Now why would I want to talk about one of those, you might well ask? Why? Because they're all around me, that's why. Hardly flying off the shelves back in the UK, it must be said. What went wrong there? Maybe it's because most Britons only eat beans what 'ave already been baked and plopped into sweet tomato syrup. Brazilians, are unanimously horrified both by the idea, and when they encounter it, the reality of baked beans. I, however, still like them, over toast, cheesed up to the max, and injected with the most brutal chilli sauce to hand. It's just that now I've had my eyes opened and my stomach pumped full of gas, to a whole world of other beans. Maybe we'll look deeper into that world at some future juncture, but for now, let's press on.
The pressure cooker has been around in Brazil since the early 1800s. They were first worn as helmets, protecting the heads of the imperial army from runaway slaves who had established large self-sustaining communities in the remote and barren North East. Only much later was it discovered that the pressure cooker could vastly reduce the cooking time of beans, an integral part of the Brazilian diet. It quickly became a must in every kitchen and has now become a proud and integral tool here aboard the Visorbearer. The panela de pressão has weaseled it's way onto the worktop, and now it's here, and it's here to stay.
It's greatest asset? A pressure cooker has the power to reduce a large chunk of meat to gravy and have it falling apart* in little over 30 minutes.
Yesterday, I made this simple recipe using a pressure cooker. You will need:
- 1 pressure cooker (you can get a decent one for about £40/$60/R$80)
- 1 can of black beer (a sweet stout would do well here. In Brazil most black beers are sweet and I can't pass my lips with them - but this is gravy we're making, not beer sauce. I used this one, a favourite among Brazilian black beer buyers).
- 600 g of fine beef (the cut, again, is at your discretion here. The Brazilian butcher's bovine map looks quite different from the one lorded over by Britsh cleaver meisters. Ah, so many ways to divvy up an animal. Brazilian cows also have quite a different body profile compared with their Angus cousins - enormous white horned things with strange humps on their backs).
- 1 onion (cut into 4 or 8 depending on size).
- 1 packet of dry onion soup (sounds wholly unappetizing and i would never normally buy this stuff, but it's fundamental to the gravy, and less salty and overbearing than a stock cube, trust me here).
- olive oil (just enough to cover the bottom of the pressure cooker).
Well done. The hard part is behind us. You've successfully bought all the ingredients and you got home safe. Now follow these simple instructions and you're laughing:
Olive oil in pan.
Brown meat in the pan (3 mins each side - fat side 2nd if you have a fat side)
Throw in beer and onion powder
Boil for 2 mins to remove alcohol (if you are sensible you bought additional cans to drink)
Put lid on pressure cooker
Allow to reach pressure (the violent hissing of the cooker led early users to ascribe it's powers to witchcraft)
Lower heat to minimum
Leave for 30 minutes
Remove lid
Experience ecstacy
Add fresh onions and whilst still on heat, stir the onions around in the gravy until they attain the approval of your taste buds(prob 10-15mins)
Serve it with whatever carb-rich, gravy absorbent accompaniment you see fit. If you're thinking of anything other than mashed potatoes here, then I'm afraid you're wrong.
Now I share this meal with you because, unless you are a rabbit, it will go a long way towards helping you survive the oncoming Northern winter. Once again you will stave off that almost uncontrollable urge to enter into hibernation. All of this will have you wondering just why pressure cookers ever went out of fashion in the first place. Could it be because in the wrong hands it doubles as a shrapnel bomb?
* Falling Apart - incidentally is my, as yet to be patented, extra deep fill shredded beef sandwich in a tin.
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