in the 45 minute stirring process of regular risotto. But after my food blog reading, I felt that this was the evening to give it a go.

I prepared the risotto pretty much how I would normally. I sautéed the leeks for a few minutes, then added the rice. After adding the liquids (champagne and broth) I secured the pressure cooker lid and cooked the concoction at high pressure.

It was kind of strange, turning my back on the pot to clean up the kitchen, instead of regular stirring. I have to admit, I had an unsettled, almost a guilty feeling as if I was cheating all risotto making rules. The worst of it was I couldn't peek - the pressure lid was secured. So I had to trust the pressure cooker and assume all was well.

The end result was a very nice risotto. It was perfectly al dente. It wasn't as creamy as my usual risotto, but close - I would consider adding a bit more liquid next time. Another score not only for the pressure cooker, but for a reduced carbon footprint.

Leek and Champagne Risotto

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 table spoon butter
3 leeks, trimmed, cleaned and sliced thin
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup champagne
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup grated parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste

In the pressure cooker, heat the olive oil and butter over medium-high heat. Add the leeks and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes - you don't want them to brown so adjust the heat accordingly. Add the rice and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add the champagne and mix in. Add the broth and mix in. Secure the lid and heat to high pressure (15 psi). Once at pressure cook for 7 minutes. Use a quick-release method for reducing the pressure and open the pot. Add the parmesan cheese and salt and pepper.

Some extra reading about the White House Kitchen Garden:
Obama Foodarama - details on the White House Kitchen Garden
A Mighty Appetite - White House says yes to Edible Garden
The New York Times - Is a Food Revolution Now in Season

Crabapple Glazed Ribs

2009-03-19T20:21:00.004-04:00

We had determined that we would have ribs for supper this evening, and I was anxious to put them to test in the pressure cooker, but what kind. I was in the mood for nicely glazed ribs with a bit of heat and a bit of sweet.

The original recipe is one that I've made several times and is actually for Baked Maple Ribs from The Spice Ingredients Cookbook. But I didn't have the staple ingredient, maple syrup, on hand. I figured, that apart from a bit of a maple flavour, the intent was a sticky, sweet ending. So, surely crabapple jelly would be a reasonable substitute.

First I sautéed some onions and garlic right in the pressure cooker until they were softened. I added crabapple jelly, soy sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, chopped fresh ginger, paprika, mustard powder, balsamic vinegar, and sambel olek for heat. I brought it all to a simmer. I carefully placed individual ribs from a rack of baby back ribs into the pot so that each one was in the sauce. I would say that this is key to the end product.

I put the lid on and let it come to pressure. They cooked at high pressure for 20 minutes and I let the pressure drop on it's own for some extra cooking time.

When I opened the pot, I could tell that any part of the rib that wasn't submersed in the sauce, didn't capture any of the colour. It wasn't particularly attractive or appetizeing. But, they were definitely done and very tender, but in terms of appearance, they didn't look great. To help out with this I decided to put them into a separate dish, pour the sauce over and finish in the over for a few minutes to get a better looking dish.

That worked! Although it dirtied an extra dish, it was worth it as they were attractive enough to set on the table or serve to company without having to blindfold them (usually a plus for entertaining).

Another pressure cooker victory! Tasty, tender ribs in minutes.

Crabapple Glazed Ribs
Adapted from The Spice Ingredients Cookbook

1 rack pork baby back ribs
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion diced
1 garlic clove
1/2 cup crabapple jelly
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp chopped fresh ginger
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp sambel olek

Heat the olive oil right in the pressure cooker. Add the onions and garlic and sauté until softened. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to simmer. Arrange the ribs in a single layer in the pressure cooker. Secure the lid and bring to high pressure. Reduce heat (without losing pressure) and cook for 20 minutes. Let the pressure drop on its own. Remove the ribs to a baking dish and pour remaining sauce over. Finish in a 350F oven for 5-10 minutes.

