Strawberry BBQ Sauce Ribs in Pressure Cooker

Using a fruity, strawberry flavored home made BBQ sauce to marinade the country style ribs before cooking in the pressure cooker. Going to use the tray in the pressure cooker to cook the potatoes and onions on top to make a lightly sweet and tasty meal. (really not as sweet as you would think, very tasty!!)


Sauce -
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 small onion
3 - 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar depending on personal choice
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup fruit juice (I used apple/pineapple/cherry in this case but just apple or pineapple are good)
1/2 tablespoon worcester sauce
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped Strawberries (about 1/2 dozen large or 9-12 small medium sized)

throw all the ingredients in a pan and bring to a high boil stirring constantly.. lower temp and let simmer for 15 minutes, remove from heat and hit with a stick blender (if you don't have a stick blender a regular blender is fine, but might let it cool a bit first)  return to stove and simmer 15-20 minutes more to let reduce a little bit.  let cool.

Rest of the ingredients - 
1-1/2 to 2 pounds country style ribs
3-4 potatoes
other 1/2 of small onion cut in large chunks
1/2 cup finely chopped veggies (what ever floats your boat, I used a tad of onion, some celery, a small bit of red pepper, small amount of carrot)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt (and pepper if desired)

Take about 1 1/2 to 2LBS country style cut ribs rinse and leave moist,  throw in a container, drizzle enough sauce over ribs to coat and close lid on container and shake to coat evenly. let marinade for at least 2 hours.. more is better! (only used about half the sauce, the rest I bottled and saved for something else)

Ribs marinading in homemade fruit BBQ sauce

Peel and rinse Potatoes, chop onions and what ever other veggies you'd like into large chunks and set aside.

I'm also taking about 3/4 cup of fine chopped left over mixed veggies (celery, onion, red pepper and a bit of carrot) and throw into the bottom of the pressure cooker with a tablespoon of oil.. stir while you preheat the pressure cooker.

in the pot after simmering veggie bits

Throw in the ribs and sauce. Add divider and add the potatoes and large chopped veggies. Melt a tablespoon of butter and stir in a tablespoon of light olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of salt (and pepper if desired), brush on potatoes and onions, close lid and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Brush on buter/oil mix

When done, release pressure, remove and eat.. yum!! They really don't end up as sweet as you would think.. VERY tasty and super tender...

ribs.... mmmmmmmm

taters..yum...

Super awesome crispy honey teriyaki chicken

Yes, it really is super awesome. I promise.  A simple combination of water, teriyaki and honey with a few other ingredents that result in a lightly sweet and crispy baked chicken.

Ingredents-
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
3/4 Cup water (or 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup pineapple juice if you want added flavor)
1 egg
1 cup flour
1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup crushed crackers
Chicken - 1/2 dozen legs or 8-10 wings or 4-5 thighs or any combo of them you prefer. (In this case I'm using thighs tonight.)

Rinse and clean chicken. Take water, honey and teriyaki and mix well.  (Trick I use is start with hot water and measure out the spoon of honey, and drop the spoon in the water upside down so the honey basically melts off.. Add teriyaki and stir.) 

let honey melt in hot water

Take 1/2 the honey mixture and pour in bowl, add egg and beat. Save the other 1/2 of honey mixture.
Take sheet pan and line with foil, spray with a cooking spray so the chicken won't stick as bad.

1/2 beaten with egg, 1/2 saved

Now put flour in another bowl next to honey/egg mixture and foil lined sheet pan.

moisten in honey/egg mixture then lightly flour.

Dip chicken in honey-egg then roll around in flour to coat evenly, then place on foil lined pan skin side up. Discard left over flour and egg mixture. (I actually used left overs and dipped and floured the potato wedges also.. yummy)
Crush up crackers and mix in with bread crumbs. Take other half of honey teriyaki mixture (without egg) and drizzle over the top of chicken.

drizzle over chicken

Sprinkle cracker crumb mixture over the top lightly patting to make sure the honey mixture sticks the crumbs in place.

Bake at 375º for a time according to which ever pieces you are using and your oven..

Legs -     about 45minutes to an hour
Wings -   about 35-45 minute
Thighs -  right around 1hour to an hour and 10 minute (was about 45 minutes with a convection oven)

A different kind of Clam Chowder

very tasty!

Clam Chowder is a classic, the 2 more popular kinds being New England with it's nice creamy flavor and Rhode Island with the clear broth and unique flavor. And the third being Manhattan with the tomato based broth.

