No pressure – fast one-pot cooking with a slow flavour

You could say our year of ‘living more lagom’ isn’t quite going to plan as we’ve just welcomed a puppy into our lives. Our cockerjack Django is utterly gorgeous (aren’t all puppies?) but it feels a bit like we’ve been hit by a whirlwind of sloppy kisses, razor-sharp nips and freestyle toilet training. It’s a full-time job looking after a puppy and the washing machine seems to be permanently on; not to mention the amount of dog-related merchandise we’ve purchased to amuse his every whim. On the upside it’s hard to remember a time I’ve been so besotted since our daughter was born. 

Being homebound with the family while Django settles in has at least given us time to attempt more slow cooking and test out our pressure cooker. For our food obsessed household, the main draw of pressure cooking is how it saves money, as food cooks in around a third of the usual time, using less energy. Yet pressure cooking is not for the faint-hearted. The hissing steam and potential to explode is far too daunting a prospect for me; thankfully @typographic is a far more confident gadget user, and after a little experimentation, became a pressure cooker convert in a matter of days. 

In the evenings there’s always something bubbling away on the stove as N finds nothing more relaxing after work than recipe testing for the next pop up event. After a couple of months of trialling our easy-to-use Vardesatta pressure cooker (from IKEA) it seems this will now be our default method of cooking meat stews, stocks, and chicken pho broths.

What’s also handy, is that in an often frenetic kitchen, flavoursome meals that would otherwise take hours to prepare, are ready faster, so hungry mouths are fed quicker. To save even more money, cheaper cuts of meat such as shank, skirt and brisket can be bought and turned into delicious fodder, and dried ingredients such as pulses and beans can be cooked from scratch. 

I have to say I was skeptical that cooking times would be greatly reduced, however, N is adamant that pressure cooking takes at least 50% less cooking time. He was able to pull together an incredible chili (see recipe below) in one and a half hours when it usually takes four – that’s a significant saving on energy use and one I applaud on many levels!

Other successes of ‘living more lagom’ have included weekends at home spent batch (pressure) cooking for the week ahead. Typical meals include ragü sauce, ready for when a quick bowl of pasta is called for and green lentil/chicken thigh stew for devouring post swimming. Food that doesn’t get eaten is either bagged up in sealable Istad bags for the freezer, or transferred into our excellent Fortrolig oven-safe glass containers ready for re-heating another day. If you’re new to pressure cooking, I recommend you give this easy recipe a go:

Neil’s Brisket Chili

Serves quite a few or 3 people happily for a few days in various forms. 

All measurements approximate as it’s hard to get this wrong. 

Ingredients

2kg beef brisket roughly chopped

Rub: 

1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander 
Fat fingered pinch of salt

1 tsp garlic powder 

Good few twists of pepper

The rest: 

A few dried Mexican chillis (ancho, mulato, chipotle etc)

Large onion

8 cloves garlic

400g (tin) black turtle beans (keep their water if no added sugar or salt) 

Small pack of lardons (because bacon rules right)

300ml wish beef stock 

1 tbsp masa harina or 1 tsp cornflour mixed into a little water

A few grates of dark dark chocolate

Method:

Create a dry spice blend of 1 tbsp ground cumin, ground coriander, generous pinch of salt, heavy season with pepper, pinch of garlic powder, rub over brisket liberally. Set to one side. 

Using dried Mexican chilis (ideally mulato and ancho):

Toast the chilis in the dry pressure cooker to release fragrance and slightly soften for about 1 minute. Soak the now toasted chilis in hot water for 10 mins.

Now start searing the brisket in the cooker for good exterior colour, don’t worry if it chars, it adds to the flavour. Sear in batches to not overcrowd the pan.

Whilst searing, blitz the chilis (when soft and you have removed the stalks) and some of their soaking liquid with 8 cloves of garlic which will give you a crazy sauce/juice. 

Adjust amount of added ‘chilli water’ to give you a thick passata-like consistency. 

You will still be searing the beef in batches at this point but you can finely chop the onions while that sizzles. 

Drain 1 400g tin of black turtle beans (reserving the liquid) and set aside. 

Now into the browned pan, add all your onions, and lardons if desired and then sweat to help remove the charred fond in the pan (about 10 mins) and then once softened add in the chili sauce, simmer for 5 minutes then return the beef to the pan. 

Add the beef stock and the black bean water to ensure enough liquid in the pressure cooker. It may look too liquidy but can always be reduced later. Leave the beans out for now though as you want to preserve their texture in the long run. 

Pop the lid on and bring up to high pressure and cook for 40 mins. 

Release the pressure manually or slow release (for a bit of extra cooking time), and add the beans for the last 20 minutes or so. 

After what is now about an hour under pressure, check how it is looking/smelling/tasting; the brisket should be falling apart but if not, just give it another 10 or so minutes until it achieves this point. 

It may look as if it is too thin, if so add 1 tablespoon of masa harina or 1 teaspoon of corn flour dissolved in water to help thicken and reduce to desired consistency with the lid off. 

Serve with freshly made corn tacos or corn and rice or whatever floats your boat. Keep the rest in the fridge to slather over wedges, pop in a wrap or for ultimate nachos. Or, if you are sensible, freeze the remainder and pat yourself on the back in a month or so for your foresight. 

A rapid visual walk through can be seen instagram.com/typographic and check the story highlights. 

Here’s Django the puppy - obviously not part of the chilli!