Pressure Cooker Asian Beef Ribs

By

Adam Baratz

A pressure cooker can seem like a scary, medieval device, with the power to maim and terrorize you and your kitchen. The days of exploding soups are over. The pressure cooker of today is safe and will push out a delicious product. I know the slow cooker is probably more in style than its distant relative a pressure cooker but for my money I go pressure – all day.

I’m no science guy, so I’ll give you an excerpt from the internetters best friend Wikipedia:

Pressure cooking is the process of cooking food, using water or other cooking liquid, in a sealed vessel, known as a pressure cooker. Pressure cookers are used for cooking food faster than conventional cooking methods, which also saves energy.

Pressure is created initially by boiling a liquid such as water or broth inside the closed pressure cooker. The trapped steam increases the internal pressure and temperature. After use, the pressure is slowly released so that the vessel can be safely opened.

So there you have it, I still don’t really understand what the actual **** they are talking about, but who cares it works, it’s fast and the key point to remember – delicious. Want beef stew that tastes like its been cooking all day? Obviously you do, but you also don’t want to cook it all day. If you’re anything like me and always behind the 8ball when it comes to being on time for work, the last thing you want to before leaving the house is fooling with the slow cooker. With the pressure cooker you can make it happen in a half hour. Pork shoulder bolognese in 45 minutes, done. Beans in no time. Erry time. It works.

Do I still jump back as soon as it comes to pressure? Possibly

Do I move the pot off the flame to let it come off pressure and run away like a scared 5 year old? Also a maybe.

Whatever, my food is fork tender and my slow cooker sucks.

I’m done trying to sell you on pressure cookers, my next sales pitch is for beef ribs….

It would be nice if I could simply shout, “BECAUSE I SAID SO,” and you would go off and buy a horse sized package of beef ribs. But chances are if you’re reading my blog you’re either my Mom or a stubborn jackass like me.

A lot of the beef ribs you see at the grocer don’t say where they are from on the animal. Nevertheless, they are all mostly large, and pretty darn tough if you don’t cook the hell out of em. As far as taste and texture goes, I usually think of a beef rib as a cross between a St. Louis pork spare rib and beef short ribs, leaning more to a short rib. Either way they are good and with the help of a pressure cooker, are tender as can be, with a show stopping beefy flavor.

There is a piece of the rib that I like to remove, which is a membrane on it’s back side. You just grab it with a piece of paper towel for grip, and yank slowly. Sometimes it’s a clean yank, other times it’s a 2-3 yank process. There are mixed camps whether to yank or to leave it on the meat. It’s even more important to yank it off on beef ribs than any other ribs,because the texture is super papery and plastic like. I’ve heard people say that it helps the ribs retain moisture, but I’ve never made dry ribs in my life, so I’m going to stay set in my ways. Try each option and report back with your results.

Much like a lot of my cooking this dish is fusion inspired. A little French, a little Asian. I was slightly nervous that the flavors wouldn’t marry when I undid the lid of my pressure cooker. But I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked. Basically, if you put enough wine in anything  your results are going to be wondabah. The soy sauce and rice vinegar give a salty tang, without overwhelming your palette. The red wine and beef broth bring out the rich bold flavors of the beef. Hitting on all senses in your mouth.

Anyway, get yourself some grass fed beef ribs and have at it. If you don’t have a pressure cooker you can braise them covered in foil at 275 for about 4 hours, or on your slow cooker for 5-6 hours on low. Just follow the directions and when it say’s to put it under pressure, toss it in the oven or slow cooker.

 However you choose to cook these, you won’t be disappointed, and remember, share with people you at least kind of like and enjoy!