My new pressure-cooker saved the day!

I got a new kitchen toy recently – my first pressure-cooker!  I must admit, I was seriously excited about trying it out and fate presented the perfect opportunity last Monday.  After a night of partying hard with family and friends for hubby’s birthday (we were up so late, I had another first – falling asleep at the table, lol!), we woke up late on Tuesday (a holiday) and sort of lolled around in bed until hunger got to us.  The dilemma that I encountered as wife and chief-in-charge-of-kitchen-duties (lol) was that every piece of meat we had in the house was frozen solid – I’d forgotten, in my laziness, to take anything out to thaw in preparation for dinner that night.  Super!!!

Enter the new pressure-cooker to the rescue!  I remembered I’d bought some ribs that week and threw it in the pot with hot water and spices and set it to boil.  In the all of 30 minutes that it took for those frozen ribs to be fragrantly soft and thoroughly cooked, I’d whipped up my home-made BBQ sauce.  While waiting for the pressure to abate, I decided to borrow a recipe from MIL2 (mother-in-law number number two – hubby’s stepmom) and make parsley-potatoes as a side, so I  selected a few potatoes and snipped some parsley from my garden (which I will concede is starting to get the better of me :(). Popped the ribs in the prepared baking dish, slathered it in spicy-sweet sauce, and popped it in the oven.  Threw the potatoes, jackets and all, into the pressure-cooker and let her sing again for about 15 minutes.  While waiting for the pressure to alleviate from the pot, I basted the ribs with more sauce and returned them to the oven.  The skin slipped easily off the perfectly cooked potatoes and into hot butter they went with the minced parsley.  While waiting for them to become all nicely-browned and crusty, I chopped and tossed a garden salad and made a pumpkin-seed oil vinaigrette.  Thanks to my new toy, dinner was served in less than 1 and a half hour – yay, disaster averted!  (And I know, you’re thinking, why not just order pizza?  Can’t, everything is closed here on holidays and Sundays, so yeah, I really am chief-in-charge-of-kitchen-duties, lol!) 😉

Yummy, BBQ ribs, parsley potatoes, and tossed garden salad with pumpkin-seed vinaigrette. My pressure cooker totally saved the day, lol!

Parsley-potato Recipe

about 2 medium-sized baby/fingerling unpeeled and washed potatoes per person (any mid-waxy* type – baby Idaho, perhaps – will do)

2 tablespoons olive oil or butter

salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh rough-chopped parsley per person

Boil potatoes in a big pot** of salted water until done (a fork / knife that inserts smoothly and slides out easily indicates this).  Pour off water and cool potatoes slightly by adding fresh cold water to pot.  Peel potatoes carefully by gently slicing a line just through the skin and with light pressure using your thumbs to push the skin away from the slice.  The potato will most likely slide out of the skin quickly so be prepared***.  If not, tenderly peel away with fingertips.  From here, it depends on your personal style and the size of the potatoes – you can leave them whole, quarter them, create rustic chunks, or sliced medallions.

With a medium temperature, heat the olive oil until it gives off its fragrance (smells like olives) or the butter until it sizzles (do not let it brown), in a non-stick wide frying pan.  Place potatoes in heated oil/butter, do not overcrowd, each must touch the surface.  Lightly sprinkle with salt and a third of the chopped parsley per serving.  Cook potatoes until a crispy, light-brown crust forms.  Occasionally move the potatoes and the oil around by tossing the pan.  Do not use a cooking utensil or the potatoes will break, just lift the pan off the heat and (using your wrist) gently swish the contents around and return to heat.  Turn the potatoes with a fork when done and allow the other side to cook.  Add another third of the parsley for the serving and allow the contents to cook with an occasional toss.  Remove potatoes and parsley bits from pan and sprinkle with remaining parsley.  Repeat the steps until all potatoes are done.  Enjoy!

*waxy potatoes tolerate manipulation better than starchy potatoes which tend to fall apart however, starchy potatoes crisp better – a potato with both qualities (mid-waxy or partially-starchy gives you that nice crusty outside and mealy/creamy inside).  If you’re gentle enough and leaving them whole or preparing rustic style – go all the way starchy, its such a treat for a potato fan.

**whole boiled potatoes – depending on size – take about 30 mins or more to fully cook.  If you have a pressure-cooker, you can knock that down to 10 mins or so.  The smaller the potato, the less time.  If using a pressure cooker, this is seriously important because the potatoes will explode their jackets if cooked too long (then you will be creating rustic potatoes!).  If using a pressure-cooker and they’re not fully cooked, just pop the lid back on and cook additional minutes.

***fresh young potatoes pratically jump out of their skin when cooked and peeled, so be ready to catch them!