We have a recipe from Chef John of the Food Wishes video recipe blog – ask him to cook something and he will do his best to make your food wish come true. If you don’t know who he is, click on his profile picture, to see his adoring fans in action! He generously offered to share his recipe and video with us which is useful for both beginner and expert pressure cooks.
Thank you, Chef John, for demystifying pressure cooking with your video and sharing it with us!
2 1/2 pounds beef chuck, cut in 1-inch cubes
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic chopped
2 tablespoon ancho chili powder
2 teaspoon Spanish paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 can (10.5-oz) diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon ground corn chips, optional
cilantro and chopped green onions to garnish(transcribed from video)
Brown the beef chuck seasoned with salt and pepper.
Sautee’ onions and garlic in a little bit of vegetable oil over medium-low heat. And when it starts to turn translucent we’re going to add all of our chili powders – I have Ancho, I have cumin, I have Cayanne, I have Chipotle, I have paprika. It is all on the ingredient list. A little bit of dry oregano and I like to stir my chili spices in the hot oil, onions and garlic mixture for a couple of minutes just to wake-up the spice (I love that technique!)
I’m going to add a can of diced tomatoes – the kind with the chilies in it.
I’m going to add my nicely browned beef to the pressure cooker. One can of water, that’s 10oz. I’m going to give that a stir and make sure that’s all mixed really well and here we go!
I’m going to put the lid down and slide it over. You can actually feel it snap into place, very, very simple to use.
Now, once the lid is locked in place we’re going to put that over high heat and we’re going to look for two things. The first is the pressure release on the handle and then the second is going to be that weighted knob in the center of the lid. So it’s on high, you’re going to see little wisps of steam coming out, and then a few more, and then it will get more aggressive, and then it will sounds like something is about to happen. And that’s because, something is about to happen. That little button is going to push up, it’s going to seal, and no more steam is going to come out. Here we go.
Once that happens, we’re still on high, we’re going to pay attention to the center knob which has enough weight to hold it down until the pressure builds up and lifts it off the lid. So we’re going to keep it on high until that thing starts to dance.
Once it starts doing that, we’re going to back down the heat to low, and we want to cook it for about 15 minutes, just like that! Once you turn it down to low, there will still be a little bit of steam coming out, there is a tiny bit of movement to that pressure release – you’re going to make slight adjustments to the heat to keep it right at that level.
Once the cooking time is up. Turn off the heat and let it sit for about 10 minutes. And then I just lift up the center knob to let out the rest of the steam. When there is not pressure coming out of the top, it is safe to take off, take the lid off, it will unlock.
Your meat, believe it or not, 15 minutes to fork tender. This would have taken you a couple of hours the traditional way. The Beauty of a Pressure Cooker is really, speed.
Now I like to take this one step further. I like to turn the heat to high [with the lid off] and I like to stir in a spoon or two of finely crushed corn chips to give it just a little tiniest bit of body. I’m going to let that boil for about 5 to 6 minutes just to reduce that sauce a little. And, when it looks like that it’s ready to eat.
Serve this up with rice and beans, a little bit of cilantro, a little bit of chopped onion and man o man is that good!
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