Estofado de ternera al vino tinto malbec

My take on an Argentinian beef stew using short ribs and Malbec wine. 

Ingredients

1 kilo beef short ribs, bone-in

2 carrots, diced

2 celery sticks, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic bulbs, smashed

3 sprigs fresh oregano, hand-crushed

3 large bay leaves

2 cups red wine (I used Argento Malbec 2016)

2 cups beef broth

knob of butter

olive oil

fennel seeds

peppercorn

ground black pepper

salt (I used Maldon Smoked Sea Salt)

1. Gently salt the beef. Heat the olive oil and butter in a pan. When it's smoking, sear both sides of the beef. Place beef inside the Instant Pot container. 

2. In the same pan, fry some fennel seeds and ground pepper until you can smell them. Then sauté the onions and garlic until fragrant. Add in the celery. Then add in the carrots. When they are nice and fragrant, put them in the Instant Pot container with the beef. 

3. Put 3/4 cup of the wine and 3/4 cup of the broth in the pan and deglaze any oily, buttery browned bits on the bottom. Place in the Instant Pot container. 

4. Pour the rest of the wine and broth. Add in the peppercorns, bay leaves, and sprigs of oregano. Slow Cook for 4 hours. This is to extract the most flavour from the ingredients. 

5. After the slow cook, check softness of the beef and taste of the sauce/broth. Season the broth as needed and, if beef is not yet fork-tender, Pressure Cook as needed (maybe 30 minutes on high pressure). Afterwards, on the Saute function reduce the sauce to desired level of thickness; season as needed.  

Serve with potato puree or, to be truly Argentine, pasta. Of course, we had it with rice. See the dish here.

Teriyaki Pork Ribs 1.0

Logging for notes. There are a few thinks I need to tweak-- texture is good (not too soft), but the meat's flavour apart from the sauce could be better. Not bad for a first try.

Ingredients

1 kilo baby back ribs

3/4 cup teriyaki sauce (I used Kikkoman Teriyaki Marinade)

3/4 cup hon mirin

knob of butter

salt and pepper

1. Season the ribs and marinate in teriyaki sauce and mirin, preferably overnight (I only did 2 hours, hence the lack of flavour). 

2. Place ribs and marinade in the Instant Pot. If you have a trivet, rub salt and pepper on the ribs and place on the trivet. Pressure cook on high for 40 minutes, natural release for 10 minutes, then quick release. 

3. Place ribs on a baking tray, keeping the now-watery marinade in the pot. Add a knob of butter and Saute on high to reduce the sauce until it can coat the back of a spoon. 

4. Bake ribs at 220C until desired brownness. 

Serve with rice (or course). 

Instant Pot Sanbeiji 三杯雞 (Three Cups Chicken)

Well, not exactly 3 cups as I've changed the proportions of rice wine, sesame oil, and soy sauce. And because we used the Instant Pot, it's more a stew and not the Maillard reaction-browned version you'd get from a claypot or a wok. 

Ingredients

1 kilo chicken (wings and drumettes)

1 garlic, peeled but not chopped

3-5 slices of ginger

1/2 cup Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing) 

1/4 cup sesame oil

1/4 cup dark soy sauce

1/2 cup water

salt and pepper

1. On Saute mode (high), sauté the garlic and ginger in sesame oil until the garlic starts to blister. 

2. Add in the chicken and fry a bit-- no need to brown at this stage, just to get the temperature up again. Add in the rice wine, sesame oil, and dark soy sauce and let it simmer for a minute or so. Press Cancel to turn off Saute mode. 

3. Place the pressure cooker lid on the instant pot and set Pressure Cook (or Poultry) for 25 minutes (high pressure). After pressure cooking, leave it on natural release for about 10 minutes then do a quick release to stop cooking. 

4. Go back on Saute mode to evaporate all the liquid until you are left with a thick sauce (this could  take a while on the Instant Pot; alternatively, transfer contents to a separate pan/wok and reduce sauce over a stove). Sauté/reduce until desired thickness. 

Serve with rice and some stir-fried greens. Pickled greens would be good too. 

De Re Coquinaria of Apicius

 Saving for reference: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Apicius/home.html

Might try Roman dishes some day.