"Eat Down the Fridge" Stuffed Shells with Arrabbiata Sauce

2009-03-11T18:13:00.020-04:00

I wasn't quite sure if I should call this blog the above name or "dirty every bowl and pan that you have in your kitchen" as that's pretty much how it turned out. And part of the repertoire of pans that I dirtied in this process, quite to my surprise, was the pressure cooker, as I was certain this was going to be a non-pressure cooker blog.

So in case you missed it, this week is Eat Down the Fridge Week. Unlike my last blog, I'm back in my primary home so it was like a whole new endeavour with all new ingredients needing to be used up. Fortunately (or unfortunately if you don't like to dirty a lot of dishes) I had the makings for a pretty good meal. I had a slab of leftover pancetta and a partial container of ricotta. I also had a package of dried pasta baskets (not quite shells, but close) that I acquired in August at the Feast of St. Anthony in Boston's Northend, that I've been wondering for sometime what I would do with. This was my big break!

I recalled seeing a rerun on the Food Network with Chef Giada De Laurentiis where she was making some sort of stuffed shells. So that's where I started, and sure enough, I found a recipe by her that could utilize my three rogue ingredients -Stuffed Shells with Arrabbiata Sauce.

Jumping right into the recipe, I got to work chopping, then sautéing, my pancetta . I also started the water for par-cooking my pasta shells. With two pots going on the cooktop, this is when I realized , that in my excitement to use up the above mentioned ingredients, I failed to read through the entire recipe and check to make sure I had everything on hand. I had two key missing ingredients:
I'm totally embarrassed to admit that I did not have a single clove of garlic on hand again! In a scramble to improvise I came up with some shallots to fill in. The recipe calls for 5 cups of marinara sauce. Not only did I not have it on hand, the recipe provided called for 1 hour of simmering - not the best option for a quick dinner. Enter the pressure cooker.

So now I've got pancetta with red pepper flakes and minced shallots on the go on one burner, a pot of boiling pasta on the go on another burner, a pressure cooker sautéing some ingredients for the marinara sauce on yet another, a few cutting boards soiled from their handywork, and a food processor doing additional chopping, mixing and grating to help along the whole thing. Not to mention a bowl for mixing the ricotta stuffing. It was kitchen mayhem.

Once you've got the pasta par-boiled, the cheese stuffing prepared, and the sauce ready you assemble. You stuff the shells with the cheese mixture, assemble in a pan and pour sauce over.I won't go into the details of the recipe as you can find them here on the Food Network site.

But I will tell you a bit about the pressure cooker sauce. I sautéed some carrots, shallot (wannabe garlic) and onions in olive oil until translucent. I then added finely chopped canned tomatoes. It turns out that the pancetta I had been preparing was actually for the marinara sauce (the ingredient that must transform the sauce from a mere marinara to arrabbiata sauce from the recipe title I guess) so instead of adding the marinara sauce to the pancetta as indicated in the recipe, I instead added the pancetta to the pressure cooker marinara. Clever, no? I then secured the pressure cooker lid, turned it to high pressure, and let cook for 15 minutes with additional cooking time as it depressurized on its own. Voila.

The end recipe was yummy. It's pretty hard to go wrong with cheese, tomato sauce, and pasta, but this was more posh than your average cheesy pasta (but not too posh).

"Eat Down the Fridge" - Turkey Curry Pasta

2009-03-08T20:08:00.013-04:00

As the subtitle to my blog indicates, I've given myself provision to chat about "other food stuff" outside of pressure cooker and smoker cooker, and this is my first blog of that sort.

For those of you who know me, you know that my husband and I currently go between two cities as a result of work. As it turns out, when I'm not in our permanent location, I'm without the pressure cooker and the smoker. So it's a good thing I have the "other food stuff" provision, for times like this when I'm in Ottawa, Canada.

I was having a look at the Food and Think blog, and apparently there is a new challenge out there right now to "Eat Down the Fridge" from March 9 - 15. Even though its March 8th, I figured I should attempt this call to action given that I'm in Ottawa sans pressure cooker and smoker, haven't grocery shopped, and always enjoy a food challenge. Game on!

