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I just realized that the problem with replacing multiple appliances with one Instant Pot is.....
What if you want to cook two items and have them both arrive at the dinner table piping hot?
Say, rice and beef stew.
Dang.
 
I just realized that the problem with replacing multiple appliances with one Instant Pot is.....
What if you want to cook two items and have them both arrive at the dinner table piping hot?
Say, rice and beef stew.
Dang.

Had this happen two days ago, but rice microwaves very well. I just make the rice (store in glass bowl with lid to keep moist), wipe out the instant pot, make the Mongolian Beef and nuke the rice with a couple tablespoons of water added just before serving. Works out great.

I think the insta-pot is worth having as a rice cooker alone. Also, you can do 2 racks of ribs or a whole bone in turkey breast in under an hour. Brings dinners like that into the range of weeknight meals.
 
Espresso Rubbed, Smoked Chuck Roast

Chuck roasts are cheaper, easier to find in small chunks, and cook quicker on the smoker than Brisket.

Rub is SPOG plus espresso powder

2 parts Salt
2 parts Pepper
1 part Onion Powder
1 part Garlic Powder
1 part Espresso powder or finely ground coffee.

3 lb boneless Chuck Roast

Mix up the rub above or use your favorite rub for beef. I like sweeter rubs on pork and spicier rubs on beef.

Sprinkle rub on beef and let it rest in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Prepare your smoker. I used the gas grill with indirect heat. Cherry wood chips in a foil packet with 2 slits cut in the top.

Adjust the heat to keep it around 225 degrees F. Cook until the roast hits 180 degrees F. This one took 7 hours.

Slice thin and serve.

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I just realized that the problem with replacing multiple appliances with one Instant Pot is.....
What if you want to cook two items and have them both arrive at the dinner table piping hot?
Say, rice and beef stew.
Dang.

Thanks! We have two instant pots. The little one is dedicated to rice.
 
Welcome Mr. and Mrs. tokind. You should link your kitchen blog here.
The recipes for kimchi and poke caught my eye. They are ubiquitous in the islands.
Many different varieties. Also tsukemono (Japanese pickled vegetables).
Do you have any tried and true Instant Pot recipes? Have to break mine in.
 
My favorite site for recipes is SkinnyTaste. While it is true that there are many InstantPot and Crock Pot specific recipes to be found, I look for what I am interested in trying and do it in the IP. The only special quality of this device is efficiency. Our kitchen is as energy efficient as we can make it. We have and induction range.

We prepare a lot of soups, rice dishes, stews, and meats in the InstantPot. I am not in the habit of documenting this so I do not have pictures. We like to make Carnitas periodically and vacuum bag and freeze them for quick meals. I also like bean dishes like Red Rice & Beans and Moros & Christianos.

My Kitchen is mostly about pickling. Like rocketry, pickling is an esoteric practice. I suppose I gravitate toward uncommon and esoteric skills because I feel more confident mastering something where there is less competition. Oh, and I do love to write. Next to reading it is my favorite passtime. Thank you for your interest.
 
I had a craving for Nashville Hot Chicken, but I live in Indiana. I previously posted my recipe for a smoked version, this is similar with more carbs.

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Bone in skin on Chicken. I used a pack of 8 thighs.

For the brine:

2 Quarts Water
1/2 Cup Salt
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Frank's Red Hot

For the Breading

2 Cups Flour
1 Tablespoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Pepper
1 Tablespoon Cayenne Powder

For the Hot Oil Coating:

3 Tablespoon Cayenne Powder
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Hot Smoked Paprika
1 Teaspoon Ghost Pepper Powder
1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
1/2 Cup oil

Oil for deep frying

1. First mix up the brine and brine your chicken parts for 1 hour. Once it is done, drain the brine.

2. Stir the flour mixture together in a large bowl.

3. Mix together the dry ingredients for the hot oil coating. Either heat up some oil or use some of the hot oil after you fry the chicken. Bloom the spices in the hot oil in a small sauce pan or bowl. Stir to keep it from burning and set aside.

4. Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture, shake off the excess, and allow to rest on a rack. Keep the flour mixture.

5. Heat up the frying oil to 350 F. I just use a Dutch oven. Once the oil is heated, dredge the chicken a second time and place in the fryer. The temperature will drop, try to keep it around 325 F. Don't crowd it too much and use multiple batches if you need to. Once it is done, allow to drain on a cooling rack set over a sheet pan. This took me about 16 minutes. You can keep it warm in a 200 F oven while the rest cooks.

6. Before serving, brush both sides with the hot oil mixture and enjoy. Adjust the spices to your taste. This is hot, but still enjoyable for me.
 
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Deviled Egg Roulette

6 hardboiled eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp yellow mustard
1 tsp of the habanero/mustard hot sauce I recently made
A few drops of hot sauce (I used Melinda's Ghost Pepper sauce)

Split the eggs and scoop out the yolks.
Mix the yolks into the other ingredients.
Fill the egg white halves with the yolk mixture.

This mixture is a little spicy, but not hot at all.

Now for the roulette, most get paprika. Some get ghost pepper powder (or use Cayenne if your friends and family will only have fun if its a little hot.)

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It's that time of year...

Roast Un-Stuffed Juicy(!) Turkey and Gravy
[n.b. I prefer dressing (in a casserole) to stuffing (in the turkey), for safety and other reasons. And for those who are about to extol the virtues of smoked turkey...I agree. But I am sorely outnumbered by the three women in this family who (A) don't care much for it, and (B) feel that mashed potatoes and lots of good gravy are the best part of Thanksgiving. Gravy is kinda hard to do when smoking a turkey. Younger daughter claims that good gravy is a perfectly acceptable beverage...]

Thaw the turkey the evening before. Remove any pinfeathers, the little bag of giblets from the cavity, and the pop-up thermometer. Get a proper probe thermometer. Dissolve about a cup of salt in a couple gallons of water, in a suitably sized cooler. Add enough ice so that the mixture will remain ice-cold until Thanksgiving day. Immerse the turkey in the salt water and stir a bit. Close the cooler and allow to stand overnight. (Alternative: if the garage is right around freezing, a 5-gallon bucket can be used. Cover with a lid and place in the garage. Just be sure it stays COLD!)

Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Remove turkey from cooler and rinse it thoroughly inside and out, allowing water to drain between rinses. Rinse it again. And again. Be sure to rinse between skin and meat. It's not possible to over-rinse, and if thoroughly rinsed neither the meat nor the gravy will be overly salty. Pat dry with paper towels.

Place a rack in a roasting pan and spray with cooking spray. Place the turkey breast side down* on the rack. Roast for about an hour (for a 12 lb bird, somewhat longer for a larger one). Remove from the oven and CAREFULLY flip the turkey, breast-up. It isn't easy; a couple of silicone oven mitts may help here. Watch out for hot liquid that pools in the cavity! Insert the probe into the thickest part of the breast, not touching bone.

Turn the temperature down to 325F/165C and return to the oven. Roast until the thermometer registers 165-170F or 74-78C---a little more than two hours for a 12 lb bird, about three hours for a 16 lb. Remove from oven and transfer to a platter. Cover with foil and allow to rest for 30 minutes or so while you make the gravy.

Gravy: Pour off the fat and drippings into a fat-separator cup. Make a roux: for each cup of gravy return about two tablespoons of fat to the roasting pan, and add two tablespoons of flour to the fat. Cook at medium heat and and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wire whisk to get all the good browned bits into the roux. A few minutes of cooking is all that's necessary but if you're careful not to burn the mixture, longer cooking develops more flavor and gives a darker, richer gravy.

When the roux is done, add chicken broth** (a bit less than one cup per cup of gravy) as needed and whisk thoroughly until smooth. Also add the drippings---the stuff below the fat in the fat separator. Bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Turn down to low and simmer for a few minutes until thickened, whisking frequently. If the gravy is too thin, mix equal amounts of the turkey fat and flour, and add this mixture to the gravy, simmering for ten minutes or so until thickened.

