I love kitchen toys, and especially my pressure cooker. You can take tough, economical cuts of beef and make it tender in 12 minutes. Dry beans, which can be fussy to cook on the stove top and all day in the slow cooker, takes 20 minutes. The only downfall is, you cannot sneak a peak and see how the dish is cooking. If you follow instructions though, the results are magic.
When developing pressure cooker recipes, I basically play with ingredients, and look at cooking time guidelines from a chart. From there, I adjust the cooking times according to how it turns out. For instance, the chart said 22 minutes for beans, but I thought they were overcooked, so I shaved 2 minutes off the time. Of course, you can only do this with pressure cooking, not with pressure canning! While I have no doubt established instructions tell us to overdo it on time for pressure canning, I’m not taking a chance of having unsafe home canned goods. Always follow pressure canning instructions carefully, and to the minute.
This beef and broccoli recipe only takes 12 minutes to cook, but there are several steps, so I would plan on this taking 40 minutes between prep, and cooking the rice. The only other way to achieve such tender results, is to slow cook for 4 or 5 hours, just to give you perspective. Next time I make this dish, I’m going to double the recipe, and make a freezer kit out of half. Also, using a steamer bag of frozen broccoli is much quicker than steaming it on a separate eye stove. You could do prep for this dinner (including the rice) the night before, and the next day enjoy a high quality Chinese meal half the time.
The meat is tender, and the sauce rich. Doused with a healthy squirt of Sriracha at the dinner table, this is a new family favorite.
Pressure Cooker Beef and Broccoli
- 1 1/2 -2 lbs. boneless beef chuck roast, sliced thin and against the grain
- 1 TBSP vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 TBSP minced ginger
- 3/4 cup beef broth
- 1/2 cup soy sauce*
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 lb. frozen broccoli florets, in a microwave steam bag
- 1 can water chestnuts
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
On medium high heat, cook beef in pressure canner in the vegetable oil, browning on both sides. Do in two batches. Put on plate, and set aside.
Prepare onion, garlic, and ginger.
Saute in bottom of pressure canner until soft. Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, beef broth, sesame seed oil and pepper flakes. Add to onion mixture, and simmer while stirring until brown sugar dissolves.
Add beef back to the pot, and pressure cook on high for 12 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the rice, and microwave a 1 pound bag of frozen broccoli.
After the 12 minutes are over, and your pot’s safety device indicates it’s safe to open, remove beef from pot, leaving the liquid.
Stir together cornstarch and water. Bring liquid in pressure cooker to a simmer, and add cornstarch mixture. Stir. It should come together right away as a thickened sauce. Add beef back to thickened sauce, along with broccoli and water chestnuts.
Turn on low until water chestnuts are warm, and serve with rice.
Yummy, will be trying soon!! Thanks