I actually had to go through my cupboards and fridge to reacquaint myself as I haven't been here for well over a month. It was then that I realized, that this really will be a challenge as I'm missing lots of basic food stuff (I don't even have a head of garlic on hand - yikes! Isn't that mandatory).

After some careful perusing of the cupboards and fridge, I decided on a turkey curry sauce that I used to make when I was in university. So this automatically tells you that this recipe is several years old, is suitable for the budget conscious, and may not be an authentic cuisine type of dish. But, as I remembered it, it was delicious.

I started with two sorry onions that were pushing past their prime. I normally wouldn't want to show this picture, but really wanted everyone to appreciate that I truly am eating down not only the fridge, but pantry, and cupboards and anything edible in view.

After scrapping the bad parts, I did have enough to meet the needs of this dish. I then chopped up some carrots that were in rough, but not nearly as rough shape.

I sautéed the onions in a bit of olive oil. Once they were translucent I add the carrots and some water. From there I added ground turkey and sautéed until it cooked through. Then I added curry, cumin, kosher salt, some heat in the form or red pepper flakes, and a can of Italian tomato paste. I stirred to mix through and let simmer. After tasting, it was good, but needed something more. I had my husband do a taste test and he thought more tomato would do the trick.

I didn't have more tomato, and I knew he meant that rich tomato flavour. Another visit to my pantry wielded a jar of sundried tomato pesto. Perfect. I knew it would add that extra kick.

The end result was surprisingly delicious. Even better than I remembered from my university days.

We served over whole wheat pasta. I'm not always a fan of whole wheat pasta (some things are just better with regular pasta), but this dish lends itself is the perfect complement.

Turkey Curry Pasta
1 onion chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup water
1 lb ground turkey
1 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tbsp cumin
1/2 tbsp kosher salt
1 can tomato paste (small)
1/2 small jar sundried tomato pesto

Heat your pan with the olive oil. Saute the onion until translucent. Add the water and carrot and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the ground turkey and stir until cooked through. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix and let simmer, stirring frequently, for 15 - 30 minutes.

Comfort Food - Pork Osso Buco

2009-03-03T19:35:00.015-05:00

Here it is. March. It's still winter (at least where I am) and they're still talking about a recession. But signs are coming that spring is near (there was actually a few spits of rain today during my 7 minute commute after work). So time is running out on those wonderful comfort-food meals that you make during the dark nights of winter.

Tonight I'm making Pork Osso Buco. An oxymoron you ask? Isn't Osso Buco always from veal? Technically, yes. And I'm sure there are Italians reeling at this bastardization of a traditional recipe. But pork is a good substitute for a number of reasons:

Although I'm clearly a carnivore, I always get a sad twinge when eating veal (have you seen a baby cow - they're so darned cute). Of course, I get over it and still eat my veal, but nonetheless, there's a twinge.
Economy. I use pork hocks vs. veal shanks. Pork hocks are lower down on the leg of the animal than the shank, and are insanely cheap, but incredibly delicious and great for yourself or even a dinner with guests.
It's different. Why do the same thing all the time?

Let's begin.

The first time I made Osso Bucco, I used a recipe by Tyler Florence from his real kitchen cookbook. I've really liked celebrity chef Tyler Florence ever since his Food 911 days (I wish they would bring back re-runs of this show, or some DVD version). I remember being on a trip to Boulder, Colorado right when this cookbook was out and was elated to find a deal on it. Worth every penny.

The thing about pork shanks is they are often big, or perhaps long is the better description. So I get my butcher to cut them in half (not lengthwise) and plan for each piece to be a portion. I start by dredging the hocks in the flour mixture. And then I tie with butcher string to help them from falling apart while cooking.

Heat your pressure cooker pot on med-high heat. Melt some margarine (or oil and butter mixture). And brown the shanks on all sides. Remove the shanks to a plate.
Now it's veggie time. Chop an onion, some carrots, some celery, and garlic.