Well I just made a bit different version of the Rhode Island that is rather tasty, easy to make, and though the flavor is all it's own, it's not that much different than the classic version all done in the pressure cooker.

Cook veggies in butter oil just translucent 

Ingredients

• 2 cans Clams (and included juice)
• 1 10oz bottle clam juice
• 4-5 mid/large sized potatoes skinned and diced
• 2 celery stalks chopped
• about 1/4 a yellow or orange pepper (or both) chopped into small pieces 
• 1 large onion  chopped into mid sized pieces
• 4-6 cups chicken broth (I like to use home made)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2-3 tablespoons butter

Add the rest of the ingredients, stir and cook for 15-20 minutes

Simple directions, toss veggies and butter into cooker and pre cook till onions begin to get translucent, then add everything else in the pressure cooker. Add water to just cover if needed and cooke for 15-20 minutes (soup setting if an electric unit) Stir and eat when finished cooking, Rather tasty and a bit different!great with fresh bread or crackers!

Home made, fast pressure cooker chicken vegetable broth

Looks good!!

Simple testing here. I love homemade broth bases over cans or boxes purchased at the store. But normally it's a lot of simmering and boiling to get a good flavored one pulled from the carcass.  Gunna try and short cut it in the pressure cooker.  Will it work?  Let's find out!

Ok, starting with
Chicken carcass. (this case a large 8lbs chicken, eck that's big!!) pull all the good meat off but throw all the other stuff in the pot, skin, bones, pretty much everything left over. Break it up a bit and toss it in there.

All the GOOD meat NOT going in there!

Vegetables, not really gunna gives spacific list here as the best  broths are ones when you take leftover, end of the bag scraps, and just toss them in there. But there is celery, tad of a left over onion, small amount of both yellow and orange peppers and a few left over baby carrots.  Rough chop them all up and throw in the pot.

left over skin, carcass, bits and some veggies.. 

Sprinkle some salt and pepper, and I often add a teaspoon or so of Italian mix herbs.  What ever floats your boat, just remember not to go over boat with anything as this is just a base for something else.
Add water to just cover everything.. This was a big chicken and my pressure cooker is a biggie so I got 10 cups in and probably could have added more.

Add water to just over the top of everything

Set  on "soup" and set timer on 30 minutes.

OK, took it all out .. poured through a strainer. Some people might want to use a finer filter like a cheese cloth  but I like the tiny bits for flavor. It's very much a success!!!

stuff is awesome. Great flavor, great smelling! just really good broth.

Shrimp n' Pasta in "Cheater" Sauce

Pasta and Shrimp with Cheater Sauce

MMMmmmmm.. Shrimp and Pasta cooked in a nice vegetable sauce... soon yummy!!

It's actually really tasty, and the cheaters sauce makes it rather easy. What is "Cheaters Sauce"? Well, it's simple, it's a 1/2 home made, 1/2 jar spaghetti or I like to use store bought pizza sauce. The taste of home made, super thick, but isn't all that hard or time consuming to make. I often make kind of a Red Pepper Sauce this way, just use 2/3rds red peppers and 1/3 onions and little else in the veggies. but this one is a mix of vegetables I had in the frig.

Simple Ingredients -

1 Stick celery

1/2 carrot (or 3-4 babies)

1/2 medium onion

1/4 - 1/2 red onion

a *leaf of yellow pepper

a *leaf of orange pepper

a *leaf or red pepper

1 tablespoon butter (can just add extra oil if you prefer)

2 tablespoons or so olive oil

1/2 jar or so of spaghetti or pizza sauce

About 1/3rd bag or Pasta (curly or bow tie work best)

1 dozen to 18 or so medium uncooked shrimp

(* a leaf of pepper is about 1/6 to 1/8th the pepper, you just slide the knife down through the pepper avoiding the center and seeds, the makes kinda a leaf looking chunk)

Chop up all the vegetables and throw with oil and butter in a hot, tall sided pan, the whole meal ends up in this pan. Medium to high heat. cook while stirring till the edges start to turn brown and onions get translucent.

Cook vegetables till lightly browned

 pour in jar sauce to just cover the chopped veggies and turn down heat to low or medium low, keep cooking and stirring till sauce just starts to simmer and bubble. 

simmer veggies and jar sauce

Take off stove and throw it in heat resistant bowl or in a blender and using a stick blender (or the regular blender) chop up all the veggies into a super thick sauce. Toss it all back in the pan, cover (it will make a mess bubbling and splattering everywhere otherwise) and simmer for 5-10 minutes more on low heat.

