Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage

{{NOTE: Instant Pot

https://amazon.com/Instant-Pot-Bluetooth-Multi-Use-Programmable/dp/B00N310CKG/ref=sr_1_4?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1501341021&sr=1-4&keywords=instant+pot

Worth the money. Bluetooth is handy to set complex programs.}}

Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage

4-5 garlic cloves
4 cups water
3 lb. corned beef brisket, including spice packet
2 lbs petite red potatoes, quartered
3 cups baby carrots
1 head green cabbage, cut into large wedges

—-seasoning packet ingredients—–
{leave this out if you are using the packet that comes with the meat.}

1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 bay leaves, crushed
8 Allspice berries
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1. Place corned beef brisket, spice packet, garlic and 4 cups of water into the instant pot. I used the rack to keep the brisket off the bottom of the pot.

2. Cook on 90 minutes using the meat/stew setting or high pressure for 90 minutes. Once time is up, quick release pressure. Remove corned beef to a platter and cover with foil. Let rest while cooking the vegetables.

3. Without discarding liquid, add potatoes, carrots, and cabbage to pressure cooker, you may remove the rack if desired.

4. Cook at high pressure for 5-6 minutes. Do a quick pressure release before removing vegetables.

Servings: 6

Colcannon

Ingredients

3 lbs potatoes, scrubbed
2 sticks butter
1 1/4 cups hot milk
Freshly ground black pepper
1 head cabbage, cored and finely shredded
1 (1-pound) piece ham or bacon, cooked the day before
4 scallions, finely chopped
Chopped parsley leaves, for garnish

Directions

• Steam the potatoes in their skins for 30 minutes. Peel them using a knife and fork. Chop with a knife before mashing. Mash thoroughly to remove all the lumps. Add 1 stick of butter in pieces. Gradually add hot milk, stirring all the time. Season with a few grinds of black pepper.
• Boil the cabbage in unsalted water until it turns a darker color. Add 2 tablespoons butter to tenderize it. Cover with lid for 2 minutes. Drain thoroughly before returning it to the pan. Chop into small pieces.
• Put the ham in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes until tender. Drain. Remove any fat and chop into small pieces
• Add cabbage, scallions, and ham to mashed potatoes, stirring them in gently.
• Serve in individual soup plates. Make an indentation on the top by swirling a wooden spoon. Put 1 tablespoon of butter into each indentation. Sprinkle with parsley.

Servings: 6
Cooking Times
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours

Brussels Sprouts and Mushrooms with Walnut Dressing

1	lb	Brussels sprouts
1	lb	mushrooms
1-2	Tbs	olive oil
1/4	cup	crushed walnuts
1	Tbs	minced shallot
1	Tbs	lemon juice
1	tsp	whole-grain or Dijon mustard
1/2	Tbs	mirin

 

Trim the stems of the Brussels sprouts and cut a cross in the base. Steam the sprouts and the mushrooms together for 8 to 10 minutes until the sprouts are tender.

Meanwhile, whisk oil, shallot, juice, mustard, walnuts, mirin. Add salt and pepper to taste if you think it needs it, but I find that it really doesn’t. Really works well with shaking in a capped jar if you’d rather do that than whisk. Sometimes whisking chopped nuts is a bit of a pill.

Drain the veggies well, rough chop and serve with the dressing.

Five Spice Fish and Garlic Spinach

[HERSELF SEZ: Here I am again – posting for Himself who refuses to learn how to use WordPress and relies upon me to post for him! But this IS his post!]

1	tsp	grated lime peel
3	Tbs	fresh lime juice
4	tsp	minced fresh ginger
1	tsp	five-spice powder
1	tsp	sugar
		salt, pepper to taste
		vegetable oil
1	lb	salmon steaks
1/2	lb	fresh baby spinach leaves
2		large cloves garlic, minced
		nước chấm (optional)

The five spice powder is basically Chinese in origin, but this is a kinda fusion version. For me it has a bit of a Vietnamese hint to it. I’m not sure what you’d call the rest of the influences. The Chinese get a bit mystical about the whole thing and talk about five spice powder being the perfect balance of sweet, sour, bitter, pungent, and salty; the five fundamental taste groups of Chinese cuisine. To my simple old Western mind it has cinnamon, clove, star anise, ginger, and fennel. Whether it was some mystical blend to achieve universal harmony, or some genius with taste buds made it, or some dumb assistant cook sneezed ad dumped all the spices together is immaterial and will probably never be known. Who cares, it is good stuff. There are many variations, but when you get it at the store it will probably be something similar to the above.