Put them into the pressure cooker which you've already prepared your pork hocks in. Chuck in some bay leaves and thyme. And wait. The aroma of this mixture is heavenly. I wish you could put scents on the internet (good ones at least) because at this point, your kitchen is smelling great. (Add to this some garlic roasting in the oven for the garlic mashed potato accompaniment and you'll pretty much be drooling on the counter).

Once the veggies have softened and started to get some nice colour, add some red wine. I will restate here, the rule of thumb which I'm sure you've heard a million times, do not use cooking wine and do not use wine that you wouldn't drink. This doesn’t mean that you have to use expensive wine, but please try to use something relatively decent.

Let the wine simmer down, and then add some canned consommé and some tomatoes. I used canned tomatoes that were drained. Per a former blog, I've discovered that you don't need as much liquid when utilizing pressure cooker technology.

Although I find that I'm quite enjoying the speed and quality of pressure cooked meals, this is where it gets boring. Put the lid on according to the manufacturers instructions, set to high pressure, and once the it reaches pressure. Wait for 50 minutes.

Boring.

Yet fast.

At least compared to the usual 3-4 hours of cook time.

After 50 minutes of cooking under pressure. I turned the burner off. I let the dish reduce pressure on it's own. The final dish was delicious. Still a lot more watery than if done in the oven (reduce liquid even more next time). I served over garlic mashed potatoes (my own recipe). Yummy!

I'm quite amazed that I was able to do this meal on a week night. A dish that's usually 3-4 hours, was more tender than ever, and done within with 1.5 hours total. I still found it had a bit too much liquid, so next time I try this in the pressure cooker, I would reduce the liquids a bit more.

I served over yummy garlic mashed (not smashed) potatoes.

Pork Osso Buco in a Pressure Cooker
This recipe is inspired by Tyler Florence's real kitchen but has been changed quite a bit for pressure cooker and general ingredient purposes.

2 pork hocks, cut in half
Flour for dredging seasoned with salt and pepper
4 tablespoons margarine
1 medium onion diced
1 celery stalk sliced or diced
2 carrots peeled and chopped
3 large garlic cloves chopped
2 bay leave
2 tsp dried thyme
2 cups red wine (I'd use less next time)
1/2 can consommé
1 large can tomatoes drained

Dredge the pork hocks in seasoned flour. Melt the margarine in the pressure cooker and brown the hocks on all sides. Once browned remove to a plate (for now). Add the onion, celery, carrots, garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Sauté until soft and a bit coloured. Add the wine and let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add the consommé and tomatoes. Return the hocks back to the pressure cooker. Secure the lid. Bring to high pressure and let cook for 50 minutes.

Smoked Beef Ribs and Garlic Parmesan Smashed Potaotes

2009-03-01T10:49:00.017-05:00

When you think about it, the smoker and pressure cooker are a good cooking match. The pressure cooker is great for quick weekday meals, and the smoker is good for weekends when you have more time to prepare a low and slow meal (even if you're busy during that time, you can pop out to tend to your smoker while doing other stuff).

Then there's in-between times which was today. We hadn't planned anything for dinner, but did make plans late this morning to have our neighbours over. We didn't know what we were going to make, but after hitting one of our favourite butcher shops came away with some fantastic looking beef short ribs. I still wasn't sure how I would prepare them as I had neither made them in a pressure cooker or a smoker previously. I flipped through some recipes and found one that could be prepared on the smoker within four hours - perfect!

In one of my earlier blogs I mentioned that garlic powder does have a place in the world, and this is where it is. Smoker cooking. The recipe I chose, Chili-Raspberry Beef Shortribs in Championship BBQ Secrets for Real Smoked Food, had a first step where you simply sprinkle the ribs with garlic salt (I used powder) and ground pepper. Done!

Using a mix of alder and pecan pellets, I preheated the smoker on high for 15 minutes, put the seasoned ribs on, and turned it down to 250F. That was it for the smoker for 3 hours. (Pause here)

When dinner time got closer, I prepared the baste for the ribs. Given that this recipe is primarily ketchup, I have to say that the addition of the few other ingredients - raspberry vinegar in particular - turned it into a whole new entity. I'm not even a fan of ketchup, but in this form I was licking it off the spoon (avoiding to double dip of course).

