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Well...the CI PC Texas Chili does contain beans....

Yes...I'm watching...

CI is based in beantown...nuff said...they wouldn't know a Texas chili if it bit them in the butt...

I just left them out. DH hates beans (must be a Texan at heart), so I never put them in anything I'm making for him.

Actually, CI's PC Texas chili wasn't bad. It tasted not too far off from the Serious Eats version despite being made with chili powder instead of soaked dried chilies. I liked the Serious Eats version better, but the PC one's not bad.

Made the CARBONNADE À LA FLAMANDE in the pc today. I used the combined version Carey posted. I forgot to take out the tomato paste, so added it in without thinking. Definitely will not add next time. I was very happy with the results. The meat was fork tender and the sauce was the perfect thickness. I mixed up the gaskets from my two almost identical Mirro 6 qt. cookers, so it cooked for a bit since it would not come to pressure. Once I opened it and switched the gasket, it was perfect after 20 minutes at 10 psi and letting the pressure come down naturally. I went to do something else, so I did not time that part. Still it was less than 45 minutes all together for what would have been at least 2 hours in the oven.

So what I did was, to brown the beef in 2 batches in the cooker, take it out, cooked the bacon, added a TBS oil, onions and salt, cooked those for 20 minutes, added garlic for 30 sec., flour, then broths, 12 oz.bottle of Newcastle brown ale, spices and vinegar. Put beef and bacon back in, closed it and cooked under pressure for 20 minutes. Then let it go down. It is now in the fridge waiting for me to make noodles to go with it (probably Thursday.)

I am not sure the onions needed to cook by themselves for 20 minutes. I might just do five next time, add the flour and proceed and see if there is a noticeable difference.

Thank you Carey and JesBelle for your help.

Glad you liked it. ; )

Me too Alina! Thanks for reporting back....I'll try it in the PC next time I have to make a batch.

Mary, I used the Kuhn Rikon guide on Sunday for my potato/sweet potato soup. The timing was spot on! Thanks again for that.

The only question I have is that I've noticed my braised dishes are less concentrated in flavour because of the lack of evaporation. It's not necessarily that they are liquidy, because I put less liquid in....it's more that they seem a bit weaker in flavour. Is there any way to work around that?

Oh, update on the CI PC Texas chili. It's really not that good. Pulled leftovers from the freezer: the Serious Eats and Bobby Flay versions blow this recipe away. Even DH who hasn't met a beanless chili recipe he didn't like, didn't really like this one. It's flat and lacks spice. Won't be on my repeat list, sadly.

According to some reports, and to a very anecdotal view, certain flavours get killed a bit more in the PC. So, for example, some recommend 2x onions in a PC recipe, as onions are one of those flavours that seem to suffer some. You could just adjust a few flavours. Some things will actually concentrate (seems to me things get more meaty, for example), and others seem to fade a little.

Simply put, Mexican type flavors do not do well in PCs. However, if you are looking to speed things up, try a Mexican method of cooking the meat in water (you could do that in the PC), then make the sauce separate, blending the seasonings together into a thick sauce in a blender, and fry the sauce 7 or 8 min. over med-high heat. Then, when the meat is done, cool it enough to cut into chunks, thin the sauce out with the cooking liquid, then simmer the two together for 10 or 15 min.

I still prefer a slow cooker, either electric, or a LC dutch oven in a 225º oven. Best way to cook chili, IMO. I remember Bayless stating that, while the traditional way of frying the sauces produces an incredible flavor very quickly, in a restaurant, where he needs a LOT of the sauces, slow cooking (in huge pots) is the way to go, as after a few hours, he gets about the same flavor, with very little work.

I discovered another use for the presure cooker today - tenderizing squid! I remember thinking of this recently, when I saw a recipe for squid while pressure cooking some beans. So I got some at the Asian market Sunday, and today I sliced a lb of them up as I normally would, in about 3/8" rings, then placed in the cooker with about 2 qts. boiling water, and cooked 8 min, once the pressure was up. Then I drained them, rinsed in cold water, and drained. The time was almost perfect, as they had just a hint of chewiness, but broke up easily when chewed. I then cooked it about 1 1/2 min. in a Thai stir-fry, and it did not get any chewier, nor did any break up. Only problem was the flavor lost in the cooking water, though in the future I will probably save it, and use it in a soup, or for cooking some other mollusk in. And I will also try pressure cooking them whole (and maybe tuck the tentacled inside the sack, since they are already more tender) next time, then cut them up, and maybe less flavor will leach out. And maybe, to save time in the long run, I could cook a bunch, then freeze them, so I could just thaw quickly, and SF. I'll have to experiment some more.