Famous Chicken Gumbo

This is some seriously tasty chicken gumbo, made in the instant pot.

First, make a roux by using the saute setting in the instant pot. About 1/4 cup oil and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. You'll have to cycle the saute setting from on to off so that you don't burn the roux while you're mixing. It's ready once it starts smelling like popcorn a little bit and gets dark brown.

Then add in a diced onion, diced green pepper, diced celery, and 4 diced garlic cloves.

Add in 4 chicken thighs, sliced into chunks. 

Now it's time to spice it!

Add a tablespoon of chicken bouillon, two tablespoons of tomato paste, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, paprika, celery seed, cayenne, white pepper, black pepper. 

Add sliced frozen okra.

Then add about 2 cups of chicken broth.

Sprinkle on a little rice for just a little more texture in the end product.

Stir this up and cook it on manual for 50 minutes - this will make everything gooey and delicious.

As it cooks, cut up 3 green onions and a handful of parsley for garnishing at the end. When it gets close to finishing, cook up some andouille chicken sausage on the stove. Mix it all together at the end and serve with bread!

Oooo, la la, ....ah, oui, oui!

No fuss tamales

 Start soaking corn husks in warm water, use baking tray and weigh down. 15 husks or so should be good for this recipe.

Meanwhile, one person can prepare filling and one person can prepare the dough.

Filling: Shred some cabbage, mix with raw ground turkey (1 lb, a little might be left over) and spices (cumin, paprika, chilli powder, etc). Can put in some salsa verde too. 

Dough: Mix 2 cups masa harina, 2.5 cups mostly pureed corn (if frozen, bring to RT first), 1/2 cup broth, 4 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt. Mix well. Will probably want to add more warm water a bit at a time, you want the texture to be spreadable with a spatula. 

Assembling tamales: take each corn husk, spread a golf ball or so amount into each husk in the middle and flatten with your hand until it's about 1/4 inch thick. In the middle, put a strip of filling , maybe 2 tbsp or so. Fold over and seal edges of the masa together, wrap remaining corn husk around itself, fold up bottom, and tie with a strip of corn husk. 

In instant pot, place trivet. Line that with a big corn husk. Place tamales with open side up in the instant pot, place a corn husk or two over the top of all tamales so condensation doesn't drip into them. 

Close pot, make sure valve is on "sealing" and cook on high pressure on manual for 20 minutes, followed by a 10 minute natural release. 

Take out tamales, serve with chopped chilles, cilantro, avocado, and lots of salsa verde. Wait a couple of minutes after taking out to unwrap, otherwise dough will stick to husks. Makes about 9 tamales, maybe more if Ben doesn't make giant ones next time. This recipe makes good meal for Ben, good 2 meals for symp.

Really quick and easy way to make tamales, and Ben says they're the best tamales he's ever had.

Ben's Coconut Fish Stew

This is an easy and delicious instant-pot stew. 

To the instant pot add:

Fingerling potatoes, cut into fourths or cubed (maybe 6?)

5 cloves of garlic

Ginger (Just a little)

Lemongrass (Just a little)

A little pesto

Some chicken bouillon

A cut up shallot

Frozen okra

Frozen corn

Frozen broccoli 

Some broth (I used chicken bone broth)

A little bit of rice for texture (I used about a fourth cup)

Tomato puree

---- Cook on manual for 30 to get everything nice and gooey

Bake some fish fillets in the oven (I did salmon for ~20 min from frozen), and cut up into cubes

Cut up a habanero

------Add the fish and habanero to the bottom of the bowl

Cook some banana in olive oil on the stove top

--------------

Pour the stew over the fish and habanero

Open some coconut milk and pour the desired amount over the stew

Place the cooked banana on top of the coconut milk

--------Serve and salt --- (would be great to have some crusty bread with it next time)

Wild rice tofu veggie pesto

Cook long grain black rice in the instant pot, 35 min. 2 cups washed rice, one block of long cubed tofu, and 3.5 cups water. While that's cooking, saute two cut zucchinis in a little oily tomato pesto. Cook on low stirring occasionally until browned and soft. Also make two softs boiled eggs. Once rice is done, add to cooked zucchini, add a couple of big dollops of tomato pesto. Add chili powder and salt. Serve topped with sliced eggs and cilantro.

Chilli mole (veg or non-veg)

Makes one of our big glass bowls full. No soaking of beans required.

Blend a chopped onion, several cloves of garlic, 4 roma tomatoes, salt, chilli powder, 3 heaping tablespoons of unsweetened coco powder, lots of cumin, turmeric if you want. Put that into instant pot along with a chopped bell pepper, a couple of stalks of chopped celery, and 1.5 cups of rinsed dry kidney beans. Shred most of a block of extra firm tofu on biggest cheese grater setting, put that in as well. Ground meat would also be great, a bit less than a pound. Put in 2 cups water. Give it a good stir, check the spicing, add anything it needs. Cook on manual setting in instant pot for 45 min. Let it naturally release for 20 min, then release the rest of the steam. FASTASTIC. Symplax original.

Ginger butternut squash soup, instant pot

Turn on instant pot to sautee mode. Meanwhile, chop a big white onion coarsely. When it reads "hot" throw in onion, a few sprigs of sage and thyme (count them, so you can retrieve them later), some salt and pepper too. Stir it until onions are soft. Meanwhile, peel butternut squash, cut into cubes. You'll need 2 cups of squash for this. Throw the cubes in with the onions, sautee that for about five min. Add in about an inch of fresh shredded ginger (fresh is key!), a pinch of nutmeg (careful, not too much), and 4 cups of stock (chicken, veggie, bone broth, whatever you feel like). Close instant pot and set to manual for 10 min. Meanwhile, wash and toast the squash seeds in a dry pan on the stove. When done, quick release. Remove the stems of the herbs. Puree contents with an immersion blender. Can garnish with toasted seeds. Taste is squash-creamy and ginger-spicy. Delightful!

Instant pot black beans

No need to pre-soak with this method! Perfect, tender but firm beans every time. Wash beans, put in 1.5 cups dry black beans into instant pot with 3 cups water. Can add in spices (jerk seasoning, cumin, garlic, all great options). Pressure cook using "manual" setting for 30 min. Let steam release naturally for 20 minutes.