December 6, 2015
A I cooked up some Korean style short ribs in the pressure cooker that I blogged about here. It was based on a recipe by Mike Vrobel of Dad Cooks Dinner. That was actually a test run for a dinner party scheduled for December 6. Normally a repeat dinner within a month wouldn’t merit a blog entry – but I did a couple of things different this time that I thought worth comparing.
When I cooked these the first time I used my Instant Pot Duo electric pressure cooker; this time I used my trusty Fissler stove top pressure cooker. I thought the extra two quarts (6 quarts v. 8 quarts) would give the ribs a bit more room. After cooking the ribs last time I thought it would be nice to brown them before adding the liquid – so I did.
I think both or the combination of these changes made the ribs turn out not as tasty tender as last time. They were definitely good and worth doing over again but they were just a bit tough. It could be that searing the ribs first toughened them up.
But I think the real difference was the pressure cooker – or my use of the pressure cooker. With the stove top cooker I had to pay close attention to when it came up to pressure; I started the timer and lowered the temp maintain the pressure. I turned my attention away from the cooker and a few minutes later I realized the pressure had reduced because I had lowered the gas too much. I adjusted the temp and let them cook a bit longer to accommodate the change. I suppose I didn’t let them cook long enough. Again, these were great ribs and I wouldn’t have noticed anything wrong except by comparing them from a few weeks previous.
I’m spoiled by my electric pressure cooker. Just add the ingredients, lock the top and set the time and walk away until you hear the ding telling you they are done. It is so much easier than keeping an eye on the stove top cooker. Don’t get me wrong; the stove top cooker is great and it’s not that much of a hassle; but the electric is just that much easier.
We also had a Korean cucumber side dish. I found this recipe on the My Korean Kitchen website.
Slice the cucumber very thin then soak with fine salt -I used popcorn salt – for 20 minutes. While the cucumber is brining toast some sesame seeds on the stove top. Then squeeze the liquid out of the cucumbers and sauté with just a bit of vegetable oil for 30 seconds. Then add some sesame oil and the sesame seeds and sauté for another 30 seconds. Cool in the refrigerator until time to serve. My copy of the recipe can be found here.
We had some Kim Chi to round out the Korean theme. I didn’t have a couple of months to make my own so we picked some up at New Seasons Market. This is powerful stuff; look carefully at the lid in the next photo and you’ll see the it bowing up under pressure. It really bubbled upon opening. It was strong smelling but tasted great.
Folks came over and we all had a nice meal.
A nice dinner with some great friends.
Update May 23, 2018: Go to Dad Cooks Dinner for the whole write up on options and his usual awesomeness. I did create a copy of this with my notes which I use as a shortcut. It can be found here.