On to the goodies:

Mix up the marinade: lime peel, juice, five spice powder, sugar, a splash of oil (about a teaspoon), salt and pepper to taste. Put the fish and the marinade in a dish or plastic bag, whichever you like for soaking, and let it soak in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Don’t go too long as citrus will prematurely cook seafood to the detriment of the final taste.

Crush or mince the garlic into one to two teaspoons of oil and dump over the spinach. Mix it up with your hands. What you want to do is wilt the spinach, so it isn’t necessary to stem it before using. If you like the old fashioned way you can wilt the spinach in a skillet or some such. The easy way is to nuke it on high for 2 minutes or so. That works nicely, and it is hard to goof up.

You should have decided ahead whether to grill, use a contact grill, or pan fry. Whatever your choice, it should be ready to go at this point. We like pan fried in a hot skillet with a little olive oil and a little sesame oil for flavor. A nice crust can be had without drying it out if you keep the heat up and the time down to about 3 minutes a side or whatever works for you. If you grill give about 4 minutes a side covered. Toss any leftover marinade. While you cook the fish is really the best time to wilt the spinach if you are using the microwave method.

Serve the fish on a bed of spinach. It doesn’t need anything else, but if you a feeling in a Vietnamese mood serve a little nước chấm (1) (2) on the side.

(1) Discussion of Nước Chấm and Nước Mắm is found HERE.

(2) Another discussion of Nước Chấm and Nước Mắm is found HERE.

Poulet au Grand Marnier (or whatever)

[Herself sez: I’m posting this for the Ol’ Curmudgeon]

Yes, this is French in derivation. Yes, there is a reduction sauce involved. Simple and quick – rice takes 30 minutes – 20 cooking and 10 resting. If you start cooking the yard-bird at the same time everything will work out nicely. This is for 2 people – just do the math for more. Don’t faint – there is no butter here (well, not much) – just whipping cream and booze.

2	Tbs	orange juice or half an orange – juiced and zested
2		skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut in pieces
		salt and pepper to taste
		cooking oil and/or unsalted butter
1		small onion, chopped
1		garlic clove, mashed and chopped
1/2	tsp	ginger or 1-1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
2	Tbs	Triple sec, Grand Marnier, Cointreau
1/4	cup	chicken broth
3	Tbs	whipping cream

If you’ve got a fresh orange, then juice and zest and set aside. Otherwise use orange juice (necessary) and dried orange peel (optional).

Cut up the chicken breast into 1” or thereabouts cubes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. In an iron or other good heavy skillet get the oil and/or butter hot and brown the chicken turning so as to get evenly done and browned. Set the chicken pieces aside.

In the same skillet on low heat cook the onion, garlic and ginger. Stir while cooking over low heat until translucent and soft. About 5 minutes or less. Add the orange flavored booze of choice – and pocketbook – and availability. Triple sec, Grand Marnier, or Cointreau all will work well. Triple sec is probably the most affordable. Anyway cook on a gentle boil while stirring and reduce volume by half.

When the volume is reduced add the cream and orange zest, or sprinkle some dried orange peel into the pan and boil for a minute, stirring the pan pretty often. Add the chicken and stir everything together – then simmer for a couple of minutes until everything is warmed through.

Serve over the bed of choice. Rice is especially good. Pasta is probably O.K. if that is what grabs your taste buds. Anything else that comes to mind is probably O.K., too.

Almond Fish

		Fish
2	fillets	delicate white fish
2	Tbs	soft butter
2	Tbs	finely minced onion
2	Tbs	finely minced celery
1/4	tsp	salt
1/8	tsp	fresh ground black pepper
4	grinds	fresh ground nutmeg
1/8	tsp	sweet paprika
		Almond Sauce
2	Tbs	melted butter
2	Tbs	slivered blanched almonds
2	Tbs	lemon juice
1	Tbs	parsley flakes

You’ve heard of Trout Amandine – well – this is not it – exactly. The old amandine is a breaded and fried sort of deal. This is broiled and much more delicate. The dredged in flour or whatever and fried is called meunière by the French. It means miller’s wife and is both the way of cooking and a sauce. The cooking is à la meunière. The sauce is just browned butter, chopped parsley, and lemon juice. In other words – Southern fried with lemon butter and parsley. See – it just sounds fancy and elegant in French. Trout Amandine is just trout à la meunière with an almond crusting. Other things that work wonderfully amandine are potatoes, green beans, and asparagus – I’ll write them up one of these days.

