Rubbishy Cookery

  I was making this recipe for baked beans long before I had an Instant Pot, and so you can too. But as you’ll see, the IP makes everything a whole lot simpler. Ingredients (the night before): What we have in the photo above is two cups of dried Jacob’s cattle beans in a large bowl of water to soak overnight. You can use any beans you like here. To be more of a classic canned baked beans, use the smaller white “navy” beans. Full set of ingredients: Note: feel free to add bacon or ham or other pork product if you want the meaty version. Directions: The next morning, drain your overnight soaked beans and place in the IP with water covering, but not exceeding the halfway measure, to avoid overflow: Check the manual for pressure cooking time for the beans you’ve chosen and soaked. Since Jacob’s cattle beans aren’t listed, I’ll approximate the time based on similarly sized beans listed here: And choose 8 minutes: I let it have a slow release after the 8 minutes, and here they are, prett...

  This is a homemade easy version of a classic tasty Lebanese dish, based on verbal instructions from my favourite Lebanese grocer, Shaddy of Brighton Clover Farm. He gave me the broad brushstrokes version of how to make this at home while I was shopping in his store and buying the star ingredient, the canned fava beans, many years ago.  Actually, the way I remember it is that I was shopping at the store and chatting with Shaddy, as one does, and told him how much I loved this dish at a local Lebanese restaurant. Shaddy, who never minces his words, asked me why the heck (he did not say heck) I was paying good money at a restaurant for something I could make at home for a fraction of the price and much tastier? I told him to go on, I was interested. He went forth to show me the cans of fava beans and told me how to prepare them. This is what I remember from those long-ago verbal instructions, and how I’ve been enjoying them at home for years since. Ingredients: Directions: Empt...

  We recently got a little Ukrainian grocery store in our town, and I finally checked it out yesterday. I found many treats and treasures, but the most exciting find for me was roasted buckwheat groats, known to my people as kasha. If the word kasha sounds vaguely familiar to you but you don’t know why, it’s because it was the running gag in an old Seinfeld episode. Everyone who entered the home of George Costanza‘s parents noted the scent of something,… was it… kasha? Now your home can smell like kasha too! Ingredients: These are my basic ingredients. If I had fresh or dried mushrooms, I would add them too. And while I was making this batch I remembered that, instead of plain water, it’s extra good with stock, so: Directions: Let’s ignore the directions on the bag, even though they’re simpler than mine, and come in three languages: And instead, make kasha the way my Bubbie did. First, pour a cup of buckwheat groats in a pot, and add a raw egg: Turn the stove heat to medium, and st...

  Let’s make chicken tacos for a small dinner party! Olé! Ingredients: Directions: Cut up the chicken breasts into strips like so: That’s a lot of chicken, but it is  for a party. Slice up two onions, retaining some slices for taco garnish: Heat up some canola oil in a large nonstick pan on medium high heat and sauté the onions: Sauté the onions until browning: Then add the chicken slices to the pan: Sauté the chicken-onion combo until the chicken sears all over: That chicken doesn’t look seared because there’s too much chicken crowded in my pan and it’s steaming instead of searing. Shame. Add the spices to the pan: a generous amount of chili powder, chipotle powder and ground cumin: Stir and sauté, and maybe you need more chilli powder: Now lower the heat to medium and put a lid on to ensure fully cooked chicken: Meanwhile, warm your tortillas in a cloth napkin or tea towel in the microwave, 1-2 minutes or so: Set your party table with everything: the cooked chicken, the warm...