Hip Pressure Cooking

I have been so ill this week I totally forgot I agreed to do a guest post for Laura of Hip Pressure Cooking. I love my pressure cooker and her site is filled with lots of recipes on all kinds of things to make in your pressure cooker; I get lost browsing through them. And her photographs, my goodness they're beautiful. I couldn't believe it when she told me she uses a point and shoot.

So, if you're interested in re-reading my homemade refried beans recipe, or you want to check out Laura's amazing pictures and recipes, head on over to Hip Pressure Cooking.

Homemade Refried Beans

I finally made dinner this week, nothing special, we just had taco night. I did decide to make my own refried beans. I don't like the kind from a can, to me they have a tinny taste to them, like most canned foods. Thank goodness making my own refried beans is super easy.

Have you ever made your own refried beans? Once you make them you are unable to go back the canned kind. They are easy to make in a pressure cooker. I don't really use an exact recipe. I just throw the stuff in my pressure cooker, cook and season to taste. One cup of dry beans would be good for serving about 4-6 people. I make one cup for both of us because Mr. Surly likes to have a lot of beans in his tacos. And we always have left over beans for the next couple days. These beans are good on their on with a little bit of cheese and a dollop of greek yogurt (or sour cream). I'm sure you could make them in pot if you don't have a pressure cooker; they would just take longer to make and you'd probably need to soak the beans overnight.

Pressure Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

This week my nutritionist put me on a low fiber diet, hoping that it will help me gain some weight (I’m currently about 20 lbs underweight). I’m supposed to be eating pasta, potatoes, bread, lots of “white” foods. These are foods I normally do not eat so I had to buy a few things from the grocery store. Also, my abdominal pain has increased this week and the meds my GI doctor prescribed aren’t helping. 

I really haven’t felt much like cooking nor eating this week. But Mr.Surly still needed food and since he’s been working late I didn’t want him to come home and then have to make dinner.  I’m looking for easy, no fuss meals and dish fit the bill. Just throw everything in your pressure cooker and it’s magically done in under 10 minutes. This could be made in either a skillet or pot, it would just take longer to cook. There was also extra sauce left over, so I have some “pasta sauce” for pasta this week. Sorry about the unappetizing photo, I just took a quick picture to post along with the recipe.

Pressure Cooker Chili

Most chili is made using a combination of ground beef, beans, and tomatoes. Since I am grossed out by the texture of ground beef, my chili usually is just a bunch of beans and tomatoes tossed into a pot and simmered with spices. Mr.Surly's brother told us about this chili recipe from Alton Brown that uses chunks of stew meat instead of ground beef and contains no beans. At first I was skeptical. How could chili have no beans? Could I tolerate chunks of beef in my chili? After one bite all my doubts were gone. This chili is awesome; it’s spicy and the meat is so tender you can cut it with a spoon. Trust me, you won't miss the beans in this, and like us, you'll be making it again and again. We use a Cuisinart electric pressure cooker we bought last year from Williams Sonoma. If you prefer a thinner chili consistency decrease the amount of tortilla chips and tomato paste.