While the ribs continued to cook, I prepared the smashed potatoes. The recipe was inspired by the March 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine. They boiled nugget potatoes then smashed them slightly with a potato masher. I had leftover roasted nugget potatoes, so I smashed those instead. Then I used melted 1/3 cup butter with 3 clove of garlic to baste the potatoes. Wanting it to be a make-ahead dish I opted not to pan-fry them but bake them in the oven for 20 minutes at 400F. After removal I topped them with finely grated parmesan cheese. They smelled fantastic while cooking and tasted pretty darned good.

Cooked Nugget Potatoes - pre smashing

Above: Nugget Potatoes Post Smashing

During the last hour of smoking, the ribs were basted every 15 minutes with the chili raspberry sauce. The finished product was a tender, meaty beef falling off the bone that had the tasty sauce flavour, without being drowned.

Above: The ribs after 3 hours and before basting

Above: The final product - Chili Raspberry Smoked Beef Shortribs

Although I like to cook, I'm not much for making desserts. So when our friends asked what they could bring, I of course suggested dessert (plus I know they are particularly good dessert makers!). They brought a fabulous apple crisp. I don't have the recipe, but it was just as a crisp should be - yummy flavour without being too sweet, apples just cooked so that they are not mushy, and a chewy topping.

The perfect ending to a meal!

Smoked Chicken

2009-02-27T18:24:00.001-05:00

After a few times posting about pressure cooking, I figured it's high time to do a post about smoker cooking.

We got into smoker cooking a little over a year ago when we bought a Traeger Professional Grill. We've used it lots and love it. It's definitely a different form of cooking that takes some practice, but once you've got some of the basics down, the end product is fantastic.

The one thing about smoker cooking is that you have to plan ahead It's not the kind of thing where at 6:00 p.m. you decide you want a smoked meal and it's ready by 7:00 (there are some options, such as smoked pizza, but that's another blog).

The bird I had in hand was an 8 lb organic chicken (pretty much a small turkey). At 12:30 p.m. I prepared the chicken by first butterflying it, or spatchcocked as they would say in Britain, which is my preferred term. I cut the bird down the middle of the back and flopped it open. Normally you would remove the back, but given my hurry (lame excuse) I opted not to, as it wouldn't affect the end product apart from appearance - so perhaps this was a semi-spatchcocked bird? I rubbed a sweet dry rub all over the breast side of the bird and let it sit for 15 minutes to get tacky. The dry rub was a Traeger rub that came with our grill and is fantastic, so I don't have the recipe, but I think I may have recently found one that might be comparable and will report back sometime in the future if it's as good.

While I prepared the bird, my husband prepared the smoker (no stereotypes here!). He filled the bin with a mix of Cherry and Alder pellets. The pellets are the fuel that the Traeger smoker uses. The cherry and alder options are a lighter smoke which I find works best with poultry as stronger smokes are too overpowering. He turned the temperature setting to 450F* and let it heat up for 15 minutes. We then turned the temperature setting to 250F and slipped the semi-spatchcocked bird onto the grill.

This is the nice part of smoking. Once the meat is on there's relatively little work to do, if any. In the case of the extra-large organic chicken, the only relative work over the next 5.5 hours was to spritz it with apple juice every 45 minutes to help it remain moist. This is key, as the first time I did a chicken on the smoker, I simply let it cook low and slow and it got very dry.

The end product was amazing. Incredible taste. Not too smoky. Juicy, but not in an icky chicken way. And the rub added incredible flavour - even the crispy skin which sometimes grosses me out was delicious.

*One of the best things about the Traeger Grills is that that they can heat up to a high temperature and can have a temperature gauge that provides specific temperature information beyond low and high. If you ever consider one, I highly recommend this option.

