How to make pot roast in one hour!

How to Make Pot Roast in One Hour
By: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com

Beef pot roast in one hour!

Pot roast is one of my favorite home-style comfort foods. Fork tender beef that falls apart as you pick it up, nestled in a bowl with creamy red potatoes, aromatic carrots and a thin, flavorful stock. The only bad thing about pot roast is how long it takes to make. The usual method involves either cooking it for several hours in a Dutch oven, or waiting 6 or more hours for your crock pot to break down the beef. Well, the wait is over! With my method, you can have fork-tender pot roast in one hour, with the help of a pressure cooker.

Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker

 Conventional pressure cookers require a little know-how and supervision so that the pressure valve doesn't pop and spray hot food all over your kitchen. I believe that this is what turns a lot of people off from owning or using one. What I recommend is to start out with an electric pressure cooker that has a timer, seven-way safety functions, and regulates its own heat. I use a Cuisinart electric pressure cooker for recipes like this.

Beef Chuck Roast

 Notice the nice fat marbling on a beef chuck roast!

For pot roasts, I like to use shoulder chuck roasts because they're tough enough to keep together, and fatty enough to be moist and tender at the end of the cooking process. And fortunately, it's a cheap cut of meat. A basic rule of meat cookery, fortunately, is that the harder it is to cook, the cheaper it costs.

Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:
- 2 lb beef chuck roast
- 1 large onion
- 3 celery ribs
- 8 carrots, peeled
- 6-8 red potatoes, whole
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Flavorful beef stock made from bullion
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Olive oil

Instructions:

1. Dice the onion, cut the carrots and celery into large chunks and mince the garlic.

Sauteeing the carrots, garlic and onions.

2.  With a little olive oil and the lid off, use the pressure cooker in "sautee" mode and cook the onions until they are translucent. Then add the carrots,celery, and garlic.

Cut roast into smaller pieces.

3. If your piece of beef is large, cut it into three large chunks and put on top of the vegetables in the pressure cooker.

4. Put the potatoes on top of the beef.

Beef stock made from bullion

Put beef on top of vegeteables.

Put potatoes on top of beef.

5. Add enough beef stock to just barely cover the beef.

6. Put the lid on and set the pressure cooker to cook the dish for 1 hour on high pressure.

7. Once the cooking is done, and the pressure has settled for a few minutes, let the steam out through the pressure valve (by following the pressure cooker instruction manual). Remove the vegetables and beef into a bowl or holding pot.  Season the remaining liquid in the pressure cooker with salt and pepper to taste.

8. Serve the beef, potatoes, and carrots in soup bowls with some of the beef liquid and enjoy!

Sushi Chicken Wings Recipe | Superbowl Snacks

Sushi Chicken Wings
By: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com

Sushi wings are a combination of my two favorite TV-watching snack foods - sushi and chicken wings! This is a great recipe for a Superbowl Party or hanging around watching movies with your friends and family.

Because I, personally, try to avoid gluten (wheat) as much as I can, I have made this recipe without using any wheat. However, it will turn out just great with regular wheat flour and Japanese soy sauce.

You may think to yourself that it might be difficult to get some of these ingredients. But they are readily available in most grocery stores. The only ingredients that you may not find at a conventional grocery store might be the Capelin Roe (which are fish eggs used for sushi). They can be found at most Asian grocery stores in the freezer section. And rice flour (although I get it at my regular grocery store) can be found at health food stores like Whole Foods, and it can also be found at Asian grocery stores.

Ingredients:
- 2 dozen wings
- Kikkoman Soy sauce or Gluten-free Japanese soy sauce
- 6 chopped scallions
- Black sesame seeds
- Capelin Roe
- 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup Terriyaki Glaze or Gluten-Free Terriyaki Glaze
- 1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
- Srirachia (Thai chili sauce)
- 1 large bag of regular potato chips
- Rice Flour OR wheat flour
- Cooking Spray (optional)


NOTE: You will need to make potato chip crumbs. The easiest way is to put potato chips into a food processor, and process until they are crumbs. The hard way is to crush them by hand - put them in a freezer bag and crush them by hand until they are crumbs.