Options:

Some cooks advise adding spices, sugar, and whatnot to the brining liquid. I've found that plain old salt by itself is satisfactory.

*It's not absolutely necessary to start with the breast side down. But much of the fat is in the back and thighs. Roasting upside down at first allows some of that fat to melt and soak into the breast. No basting, no rubbing with butter, no nothin'.

**Some cooks simmer the giblets in a cup or so of water, then chop up the meat therein and add broth and meat bits to the gravy. Others (me!) use turkey stock made from last year's carcass and frozen, instead of chicken stock.

Turkey stock: throw leftover parts of the turkey, including the bones, gristle, etc, into a stock pot. Break up the carcass a bit so it fits in the pot. Chop a couple of ribs of celery, a couple of carrots, and an onion, and toss them in. Cover with water and top with lid, bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer and cook for a few hours. Strain through a colander first, dumping everything in the colander. Strain again, lining the colander with cheesecloth. Skim off the fat. Freeze stock and fat separately.

Final Anecdote: We had our neighbors over for roast turkey made this way, many years ago. For the next ten years or so until they moved away, we and a dozen other friends were invited to their place for Thanksgiving...and I was always asked to bring the turkey and gravy. "We'll buy the turkey, but will you please make it your way??" :) We always got compliments on how juicy and tender it was.
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EDIT: Do not roast too long at 400F; if it cooks too much it's very difficult to flip it over without having it rip apart. If you aren't sure, go for 40 minutes instead of an hour.
 
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Thanks! We have two instant pots. The little one is dedicated to rice.
We have an instapot that gets occasional use, but our dedicated rice cooker gets used at least weekly (even after our kids grew up and moved out).
 
My better half published her recipe for Chiles en Nogada a number of years back in a cookbook made by an international business group that I was a part of... Here is a copy of that recipe... This will help you appreciate all the work that goes into making this classic Mexican dish (may be easier to order this one in a good Mexican restaurant). Wish I was as good at documenting my builds as she is at documenting her recipes.

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A Zojirushi ? Great machines.
Is that a brand? This is ours (Panera cup for size comparison). We had a bigger one, but traded down when our kids started moving out and we gave the old one to our daughter and son-in-law.
 

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Sausage-Cheese Balls
Just in time for those of you who need to bring something to the New Year's Eve party. Our Christmas dinner is just a bunch of appetizers, and we always make these. It gives your hands a workout.

1 lb. raw "hot" bulk sausage, chopped-up for easier mixing
1 lb. sharp cheddar, grated (NOT pre-grated)
3 cups biscuit baking mix ("Bisquick" in the US, I don't know the equivalent elsewhere. Recipes on the web for making a substitute.)

Oven at 375 F.
Toss the baking mix with the cheddar until well mixed. Add the sausage and go to work, mixing it by hand. (A KitchenAid may work, haven't tried it) Don't despair! It looks impossible but it will come together eventually into a very stiff dough.

Roll out balls about the size of a walnut and place on a cookie sheet covered with a Silpat or parchment paper. They can be pretty close together as they don't expand much. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Some of the grease from the sausage will probably be on the sheet so drain them briefly on paper towels. Stick a toothpick in each one, or pile them in a bowl and use tongs for serving. Best served warm (for my taste) but they're fine at room temperature too.
 
I'm excessively lazy when it comes to cooking, so I look for recipes that require only minimal sentience. The two below require almost no effort but make pretty tasty morsels. Neither have meat because I'm far too lazy to learn how to cook meat, and I don't want to harm others, so I just avoid it.

I just whipped up a batch of the following unscientifically prepared dish:

Three Sisters Salad
Prepare a butternut squash, remove skin and place squash flesh into a large bowl
Pour in about 1/2 can of Canelli beans (other beans probably work, but I always use Canelli)
Pour in about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of ready to eat corn
Sprinkle on pepper until it looks decent
Pour on olive oil until it looks decent
Stir until good and dizzy

That's it! It tastes better than it sounds and takes about as much effort as allowing gravity to suck you downwards.

