When it comes to New Year's resolutions, I am much better at keeping them than I am about reporting back about them. So here is the first of several updates on how things have been going and a resolve to update things a little bit more frequently.
First off, I finished up resolution No. 12 to cook with five new ingredients quite before spring even got under way. But that doesn't mean I stopped trying out some new in
gredients. This year I've tried to push myself to try new foods, recipes and cooking techniques though I still haven't tried any fish-related foods.
A few months ago, when it was still cold and rainy outside my boyfriend and I decided to cook up some beef ribs. But since it was not yet grilling weather, we found a recipe to use his pressure cooker. I'd never used a pressure cooker before, but I know from watching "Iron Chef" that it speeds up the process of cooking slow-cook items - and it can be a dangerous appliance if not used properly.
The new ingredient for me on this recipe was the beef ribs which I had never cooked at home. I wasn't sure what to expect from the process, but we looked over the recipe carefully and gathered all our ingredients. The first part was easy - we just had to cook the ribs with a season blend, sear them on all sides in a saute pan and them put them into the pressure cooker with some vegetables and beef broth. From there the pressure cooker would do the work - except that this recipe called for opening up the pressure cooker halfway to make sure the ribs were not sticking. The problem with opening up a pressure cooker is that you can't do it until it cools down enough to release all the steam from inside.
I was okay with skipping the step, but my boyfriend, armed with a long bread knife and a potholder as a face shield held the steam release valve open so all the steam escaped and we were able to check on the ribs. It is a step we would skip if we made the ribs again since there was no sticking going on. Once the ribs were cooked, we added in the barbecue sauce, which had a nice kick to it thanks to some cayenne pepper. We both enjoyed it and the meat turned out perfectly tender in under an hour.
More recently, I ended up trying a new ingredient on the spur of the moment. When I went grocery shopping with my mom a few weeks ago I saw key limes in a bag on the shelf. I've never noticed them at the grocery store before, but since they have made the dessert that bears their name so famous, I thought I would try to make a key lime pie at home. The recipe was simple, using just key lime juice, condensed milk and eggs. I cheated and used a store-bought graham cracker crust to save the time of making one at home. If I were to do it again, I would go the extra step and make the crust. The pie filling was perfectly creamy, tart and sweet at the same time, but the pie crust was a little dried out. The season for key limes is short so I probably won't be making another one soon. It was a major improvement over the frozen pie versions I've tried.
I'm sure there will be some more new ingredients to try before the end of the year, but at least one resolution can be crossed off the list.
Photos by MELISSA FLORES
Beef ribs are served with plenty of homemade barbecue sauce on top.
Key lime pie is served with a sweetened sour cream mixture on top.
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