Based on the ingredients it looks like this recipe was aiming for a galbijjim sort of vibe, only with less fruit in the marinade, no veggies in the stew, and made with steak instead of short ribs.

Personally, I found the finished dish a little too sweet for my tastes. I think I'd be inclined to cut back on the brown sugar and/or omit the honey next time. But it was quite good. And the meat was very tender. I did kind of miss the veggies though. I'd be tempted to toss in a carrot or two next time, just to lighten it up a bit. It's very nice overall though.

Korean-Style Beef Bowls

Slightly adapted from Healthy Instant Pot by Alexis Mersel

Ingredients

• 1 yellow onion, coarsely choppsed
• 1/2 c. soy sauce¹
• 1/2 c. brown sugar²
• 1/4 c. sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp. mirin
• 8 cloves garlic
• 2-3cm piece of fresh ginger³, peeled
• 2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 Tbsp. honey⁴
• 1 Asian pear
• 1kg stewing beef
• 1 red onion, halved and sliced thin
• 6 radishes, sliced thin
• seasoned rice vinegar⁵
• cooked brown rice, to serve
• 2-3 scallions, sliced (optional)
• 1-2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Directions

1. Add the yellow onion, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, mirin, garlic, ginger, pepper, and honey to a blender.
2. Peel, quarter, and core the pear and add it to the blender as well. Purée until smooth.
3. Pour the marinade over the beef, turn to coat, cover, and marinate (in the fridge) for 4-24 hours.
4. Meanwhile, place the red onion and radishes in a bowl and pour in enough vinegar to cover them. Cover and store in the fridge for at least 15 minutes and as long as 2 weeks.
5. When the meat is done marinating, transfer it and the marinade to the InstantPot and pressure cook on high for 35 minutes followed by a 15-minute natural release.
6. Use a slotted spoon to remove the meat from the sauce, then switch the InstantPot to sauté medium for ~10 minutes to thicken the sauce a bit.⁶
7. Serve the beef over rice, topped with sauce, pickled veggies, scallions, and sesame seeds (if using).

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¹ I used a mix of dark and light soy sauce. ^Back
2 I actually used 1/4 c. of this Splenda brown sugar blend stuff which is supposed to be equivalent to 1/2 c. of brown sugar. I might try cutting it back to 1/3 c. of brown sugar or 3 Tbsp. of the Splenda stuff next time though, just to cut the sweetness a bit. ^Back
3 I used 2 Tbsp. of ginger paste in place of the fresh ginger for this. ^Back
4 I would consider omitting the honey next time. ^Back
5 The original recipe calls for white wine vinegar with a pinch of salt added to it. I already had some nice, vinegar-y cucumber and onion salad on hand, so I just used that in place of the onion and radish blend this time around. That said, if I were doing it again and didn't have any appropriately prepared veggies already on hand, I think I'd be inclined to just use seasoned rice vinegar here. ^Back
6 I was very, very tired by the time the beef was finished yesterday and I actually completely forgot this step. So we have very saucy beef indeed. Whoops! ^Back

The plan had been to make some Korean-style marinated beef for dinner last night. Kind of like galbijjim, but with stewing beef rather than short ribs.

That was the plan. Unfortunately, I got started a bit late and didn't get the beef marinating in time. So we ended up having to do a quick pivot to another dinner plan. I knew we had a package of slightly freezer-burnt pork chops in the chest freezer downstairs, so I figured that this simple InstantPot recipe would be a good way to use them up. And it worked out great! The pork was delicious and so was the kale that went with it. And it harmonized well with the turnip (daikon) cakes that we decided to fry up to go with dinner too. So, despite being in a bit of a flap leading up to dinner, everything worked out really well in the end.

Lemongrass and Garlic Pork Chops

Slightly adapted from Healthy Instant Pot by Alexis Mersel

Ingredients

• 2 stalks lemongrass
• 3 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 6 cloves garlic¹, minced
• 2 large shallots², minced
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• ~1.4kg thick-cut bone-in pork chops
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 1 c. chicken or beef stock
• 300g frozen chopped kale³
• cooked rice, to serve

Directions

1. Remove any tough outer leaves from the lemongrass, press firmly with the flat of the knife, then slice very thin and set aside.
2. Combine the soy sauce, fish saue, sugar, garlic, shallots, and pepper and mix well.
3. Mix in the lemongrass.
4. Pour over the pork chops and turn to coat.
5. Cover and marinate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.
6. Set InstantPot to "sauté medium" and add the oil.
7. Remove the pork chops from the marinade (reserving the marinade) and sear in the InstantPot, working in batches and cooking each pork chop for 2-3 minutes per side.
8. Remove the pork chops from the InstantPot and set aside.
9. Add the stock to the pot and scrape the bottom to losten any stuck on bits.
10. Pour in the reserved marinade and turn the InstantPot off.
11. Return the pork chops to the pot and seal the lid.
12. Pressure cook on high for 10 minutes followed by a 10-minute natural release.
13. Release any residual pressure and transfer the pork chops to a serving dish.
14. Pour all but ~1/4 c. of the sauce over the pork chops.
15. Set the InstantPot back to "sauté medium" and add the kale.
16. Cook until the kale is heated through and the flavours have had a chance to mingle (3-5 minutes).
17. Serve the pork chops over rice with the kale on the side.

