Impromptu Rice Salad

This morning I noticed we have very little food in the house so I pressure cooked 2 cups of brown rice. When it was cooked (17 minutes) I cooled it in the fridge. Then spontaneously I added my leftover homemade buttermilk dressing from my coleslaw that I was saving for some unknown reason. It was fabulous!

The Coleslaw and Rice Salad Dressing:
Hellman's mayo
lowfat buttermilk
Guiden's mustard
Adobo
red wine vinegar
salt
sugar
pickle juice
Cholula hot sauce

Pressure Cooker Class

I copied everything down as I remember it.
Have fun!

Hard-boiled Egg(s)

Place eggs in the PC add an inch of water.
Add sprinkle of salt.

Pressure cook for 7 minutes quick release. Place eggs in cold water to cool. Drain and then refrigerate. So easy to peel!


Rice

1C rinsed rice and 1 1/4 C water
or 1 cup dry rice and 1 and 1/2 C water
brown rice (+ salt) 17 minutes
white rice (+ salt) 6 minutes natural release


Presto German Potato Salad Adapted to Emily's Potato Salad

rinse and cube potatoes (red or yellow) 4 medium-large potatoes
water 1/4 to 1/2 cup
I make it with an equal measure of olive oil and red wine vinegar (1/4 cup each)
Guilden's mustard 2 teaspoons or 1 Tablespoon
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1-2 teaspoons sugar
Cholula Hot Sauce
Adobo

Mix up the dressing with a fork and taste it. Adjust seasonings if necessary. Pour over the potatoes. Seal the cooker and pressure cook for 5 minutes. Use quick release and then refrigerate the potatoes with the liquid. The taste will develop as it cools. Liquid has a lot of flavor!


Vegetarian Lentil Chili

1 cup dried lentils
3 cups water
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz can)
3 ribs celery chopped
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt (less if regular salt)
1 teaspoon cumin
1-2 teaspoons oregano
1-2 teaspoons parsley
1-2 teaspoons basil
Cholula hot sauce

Pressure cook for 15 minutes natural release or 17 minutes quick release. Serve over rice!

Cooking Under Pressure

Class

Eggs and Pasta

I pressure cooked a dozen eggs for pickling

and a pound of penne whole wheat pasta.

My own fast food. I am crabby late in the day, when hungry. Cook now, microwave later.

Fast Tuna

I opened two small cans of tuna and added southwestern stop and shop brand hot salsa. Very good! Enjoy with whole wheat crackers.

Old Apples Salad

I had leftover homemade coleslaw mayo mustard buttermilk dressing and I poured it over old apples and it was so good that I will do it on purpose next time.

Comfort Food

I made coleslaw and pinto beans and roasted cauliflower. They are fantastic especially as leftovers eaten with saltines and peanut butter. The crackers make me feel I like I am 6 years old.

Homemade Tortilla Chips

Here

Fabulous Soup

This morning I hit the ground running, in the kitchen. I made granola and while that was baking I pressure-cooked a tomato sauce. While that was simmering I took leftover chicken stock and leftover vegetable steaming water and leftover boiled dinner veggies and made a soup. I added more water and 2 bullion cubes and a pound of kale chopped with scissors. I added garlic and ginger red chili and olive oil and Adobo and salt. I simmered it for 2 hours. When I came home from swimming I was ready for lunch. The soup was fantastic.

Best Recipe for Hard Pretzels

Here

Chicken Stock

I just pressure cooked the chicken carcass from my roasted chicken. I cooked it in 2 quarts of water in my pressure cooker for 45 minutes. I strained the liquid through mesh into another pot. When it cools in the fridge I'll skim the fat and use the broth for stock.

New Sandwich

Peanut butter on toast with granola stuck on it.
Open face, open mouth!

Waffled Falafel

Recipe

Hash Brown Waffles

Recipe
a variation

Fruits and Veggies

Article

The Secret to My Best Granola

I am baking granola today. I bake a batch nearly every week.
I have to make something a million times before I devise the simplest and best-tasting method.

The secret to my best granola is not toasting it but drying it out in the oven. This way the flavor of the vanilla and molasses are not overshadowed. Bake in a preheated oven 250 degrees for 45 minutes and let sit for an hour or overnight to absorb residual heat.

Recipe:
1 cup of corn oil, 1 cup of Grandma's Molasses, 1 teaspoon of real vanilla extract, 1 heaping teaspoon of kosher salt (half this amount if using fine grain salt). Maybe I should just admit it, two teaspoons of kosher salt.

Directions:
Heat the oil, molasses, salt, and vanilla, in a large spaghetti pot and stir until bubbly then turn off the heat. Then add one (42 oz, or 2 lb 10 oz) large cylindrical container of old fashioned rolled oats and stir like mad. It's like tossing a salad of oats with molasses and oil dressing. When the oats are evenly coated pour them onto two baking trays or into two large cast iron frying pans and bake for 35-45 minutes at 250 F. Then after it has baked for 35-45 minutes turn the oven off and keep the oven door closed. Just let the granola dry out by itself. This is the important secret discovery. Come back a few hours later or the next day when it has dried and cooled and break it up (with a metal skewer) and store the granola in an airtight container.

This is my favorite travel and snack food. I often carry a little bit with me just in case I get peckish when I am out on a long walk. Sometimes I add raisins.

Kale + Chick Peas + Pasta + Sauce

Last night I steamed the chopped kale in the leftover chick peas broth in my 12" skillet. Then I added fresh garlic red chilies and olive oil. I decided to add the leftover chick peas and leftover cavatappi (hollow spiral) pasta and homemade tomato sauce. It was so good that I will do this on purpose next time. We grated fresh Parmesan Reggiano on top.