IMG_0207.JPG

This next one can have some kick to it depending on how crazy one goes with the cumin:

Humus Msabah
600g tinned chickpeas (or 2 cans chickpeas)
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/2 tbsp salt
juice of half a lemon
1/2 tbsp cumin
1/4 tbsp black pepper
1/4 tbsp cinnamon
olive oil
Optional: tahini, chilli sauce, chopped parsley for decoration

How to make:
1) In a small pot, add the chickpeas fill up water to immerse them. Place over medium/high heat and bring to the boil
2) In the meantime, in a bowl, mince the garlic with the salt. Add the lemon juice followed by the cumin, black pepper and cinnamon. Add a few tbsp from the chickpea liquid and mix the content of the bowl well
3) Add the softened chickpeas into the bowl, adding the liquid from the chickpeas to form a desired consistency (you can have it less or more runny). Add the olive oil over it, and the optional tahini, chilli sauce and parsley to decorate, then serve

I "borrowed" the recipe from this fabulous video:

There really is no excuse not to cook with recipes this easy.
 
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My last attempt to light my propane BBQ.

That made me remember a fire call I once went on riding in the Captain seat. Call was for a grill fire, I had a crew of rookies with me and the assist chief was in his personal vehicle and on the way.

We got out of the truck, and I did a quick scene size up. The rookies were pulling and stretching lines, meanwhile I was able to reach through some flames and turn off the gas while the assistant chief backed me up with a fire extinguisher. The look on the crew's faces was priceless when they saw how quick everything was taken care of. (They did the right thing by being prepared with lines, the fire hadn't spread to the house but it could have and they were ready.)
 
A similar but even easier recipe for humus/hummus/hummous (other spellings too?), if you have a food processor. No cooking needed. We have a batch in the fridge right now.

2 14-oz cans chickpeas
Juice of 2 lemons
1/4-1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup tahini (some will substitute peanut butter, I prefer tahini)
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
Pepper, cumin, and/or other spices to taste

Drain one can of chickpeas and dump them in the processor bowl. Drain the liquid from the other can into the empty can, dump those chickpeas into the bowl. Add everything else. Flip the switch and let it run for about a minute if you like the stuff grainy, or about five minutes for smoother hummus; scrape down several times and taste frequently. Add the reserved liquid while the processor runs to get the texture you like. Allowing it to stand in the fridge overnight melds the flavors.

The family likes the additional lemon flavor. I like a fairly stiff mix. It's a decent alternative to cream cheese on bagels. Much less fat (and it's mostly monounsaturated).
 
An Arabic teacher talks Hummus pronunciation:



I've studied Arabic, so it makes sense to me... but for anyone who hasn't... it's pretty involved...

Also, "Hummus" means "chickpeas" so the Hummus recipe I posted isn't the typical dish you dip bread into... it's more of a thick bean soup.
 
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Sausage-Cheese Balls
Just in time for those of you who need to bring something to the New Year's Eve party. Our Christmas dinner is just a bunch of appetizers, and we always make these. It gives your hands a workout.

1 lb. raw "hot" bulk sausage, chopped-up for easier mixing
1 lb. sharp cheddar, grated (NOT pre-grated)
3 cups biscuit baking mix ("Bisquick" in the US, I don't know the equivalent elsewhere. Recipes on the web for making a substitute.)

Oven at 375 F.
Toss the baking mix with the cheddar until well mixed. Add the sausage and go to work, mixing it by hand. (A KitchenAid may work, haven't tried it) Don't despair! It looks impossible but it will come together eventually into a very stiff dough.

Roll out balls about the size of a walnut and place on a cookie sheet covered with a Silpat or parchment paper. They can be pretty close together as they don't expand much. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Some of the grease from the sausage will probably be on the sheet so drain them briefly on paper towels. Stick a toothpick in each one, or pile them in a bowl and use tongs for serving. Best served warm (for my taste) but they're fine at room temperature too.
Making a batch, now. Only two cups of Bisquick, as the sausage I'm using is VERY low in fat. (Holifield Farms out of Georgia.)
 
