Pistachio Crusted Roast, with Carrots and Potatoes – Lesson 7: One Pot Meal Pressure Cooker Pot Roast

pressure cooker pot roast
You’ve never had a one pot meal that is this as elegant! The pistachio and fresh thyme crust make this beef roast exciting to both the eyes and taste buds.  The sauce is made from the beef’s own juices,  a jus,  the whole meal can be ready in about 45 minutes – versus making a roast in the oven in 2 to 2.5 hours!While carrots only take 2 minutes and potatoes 10 to cook under pressure,  you can cook them both in 5 using  a little trick that I will teach you – plus a few more!


One Pot Meals in the Pressure Cooker

A one pot meal, as the name says, is an entire meal (that includes vegetables, starch and protein) made in one cooking vessel.   There are several techniques to make one pot meals in the pressure cooker. Some dishes, likes stews ad roasts, naturally lend themselves to the addition of vegetables during cooking, while others need accessories, tin foil or little helping hand.

Stack-it. Using trivets and small additional containers or steamer baskets (see my heat-proof container and steamer basket suggestions), you can cook a meat dish on the bottom of the pressure cooker, and then stack on a steamer basket or additional container to cook rice or vegetable. Unlike an oven, the hottest part of the pressure cooker is at the bottom because of the direct contact with the metal which is closer to the heat source . Longer-cooking foods always go on the bottom.  Then, work your way up the stacks to finish with vegetables at the top which, with the exception of the potatoes, always need very little heat and time to cook!

Phase it. Use ingredients with different cooking times by phasing them into the pressure cooker one at a time. Start with the longest-cooking ingredient first (usually meat or a legume), then, when it is getting closer to the cooking time of the next ingredient, bring down the pressure, open the pressure cooker to add the next ingredient.  You can do this several times and even cook the last ingredient without the pressure cooking top (like adding pasta or cooking dumplings).

Wrap it! Using al Cartoccio, or packet cooking, you can actually wrap a whole meal in a packet and cook it by steaming it in your pressure cooker.  Also, tin foil can be used to slow down the cooking of ingredients that usually take less time, as Lorna Sass does this in her Reader Recipe on Triplex Cooking.

Re-size it.  The size, density and thickness of a food, will dictate how long it will take to cook in the pressure cooker.  Use this information to your advantage when crafting a one pot meal.  For example, in the instructional recipe below, I was able to cook carrots (which only need 2 minutes at high pressure) and potatoes (which need 10 minutes at high pressure) together in just 5 minutes.  I simply used thick carrots and cooked them whole, while the potatoes were sliced down to a large cubes.

Recipe it. All gimmicks aside, some recipes are natural one pot meals and do not need any tricks special techniques.  Recipes like chowders, chilies, soups, stews, risotto and packet cooking (links to specific recipes for most of these, below) naturally have almost all of the food groups required for a one pot meal, or can be easily served with a nice thick slice of bread.


Do you have any tricks or favorite one pot meals?  Leave a comment and link, below!

 

Pressure Cooker Recipe: Pot Roast, with Carrots and Potatoes

 
Make this recipe even faster by leaving off the crust.  Just rub the exterior beef roast well with salt and pepper before cooking.

2-4 lb or 1-2 kilo  Beef Roast, no longer than your pressure cooker is wide!
1 cup or 250 ml of Chicken Stock
Olive Oil
2 lbs or 1 kilo Potatoes, roughly cubed
1 lb or 500 g of thick Carrots, peeled (not sliced)
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
1 cup red wine
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

For the crust (optional):
4 oz or 115g of Smashed Pistachio Nuts, shelled and salted
1 Tbsp of Black Pepper
2 Tbsp of Fresh Thyme

Start by making the rub. Crush the nuts well, and mix the pistachio powder with the black pepper and thyme.  Reserve a quarter  of the rub to garnish the roast after cooking.

Press as much of the crust on the roast – some may fall off during cooking – but you will add another layer when the roast is finished.  Reserve half of the rub to garnish the roast after cooking.

Preheat the pressure cooker with the top off, then add a little swirl of olive oil and when that is warm, place the roast in and sear it the  in pan well on all sides.


(click on illustration to enlarge)

Spoon out any of the pistachios that have fallen off the roast so that they do not burn on the bottom of the pan.

De-glaze the pressure cooker with chicken stock.

Close and lock the pressure cooker lid. Put the pressure cooker on high heat. When the pan reaches pressure (with this model, the indicator comes up to the green ring) count 25 minutes cooking time under high pressure.

When the cooking time is up, open the pressure cooker using the cold water quick-release method – bring the pan to the sink and run cold water on it making sure not to cover any of the valves. For electric pressure cookers, release pressure using the Automatic Release method – releasing pressure from the top by pushing a button or twisting a lever.

(click on illustration to enlarge)

Add the roughly cubed potatoes and place the whole carrots on top – you will want to work quickly so not too much heat to escapes, allowing pressure to be reached again faster.

Close and lock the pressure cooker lid, again. Put the pressure cooker on high heat. When the pan reaches pressure count 5 more minutes cooking time under high pressure.

Open the pressure cooker with the quick or normal release method, as detailed above, and take out the carrots, slice them and put them on the serving platter.

Take out the roast, and place on a plate tented with aluminum foil to rest.

Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon and place on the serving platter.

While the roast is resting, make the a jus sauce. Filter the cooking liquid through a fine sieve and put it back in the pressure cooker. Add the wine and butter and reduce the liquid in the pressure cooker at high heat, without the pressure cooking lid, to about half. Add salt and pepper to taste.

(click on illustration to enlarge)

Slice rested roast, serve on platter with carrots and potatoes. and drizzle remaining crust.

Sprinkle with fresh parsley, serve the a jus sauce in a gravy boat, or easy-pour container (I used a small ceramic milk pitcher!) Have the guests can pour the amount of sauce they wish over the meat once it is on their plates.

Serves 6-8


Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 40 min

Next!
Try the last Beginner Basics Lesson: Caramelized Apple Crumb Cake – Bain Marie or view the entire Beginner Basics Course outline!

Now that you can make a one pot meal in your pressure cooker, you can make…

Pssssst!  Do you want to learn more about the pressure cookers that I’m using? See them described on my About page!