Instant Pot experiments: Beef Stew, take 2

While the end result of this experiment wasn't at all bad, I'm still going to classify it as a failure.  Changes from last time:

• Doubled the butter and flour to thicken the sauce.
• Chopping the onion into 8 was a definite improvement.
• Switched out soy sauce for steak sauce
• Multiple additional ingredients at the "rest of ingredients" step:  1 pack sliced mushrooms, ground pepper, 2 cloves garlic, 1T dried parsley, and a can of tomato paste.

First problem... might be I added too much stuff to the pot this time around, or might be that the internals hadn't dried out enough from my using the pot for a separate chicken experiment two nights before, but the float valve never sealed.  Ended up running it through a second half-cycle to get anything reasonably "done", and even then the carrots were slightly under-done.

Second, while it wasn't bad at all, the tomato paste definitely took the flavor outside of what I would normally call "stew".  Between it and the added flour and butter, the mouth feel of the sauce was wonderful, but it added sweetness and, well, tomatoey-ness, that just wasn't what I was looking for.

So, next time... drop the tomato paste, use half as much carrots and potatoes. maybe knock back the beer to a cup even...that should be more stew-like, I'm thinking.

Spoilerriffic! Seafall, game 13

Yeah, this game didn't go terribly well for anybody, excepting the player who started in second... he burned through nearly all of the research cards he had accumulated, did a fair amount of tomb raiding, and racked up glory like nobody's business.  Worse, he outdid my own "overkill" maneuver from a prior game... having met the score target, he also came into possession of a new tablet, which gave him the first "decode" of one of the hidden entries on the tombs map, which turned out to be the "Secret of Gold" milestone, worth an extra 6 glory.

Not everything went their way though... coordinated efforts from a couple of other players managed to sink one of his ships and relieve him of the relic he was carrying.  In the meantime, I managed to relieve another player of another tablet, improving my position in that race.  So, glad that game's behind me, but next game... as always, it should be entertaining, but I think we're likely to see some major changes coming as well, once I start "sharing" tablets with the current Princess and work to regain that title for myself.

Instant Pot experiments: Beef Stew, take 1

One of the things I got for Christmas is an Instant Pot.  For those unfamiliar with the concept, it's a saute-capable, slow/pressure cooker combo with electronic controls and presets... pretty much, it's made for cooking whatever you want, however works best, with a minimum of dishes to do after.  Well, I mean, it's not built for grilling or broiling, but it does have rice-cooker and cake (!) settings, so it's pretty versatile.

After a failed attempt at one of the recipes included with the device (a refried beans variant, which I blame on the ancient beans I have in my cupboard), I figured I should try something I would get more use out of... and Beef Stew sprang to mind.  It's been years since I dusted off my old recipe, so I started out by looking around online for recipes... and there are several, each with their own twist to the basics, usually involving something I don't have floating around my pantry already.  As such, I figured it couldn't hurt to try my hand at making just a "basic" beef stew for my first attempt, and iterate from there... so, here's what I came up with:

• Prepare a beef bouillon cube in 1c. of water (mug and Keurig works for this)
• Heat Instant Pot on Saute setting
• Add 2T butter, allow to melt before adding
• 1 medium onion, quartered... knock it about a bit while it softens to separate layers.  Once it starts to soften, add
• 1 lb. stew beef, cubed.  Brown in butter on all sides (and of course, the occasional stirring will help further separate the onion).  Once browned, add
• 2T flour, stir to combine (basically a roux), by the time all's said and done the bottom of the pot should look basically dry, with some residue on the bottom. At this point, add
• 1 12-oz. bottle of beer (Fat Tire Belgian Style Ale this time) and use it to deglaze the bottom (it's going to be a "by feel" process, but the pot is deep enough that the presence of beef and onion chunks shouldn't matter much).
• Add the remaining ingredients:
  • 1T Worcestershire sauce
  • 1T Soy sauce
  • 1t Rosemary
  • 1t Thyme
  • 1 lb. baby carrots (or, if you want the extra prep work and leftover carrots, just 1 lb. peeled and cut)
  • about 1 lb. russet potatos (3-4), peeled and quartered
• Stir to combine... should end up with everything mostly submerged, but not a lot of excess liquid.
• Cancel out the saute mode on the pot, put on/lock the lid, and hit the Meat/Stew button... there will be a delay while the pot comes up to pressure, after which the program cooks for 35 minutes.
• If you try to wait for things to cool down and de-pressurize on their own... well, you'll be waiting a while.  I tried waiting for 15 minutes with the pot's "keep warm" function going, and another 10 or so with it turned off, before resorting to the "quick release" valve.

End result was... pretty good, actually.  Meat and veg were all cooked to perfection,  the soup maybe a bit on the thin side, and a good basic flavor, but with room for improvement.  Things to keep in mind for the next attempt:

• All the things I neglected/forgot from my original recipe this time around... don't know how much garlic would add to this, but it couldn't hurt.  Salt was pretty well covered by the bouillon cube, but pepper was definitely missing.  Mushrooms, of course... if needed, could easily cut back on the carrots to make that happen.  Bay leaf or steak sauce?  Both called for in my original recipe, again don't know how much difference either would make.
• Darker beer might improve the body of the soup and alter the flavor profile a bit.  Or, if I really want to get experimental, a nice ginger beer instead could get interesting...
• Other recipes than mine call for other add-ins... Tomato Paste I could see as a good thing (in fact, I was going to add that this time, but let's just say the ancient can in my pantry didn't age well and leave it at that).  Paprika?  Brown sugar (reinforces the ginger beer idea a bit)?  Vinegar?  Sage?  Dried Parsley?
• Of course, there's always room for process improvements as well... I think cutting the onion into 8 would make sense from a getting-layers-to-release-early standpoint, without going to the bother of chopping (and I do like the large onion bits in the final product).  Also, I should definitely be in less of a hurry to both get to the deglazing, and to finish the deglazing... but in my defense, I was pretty hungry when I embarked on this last time!  Lastly, on the final stir, be more aggressive... ended up with much more meat at the bottom of the pot last time I did this, which isn't entirely bad, but more even distribution never hurts.