Super-Simple (and really fast!) Oxtails

Okay, fine. If you don't like oxtails, just look away. I happen to love them. My mom made them often when I was a kid, and I couldn't get enough of them.

They do look sort of ... dangerous and prehistoric and caveman-like, though. Which, I guess, is part of their appeal.

And there's really no delicate way to eat them. Sure, you can try to go at them with a fork and knife like a civilized person. I start that way with the larger pieces. But when I always end up picking up the bones and ... well ... slurping the rest of the meat off.

I guess I'm really not that civilized, despite living in a well-equipped cave.

Speaking of well-equipped, the latest toy to show up in my kitchen is the Instant Pot DUO 60. I got this little charmer through 37 Cooks, a group blog I belong to. I already had a pressure cooker (okay, fine. I have several), but I'd heard so many people swooning over the Instant Pot, I knew I had to give it a try.

The Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker and slow cooker, but it's got some special features as well that make it a little more foolproof for the average cook.

Like the buttons that are pre-sets for particular types of foods. No need to look up how long it takes to cook those basic items - you just press the button.

Or, if you want to cook something using your own recipe and timing, you just choose the manual function. Or sear. Or slow cook or warm. Or steam. Or whatever.

Did I mention that it has a lot of options?

It's no wonder people are crazy about this appliance. It does a lot.

Since the whole point of an Instant Pot is to make dinner fast and easy, I decided to create a super-easy recipe. I used a little cheat - a jar of sofrito. While in theory you can make your own sofrito, the one in a jar has a spice that I've never seen anywhere - culantro.

Nope, that's not a misspelling of cilantro. It's a different herb. It's sort of like cilantro, but it's not. Just like marjoram isn't oregano.

Oxtails with Sofrito

3 pounds oxtails, trimmed of excess fat
1 onion, diced
1 12-ounce jar Goya sofrito

1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Place all ingredients in your Instant Pot. Put the cover on and make sure the knob is set for sealing and not for venting.

Press the "meat/stew" button and make sure it's set for 50 minutes.

When the time is up, turn the cooker off (or, if your Instant Pot has the feature, you could simply set it ahead of time to not go to the warm setting) and wait 15 minutes before releasing the remaining pressure.

Serve immediately (skim off any excess fat on top of the sauce, if there's a lot) or transfer to storage containers and refrigerate. I like stewed meats best if they've been chilled and reheated, but it's up to you. If you refrigerate, the fat will rise to the top and harden, making it easier to remove. Just pull that off, reheat, and serve.

I served these with polenta, but they'd be great with rice, potatoes, or noodles to sop up all the extra sauce.

I received the Instant Pot through 37 Cooks at no cost to me.

You can follow Instant Pot on Twitter or Facebook. Want to chat with other Instant Pot users? There's a very lively Facebook group dedicated to the pot! 

Vegetable Soup - Easy to make vegetarian or vegan!

It seems like every time I get a new gadget, I make a million recipes in it. When I got my Vitamix, I had smoothies every morning for breakfast. And maybe for lunch. And blended cocktails. And  ... well, all sorts of blended things.

I didn't post a lot of recipes because, well, it was smoothies. Lots of bananas disappeared, but I wasn't being particularly creative.

Now that I have an Instant Pot, I'm having fun pressing buttons and seeing what it can do. One night, I was thinking about soup. I had chicken stock, canned tomatoes, fresh vegetables. It was 10:34 and I seriously wanted to make the soup that late at night. But then I decided it would be just as easy to make the soup the next day for lunch.

So that's what I did.

To make this soup vegetarian, simply swap in a vegetable stock for the chicken stock. To make it vegan, omit the butter or use olive oil instead. It might sound a little odd to add butter or oil to a soup, but this soup has no meat that would normally provide fat. It's not necessary, but it adds a little bit of richness.

The mild Hatch chilis don't add heat to the soup - if you prefer a spicy soup, use hot chilis. Or you can pass hot sauce or sriracha at the table for those who like it hot.

Vegetable Soup

1 quart chicken stock (I use Kitchen Basics if I don't have homemade)
2 14.5-ounce cans petite diced tomatoes
1 14.75-ounce can creamed corn (or corn kernels, your choice)
1 4-ounce can mild diced Hatch chilis
1 cup sliced carrots (about 3)
1 cup sliced celery stalks (about 3)
1 medium onion, diced
1/4 cup jasmine rice
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt

Place all the ingredients in the Instant Pot and give it a little stir. Set on "soup" setting and turn time to 12 minutes. When the time is up, release the pressure. Serve hot.

I received the Instant Pot though 37 Cooks in order to create a post on that site. I'm not obligated to continue posting about it.

Very vanilla rice pudding under pressure

I'm a huge fan of rice pudding, and I keep fiddling around with recipes. This one is vaguely based on another one I made recently. And that recipe was based on a recipe in the Great Big Pressure Cooker Book.

I totally love that book. The best thing about it is that it gives you variations for both electric and stovetop cookers. I happen to have both types of cookers.

Sometimes I even use both pressure cookers for different things at the same time. It happens.

So, anyway, I loved that original rice pudding recipe and made it several times. But this time I decided to switch it up a bit to make it a little, um ... looser. Creamier. And since the Instant Pot has a button labeled "porridge" I decided to use that to cook the rice. Hey, might as well make it easy, right?

Very Vanilla Rice Pudding (Instant Pot recipe)

1/2 cup arborio rice
2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons vanilla extract (you can use less. I'm a vanilla fiend)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 whole egg

Put the rice, milk, sugar, water, vanilla extract, and salt in the Instant Pot. Put the lid on and make sure the knob is set for sealing rather than venting.

Press the "porridge" button and make sure it's set for 20 minutes. When the time is up, let it sit at the "keep warm" setting for 30 minutes, then turn off the machine and turn the knob to vent any remaining steam. Remove the cover.

Whisk the egg in a bowl. Add small ladles full of the hot rice pudding to the egg, stirring constantly. When you've added about a cup of the rice pudding to the egg and the mixture is warm, pour the egg mixture back into the Instant Pot, stirring as you add it.

Turn the Instant Pot to the saute setting and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. Don't let it boil. Transfer to a storage container and allow it to cool a bit, then refrigerate.

Serve chilled with a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg, if desired. A dollop of whipped cream is nice, too. Just sayin.

I received the Instant Pot through 37 Cooks for a post on the group blog. I am not obligated to continue posting about it on my blog. I'm just having fun.