I recently purchased a Instant Pot electric pressure cooker. My regular pressure cooker was not working well on my new glass top stove so decided I would try the stand alone type. I haven’t used a pressure cooker for several years so it was interesting and fun to try again. I am not sure why I quit using it as I don’t like slow cookers and this really gives you a meal in a very short time and cheap cuts of meat become tender without being stringy. I did leave out the tomato sauce using only the V-8 juice as I did not want it too tomato tasting. I used the same amount of beef broth to replace it with. Either way works fine.
Instant Pot Round Steak
Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs. Sliced Round Steak
3 tbsp. olive oil
½ tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. minced garlic
½ tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 C Beef broth
1 11.5 can V-8 juice
1- 11.5 oz. Can Tomato Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste
1- 1/2 tbsp. corn starch for thickening slurry
Mushrooms if desired (I usually have them in the freezer already cooked)
Directions
Put oil in pressure cooker and set to browning function. Pat meat dry and brown on both sides. Set aside. Deglaze pot with a bit of Beef broth. Pour Beef broth, tomato sauce and V-8 into pot and add onion powder, garlic, Worcestershire, and salt and pepper into the pot. Place meat back in pot.
Close lid, set to seal. Use manual setting for 25 minutes and a natural pressure release.
When finished, open cooker remove meat, keep warm and immediately stir corn starch mixed with 1/4 cup cold water into liquid to thicken for gravy. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if needed. Serve with mashed potatoes, rice or pasta and a vegetable.
My biggest complaint with slow cookers has been that the meat is somehow dry-tasting, even though it has been cooking in liquids for hours. My old (1974) crockpot (which operates at much lower temperatures than the newer ones) does the best job--I use my newish one only for stock.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the texture of low-fat meat (chicken breasts, pork loin) from the Instant Pot? Have you ever tried it with a corned beef? How long, for example, would a 4-lb corned beef (no veggies) take in the Instant Pot, as opposed to my old crock pot, which would be about 6 hours?
I have an old rice cooker that I love, so that's not an inducement for me to venture over to a pressure cooker. I would have no problem whipping up a big batch of wild rice, for example. Wish I had a friend with an Instant Pot--I would love to be able to borrow one and make a few meals, just to see for myself!
The biggest advantage to pressure cooking is not only the speed but the texture of the ingredients. I find that meat and poultry stay moist and not dry. We don't like our meat cooked till it shreds but rather can be sliced neatly. If you want the shredded pork or beef there are directions to do that. If you like your rice cooker I wouldn't change just for rice, I use my IP because I don't, really don't, like slow cookers and yes I think the older ones worked much better than the newer models. I haven't tried corned beef yet, but will when they go on sale in the Spring. Most of the directions I have seen call for 70 to 90 minutes. Check out the blog Amy + Jacky instant pot recipes.
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