Friday, November 13, 2009

Update on this week's cooking adventure!

In last week's meal plan, I had a bit of a cooking adventure in store for me.  On Wednesday, I used my pressure cooker for the first time for COOKING instead of canning.  Tuesday night, I scoured a couple cookbooks for a recipe that looked good and would use one of the huge pieces of meat from our 1/8 cow that I always have trouble using up.  I settled on a crock pot recipe for beef barley soup using round steak. 

I'm sorry I don't have a picture to share, but it was DELICIOUS!  Seriously, delicious.  I had been in the mood for something like that lately, with the weather getting cooler, and it was exactly what I wanted. 

The pressure cooker was awesome!  I chose a crock pot recipe, since the moist, long, slow cooking of a crock pot is perfect for tougher meats that take a long time to tenderize.  A pressure cooker works well for similar cuts of meat, but uses very high temperatures and pressure to achieve similar results.  The best part about using the pressure cooker is that it took 25 minutes of cooking time once all the ingredients were in the pot!!!.  Amazing.  My new Nutrimill grain mill and my pressure cooker might just be my favorite kitchen appliances (besides the dishwasher!) right now.

Below is the recipe I used in my 10 quart pressure cooker.  This is doubled from the original recipe, and it filled my pot just over half-way.  You might want to reduce it if your pressure cooker is smaller, since you don't want to fill a pressure cooker more than 2/3 full.  Also, my pressure cooker only has one pressure setting, 15 pounds, so adjust accordingly if yours is different.

Beef Barley Soup
adapted from Fix Freeze Feast:  Prepare in Bulk and Enjoy by the Serving

3 pounds round steak, cut into small bite-sized pieces
3 cups sliced carrots
3 cups sliced celery
2 cups chopped onion
1 large green bell pepper, diced
2 (14 1/2 oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups any tomato sauce (I used pizza sauce I bought and didn't like on pizza)
2 quarts beef broth
1 tablespoon beef boullion
1 cup pearl barley
2 teaspoons salt (can be reduced)
1 teaspoon black pepper

1.  Brown the meat in a little bit of oil and remove from pot.
2.  Add carrots, celery and onion and saute for 7-10 minutes, or until they begin to soften.
3.  Add back meat and all other ingredients, stir.
4.  Attach lid to pressure cooker and turn heat on high to bring it up to pressure.  Once steam starts coming out (or whatever your particular pressure cooker does to indicate it is up to pressure), reduce heat to low-med and cook for 25 minutes.  Reduce pressure according to your pressure cooker's instructions.  Once all pressure is gone and it is safe to open the pressure cooker, open it, stir the soup and enjoy! 

Recipe makes 5-6 quarts, so be sure to freeze some for another day.

Do you have any tips or great recipes for using a pressure cooker?  Please share!

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