The Joys of Pressure Cooking or Roast Beef Aww Juice......ala the Goodwife!

So the other night I fixed beef tips n' onions with brown gravy for supper.  Turns out that hunk o' chuck roast I bought wasn't the most succulent piece of meat I've ever bought.  We like our beef bloody and moo-ing and it was tough!  So, I had the other half in the fridge and thought I'd fix it up sandwich style for The Youngun and me to have for dinner today.  The Man won't eat beef if it's dead, so that's why we are havin' it for noontime.

So anywho.......here we go!

The pressure cooker is a blessing and a boon to Goodwives everywhere!  Forgot to get anything out for supper and you've only got an hour to go?  Well it's the pressure cooker to the rescue!  It can take frozen chicken, pork, or beef and turn it into a gourmet meal inside of 45 minutes!!  If you've never cooked with one, you must remedy this soon.  I'm sure your Great Aunt Murtice has one lurkin' 'round somewhere, or if she doesn't  good ole' Granny Hoosebow'll have one.  If you've exhausted your relatives, then look around at yard sales, or thrift shops and you'll find one.  There is nothing to go wrong with them but the seals and that is an easy fix.

You can order sealing rings, jigglers, and gauges online with the greatest of ease!

That big round lookin' thing is the sealing ring and the little fella is the air vent.....

And now we've got the new ring and air vent in and we are ready to go!

Here we have the offending piece of beef all seasoned up and ready to go.  I used seasoned salt, and garlic salt, but you can use whatever you like.......

Toss some lard in the bottom of your pressure cooker and turn the heat on high.....

Of course your helper will be givin' you doe eyes cuz you are cookin'.  Pay no attention to her until the roast is done, whereupon you will give her the fatty and gristly bits as you are shredding the beef...unless you just can't stand it and then you can sneak her a lil somethin'......

K.....once your lard is almost to the smokin' point, you are gonna want to sear your roast on all sides.....and then top it with a bay leaf.......

Add in enough hot water to almost cover your hunk a meat......and then put the lid on your cooker.....

Leave the burner on high and soon a whole lotta steam will come out of this little fella.....

Once you've got steam pouring out that guy, you are gonna put your regulator on.  Just push it down firmly on the thing the steam is pourin' out of.  Be careful you don't get burned!  Meanwhile, that little air vent guy will have popped up, see.....

As the pressure rises in your cooker that little thing on top of your regulator will rise up.  (On this particular model......some have jigglers instead).  So when you can see all three of those white rings you are cookin!  Set your timer for 35 minutes and go find something else to do......perhaps a blog post!  At the end of 35 minutes, turn your heat off and go back to your blog post........

After a little while, the little white ringed thing will go back down and your little air vent will go back down as well.  That's how you know it's safe to open your cooker.  DO NOT try to open your cooker before those two things are fully DOWN!  Once they look like that, you can open your cooker, being careful to lift the lid off away from you, so as not to get a steam burn........

Now you have a nice tender hunk a beef and a nice amount of broth in your cooker!

Shred that stuff up, add in some onion and your favorite Italian dressing and a little bit of that broth.  I used a local brand of sweet Italian that is really yummy.  I also added in some Italian blend herbs and spices.  Just dump your choice of stuff in there until it tastes yummy, then let it simmer.  The longer you let it simmer the better it will be.  Don't discard that broth or feed it to your helper, you need it to make your au jus later...

Meanwhile the bread machine was making up this dough, which I shaped into hoagie-ish rolls......

To make your aww juice.......

Bring the left over broth to a rolling boil.  If you want to make it a little richer, you can add in half a packet of brown gravy mix.  Otherwise just use it as is, dividing it into little bowls....

Then build yourself a samwich by splitting one of those warm rolls, topping it with the shredded beef, sprinkle on a little shredded Italian style cheese, put yer lid on, dunk it in the hot au jus and you are in roast beef heaven baby!

God Bless..................