Y-Bones in the pressure cooker

Last night was a regular early spring evening here.

So I thought I would share what that is like for me.

It seems as though it has been raining for weeks. There are puddles, mud, moss, everywhere and everything is saturated. I don't dare walk on the gardens for fear of compacting the soil. I can't mow because the lawn is too soft and saturated, boggy really.

I don't spray because I want this place to get an organic certificate one day. So everything is looking green and shaggy. Only an old hippie or a wily chook could see the beauty and nutrition in it at the moment.
There are a few self-sown brassicas flowering prettily, I leave them for the bees. I can see plenty of spinach - also about to flower. The carrots are done, and the onions are flowering... but so much fresh green aromatic herb!

So what has this to do with beef?
Not much.

Other than last night seemed to be the first evening for months that I have had a good half hour of light after coming home from work to prep dinner. A half hour to forage for herbs and vegetables to go with the Y-bone steaks I had got out of the freezer in the morning.

Y-Bones come from the front end of the animal. They are cut across the shoulder, some folk prefer traditional blade steak, but I don't, I like the flavour that cooking on the bone provides. Like all blade it benefits from a slow cook.

So hopefully I have set the stage. It is 5:30pm in early spring.

This is a homely farm-style dinner. Nothing fancy. Flavour wise, with some careful presentation work, it could be right up there with any restaurant bill of fare.

There is no recipe - this is just how I cook...

Ingredients (per person);

• 1 Y-bone steak
  
• 1 small to medium carrot (1" x 6" max)
• ½ medium brown onion, rough chopped.
• 3 medium sized button mushrooms, sliced, about a half cup.

For the pot;

The herbs were foraged fresh - still wet from the rain. I used about one to two stalks of each per steak.

• Oregano (vulgare),
• Sweet morjoram (origanum majorana),
• Thyme (vulgaris)
• Pizza thyme (nummularis)
• Celery  - juvenile stalks that are growing feral, leaves included. (Stems ¼ -½" about 8" length -  leaves no more than ¾" - fresh light green colour)
• Parsley (small leaf curly) - 1 small to medium stalk per steak (4")

Other:

• Passata (approx ¼c per steak)
• Worcester Sauce
• Salt (I used Himalayan pink, fine)
• Pepper (Fresh ground black)

Set the pressure cooker to brown and brown the steaks two at a time so that they make full contact withe the base of the pot. As you can see the browning setting works well. I put the meat to brown and went out to forage - so I think about 5-8 minutes.

Then I turned the meat, chopped the herbs and sliced the vegetables, and added them along with a packet of my home grown passata from last summer, about ¾c - no more.

I seasoned to taste with salt, pepper and Worcester sauce - a good 'glug' (2-3 tablespoons for three steaks).

I set the pressure cooker to high pressure 50minutes. Mine is electric, a stove-top model would be less. Then I went for my evening walk in the last of the light.

When I got back the cooker was finished its cycle. In this recipe I allowed the steam to release naturally while I cooked the veges...
I removed the bones and let it cool a bit.

I put red skinned rosties into a medium hot oven and prepped a simple cabbage, broccoli and mushroom stirfy. I took a quick shower while the rosties cooked.



I tossed the rosties, and gave the veges a quick pan fry in a little butter salt and pepper, added ½c water, closed the lid and let steam while I set the table.
Magically it was all ready at the same time



A blob of sour cream is optional.
Enjoy