1. Sprinkle fresh, raw chicken wings liberally with soy sauce and let marinade in fridge for 20 minutes to 2 hours.

2. Dredge chicken wings in rice flour and put them on a non-stick baking surface with a little cooking spray. Spray the top of the wings too. Do not pile wings on top of each other, only make one layer and lay them all flat on the baking sheet so that they bake evenly and crispy.

3. Roast wings in oven at 450 for 30 minutes.

4. While wings are in the oven, mix the wing sauce by combining 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, 1/2 cup terriyaki glaze and a little sesame oil (1/2 tsp). Mix together well.

5. When wings are done, remove from oven, put them into a large food container with a lid, add the wing sauce and shake lightly to coat wings. Transfer coated wings onto a platter.

6. Garnish wings with spicy srirachia chili sauce, black sesame seeds, chopped scallions, potato chip crumbs, and capelin roe. I like to serve these on banana leaves with a colorful garnish.

What to do with leftover turkey

What to do with leftover turkey
By: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com

As I sit here reeling from the debauchery that was Thanksgiving dinner, I am wondering if "tryptophan" (the chemical that is supposedly in turkey which causes that sleepy feeling) even exists. I doubt any scientist can provide a vial of tryptophan, much less even sketch its chemical make up. Ok, I am off topic already. Must focus - must be all that tryptophan...

This is a quick and to the point article on things to do with leftover turkey. The recipes are written as a quick overview. Some traditional, some new. But it should get you through the next week. So grab that turkey carcass and some surgical gloves. Let's get started.

De-meating the bird: You can do this with or without gloves. Make sure your hands are very clean, as this is crucial to making the turkey last for the rest of the week. Dirty hands will deposit bacteria on the turkey meat and have it spoil several days before you can use it all. So I like to use latex or nitrile gloves. Simply get a big freezer bag and pick as much meat as you can off the carcass. Put the meat in the bag and refrigerate. At the very least, your bag-o-turkey will be an excellent tv-watching snack. If you have stuffing in the bird, try to get as much as you can out of it, and set aside. The stuffing in the carcass is always the tastiest.

Turkey Sandwiches: There is nothing revolutionary about these, they are just really good. I actually look forward to the turkey sandwiches more than the actual dinner itself. Get some crusty french bread, heat it in the oven so it's warm, cut the bread in half lengthwise, and layer ingredients in between the bread slices in this order from bottom to top: mayonnaise, basil pesto, stuffing, turkey gravy, turkey, smoked provolone, slice of tomato.

Turkey and Stuffing Risotto: When in doubt, make risotto. I always keep arborio rice around. It's a really good way to get rid of leftovers. Sautee some sliced pancetta or bacon, add some diced onions, diced asparagus (or leftover veggies from dinner) and turkey meat. Use chicken stock (and leftover turkey drippings) and simmer all the ingredients together with arborio rice for 25 minutes until a creamy, flavorful risotto is achieved. The trick is to add stock slowly and stir often throughout the 25 minutes until the arborio rice is soft and creamy.

Turkey Burrito: This is the quick version of this recipe. Perfect for a midnight snack. Shred some turkey meat in a bowl with a fork, add a bit of tomato salsa, chopped olives and a few capers. Wrap in a flour tortilla along with mashed potato and stuffing inside the tortilla. Once the burrito is rolled, top with turkey gravy and shredded cheese. Bake in toaster oven or microwave. Serve with a tablespoon or two or cold sour cream on top.

Turkey Pasta Carbonara: This recipe is awesome - i just had to mention that. Sautee the following in a deep skillet: Sliced bacon, julienned onions, mushrooms, minced garlic, turkey meat, and chopped parsley. At the same time, put some water to boil in a separate pot and cook some pasta in it. Drain pasta and set aside when done. Back in the skillet, once the onions become translucent and the bacon is cooked, add 2 to 3 cups of chicken or beef stock (and turkey drippings if any), bring the liquid to a simmer. Add pasta and simmer with the liquid for 5 minutes. Separate 3 egg yolks from the egg whites. Take the skillet off the stove and add the egg yolks to the pasta. Stir them in very quickly and until the liquid thickens into a velvety sauce. If it's too watery, add another egg yolk. Serve right away with fresh shredded Parmesan cheese.

I hope that you had a really nice Thanksgiving this year, and since you asked; I'm thankful for for turkey and I'm thankful for you.