This is so good we made it again!

Fast Potato Breakfast

This morning I grated two potatoes and fried them in my skillet. When browned I topped them with two eggs briefly covering the pan. I added a few marinated artichoke hearts and my leftover tomato sauce and grated parmesan. Delicious.

Simmering Homade Tomato Sauce

I have been dreaming of Italian food for a few days so today I set up a tomato sauce using our last locally smoked Polish sausage, a head of chopped celery, 3 big carrots diced, 3 cans of crushed tomatoes, 2 cans of black olives chopped, a few cloves of garlic diced, a splash of cheap port wine and olive oil. I have not added any more herbs or spices because today the smoked sausage is my spice. Simmering the sauce over time will complete the magic.
Update: I decided to add basil, oregano, bay leaves parsley and tomato paste. The sauce was magnificent and the tiny bits of chopped sausage absorbed the Italian flavors. We ate it with a pressure-cooked pound of cavatappi pasta ( ready in 3 minutes) and pressure-cooked chick peas (as tiny meatballs) and parmesan reggiano grated fresh, on top.

Soul food in a Storm

I made scalloped potatoes with lots of potato and onion and I made a roux using whole wheat flour and olive oil and low-fat 2% milk and Adobo. It came out so good I will do it again. I baked it in a deep casserole dish out of convenience. Next time I will bake it in a shallow for more surface area and delicious crust.

Quiche IMPROV without a Crust

INGREDIENTS
3 onions
two large white potatoes grated
one pound of frozen spinach
olive oil
Adobo
Salt
cheap port
vegetable stock
14 large eggs beaten
4 sandwich-slices or equivalent of pepper jack cheese
6-inch smoked polish garlic sausage chopped in small chunks


I sauteed the onions and grated potato in olive oil and Adobo and added vegetable stock. When it cooked down I added the spinach, cheese, sausage, a splash of cheap port.
I beat 14 eggs and added them to the mixture and baked it in my 12 " cast iron skillet in a preheated 350 F oven for 30 minutes.

It was fabulous!

Pumpkin Pie and Whole Wheat Press-In Crust

I am always adapting and tinkering with my favorite recipes. Here's the latest version of an old favorite. You can really taste the pumpkin because it is not overly sweet. We like to eat it for dinner.

Ingredients and instructions for 1 pie (9-10 inch) or 3 mini pies (6 inch)

Pie crust:

1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/4 cup corn oil
6 Tbs white or brown sugar (the sugar is the glue holding the crust together)
1 teaspoon Kosher salt (less if using regular salt or white flour)

Mix ingredients with fingers so it is pebbly. Press into pie pan with fingers. Prick dough on the pan bottom with a fork. It can be sticky and hard to handle but hang in there, it will be delicious.

Bake at 350° F for 5-10 minutes. Then let it cool.

Tip from Once Upon a Chef Jenn Segal: Press the crust into the bottom of the pan with the back of a measuring cup.  This will make sure the crust is in the pan nice and firm, so that it won't fall apart when you cut this for serving.

Pie filling:

1/4 cup white granulated sugar
1/8 cup of dark molasses
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt (half if using regular salt)
1 teaspoon ground ginger (I used freshly finely grated frozen ginger root)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
1 small can of pumpkin puree (15 oz.)
1 can of evaporated milk (12 fl. oz.)

Mix sugar, dark molasses, cinnamon, salt, ginger, vanilla, and eggs in large bowl. Whisk in pumpkin puree and evaporated milk. 

Pour into the pre-baked, cooled pie shells.

Bake pie in preheated 425° F oven for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 more minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

Some bakers use sweetened condensed milk so I tried it but I discovered that it is cloyingly sweet and drowns out the pumpkin taste compared to a pie made with evaporated milk and 1/4 cup sugar. The evaporated milk pumpkin pie is much more like Indian Pudding and tastes like a food!

Michael Rushlow's Potato Salad

Pressure Cooker German Potato Salad
Print
Recipe type: Side Dish
Cuisine: German
Author: Michael Rushlow
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Serves: 4
A speedy pressure cooker preparation of the classic warm German Potato Salad

http://pressurecookerconvert.com/pressure-cooker-german-potato-salad/

Ingredients

6 slices thick-cut bacon (about ½ lb.)
2 lb. red potatoes, cut in ½"-3/4" chunks
1 onion, finely chopped
½ cup chicken broth
½ cup apple cider vinegar
1 splash worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon prepared mustard (grainy or Dijon both work fine)
½ teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoon sugar
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf (italian) parsley

Instructions

Put pressure cooker pot over medium high heat
Roughly chop the raw bacon (you can leave it whole if you have a large pot, but I do it this way because it fits better)
Put bacon in pot and fry until crisp (around 15 min. total)
Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate
In the bacon fat, saute onions until translucent (do not brown)
Chop the crisp bacon fine and add back to the pot
Add potatoes to the pot
Add in vinegar, broth, worcestershire sauce, mustard, celery seed, sugar and a little salt and pepper
Turn heat to high, cover pressure cooker and bring to high pressure
When high pressure is reached, lower heat to maintain high pressure and set timer for 5 minutes
When timer sounds, remove from heat and let sit for two minutes then do a cold water release
Adjust salt and pepper to taste
Stir in the parsley, then let it cool (it can be served warm, or put in the refrigerator to be served later (I served it cold).

Everybody Eats

Years ago I went to the Columbus Day festival on federal hill and a man hawking sausage and peppers was shouting "Everybody eats!" I laughed and he changed his phrase to "get your sausage and peppers here."

The Urban Mermaid

I have been LAZY about posting here. I've been posting all of my food related posts on my other blog, http://theurbanmermaid.blogspot.com/