Best Black Friday Gift Ever?!

The inaugural Cube Summit is officially in the books. Attendance and takeaway was tremendous and I’m especially grateful to Robb, John, Dave, Jim & Lucy for making the trip to Atlanta. I thoroughly enjoyed my cooking demo over the lunch break. My focus was on saving time. Technology can be a blessing and a curse, certainly when it comes to food. In the case of food preparation, I think we may have stumbled upon a game changer for your kitchen. So much so, I featured it in my talk. As an aside, if you haven’t picked up a copy of Bee Smith’s Consider the Fork, I highly recommend giving it a read. Hamilton Stapell suggested it to me several years ago. If you’re remotely into cooking, it’s a fascinating look into the history of food preparation.

So, what’s this magical game changing item? I give you the Instant Pot. Julie and I have owned one now for several months and it has revolutionized our ability to prepare food quickly. The Instant Pot is an electronic pressure cooker. It is a bit smaller than your standard pressure cooker. However, the ability to hit a button and leave it without threat of overheating and blowing a few holes in your kitchen wall more than make up for the smaller payload. I like to take Michelle Tam’s advice and crank up the Instant Pot as the family is sitting down for dinner. By the time we are done eating, we have another meal ready to eat the next day.

Time is money and this little device is sure to save you precious hours each week. Tougher cuts of meat are tender and moist in under an hour…amazing! So amazing in fact, that I’m going to post a recipe for the Instant Pot each month for the next year. We’ll try to keep this thing seasonal. That said, I figured I’d start with the Short Rib Recipe from the Summit.

Beef Short Ribs with Yucca Puree

 

 

Ingredients:
4 pounds short ribs
2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons lard
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cups beef or vegetable broth
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 star anise pods
1 cinnamon stick
2 cups boiled yucca root
1 tablespoon butter
fresh thyme for garnish

Directions:
* You are free to use the Sauté option available on the Instant Pot. I use it with browning smaller chunks of meat. For bigger payloads like short ribs or large roasts, I tend to use a large skillet (like this recipe).
– Heat large skillet on stovetop
– Salt and pepper your ribs
– Working in batches, brown your short ribs in the lard
– Set ribs aside on a platter
– Add onion and garlic to skillet and sauté for about 3 minutes
– Deglaze the skillet with some of your stock
– Pour onions, garlic and broth into Instant Pot
– Add rosemary, star anise and cinnamon stick to pot and arrange ribs in the pot
– Pour in remaining stock and add water if needed to cover meat
– Lock down your lid and hit the meat button, it should preset to 35 minutes of cooking.
– When pot is done and pressure has come down, remove ribs carefully using tongs and pour liquid through a sieve to separate from vegetables
– Reserve 1 cup of broth and blend with yucca root and butter to make a mash
– Serve ribs over mash and sautéed greens with thyme garnish

PaleoComfort

Julie and Charles Mayfield are the co-authors of Paleo Comfort Foods, Quick and Easy Paleo Comfort Foods and the e-book The Paleo Summer Survival Guide. They live in Athens TN with their two children, Scott and Adelyn.

Charles spends much of his day helping his customers manage risk at Athens Insurance Agency and weekends running Mayfield Pastures, a startup regenerative farming enterprise on his family's farm. Julie is a stay at home mother and manages the day to day tasks of their Paleo Comfort Foods cookbook line.

They both enjoy the outdoors, gardening and helping others in their community find a clear path to a healthy lifestyle.