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¹ We were running a bit low on garlic, so I just used a few Tbsp. of garlic paste instead. I think I put in ~2 1/2 Tbsp. of paste, but I wasn't being too particular abou the measurement. ^Back
2 I had half a red onion in the fridge already, so I just minced that very fine and used it rather than going to the trouble of getting shallots special for this dish. ^Back
3 The original recipe calls for 150g of baby spinach, but suggests that chopped kale or bok choy would make good substitutes. I decided to go with kale since that make my life easier. But 150g didn't look like very much at all. So I decided to just use the whole 300g bag. I think this produced a much more reasonable amount of greens for the quantity of pork. ^Back

I've picked up a few cookbook bundles from Humble Bundle over the years, but I haven't ended up using them much. To be fair, that's true of a lot of my hardcopy cookbooks as well. The problem is that -- between the Internet, the curry cookbook, and our collection of Cook's Country magazines -- I already have a massive pile of easy-to-access recipes that I haven't tried yet. So it can sometimes feel a bit awkward or difficult to pull things out of other books and sources.

But, I kind of wanted to mix things up a bit this week. So I decided to leaf through some of my Humble Bundle books. I started out looking for good sweet potato recipes, but then ended up branching out and just looking for anything that looked like a good way to use up ingredients on hand.

I knew I had some ground chicken in the freezer, so I figured I could do these meatballs over some pasta with some sort of salad on the side and call that dinner. My original plan had been to just serve them with spaghetti and maybe give the "French salad" from "The Cookbook" a try. But that was before I had a mix-up with the meal plan earlier in the week which left me with surplus radishes in the middle of the week. Thus, I swapped out the French salad for a celery and herb salad from one of the other Humble Bundle books. And then I ended up coming across half-off tortellini at the grocery store on Tuesday and figured no one would be sad if I swapped the plain spaghetti out for that. And, indeed, they weren't! (Although this change did mean that TF now needed a fist full of Lactaid to go with her meal, but it was still enjoyed by all.)

Despite the meal being a big success once I managed to get it to the table, I did experience a few issues during cooking. I don't know if my sauce was too thick or what, but the InstantPot just could not seem to get up to pressure. It steamed and rattled a bit, but never sealed. (And yes, I did check to make sure the valve was in the proper position.) Eventually it started beeping in distress and alerting me of a burn.

Luckily the burn didn't seem to be too severe; just a little light scortching at the bottom of the pot which I was able to scrape and stir in to no discernable detriment. And the meatballs seemed like they were pretty much cooked at that point, so I wasn't too worried. Just to be on the safe side, I put it on slow cook "high" for a bit while TF got a pot of water boiling and cooked the pasta.

As noted, the meal was still very good. I liked it a lot. But I am a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to cook it as directed. Maybe next time I'll try adding a bit more stock and see if that helps it to get up to pressure more easily. Barring that, I think that this would also work quite well as a "fast" slow cooker recipe provided you had the time to cook it for a few hours, rather than just a few minutes.

So, with that in mind, I have provided the recipe with the original cooking instructions here. Just be aware that they did not work as written for me. Keep an eye on your pot and if it seems to be having trouble sealing, turn it off and finish cooking your sauce by another method.

Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Slightly adapted from Healthy Instant Pot by Alexis Mersel

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, minced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 c. dried breadcrumbs
• 1/2 c. grated Parmesan
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh Basil
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 450g ground turkey or chicken

Sauce

• 1/2 c. (or more?) chicken stock
• 1 (800mL) can crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 c. tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning (optional)
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp. dried garlic
• 1 tsp. dried onion
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon or Roman mustard
• up to 1 tsp. coarse sea salt¹
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2-4 Tbsp. olive oil²
• cooked pasta or spaghetti squash, to serve
• extra basil and Parmesan, to serve

Directions

Meatballs

1. Turn the InstantPot on to sauté "low" and add the oil.
2. Add the onion and cook for ~5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the garlic and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
4. Turn off the instant pot and set aside.
5. In a large bowl, combine the egg, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, basil, pepper flakes, salt, pepper, chicken/turkey, and sauté mix and add well.
6. Shape mixture into small (2-3cm diameter) balls and set aside on a plate.

Sauce

1. Add the crushed tomato, tomato paste, basil, oregano, Italian seasoning (if using), pepper flakes, garlic, onion, mustard, salt, pepper, and oil to the Instant Pot and mix well.
2. Carefully drop the meatballs into the sauce and gently turn to coat.
3. Seal the lid and pressure cook "high" for 10 minutes followed by a 10-minute natural release.
4. When the sauce is done, toss it with freshly cooked pasta or spaghetti squash and top with additional Parmesan and basil.

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¹ You may not need the full amount of salt if using store-bought stock or broth. Taste your sauce before adding any salt -- or raw meat! -- and then add up to 1 tsp. of salt as needed. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for 1/4 c. of oil to be added to the sauce, but I halved this amount to try to make it a bit healthier and cut the calories. However, it's possible that the lower fat content also contributed to the scortching. I think that the most likely culprit is the thikness of the sauce, but I can't completely rule out the oil as a factor. Just something to keep in mind... ^Back