Sausage-Cheese Balls
Just in time for those of you who need to bring something to the New Year's Eve party. Our Christmas dinner is just a bunch of appetizers, and we always make these. It gives your hands a workout.

1 lb. raw "hot" bulk sausage, chopped-up for easier mixing
1 lb. sharp cheddar, grated (NOT pre-grated)
3 cups biscuit baking mix ("Bisquick" in the US, I don't know the equivalent elsewhere. Recipes on the web for making a substitute.)

Oven at 375 F.
Toss the baking mix with the cheddar until well mixed. Add the sausage and go to work, mixing it by hand. (A KitchenAid may work, haven't tried it) Don't despair! It looks impossible but it will come together eventually into a very stiff dough.

Roll out balls about the size of a walnut and place on a cookie sheet covered with a Silpat or parchment paper. They can be pretty close together as they don't expand much. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Some of the grease from the sausage will probably be on the sheet so drain them briefly on paper towels. Stick a toothpick in each one, or pile them in a bowl and use tongs for serving. Best served warm (for my taste) but they're fine at room temperature too.

Made a small batch right before Christmas. Totally a childhood requirement for me. I'm slightly tweaking ratios, but it is just the same 3 ingredients. Some people online say to cook the sausage first. Their balls taste like. . . umm. . .balls. The only way to make these is to use raw sausage, as prfesser said. The cook time is plenty to make it safe and the oil in the sausage is what makes the texture right!

Also, you have to grate the cheese yourself. Don't use pre-grated cheese with the powdery stuff they put on it to keep it from sticking together. If you live in the South and have access to Neese's sausage, give it a shot. You'll thank me later.

Sandy.
 
Sauerkraut for Hot Dogs/Sausage
  • 3 pounds fresh or canned sauerkraut, washed**
  • 3 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • Hot dogs, kielbasa, bratwurst, and/or other sausages
  • Hot dog buns, spicy mustard
**Some cookbooks suggest washing and squeezing the sauerkraut to remove as much salt as possible. I find that leaves the dish lacking in flavor, so I drain the kraut thoroughly and either do not wash it at all, or rinse it lightly.

Mix kraut, sugar, pepper, and garlic (add a can of beer or chicken stock if desired) preferably in a cast-iron pan for browning. Bring to a boil and allow most of the liquid to evaporate. Turn down to medium-low, stirring and turning occasionally for an hour or so, or until the kraut has browned to your liking. Add sausages, moving the kraut to one side and placing them directly on the pan if browning/burnt skin is desired; turn occasionally.

Top hot dogs/sausages with mustard such as Dijon or spicy brown, and kraut, with more kraut on the side. Serve with good beer.
 
Is that a brand? This is ours (Panera cup for size comparison). We had a bigger one, but traded down when our kids started moving out and we gave the old one to our daughter and son-in-law.
We have an identical one, and after 15 years its time to retire it and get a new one, its starting to act a bit flaky.
 
Cooking is a lot like building a rocket. If you can follow well established directions, you will have good results. Some directions are better than others. I highly recommend the America's Test Kitchen and their other brands. They explain the why behind the recipes which helps you make substitutions and make your own down the road.
Another great one to learn the "why's" when you are cooking is Alton Brown on the Food Network (host of Good Eats) and Chef Michael Smith also teaches you how to "twist" a recipe to your tastes...
 
For those of you who have a smoker and think a brisket is too big try smoking a tri tip. Season it with rub the night before, put it on the smoker for around 2 hours at 225 until it hits 165 internal. Pull it off and wrap it in foil with some liquid then put it back on the smoker until it reaches 205 then pull it and let it rest for a half hour.
 
For those of you who have a smoker and think a brisket is too big try smoking a tri tip. Season it with rub the night before, put it on the smoker for around 2 hours at 225 until it hits 165 internal. Pull it off and wrap it in foil with some liquid then put it back on the smoker until it reaches 205 then pull it and let it rest for a half hour.
Chuck Roast does well when you can't smoke a whole brisket, also.
 
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