By Raissermesser
Age: Old enough to know better.
Sunday I found another bag of stew beef in the freezer, and tried my hand at beef stew with gravy. This is what happened:
I opened the bag, put the stew beef in the microwave, and set to defrost. I took an old pie pan and dumped flour into it until it looked right, did the same with salt and black pepper, and mixed. Meanwhile, I had a 10" cast iron skillet with enough canola oil to cover the bottom (yes, I guessed on the amount) heating.
Looked up and saw the stew beef turning brown in the bag. Uh-oh. Turn off the microwave. Take out the now hot stew beef and dump the entire contents onto the flour. Now I have this heap of semi-cooked meat on a pan of flour. It did not mix well. Ended up flouring each piece separately and tossing into the skillet.
When I finished adding meat, the first pieces looked so brown I feared they'd cooked into blocks. Fortunately, they were still leaking blood. I guessed that was sufficiently browned, and put them in the pressure cooker. When done, I had some oil left and flour bits.
I poured off the excess into one of those oil savers. You know the kind: All metal with a strainer inside. Then I decided I needed more gravy.
You make gravy by browning flower, right? I dump the rest of the flour into the skillet and start stirring. Nothing much happens. The stuff wants to clump. Maybe some water; water would dilute it, right? Guessed at the water and mixed.
Now I had this dough in the skillet. Not good. I toss the stringy mess into the pressure cooker, add water until it just covers the meat, close the lid, turn the burner on high, and start cleaning up.
I ended up with enough time to plan the rest of the meal. Baby lima beans from the freezer, and a box of instant brown rice. No, I didn't cook the entire box; I'm not quite that clueless. Figured on four servings and memorized the directions.
I'm getting out the other pots I need when the steam goes up. Put the weight on the pressure cooker, which proceeds to play Old Faithful out the emergency pressure relief valve, spraying the wall behind the stove. Grab the pressure cooker and set on a cool burner. Turns out part of the pressure relief valve is squashed down into the lid - no, I didn't check it before putting on the lid. Steam's gone, so I remove the lid, put the relief valve in correctly, and try again.
Wait for it to come to a boil again and put on the weight. When it starts rocking, I turn down the heat.
I was still cleaning up when I heard a sizzle, and saw white flour and water coming out the stem the weight sits on. That means its forming. Not good. I turn down the heat some more and keep a close watch on it to make sure it's not clogged.
Now it was time for the beans and rice. The beans did perfectly; no surprise there. The rice did, too - or so I thought. It wasn't until I went to fluff it that I saw a lot of unabsorbed liquid. What? Went back over my steps, and realized I had only added enough rice for two servings, but had enough water for four. In desperation, I add another cup of rice, put it back on the burning with the idea to keep stirring until the water comes to a boil again, when I realized I might need to add more water. Two servings required one cup of rice to one cup of water, but four servings had two cups of rice to 1.75 cups of water. Why not? Poured a quarter cup of hot water onto the rice, stirred until it was boiling, dropped it back to simmer, and followed the rest of the instructions as though there was no cooked rice in the pot.
The rice finished about the same time as the stew beef. The rice actually looked good.
I turned off the pressure cooker heat, allowed it to cool until there was no pressure, took a deep breath, and opened it. It was filled with tender stew beef in a white gravy. Lots and lots of white gravy.
With glee I put the servings on the plates. The rice hadn't stuck at all. Too bad I couldn't say the same about the stew beef. I didn't scrape up the stuck portions, only serving the good.
To my surprise, the meal met with approval. I thought this was a full-up disaster, but it came through.
When I went to wash the pressure cooker, though, I was back to "This is a disaster." Even adding water and bringing it to a boil to soften it didn't work. Ended up letting it soak, then scraping it off with the edge of a spoon before I could even begin to wash it.
Looking back, the stew beef and gravy was just pure luck. Doing some checking online, I now know I should have used only 1/2 cup of flour, mix it with salt and black pepper, then dump it into the ziplock bag with defrosted but not semi-cooked stew beef, shake until all the pieces are covered, and then brown that. I should not have tried to make more gravy and dump that dough into the pressure cooker. I think that's where the foam came from. Foam in a pressure cooker is not good at all, and, if it had clogged the stem, I would have had a real disaster.
After I finished the dishes, I looked for a pressure cooker cookbook. Found one, but don't know if it will do any good. I think I'm one of those you just can't help.
