Day 25 – Hairy Instant Potter and the Chamber of Recipes

My wife is a pastry chef. I know. Life is good! She cooks amazing food! That’s how I got this hard-earned dad-bod. She loves cooking so much that she does it for both a living and then likes to come home and cook for me… NOT!

I, surprisingly, do most of the cooking. I started as a griller. Hot dogs, brats, grilled veggies, different marinated chicken, and different marinated steaks. From there, I upgraded to making stuffed burgers, I make a pretty mean jalapeno popper burger. To making sliders like the chorizo slider topped with manchego cheese and guacamole. Then I moved onto different cuts of steak like a hanger steak with some chimichurri sauce (pairs well with a caipirinha). But grilling doesn’t let you cook year long in a midwestern climate that likes to throw -40 degree days your way.

That’s where the Instant Pot comes in. What a game changer! If you’re like me, when that crisp fall air hits, you know what season it really is… soup season!!! It’s a soup-er time to be alive and in possession of an Instant Pot and an immersion blender. Hadn’t planned ahead what you want to eat but you’ve got a butternut squash on the counter? Boom! Ginger-sriracha butternut squash soup! You don’t have a lot of time to cook out a lavish meal, but have some veggies and tofu around? Bam! A nice vegetarian curry is done in twenty minutes. Even though it can cook rice, the Instant Pot pairs well with a rice cooker so I highly recommend investing in both to cut down on time.

As you can see, I love my Instant Pot as it allows for me, a regular old bearded dude with zero cooking skills, to become a 1 Michelin Tire Star Chefboyardee. It allows me to cook meals with relative ease and impress those who try my food. Below you will find my wife’s favorite meal: “Barba”coa Tacos

“Barba”coa Taco Recipe

Ingredients:

For Liquid Combine the following in a bowl – 1/4 c apple cider vinegar, 2 tbs lime juice, as much garlic as you prefer but at least 4 cloves worth, 1 minced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce diced, 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/2 cup of beef stock, and 2 bay leaves

For Meat: Wait for the sale to go on at your local grocery store and pick up a chuck roast no more than 3 pounds (base it on the size of your family – for the two of us a 2 pounder gives leftovers). Chop these into manageable chunks. Don’t worry about size or shape as they are going to get shredded after cooking.

Steps:

1. Press saute and add 2 tbs of your preferred cooking oil (I mix mine up doing 1 tbs of chili oil to add heat and 1 tbs of peanut oil).
2. Toss in the beef once it’s heated and brown the beef on all sides. Hit cancel when you’re done.
3. Pour the liquid mix above into the pot. Give it a good swirl to even out ingredients.
4. Put on the lid and flip to sealing. Hit the Pressure Cook button and set for 30 minutes. When it’s done, wait for the pressure to naturally release.
5. After pressure is gone, shred that meat up and put it onto whatever means of transport you want: hard shell, soft shell, corn or flour to make a burrito, or Chipotle style rice bowl (mix the rice with cilantro and lime juice for an extra flavor punch). Top the beef with some cotija cheese or whatever you like to put on your tacos. You’re going to get enough flavor from the beef.
6. Enjoy!

Recipe is modified from “How to Instant Pot” by Daniel Shumski. This book has so many good recipes, I cannot recommend it enough. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, this book should be available to you for free in your Kindle App.