Wins & losses

One month in, there have been some wins, and much to the dismay of my family, some losses.

Okay we were lucky to start off so well. It might have been better to have started with more mediocre results, then perhaps the expectations may not have been quite so high.

Next was Beef Burgundy - Tick also!

This dish made it to dinner party status, as it was made with home-made pressure cooker beef stock; which will take it from good to great.

The pressure cooker gained a lot of use the first three weeks, all potatoes, corn and carrots went straight into it. The kids were saying "are you using it again?"

Then a rolled lamb shoulder roast was tried, proving to be a bit of a fail. Instead of gauging the time myself, the rule of thumb is a at least a third of the 'normal' cooking time by conventional oven, I decided to use the manuals’ suggested cooking times – Wrong!

After spending a half hour on the phone with a lovely lady from the consumer help line, it was suggested that the recipe book could well be thrown away in my house. Because, you see, I have a large family (three kids is a lot by todays standard 2.6 people per house hold.)

So with double the mouths to feed, along with my tendency to cook two meals at a time to freeze for the 'I can't be bothered cooking and no, teenage son, we are not having pizza again' days,

Cooking times for the pressure cooker are now a little more than a third for larger pieces or joints of meat.

Beef Burgundy

Serves 4 – Generous servings

Ingredients

500g Chuck Steak cut into bite size cubes

2 rashers Bacon - Optional

¼ cup Flour

1 large Onion chopped

2 cups Dry Red Wine

1 cup Beef Stock

2 Carrots chopped

2 ribs Celery chopped

1 tbsp Garlic

200g Mushrooms

2 sprigs Thyme

Fresh Parsley

Method

Beef Burgundy

Turn PC on to SEAR for 15 minutes, let heat for 3 minutes
While PC is heating, dredge the chuck steak in the flour, shake off excess
If using, brown the bacon and set aside
Add oil if needed to your PC and sear the steak in batches until browned and set aside
Fry off onion, carrots & celery until lightly coloured, adding garlic toward the end to prevent garlic from burning increasing searing time if needed
Add the meat back into the PC
Pour in the red wine & stock, add the sprigs of thyme
PC on HIGH setting for 40 minutes
Cook the mushrooms in butter until golden & crunchy
Add the mushrooms and PC oh HIGH for a further 10 minutes