Age: Old enough to know better.
Sunday I found another bag of stew beef in the freezer, and tried my hand at beef stew with gravy. This is what happened:
I opened the bag, put the stew beef in the microwave, and set to defrost. I took an old pie pan and dumped flour into it until it looked right, did the same with salt and black pepper, and mixed. Meanwhile, I had a 10" cast iron skillet with enough canola oil to cover the bottom (yes, I guessed on the amount) heating.
Looked up and saw the stew beef turning brown in the bag. Uh-oh. Turn off the microwave. Take out the now hot stew beef and dump the entire contents onto the flour. Now I have this heap of semi-cooked meat on a pan of flour. It did not mix well. Ended up flouring each piece separately and tossing into the skillet.
When I finished adding meat, the first pieces looked so brown I feared they'd cooked into blocks. Fortunately, they were still leaking blood. I guessed that was sufficiently browned, and put them in the pressure cooker. When done, I had some oil left and flour bits.
I poured off the excess into one of those oil savers. You know the kind: All metal with a strainer inside. Then I decided I needed more gravy.
You make gravy by browning flower, right? I dump the rest of the flour into the skillet and start stirring. Nothing much happens. The stuff wants to clump. Maybe some water; water would dilute it, right? Guessed at the water and mixed.
Now I had this dough in the skillet. Not good. I toss the stringy mess into the pressure cooker, add water until it just covers the meat, close the lid, turn the burner on high, and start cleaning up.
I ended up with enough time to plan the rest of the meal. Baby lima beans from the freezer, and a box of instant brown rice. No, I didn't cook the entire box; I'm not quite that clueless. Figured on four servings and memorized the directions.
I'm getting out the other pots I need when the steam goes up. Put the weight on the pressure cooker, which proceeds to play Old Faithful out the emergency pressure relief valve, spraying the wall behind the stove. Grab the pressure cooker and set on a cool burner. Turns out part of the pressure relief valve is squashed down into the lid - no, I didn't check it before putting on the lid. Steam's gone, so I remove the lid, put the relief valve in correctly, and try again.
Wait for it to come to a boil again and put on the weight. When it starts rocking, I turn down the heat.
I was still cleaning up when I heard a sizzle, and saw white flour and water coming out the stem the weight sits on. That means its forming. Not good. I turn down the heat some more and keep a close watch on it to make sure it's not clogged.
Now it was time for the beans and rice. The beans did perfectly; no surprise there. The rice did, too - or so I thought. It wasn't until I went to fluff it that I saw a lot of unabsorbed liquid. What? Went back over my steps, and realized I had only added enough rice for two servings, but had enough water for four. In desperation, I add another cup of rice, put it back on the burning with the idea to keep stirring until the water comes to a boil again, when I realized I might need to add more water. Two servings required one cup of rice to one cup of water, but four servings had two cups of rice to 1.75 cups of water. Why not? Poured a quarter cup of hot water onto the rice, stirred until it was boiling, dropped it back to simmer, and followed the rest of the instructions as though there was no cooked rice in the pot.
The rice finished about the same time as the stew beef. The rice actually looked good.
I turned off the pressure cooker heat, allowed it to cool until there was no pressure, took a deep breath, and opened it. It was filled with tender stew beef in a white gravy. Lots and lots of white gravy.
With glee I put the servings on the plates. The rice hadn't stuck at all. Too bad I couldn't say the same about the stew beef. I didn't scrape up the stuck portions, only serving the good.
To my surprise, the meal met with approval. I thought this was a full-up disaster, but it came through.
When I went to wash the pressure cooker, though, I was back to "This is a disaster." Even adding water and bringing it to a boil to soften it didn't work. Ended up letting it soak, then scraping it off with the edge of a spoon before I could even begin to wash it.
Looking back, the stew beef and gravy was just pure luck. Doing some checking online, I now know I should have used only 1/2 cup of flour, mix it with salt and black pepper, then dump it into the ziplock bag with defrosted but not semi-cooked stew beef, shake until all the pieces are covered, and then brown that. I should not have tried to make more gravy and dump that dough into the pressure cooker. I think that's where the foam came from. Foam in a pressure cooker is not good at all, and, if it had clogged the stem, I would have had a real disaster.
After I finished the dishes, I looked for a pressure cooker cookbook. Found one, but don't know if it will do any good. I think I'm one of those you just can't help.