Back on topic (maybe) – this will work nicely for just about any delicately flavored fish, either fresh or salt water type. If the fish is frozen just let it thaw about halfway or so. If it is fresh just make sure things are nicely filleted.

Mince the onion and celery. The easy way is to throw it into a small food processor and hit high speed for a minute. Then add the butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and paprika to the onion and celery and blend together well. Spread the mix over the fillets and run under a hot broiler, about 4 to 6 inches from the heat. Broil for 10 minutes or until the fish is flaky but do not overcook. You don’t want brown, just done through (barely).

While the oven magic is happening melt the rest of the butter in your small skillet, then brown the almonds. When the butter and almonds are brown but not burned remove from the heat and add the lemon.

Plate the fish, pour the almonds and liquid over them, and garnish with a bit of chopped parsley.

{HERSELF SEZ: I really do prefer a fish that is crispy on the edge – or, in this case, leave mine in a few more minutes – until it is at least just a little browned!}

Moron Simple Country French Soup

This is Anthony Bourdain’s basic French inspired country style mushroom soup. It is about as simple and moron-proof as it can get. The only thing easier is to open a can. And believe me – this is mucho better. There are only 3 very minor gotcha’s to look for. I’ll tell you that the first and worst gotcha’ is that it has to simmer for an hour, uninterrupted. The others I’ll tell you about on the way.

There are several pluses to this – not the least of which is that it tastes delicious.

6	Tbs	butter
1	each	onion, thinly sliced
12	oz	button mushrooms, halved (if whole) or pre-sliced
4	cups	chicken stock
1	sprig	parsley
2	oz	sherry
		salt and pepper

Slice up the onion, heat up a couple of Tbs of the butter in a 3 quart saucepan, and slowly sweat the onions until they are tender and soft. Second gotcha’ – do not let the onions brown. If you do you might as well start over again.

Add the rest of the butter and the mushrooms. Cook for about 8 to 10 minutes, until the mushrooms are soft and tender. A little mushroom liquid remaining is ok, you don’t have to boil it all off.

Add chicken stock and parsley. I think Bourdain recommends flat parsley, we mostly have curly and it comes out just fine. When things come to a boil, turn down to a gentle simmer and let her go for an hour, uncovered. The occasional stir doesn’t hurt a thing.

Here is the third gotcha: You’ve got to puree. There are a couple of ways to go here. If you’ve got a good immersion blender – go that way. You could also use a food processor. I use a blender and the gotcha is that you had better be holding the lid down with everything you’ve got and no more than ¼ full. Unless it is a really gentle start a powerful blender is going to try to lift that lid and put soup all over the kitchen ceiling, getting you and the counter and anything else in the way for fun. Trust me – hold that lid down and do batch processing.

Return the soup to the saucepan and bring it back to a simmer. Add the sherry – do use reasonably good stuff, not cooking sherry. Turn the heat off, and salt and pepper to your taste.

For the adventurous, suicidal, or knowledgeable: Yeah, sure, you can add some or all wild mushrooms. Just don’t use stuff that is really strong other than in small amounts – this is a beautiful, delicate soup and too much stout wild taste would kill it.

Maddie’s Best Ever Nut Bread

This is from the wonderful girl that was my first love many (many) years ago. She is right, this is pretty good stuff.

{Herself Sez: Himself has impeccable taste. Maddie is a sweetheart and VERY married for many years! :-)}

The internet is wonderful for finding and keeping in touch with people that you haven’t seen for nearly 50 years.

660	g	sugar (3 cups)
190	g	Crisco, plain (1 cup)
9	g	vanilla (2 tsp)
4	ea	eggs, large
630	g	flour (4 1/2 cups)
11	g	salt (2 tsp)
10	g	baking soda (2 tsp)
((420	g	water (1 3/4 cups) AND <<==
40	g	buttermilk powder (1/4 cups)) <<== OR
2	cups	Buttermilk
160	g	chopped walnuts (1 1/2 cups)

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

This method assumes a decent mixer like a Kitchenaid. You can mix by hand if you like.