Veggie Tikka Masala

2009-02-23T20:35:00.000-05:00

When I was researching pressure cookers and pressure cooking, it was commonplace for people to say that they owned multiple pressure cookers and/or they used it multiple times per week. I was very leery of this as I really didn't see the point. Now that I've cooked with it a few times, I'm beginning to appreciate these notions.

Apart from the obvious benefit of making food faster, the pressure cooker purports to provide energy savings through reduced cooking time. I'm sure in the 1950s and 1960s when pressure cookers first debuted, "being green" wasn't the big sell. But with the current economic times, it makes you think twice, if not more. And I have to admit, that when I went to grab a pot to make some vegetable curry, I decided to give the pressure cooker a try for this dish as it would be faster for a weeknight, and it seemed silly to have the natural gas cooktop going for an hour or so when I didn't have to.

The latest Jamie Oliver cookbook release in England is his "Ministry of Food" cookbook - as far as I know it hasn't hit the North American market yet. The basic premise is to teach people how to cook by providing some basic recipes and encouraging people to "pass it on" to help others to "eat, and live, better". Although noble, it's not exactly why I bought the book . It was the interesting mix of relatively easy, fast recipes - perfect for a weeknight I figured. And the chapter that really intrigued me was the curry one as it provided short-cuts using Patak's prepared curries, as well as recipes to make curries yourself.

Again, being a weeknight I wanted to opt for a fast recipe and decided to try one of the curry options. I happened to have Patak's Tikka Masala in my pantry (a rare occurrence as I generally am not a buyer of a lot of prepared foods, but Costco had this deal on I couldn't refuse), but my dilemma was that I wanted a vegetarian dish, and not the Chicken Tikka Masala recipe in the book. In a mix and match effort, I decided to use the ingredients from the book's Vegetable Jalfrezi recipe, but substitute the Tikka Masala sauce. Surely, that would work.

I've provided the modified recipe below, so I won't go into the details. Basically I prepared the ingredients in the pressure cooker according to the recipe instructions up to the point where it needs to simmer. From there I put the lid on, brought it up to high pressure (15 psi) and let it cook for 15 minutes. Take that global warming!

Although the dish was tasty, I did confirm something I had been suspecting about pressure cooking. You don’t necessarily have to add as much liquid as a recipe states. You definitely need a minimum of 1/2 cup liquid so that the pot can create the necessary steam and reach pressure, but I find that you may not need as much as indicated. My theory is that when a recipe, such as the non pressure cooker tikka masala one calls for 45 minutes of simmering, there is evaporation happening throughout that time. When you are pressure cooking with a lid, there is minimal steam loss. Hence was the case with the tikka masala, I added the full amount of liquids the recipe called for, and although tasty, a bit more watery than I would prefer. In the recipe below I've removed some of the liquid in the hopes of a better outcome.

Vegetable Tikka Masala
In the spirit of Jamie Oliver's "pass it on" request - here is my modified recipe using a pressure cooker.

1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 dried red chile, ground
1 inch of fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
A small bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
1 red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 cauliflower, cut into florets
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 jar Patak's Tikka Masala curry paste
1/2 cup water
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the pressure cooker pot to medium-high heat. Add the oil and butter to melt. Add the onions, chile, ginger, garlic and coriander and cook until softened - 5-10 minutes. Add the peppers, carrots, tomatoes, chickpeas, curry paste, water and vinegar. Stir to coat. Put the lid on and bring to pressure. Reduce the heat. Cook for 15 minutes under pressure and let the pressure drop on its own (an extra 10 minutes). Serve over cooked basmati rice.

Black Bean and Corn Chile

2009-02-21T18:40:00.000-05:00

After a few tries with my pressure cooker, I felt I was ready to try my first non-prescribed recipe. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as planned, which wasn't a direct result of a non-pressure-cooker-recipe, but rather a mishap along the way.

Of course, because my first few tries turned out to be so easy I was quite confident to venture into an easy black bean and corn chile. The great thing about chile, or at least non-purist chile, is that you don't have to follow the recipe to the letter and can throw in stuff you are trying to use up - although when making a black bean and corn chile it does seem appropriate to at least include black beans and corn.

