Fare Pressure

Much like New Yankee Workshop with Norm and his million dollars worth of tools, cooking shows can be fun to watch but impractical to emulate due to the specialty hardware all those TV chefs use. Even Alton with his multi-tasker rule uses some pretty expensive equipment from time to time - finding multiple uses for them is great, but it doesn't make them any more accessible to the average cook. And I'm not even talking about $300 stand mixers and ovens that actually heat up correctly. I'm talking about the smaller things - all those saute pans and double boilers and wand mixers and food processors.

So when my mother-in-law offered me her never-been-used set of pressure cookers, I quickly took her up on it (I think my enthusiasm might have even scared her a bit, but she should be used to my peculiarities by now). As soon as she mentioned them I knew what I was going to make first - Alton's Pressure Cooker Chili. It took some time to get all the ingredients together, but I finally got around to making it for dinner yesterday.

So many new experiences! Braising, deglazing, fond. Fond!

Braising three pounds of stew meat (see recipe below) was a bit frantic (not to mention exhausting), but other than that all the prep work had gone as planned. Then on went the lid and the mysterious world of pressure cooking began.

Twenty-five minutes later, feeling a little like Geraldo Rivera, I opened the lid (after safely releasing all that steam, of course) to see the results and ended up with what could only be called "chili stew." I thought that the chunks of stew meat were a bit big when they were going in, but I assumed that they would break down under all that pressure. Nope. Maybe I didn't keep the temperature under the cooker at high enough of a simmer or maybe I didn't let it cook long enough, but I wasn't happy with the results.

So I took all the meat out and cut the cubes into quarters and popped everything back into the pressure cooker for ten more minutes of mystical cooking. When I opened up the second time, the chili looked more like chili, but some of it was stuck to the bottom of the pan. I quickly rescued what I could, which luckily was most of it.

After all that trouble I forgot to take a pre-dinner picture of the results, but chili isn't very photogenic anyway. The important thing was how it tasted, and it tasted pretty darn good - even to the missus and nine-year-old, both of whom aren't as huge of fans of chili as I am. It was a bit too spicy for the four-year-old, so he'll have to wait a while before he gets anything more than a taste - which seemed fine by him.

And the best thing about cooking up such a large quantity? Leftovers!

Pressure Cooker Chili
courtesy Alton Brown, 2004

3 pounds stew meat (beef, pork, and/or lamb)
2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 (12-ounce) bottle of beer, preferably a medium ale
1 (16-ounce) container salsa
30 tortilla chips
2 chipotle peppers canned in adobo sauce, chopped
1 tablespoon adobo sauce (from the chipotle peppers in adobo)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Place the meat in a large mixing bowl and toss with the peanut oil and salt. Set aside.

Heat a 6-quart heavy-bottomed pressure cooker over high heat until hot. Add the meat in 3 or 4 batches and brown on all sides, approximately 2 minutes per batch. Once each batch is browned, place the meat in a clean large bowl.

Once all of the meat is browned, add the beer to the cooker to deglaze the pot. Scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add the meat back to the pressure cooker along with the salsa, tortilla chips, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, tomato paste, chili powder, and ground cumin and stir to combine. Lock the lid in place according to the manufacturer's instructions. When the steam begins to hiss out of the cooker, reduce the heat to low, just enough to maintain a very weak whistle. Cook for 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and carefully release the steam. Serve immediately.

Comments

[Karen]

If you like risotto but hate (or don't have the time for) standing and stirring all that time, the pressure cooker does a very respectable job of it for you:
http://verbatim.blogs.com/verbatim/2004/10/risotto_in_a_hu.html

[Janie]

Do Norm and Alton ever get jealous and try to compete for your attention?

[The Velvet Blog]

I'd like to see a cage match between a pressure cooker and a crock pot.

[Mark]

Karen - That's something I wouldn't even attempt making the traditional way, but now...

Janie - If they did, Norm would win.

TVB - I believe a wise man once said, "slow and steady wins the cage match." Or maybe not, but that's what I would put my money on.

[Donna]

Janie made a funny.