Cream together shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and eggs. Now those who have been paying attention know that I seldom use shortening, I usually use butter. This is one of the places that you do not want butter. You would not get much, if any, lift. Your nut bread would be very dense and heavy. I think the best way to handle the Crisco is to get the bars. You probably already know the best way to measure out of a can, but I’ll review for you. If you need a cup of water or butter or anything else of a like consistency, then take a two cup measure and put in a cup of water. Begin adding the shortening until the water rises to the two cup mark. Pour off the water and you have a cup of shortening. As the philosopher said: “Eureka!” Of course, it is much easier to just weigh things.

Add the buttermilk and mix briefly. Now things will be better if you have some real buttermilk. I don’t keep it around, but I do keep a good grade of baker’s buttermilk powder. You can get it from King Arthur or your grocery may carry some. Bob’s Red Mill is a decent brand. At any rate, either use the fresh buttermilk or the powder and water. You will get a slightly lighter loaf with real buttermilk.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until completely incorporated. Add walnuts and mix just enough to incorporate.

Pour into three greased 9x5x3 loaf pans. I do use unsalted butter for the lube, but you can use what you like.

Bake at 350°F for one hour. Cool on a rack.

Like any other nut bread, this works well naked, spread with butter, served with ice cream, whipped cream, or whatever. Also works nicely toasted. This stuff also freezes rather nicely.

{Herself Sez: Sorry about no pictures – have to take some next time Himself makes this bread!}

Leg of Lamb with Citrus Dressing

{{Herself Sez: With Pascha (Orthodox Easter) approaching on May 5, 2013, I’m posting (for Himself) one of his recipes for lamb – a traditional food for Pascha. Enjoy!}}

This is a rather good variation on the normal mint-sauce roast lamb. The basic roasting of a lamb leg is not something that varies a whole lot. The main difference here is the dressing. So – let’s roast a leg.

1		leg of lamb – around 3 lbs.
1	Tbs	salt
1/2	Tbs	freshly ground black pepper
1		clove garlic, chopped
1/2	cup	olive oil
1		small orange, sliced
1		large lemon, sliced
1/2	tsp	rosemary (or about 1 sprig fresh)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Grind up the salt, pepper, chopped garlic, and rosemary together with a mortar and pestle to make a rough-grained paste. Then rub the lamb all over with the spice mix. Rub gently with the olive oil, don’t rub off the spices. {If the olive oil is rubbed on first, and the spices rubbed on after that, as the roast heats up, about 90% of the spicing drips off. Also, the spices don’t have a chance to “sink into” the roast, giving up their flavor to the meat.} Place the lamb, fat side up, on a rack in a large baking pan and cover with orange and lemon slices secured by toothpicks. If you want a crustier outside then don’t cover with the orange and lemon slices. Baking time will vary, depending on your taste. Essentially, do it as you normally would if you have a preference. I use a thermometer and cook in a 375° oven until it is 155° internally. Let the meat rest for 10 minutes to reabsorb the juices and stabilize temperature – it will coast up to 160°, which is medium and very nice. Since I cook by temperature, not time, oven variation is not a big factor, but I do occasionally mis-time the roast and the rest of the meal. (About 25 min a pound – give or take).

Just before the roast is ready jam the dressing together. This stuff sounds weird, and the first taste is sometimes weird – but it has one of the nicest after-tastes ever. Be prepared with some mint sauce in case someone doesn’t like this – but I think that most will find it very nice.

1		zest of a small orange – or some dried orange peel
1		zest of a small lemon – or some dried lemon peel
1/2	cup	olive oil
1/2	cup	orange juice
1/4	cup	lemon juice
1/4	cup	red wine vinegar
1		clove garlic
1	Tbs	chopped fresh oregano leaves – or 1 tsp dried
1	Tbs	salt – sea salt is good
1/2	tsp	freshly ground black pepper

Just dump all the dressing ingredients into a blender and make it smooth

Slice up the roast and serve it with the dressing. You can pour the dressing over the slices or serve it on the side in small bowls for dipping. I think you will enjoy this.