Right in the cooker I browned a pound of ground beef. I added some diced onion and sauteed until softened. From there I added canned tomatoes, tomato soup, black beans, corn, chile powder, cumin and oregano. I put the lid on and waited for the pressure to rise.

I continued to wait for the pressure to rise.

Steam was coming out by the handle, but I remembered that my instruction book said this happens to help regulate the pressure. So I waited some more. After all this was the most full pot I had attempted so far, surely it was to take longer for the pressure to rise.

I continued to wait, and steam continued to come out.

After a good 20-25 minutes, I figured, this couldn’t be right (who knew!). So I released any pressure inside using the quick-release setting, which confirmed there was no pressure as nothing came out. I removed the lid and my chile was bubbling madly. I checked the bottom of my lid and it turns out the plastic sealing ring was kinda bent out of shape. The problem. It wasn't obvious as the lid closed as usual.

My chile did survive - although there was a nasty, burned patch at the bottom of the pot from being on heat without being stirred.

I'm not including the recipe as I'm sure you have your own. But I did want to document some lessons learned from this pressure cooker mishap.

Lessons learned:
-They recommend to always check the sealing ring for particles or wear before using the pressure cooker, but also check to ensure that it is well positioned within the lid.
-If it's taking too long to heat up, check what's happening sooner than later.

Stressed Out Chicken

2009-02-18T20:31:00.001-05:00

Chicken cooked under pressure - hence stressed out chicken - is the second dish I decided to try using the pressure cooker.

Now this was an interesting experience. I've had Chicken Cacciatore before and it was indeed delicious. It also was one of those dishes that tastes better on the second day so that the meat gets yummily infused with the sauce. So could the pressure cooker compete.

I'm generally a bit of a freak when first trying a new recipe to try to do things exactly according to the directions. Even if I think there's a better way, I view this as a sort of scientific way of ensuring a a control group before introducing variables. However, when I saw the recipe before me, a Company's Coming Appliance Cooking recipe (specific for a pressure cooker), I had to start modifying as some it just didn't seem right . I wasn't keen on adding a green pepper and I just couldn't bring myself to use garlic powder instead of the real thing (when I get to smoker cooking though, you'll see that garlic powder does have a place in the world, but that's another blog).

First I browned 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, right in the cooker with a bit of oil. Then added a sliced onion and some fresh mushrooms sliced. Again, I departed from the recipe here as it said to mix the next 11 ingredients in a bowl and then add - I figure that pressure cooking has the advantage of being a one bowl type of meal, why dirty more dishes than necessary! So I added white wine (another departure instead of apple juice, because really, isn't a person more apt to have wine on hand vs. fruit juice), dried oregano, dried basil, sugar, salt, pepper, and 2 cloves garlic finely chopped. Another omission was some water as they say you need a minimum of 1/2 cup liquid for pressure cooking and I had more than enough already, and I wanted a thicker, not runny sauce. I secured the lid, brought up to pressure on high heat, and cooked 5 minutes. Instead of releasing the pressure I let it drop on its own which took about 10 minutes. Done!

I served this over a fresh fettuccine I made. It was delicious. The chicken was super tender and had very good flavour. The sauce was a nice thick texture (if I had kept the water I think it would have been too runny). I wasn't diligent in taking photos of the cacciatore making, but did get some of the pasta prep. After rolling and cutting my pasta I hang it on wooden dowels to dry. Then it's easy work slipping it into bowling water for cooking.

Oh the Pressure

2009-02-12T20:22:00.000-05:00

I've purchased a pressure cooker.

I would like to say it was a whim, a throwback to some sort of 60's romanticized vision, but I actually put more thought into it than that. It actually all started before Christmas. I don't even remember the exact circumstances under which I determined that this was the latest kitchen gadget that I needed. The latest thing that would allow me to foray into new cooking challenges and learnings. But for some reason I fell to pressure cooker on the brain. Back to the whim thing, I actually even purchased one. A Lagostina 6 quart. After I brought my purchase home, the analytical part of my brain kicked in and I figured I better do some research. Good plan!

