Ching Ohana Home Cooking Journal

Tonight's dinner was pulled pork with the leftover country style pork ribs from yesterday's lau lau. I based it off of this recipe and the America's Test Kitchen pressure cooker cookbook. I coated the pork with some unidentified leftover spice rub then let it sit for 15 minutes. I browned the pork in the instant pot, then poured over it 1/2 cup of chicken broth and 1/2 cup of barbecue sauce. On went the lid for 45 minutes of pressure cooking with quick release at the end. I took out the pork and reduced the sauce on saute. A little sauce went back onto the pork and it was ready! As a side I planned to make cole slaw. I didn't realize that the cole slaw mix from the store doesn't come with the dressing. Oh well, it was easy to make. I used this recipe . It was just right (although I didn't have celery seeds). The other side dish was red potatoes. These were some big potatoes so I halved or quartered them and put them into the Instant Pot with the rest of the...

Tonight's bag of luau leaves only had 7 leaves, not enough for 2 per lau lau! I think I used about 1.5 lbs of pork country style ribs inside so about 1/3 lb each. Side of lomi salmon and poke. I also got a day old bag of poi (freshest one on Sunday) and it was delicious, slightly tart and a little umami.

Creamy lentils from the Indian Instant Pot cookbook. Nice and tangy with greek yogurt. No photo today :(

My wife and kids are out of town so I made up this ground beef spinach curry again. It's so good I didn't take a photo, but it looked like when I made it last time. Recipe from the Indian Instant Pot cookbook.

I finally got to make ribs in the Instant Pot. There are a few recipes out there but I used this one . I didn't have time for a rub so I just put salt. I used the vinegar and liquid smoke in the steaming liquid but I couldn't taste it. This cooked for 25 minutes under pressure with 10 minutes natural pressure release. I then brushed with barbecue sauce and broiled for 3 minutes per side.  Some of the ribs came out a little dry like in the boiling method I posted about before . I think this is more to do with the cut of meat. These are labeled as pork ribs as opposed to baby back ribs. I've done these sous vide at low temp before too (140ish) and they came out too weird. Medium rare isn't how we usually like to eat ribs. Maybe next time sous vide to 140ish for 12 hours then up to 165 or so to make them fork tender...

Saint Patrick's Day is a week away and Safeway had this corned beef on sale for half price. I put it in the Instant Pot for 90 minutes with the seasoning packet, 4 cups of water, and a quartered onion. Some recipes called for 70 minutes but this was a really thick piece, maybe 2.5 inches thick. In the end it took almost 2.5 hours including coming up to temperature and natural pressure release. It's still faster than the 3-4 hours the bag says to cook it, but only just... Maybe next time we use the stove to bring the corned beef and water to boiling then pop it in the Instant Pot. The revelation this week was the veggies. One head of cabbage, 6 carrots, and 4 quartered new potatoes cooked in 3 minutes pressure time (maybe 20 minutes total time). I put in a can of broth instead of the leftover corned beef cooking liquid. Came out great! The cabbage was soft but not too soft. Even the stem of the cabbage was edible.  The kids ate all the potatoes so I tried to do it aga...

This recipe came from America's Test Kitchen . It was pretty easy to make but it still took over an hour because of the number of cooking steps. Bloom spices, simmer 5 minutes, blend. Cook chicken for 25 minutes with 15 minutes natural pressure release. Add red peppers, simmer 10 minutes. While the peppers were cooking, I shredded the chicken. It turned out this wasn't long enough to really fall off the bones. It could have done with 5-10 minutes longer.  The picky daughter didn't like it. I thought it was ok, but it could have used some more heat, maybe more chipotle or some cayenne. Wife and son thought it was great.

My wife retried the rigatoni recipe, but this time she added more water (3.5 vs 3 cups water). The pasta was softer. Next time she says she'll do 3 cups. No picture but it looked pretty much like last time .

My wife made this for a potluck today. It's from All Recipes . It came out extremely thick, almost like a loose mashed potato. I wonder if it was because I left it on the stove at the lowest setting for a couple of hours! Kids also didn't care too much for this one.

Creamy mixed lentils. Another recipe from the Indian Instant Pot cookbook. I've been trying more vegetarian food. I really enjoyed this one but even my son wouldn't eat it. Oh well, more for me, I guess. Have to try to find more kid friendly dal recipes since I bought a big bag of dal from the Indian market! Instead of eating this, my kids ate the potato soup and some sauteed mushrooms I made to use up a big 24 oz tray from Costco.

Ground beef coconut curry and spinach, from the Indian Instant Pot cookbook . It came out delicious--rich, spicy, full of veggies. I tried to sell it to the family like an Indian beef luau. My son and wife enjoyed it, but my daughter (who loves beef luau) did not buy this comparison. She ate leftover beef luau from last weekend.

We have a ton of potatoes leftover from a science experiment, so I made hash browns again. This time they weren't quite as good, maybe because they were Russets instead of Yukon Golds. Oh well, they were plenty tasty anyway. Recipe from Food 52 .