Roulade Delicious

It is time to revisit the good old roulade. I have written on these goodies before with the title Roll ‘Em Up – Beef. You can look that one up so I will not give all the discussion in that previous article.

1

ea

flank steak

So what you need is a nice flank steak. You can ask your butcher to run it through the tenderizing machine one in each direction. This should give you a thickness of about 1/4” and also enlarge and tenderize all at once. If you don’t do that just take a tenderizing mallet and keep whacking with the rough side until you get the aforementioned 1/4” thickness. Try not to knock holes in the beef while you are having fun.

Now you need a stuffing. I will give you a recent one that we liked. You are certainly welcome to use your own ideas and variations.

1		medium onion, chopped
1		large carrot OR several small ones, chopped (about 1/2 volume of onion)
2		ribs celery, chopped (about 1/2 volume of onion)
8	oz	mushrooms, chopped
2-3	slices	ham and/or prosciutto, chopped
		unsalted butter
		olive oil

Heat olive oil and unsalted butter in a heavy skillet until the butter stops foaming and just begins to color. Turn the heat down and gently sauté the onion for a couple of minutes. Add carrots and celery and continue sautéing for another minute or so. Add the mushrooms and continue the sauté for another couple of minutes. You may need a bit more  olive oil/butter.  Add the ham/prosciutto and keep cooking gently for one or two minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

1	cup	beef broth, chicken broth, or vegetable broth
1/4	cup	red wine
1/2	cup	rice
		salt
2-3	cloves	garlic, chopped

Heat the broth in a saucepan. You can add ¼ cup of red wine to the liquid. That is good. Mix chopped garlic and salt and grind together with a mortar and pestle if you have them, or just use a cutting board and spoon to mash and stir if necessary. Add the garlic and salt mixture to the saucepan. Heat some olive oil/butter in a pan and, when the foaming stops, add in the rice and stir to get all the grains covered with lube. You only need medium heat for a minute or two. We use a rice mix with white, brown, and wild rice. Whatever you use, add it to the saucepan – be careful – if the broth is at or near boiling temp and you dump hot rice in it is going to boil up nicely. Sort of a sizzling rice effect. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes. (Or whatever your rice requires.)

		olive oil
		unsalted butter
1/3	cup	vermouth
1/3	cup	beef broth

Heat the pan with the stuffing and add the rice to it. This would be a good time to taste and add whatever spices you like. Salt and pepper are just about always going to be needed. Others are optional. Spread the stuffing over the flattened flank steak. You may have some stuffing left over. That is fine. You can make some sandwiches with the goodie and some mayo or whatever later. Anyway, spread the stuffing, roll the steak and tie it up with butcher’s twine enough to hold it together. Be sure to secure the ends also. Get a heavy Dutch oven, lube with olive oil/butter. When the butter stops foaming and is golden start searing the roast. About 2 to 3 minutes for each side all the way around. Remove the roast, turn off the heat and add 1/3 cup of vermouth and 1/3 cup beef broth. Turn the heat back on, boil and whisk all the little pan goodies in. When the liquid is reduced by about half, add enough vegetable or chicken broth to get about 1/2” or so of liquid. Put in the roast and simmer, covered for 20 minutes per side.

3	Tbs	butter
1/3	cup	vermouth
1/3	cup	beef broth
		vegetable or chicken broth

While the roast rests (tented with foil on a cutting board) prepare the sauce. Add 1/3 cup vermouth and 1/3 cup broth to the liquid. Whisk while boiling rapidly. When reduced enough to start getting a bit thickish turn down the heat and add butter a tablespoon at a time, whisking each until melted and emulsified. Carve the roast, plate, and drizzle sauce over the slices. Serve immediately.

For those who wondered: the olive oil and butter combo does have a good reason. Yes, you could use either by itself, but the butter gives a sweeter, more intense taste than the olive oil alone. Olive oil raises the burning temp of the butter enough to make it practical as a sautéing medium and is healthier than butter alone. This is a very old and traditional medium and is very tasty and satisfactory. Oh yeah – we use unsalted butter so that we can control the amount of salt in the food and not get over-salting, which is not only unhealthy – but also tastes bad.

{{Herself sez: OMG! This is WONDERFUL! 5 Yummies! But not for Great Lent – or any other Orthodox fasting season.}}