After some online research I found out that the Lagostina is only 8 psi and that one should aim for 15 psi. Further such features as a quick release valve were recommended, a second psi setting (8 psi) for more delicate foods were also in order. Options such as steamer pans and trivets should also be considered. As for brands, Fagor appeared to be consistently recommended. So my search began. Unfortunately my search was deferred for several weeks because of overseas Christmas travel to see family (the details of which I'd love to go into, but that would really be another blog altogether).

So this brings us to just a couple of weeks ago. I did some looking around while on travels in New England after Christmas, but wasn't finding the size/brand/combo I wanted. So I finally took the plunge as I could wait no longer through cookware.com and ordered the Fagor Duo (an excellent site with an A minus Better Business Bureau rating - I highly recommend it) and in just a few days there it was at my backdoor.
After further web research, and reading up on my new toy, and watching the accompanying dvd, I felt prepared to put it to the test. Alas, what to cook though. I had flagged many recipes I was interested to try, but couldn't settle on one. I decided to let my refrigerator do the selecting, and it was the soon to perish leeks that won. I opted for a Leek and Potato Potage (aka soup).

First you sauté 2 diced leeks on the cooktop right in the pressure cooker. Of course the leeks must be properly prepared first - icky outer leaves removed, dark green tops removed, and a good rinse to ensure no dirt.

Sauté them in a bit of butter until soft. Add 3-4 medium sized potatoes that are peeled and sliced. Chuck in 4 cups of chicken broth. And you're ready to put the pressure on.

Following pressure cooker pot instructions put the lid on. Turn the heat up a bit so that the soup heats up and pressure is created in the pot (I'm using the 15 psi setting on this one). Your pot should have a way to notify you when its reached pressure. Mine has a little yellow pin that pops up.

Lower the heat (but not too low so pressure is lost) and cook for 10 minutes. Depressurize the pot (mine has a quick release valve that I used - but be sure that the pot is positioned such that the releasing steam is directed away from you and at nothing that can't get steam or wet). Remove the lid, add a bit of cream to finish and salt and pepper to taste. Voila!

This makes a small batch - enough for 3 or 4 servings. But it was a fantastic way to start.

A positive pressure cooking experience.

Smoke Under Pressure

2009-02-10T22:12:00.002-05:00

I like to cook. I am not a chef. I consider myself somewhat of a foodie, but not a snobby foodie. I like to taste unique beautifully prepared foods, but I also find comfort in some of those wacky recipes from decades gone by that would be considered less than posh, and snubbed by many a gourmand.

I also like kitchen gadgets - another characteristic that some foodies consider appalling. For example we should not resort to utilizing a cuisinart to chop, and stick with a good cutting board and chef's knives. For me, its more of a mood thing. Sometimes I like the detail of chopping a lovely onion perfectly by hand, but other times I get great satisfaction out of the speed of the cuisinart.

Finally, I love to experiment with different forms of cooking beyond cooktops, ovens, and grills. Be it trite trends like cooking stones, or convenient appliances like slow cookers, for me its all fun. For this blog, my intent is to focus on two, quite different methods: smoking and pressure cooking. Hence, smoke under pressure.

So there it is. My premise. But, all that said, even though this is my intended focus, I still may from time to time chat about other gadgets, kitchen appliances, recipes or miscellaneous food stuff.

So there it is . . .

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Recipes
All the recipes posted on Smoke Under Pressure.blogspot.com are my own original, copyrighted work unless otherwise stated. If a recipe has been adapted, inspired or modified from another source, that source is clearly identified and it is clearly stated that it has been adapted, inspired, or modified. If a recipe is reproduced in its entirety from another source, written approvals have been received from that source and that source is clearly identified.

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Disclosure
I am not a professional chef and I do not work in the food industry. This blog is my personal account of food adventures and is in no way related to my work or my employer.

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