Nilagang Baka (Boiled Beef) …using pressure cooker

Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook

10 years ago

One of the torturing things when cooking is the waiting period. Agree? 😀

I love beef, but when it comes to cooking beef cubes or beef with bones, you will have to wait for too long. It’s been a while since I have not cooked beef because the cooking time hinders me to do so. I am not patient enough to wait for two hours or even more.

My Mom used to cook with pressure cooker but it was long time back. I could still remember the way it whistles and how tender the beef was. I didn’t have any plan to buy pressure cooker until I have eaten one delicious, tender beef. The first thing came to my mind was the cook was so genius and patient enough to wait for that long to wait for the beef to be tender. It didn’t occur to me that the cook may have used pressure cooker for that dish.

When I posted How to Tenderize Beef/Meat for Tricky Tuesdays, Nimmi and Selma mentioned about pressure cooker. From that moment, I felt that I needed to get myself one. And just last month, a generous and very kind friend gave me the pressure cooker of my dreams. 😀 To be frank, I really did not understand how it works, but I gave it a try.

One of the dishes I wanted to make is Nilangang Baka or literally translated as ‘Boiled Beef’. It’s a simple beef soup that one wants to have especially during cold days or rainy season. For us, Filipinos, we love to have this dish with rice. 😀

Nilagang Baka (Boiled Beef) Recipe

Servings: 4-6
Difficulty: easy
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Nilagang Baka (Boiled Beef) using pressure cooker.

Ingredients:

1 kg beef cubes, about 2-inch, washed
2 onions, quartered
1/3 cup ginger, sliced
2 cups sweet potatoes, cubed*
5 pcs green long chili
1 bundle of Pechay or Pak Choi, trimmed, cut and washed
3 sweet corn, cut into three
Cabbage, optional
Salt
Peppercorn, optional

Instructions:

Put the beef cubes, onions and ginger in a pressure cooker. If using peppercorn, put them as well. Add 6 cups of water.
Close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook in a high heat until it reaches high pressure. When it reaches high pressure and whistles, you can lower down the heat and you can start counting the cooking time. For the 2-inch beef cubes, it can be done after 30 minutes.
Turn the heat off and wait until it reaches low pressure (no smoke is coming out from the pressure cooker) before you put the sweet potatoes, corn and chilis. If you are in a hurry, you can manually remove the pressure by bringing the cooker under running water (lid still intact).
When the pressure is gone, put sweet potatoes, corn and chilis. Again, turn on the heat until it reaches high pressure and turn off the heat again; wait for it to lower the pressure. Few minutes before serving, add pak choi [and cabbage, if using].
Season with salt.
Serve as a soup or with rice. I love to serve mine with squeezed calamansi, lemon or lime.

Notes: