Instant Pot Beef Burgundy

This, comforting, hearty, beef stew is a favorite of ours through the winter months, and I love to serve it up for company, or a special occasion, because of its classy presentation and delicious flavor.  In France it is called "Boeuf Bourguignon, which gives it such a lovely Epicurean sound, but no need to be intimidated about making this dish, it is simply a beef stew made with red wine.  This can be made to braise in your oven for several hours, or done quickly with an Instant Pot or Electric Pressure Cooker as I am making in this recipe.

The Beef is so flavorful and tender, and perfectly paired with the beautiful broth  that is slightly thickened, from the added flour in the cooking process. This stew becomes even more flavorful after a day or two in the refrigerator, so it is wonderful warmed up as left overs, or frozen for a later meal.

Serve it over egg noodles or mashed potatoes, with a big piece of  sourdough garlic bread, and you will not be disappointed.

Perfect Comfort Food, but elegant enough for the best occasions. 

One of the things I love about the Instant Pot, is that you have the ability to brown in the pot before you begin slow cooking, or pressure cooking, which makes things simple when most or all of the cooking can be done in one pot.

Set the Instant Pot on the  “Sauté” setting.  Add half the butter and the chopped bacon into the Instant Pot;  Cook until the bacon begins to get crispy, stirring occasionally. 

 When the bacon is lightly crisp, add the diced onions and minced garlic. 

 Continue to saute until the onions are wilted and just beginning to brown.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the onion and bacon mixture to a bowl, and set aside.

To the pot, add the olive oil, and allow it to heat for a minute or two,  then add the cubed meat and  brown on all sides.

Once the meat is browned, add the flour, salt and pepper and stir to coat the meat.

Add  the beef broth,

 as well as the wine, and tomato paste and stir until well combined.

Add the onions and bacon mixture back into the pot.

Press cancel to stop the Saute function.

Add the carrots.

 Add herbs. 

Stir to combine.   

Place the lid onto the Instant Pot.

Press the Manual setting and set the timer at 40 minutes. Leave to cook until the timer shows 5 minutes remaining.

When Pressure cooker has only 5 minutes remaining, prepare the mushrooms  by sauteeing the  mushroom halves/quarters on medium high heat, in the remaining butter, until lightly browned.  

Set to the side.

When Pressure cooker has finished cooking, press the cancel/keep warm button and then manually release the steam (as shown in the instruction manual). Spoon the Beef Burgundy into an oven safe serving bowl and add the mushrooms. Place in oven and broil for 10 - 15 minutes to give it a nice browning.

Instant Pot Beef Burgundy

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons of butter, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil

4 slices bacon, diced

1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, smashed, peeled and diced
3 pounds beef  (chuck roast, or any stewing beef) cut into 2-inch cubes
3 tsps Himilayan salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup flour
4-5 medium sized carrots, peeled and sliced into 1-inch chunks
1 cup red wine

2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, (1/2 teaspoon dried)
1 pound fresh mushrooms stems discarded, tops halved or quartered

Serve over:

Mashed potatoes or cooked egg noodles

Instructions:

1. Prepare ingredients and set aside.
2. Set the Instant Pot on the  “Sauté” setting.
3. Add half the butter and the chopped bacon into the Instant Pot; Cook until the bacon begins to get crispy, stirring occasionally. 
4. When the bacon is lightly crisp, add the diced onions and and minced garlic and continue to saute until the onions are wilted and just beginning to brown.
5. Using a slotted spoon, remove the onion and bacon mixture to a bowl, and set aside.
6. To the pot, add the olive oil, and allow it to heat for a minute or two,  then add the cubed meat and  brown on all sides.
7. Once the meat is browned, add the flour, salt and pepper and stir to coat the meat.
8. Add the wine, the beef broth, and tomato paste and stir until well combined. 
9. Add the onions and bacon mixture back into the pot.
10. Press cancel to stop the Saute function.
11. Add the carrots and thyme and stir to combine.
12. Place the lid onto the Instant Pot.
13. Press the Manual setting and set the timer at 40 minutes. 
14. When Pressure cooker has only 5 minutes remaining, prepare the mushrooms by sauteeing the  mushroom halves in the remaining butter, until lightly browned.  Set to the side.
15. When Pressure cooker has finished cooking, press the cancel/keep warm button and then manually release the steam (as shown in the instruction manual).
16. Spoon the Beef Burgundy into an oven safe serving bowl, add salt and pepper at this point if you need more. 
17. Top with the sauteed mushrooms.
18. Place the Beef Burgundy into the oven and broil about 10- 15 minutes, to give the dish a nice browning.  
19. Garnish with fresh parsley or thyme and serve over mashed potatoes or egg noodles. 
20. Delicious served with fresh sourdough garlic bread.
21. Enjoy.