Blend mixture to make thick sauce

While simmering sauce cook the pasta normally in water.

Take shrimp, devain, rinse, clean and butterfly slice them. You want large, but thin slices to allow them to cook through but not over cook. Take shrimp and toss in pan with sauce, stirring occasionally  and let cook for 5 minutes making sure they are cooked through and turn a nice solid white color. (you may need to turn up the temp on an electric stove a tad to get them to cook through) 

Toss in raw shrimp and cook till they turn white

Now, toss in pasta, stir and let cook a few minutes more. Keep stirring now and then to keep from sticking on the bottom of the pan.

Serve...Oh soo delicious!!

Pressure Cooker Frozen Chicken Soup.

Gunna use frozen thighs to make some chicken soup in the pressure cooker.  Will even make broth from them in the pressure cooker. (but will still need to add more broth)

Ingredients: 
4 frozen chicken thighs
3-4 cups water

Chopped- 
1/2 a medium - large red onion
1/2 a medium - large regular onion
2 celery sticks
1 carrot ( I used 1/2 dozen baby carrots)
1 *leaf of red pepper
1 *leaf of yellow pepper
1 *leaf of orange pepper
(*a leaf is about an 1/8 to a 1/6 of the pepper, I call it a leaf because, well it looks like one when you cut it off the pepper)

1/2 tablespoon of butter (more or less to you personal taste)
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 to 1 teaspoon herbs of choice (I use dried Italian Medley mix )
16 oz or so of vegetable or chicken broth


Easy start, throwing 4 whole frozen thighs in the pressure cooker and add water to a little over covering the thighs. In this case around 3-4 cups.  Fire up pressure cooker and cook for 15 minutes. Once done release pressure and remove chicken. Let cool enough to easily handle and remove skin and fats, breaking upend chop chicken, put aside.  Now take the bones and throw them back into the cooker with the water still inside, cook again for 15 minutes to finish making a nice chicken broth.  Relieve pressure and strain liquids. Throw always bones and bits.

Chop up, onion halves, celery, carrot and pepper leaves. You can add or subtract veggies for your preferred taste. I do caution from using any more peppers as they will over power the taste of the chicken easily.

chopping veggies 

Notice pepper *leaf

 Wipe out pressure cooker pot, add butter and olive oil then the chopped veggies and heat, stir till they all soften. Mix in herbs, then add chopped chicken, and the broth you made, add the extra 16 oz of vegetable broth or so. Stir and close lid, let cook for 10 minutes, then shut off and let sit. (can just jump in and add noodles and be done but I like to make it early and let it marinade if possible)

made broth pouring over chicken and veggies

After sitting A added a bit more broth and a tad of water just so the noodles had something to absorb, and threw in noodles, about 1/2-3/4 a bag of curly noodles and cooked it all again for 15 minutes under pressure...  It was gooooooddddd!!!  Gunna say most people will want to add some salt and pepper..

Soup with Honey White Bread

Honey White Bread

Yummy Honey White Bread

I use both a bread machine and the oven.  Reason? I hate the paddles baking into the loaf and making a weird spot in the middle. So I mix, knead and rise in the machine then switch to regular bread pan let rise again and cook in the oven. The good thing here is the cheap $50 machines work just as well as the high priced units.

Ingredients
4 cups flour (bread flour preferably)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons fast rise bread yeast
3/4 cup hot water
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons olive oil (or butter if preferred)

Take 3/4 cup hot water and tablespoon honey and mix, the hot water dissolves the honey off the spoon, once basically clean, take the spoon and do a second honey full.
Take olive oil and put in bread machine bowl/pan. Swish it around and add water-honey mix, egg, and milk. Pour flour on top and and sprinkle salt, then yeast over. Put in bread machine and set to "dough" this should take about an hour to hour and one half and be kneaded well and first rise.

Dough in machine before 1st rise and then in pans to for 2nd rise

Remove after machine is done and put in regular lightly grease bread pan. Place in warm spot and let rise.  I put it in an oven that I get up to 120 degrees then shut off and let sit.. For a few minutes.  Let cool a bit before putting bread in to rise. Throw in a small glass or other container of steamy water with the bread dough. Let rise for approximately 20 mins or until properly risen. Remove and preheat oven to 350.

Bread risen and oven preheated to 350º ready to cook

Cook the bread for 20-25 minutes until golden brown on top.  Remove From oven and let cool. If you like a softer crust then brush the loaf lightly with milk, this will keep the crust from getting too thick and hard. Let cool and Eat, Oh so yummy!

brushing with milk to keep crust softer