Note:  if you like your carrots to be a little firmer, do not put them into the pot until the end; reserve about 2 cups of the sauce in the pressure cooker ( after the rest is removed: step 16), add the carrots. Put the lid on and hit the manual button.  Set the time for 6 minutes. When timer has finished, manually release the steam. Add the carrots and the remaining sauce to the serving dish, and stir to distribute ingredients evenly.  Finish with steps 17 - 19.

Bon Appetite!

Triple Chocolate Almond Gluten Free Muffins

These are a delicious, moist, gluten free chocolate muffin we've been loving this month.  A batch of these come together quickly, and I have loved making up a double batch, to freeze a portion for a quick "grab" when wanted.  I love the chocolate, combination of cocoa, chocolate chips and white chocolate chips; the white chocolate is an awesome, creamy additional indulgence, that completes the flavors in the chocolate trio.  As a note, the white chocolate chips like to fall to the bottom and cause the muffins to stick to your pan more than it would without them, so use cupcake papers, or cut parchment paper circles for the bottoms of your muffin tins.

Triple Chocolate Almond Gluten Free Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups gluten free flour (I like Bob's Red Mill "All Purpose Gluten Free Flour or "1 to 1")  or a mixture of almond flour and gluten free flour works fine as well, I usually use half almond flour and half gluten free flour). 

1/3 cup cocoa

3/4 cup organic sugar or coconut sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk, almond or cashew milk.

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp almond extract

1 cup white chocolate chips

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Prepare muffin tins with parchment paper, or cupcake papers and non stick cooking spray.
3. In a medium sized bowl, Add gluten free flour, cocoa, sugar, soda and salt. Stir together.
4.  In separate bowl, mix together milk, eggs, oil,  vanilla and almond extract.
5.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients; stir well.
6. Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.
7. Put about 1/3 cup of batter into each cup of a 12 cup muffin tin. Bake 18 - 20 minutes 
8. Makes 12 large muffins
9. Enjoy.

Enjoy!

Cranberry Christmas Tarts

I've been working on building up my recipe collection of healthy dessert recipes and this recipe is my latest favorite.  These creamy, delicious tarts are a wonderful, "guilt-free" treat, perfect for the holidays. They are a  lightly sweet, nutty, rich, orangey, ice creamy, cookie doughy, loaded with nuts and fruit, wheat free, gluten free, dairy free, free serving of deliciousness. You can garnish them with any fruit, but Kiwi looks especially pretty with the Cranberry during Christmas time, which is why I used them. 

  Cranberry Christmas Tarts

Place cashews, dates and flaxseed into a food processor or blender (if you are using a blender do this in smaller batches a little at a time).

Grind ingredients together, and pour into a bowl; the ingredients will cling together and form a sticky dough.

Pinch a small amount of dough and press into the bottom of each tart pan to form a crust.

In a clean food processor or blender, put all the  "Creamy layer" ingredients and blend the ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Spoon the blended ingredients onto the crust in the tart pans.

Cashews and Green Bananas  create the creamy base in this recipe and provide a low glycemic, dessert with a boost of fiber, resistant starch and protein. The green bananas have very little flavor, but complement the flavors added, and are a wonderful form of fiber, and resistant starch that will stifle the sugar cravings. So your eyes didn't deceive you when you skimmed the ingredient list, and saw "green" bananas; they are what you want for this recipe.

 Cranberry Christmas Tarts

Ingredients:

Crust
2 cups organic nuts of choice, such as walnuts, pecans, almonds or hazelnuts (Presoaked if desired), (You can also lightly roast them if you desire... which I did)
2 cups whole pitted dates
1/4 cup flax meal

For Creamy Layer
3 green bananas
2 1/2 cups cashews (presoaked)
2 teaspoons vanilla
6-8 drops orange essential oils
Juice from 1 medium orange
1/3 - 1/2 cup maple syrup, coconut syrup or honey (adjust to taste)
Orange zest from one orange (reserve 1 teaspoon for the Cranberry Topping)

For Cranberry Topping
1 bag fresh organic cranberries (reserve a small handful for garnish)
1/4 cup water or orange juice
1/2 cup maple syrup
6-8  drops orange essential oil
1 teaspoon orange zest

Optional Garnish

Sugared cranberries, (these can be removed before eating... they are for pretty value only).

Sliced Kiwis 

Mandarin orange segments
Sliced fruit of choice

Instructions:

1. Prepare tart pans (muffin tins make wonderful mini tarts) by spraying with cooking spray.  
2. Place cashews, dates and flaxseed into a food processor or blender (if you are using a blender do this in smaller batches a little at a time). Grind ingredients together, and pour into a bowl; the ingredients will cling together and form a sticky dough.
3. Pinch a small amount of dough and press into the bottom of each tart pan to form a crust.
4. In a clean food processor or blender, put all the "Creamy layer"ingredients and blend the ingredients together until smooth and creamy.
5. Spoon the blended ingredients for the creamy layer onto the crust in the tart pans.
6. Place Tart pans into the freezer.
7. Make a Cranberry Sauce topping as follows: Combine topping ingredients into a sauce pan.Turn to medium heat and and bring to a light boil. Stir and simmer until the mixture begins to thicken.
8. Allow the topping mixture to completely cool.
9. Once cool, spoon the mixture evenly over each tart.
10. Return tarts to the freezer.

To Serve:

Remove tarts from the freezer and allow to sit at room temperature 30-60 minutes.  Garnish with fruit and serve.

Enjoy!!!

The Best Little Pumpkin Dessert

Creamy delicious layers of cream cheese, and pumpkin pudding, mingled with sprinkles of crushed gingerbread cookies, on top of a delicious shortbread crust and just in time for Thanksgiving.  This wonderful pumpkin dessert is another delicious variation on that well loved classic; "Better than Robert Redford Dessert", which actually goes by a variety of names from the very boring  "layered dessert",  to names that will make you blush.   But if you've ever tasted this dessert in any of of variations, and under any of its various names,  you will be sure of one thing it really is one of the best desserts. This week, as I was mulling over dessert ideas for Thanksgiving, this dessert favorite came to my mind and I thought "why not a pumpkin variation of the dessert"? So here it is; a delicious, rich, creamy, pumpkiny, better than Pumpkin Pie, and better Robert Redford, dessert.

I decided to make these in little jars, this time, for a fun presentation, and to delight my grandson, who is the official taste tester on hand this time around; but the recipe will work fine in a 9 X 13 cake pan, or two Pie Pans.  If you use the jars, use heat safe half pints or smaller, as anything bigger is more difficult to layer nicely, and since this is such a rich dessert, a little goes a long way.

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 1/2 cups flour (I use Einkorn flour)
• 3/4  cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Cream Cheese layer

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup organic powdered sugar

• ½ of an 8 ounce container whipped topping (I use Truwhip, which is a healthier version        of Cool  Whip,  and can be found in the freezer section of your local health food store).

• 1/2  cup finely crushed Gingerbread or Gingersnap cookies

Pumpkin layer

• 2½ cups milk
• 3 small packages (3.4 ounces each) vanilla instant pudding mix I use an organic brand.        Jello brand, also now makes a "natural" version of their puddings and gelatin                  mixes, which contain no artificial ingredients, colors or preservatives.
• 15 oz. pumpkin puree
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 cup finely crushed Gingerbread or Gingersnap cookies

Topping

• remaining ½ container whipped topping
• remaining crushed Gingerbread or Gingersnap cookies

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Combine flour, butter, and nuts; mix and stir until the mixture is well combined and crumbly.
3. Measure 2 heaping tablespoons into 14 -16  1/2 pint canning jars, or  1 9x13 dish baking dish if you wish to make the dessert in one big pan.
4.  Bake for 15 minutes.
5.  Let cool completely.
6. While the crust is baking and cooling, place  cream cheese and powdered sugar in a bowl and mix until well combined. Add ½ container of whipped topping and fold in until evenly distributed.
7.  In a separate bowl,  mix milk and vanilla instant pudding,  until it begins to thicken. Add pumpkin puree and cinnamon and mix until well combined. 
8. Once the crust has cooled completely, begin adding layers of filling. Start by spreading a layer of the cream cheese mixture. Top with a thin layer of Gingerbread crumbs, add the pumpkin layer, then another layer of Gingerbread crumbs. Finish with a layer of whipped topping.  Sprinkle with Gingerbread crumbs.
9. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.
10. Enjoy.

Tip: This freezes well, so it can be made ahead and pulled out to thaw 2- 10  hours before serving.  Thaw on the counter top for 2 -4 hours, or  in refrigerator for any longer period of time

Begin by mixing together the flour, butter and finely chopped nuts until well blended and crumbly.

Place approximately two tablespoons into the bottom of each jar.

 This recipe will fill 14 to 16 little jars.

Use a dowel or smooth broad based utensil to press the mixture into the bottom of the jar.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

While the shortbread crust is cooking and cooling, prepare the pudding layers. Begin by mixing together the cream cheese and powdered sugar.

When the cream cheese and powdered sugar are well mixed, gently fold in half of an 8 oz container of whipped topping. Stir until well combined.  Set to the side.

In a separate bowl, whisk together milk and pudding mixes. Whisk until pudding begins to thicken.

Add a 15 oz can of pumpkin and two teaspoons of Cinnamon.

Whisk until all is well mixed and creamy.

Now its time to layer the puddings and the gingerbread crumbs. Start with the cream cheese layer overt he cooled shortbread crust. Next add a thin layer of gingerbread crumbs, then comes the pumpkin pudding layer, and a second layer of gingerbread crumbs.  Last top with the remaining whipped topping mix and a light sprinkle of gingerbread crumbs.  You can top with a gingerbread cookie or gingersnap, for a cute presentation.

  

My daughter had just made up a batch of gingerbread cookies just before I made this.... and she was so kind to share them with me; she's such a sweetie. Some of the cutouts were fall leaves and little acorns, as well as gingerbread men, so cute for Fall, and perfect timing for me to add them to this dessert.

Rich,

creamy,

deliciousness.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.