Instant Pot Pork Ribs

I love to cook ribs low and slow, then grill them with BBQ sauce to make them crisp and flavourful.  But slow roasting the ribs in the oven takes hours.  You can get the same tender results in the Instant Pot in minutes! 

I normally make at least two racks of ribs in the oven, since it takes so much time and effort, but with this method, I can justify making just one rack for a weeknight dinner.  I never thought I'd have homemade ribs on a weeknight!

I use a homemade spice rub when I make ribs, but you can season them any way you like.  Montreal Chicken seasoning is great for ribs.  

In the Instant Pot you need to use the rack to cook ribs.  You also need some liquid for pressure cooking.  I used chicken stock this time, but apple juice, cider or beer would be great!

For tender ribs, cook on Manual for 21 minutes.  It will take about 40 minutes when you include time to build up and release the pressure.  Still reasonable for a weeknight dinner!

You can spread the ribs with your favourite BBQ sauce and serve when they come out of the Instant Pot, but I like to crisp them up on the grill.  

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
1 rack spare ribs
2 tablespoons spice rub (see recipe below, or make/buy your own)
1 cup chicken stock, apple juice, beer or cider
BBQ sauce

Directions
Rub ribs all over with spice rub
Place rack in Instant Pot
Add stock, juice or beer to pot
Place ribs on rack in pot
Seal Instant Pot lid
Set Instant Pot to 21 minutes on Manual setting
Once done, let pressure release naturally
Grill or broil ribs, brushing with BBQ sauce until crisp



BBQ Spice Rub
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions
Mix all spices together and store in a sealed container. 

Tacos de Carnitas

It's clear if you've read my blog that we love tacos. We eat them every chance we get when we're out and about whether in Mexico, California, North Carolina, Toronto, Niagara or here at home in London, Ontario.  And I love to make them at home too.

Tacos de Carnitas are time consuming to make, but not difficult at all. And while you're taking the time to roast pork shoulder in its own fat, it only makes sense to make enough to feed a crowd. 


Even if, like me, you know people who "don't like tacos", these carnitas are so mildly spiced, tender, crispy and delicious, I can't imagine anyone not falling in love at first bite. 

The recipe and technique comes from The Food Lab at Serious Eats. I didn't make their salsa verde, because I have my own, canned last summer. But I followed the rest of the directions pretty much exactly. 

Here's what you need for these amazing tacos.  This amount will feed 8-10 people but you can easily halve or double the recipe.  I froze half of the roasted pork and then thawed and crisped it weeks later.

Swedish Meatballs

It's been a crazy month for us.  We just moved into a new house and haven't been cooking much lately.  But in the midst of unpacking I decided I needed to cook something. This recipe isn't complicated, but it's time consuming.  Better suited to a Sunday afternoon than a weeknight when your kitchen is filled with boxes.  But the final product is worth it, and it makes enough for at least two meals. 

I love the way the meatballs turned out and I'd definitely use this method again for any kind of meatball. The beef and pork together make a very tender meatball.  Swedish meatballs are spiced with allspice and sometimes ginger and/or nutmeg.  Well, the allspice hasn't yet made it out of my packing boxes, but I had a little tin of pumpkin spice and it worked great!  Pumpkin spice meatballs! 

The gravy contains lingonberry jam, and it's extra tasty to serve a little extra jam on the side.  

Here's what you need for 55 meatballs!

Traditions: Meatsticks (aka City Chicken)

Canadian Thanksgiving is this weekend, so I thought I'd share one of my family traditions with you.  I'm not Ukrainian by birth, but my eldest aunt has been married to a Polish/Ukrainian man for over 45 years, and my uncle's culinary traditions made their way to our Canadian table.

Every year for Thanksgiving we have the usual turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pie, but we also have pierogies, cabbage rolls and meatsticks.

My family has always called these fried, breaded pork skewers "meatsticks", but in many parts of North America where Eastern Europeans have settled, they're called City Chicken.  Believe it or not, chicken was once such a luxury item that this imitation drumstick was created from cheap cuts of pork. 

And they are SO delicious. If you're keeping track, we serve three kinds of meat at our Thanksgiving: turkey, pork and beef in the cabbage rolls.  But the meatsticks have long been my favourite and they're great any time of year (we have them at Christmas too).

So here's my family recipe for meatsticks, courtesy of my wonderful aunt.

Rhubarb-Cherry Sauce for Pork Chops

Rhubarb... I just don't know. 

We signed up for our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box again this year. We loved it so much last year and we ate everything, except the rhubarb. This year I was determined to try to use it up so I thought I'd make this sauce to accompany pork.  

The recipe comes from Martha Stewart.  Here's what you need:

Cinco de Mayo Mexican Food Roundup

We just got back from our first trip to Mexico! We had a relaxing beach vacation with some fun activities and amazing food and I'll tell you all about it soon. 

I was looking through my archives and I think Mexican food is the kind of food I cook the most. Matt loves it and so do I, so I have a lot of Mexican and Mexican-inspired recipes on this blog, and I thought I'd do a round-up for Cinco de Mayo this week.  

Salsa Verde

First a fantastic salsa verde that's great with chips but even better as a sauce or condiment with grilled or braised meats. We made our own from tomatillos in our garden, which grow amazingly well in our climate, but you can easily buy tomatillos in the summer, or even buy pre-made salsa verde for a tangy change from red salsa. 

Home Made Corn Tortillas

These tortillas are so easy to make, and masa is widely available now. It really makes sense to make your own tortillas if you like them as fresh as possible.

Pork & Noodles in Mushroom Broth

I love noodle soups. In the wintertime, my favourite thing is some Japanese ramen or Vietnamese phở. Noodles and broth with some meat, veggies and spicy flavours make winter easier to bear.

The roasted pork and rice noodles are served in a bowl of mushroom broth with carrots for a warming meal.

Here's what you need for this quick and fabulous soup.

Bocconcini Stuffed Meatballs

I happened to have some leftover bocconcini (fresh mozzarella balls, packed in water and often sold in a tub in the deli section of the grocery store), so, of course, I decided to stuff them inside some meatballs to see what would happen.  It turned out pretty great!

I served the meatballs with spaghetti tossed with a quick tomato sauce and sprinkled with fresh basil for a very tasty, decadent meal. 

Here's what you need for these crazy meatballs:

Vietnamese Pork Noodle Salad

I love Vietnamese food. Of course, there's phở, the amazingly rich beef and noodle soup that makes a perfect meal in cool weather. But I also love bún, a pork and noodle salad that combines cool, crisp vegetables, warm protein, chewy noodles and tangy vinegar and lime.  

This recipe is a refreshing take on the traditional Vietnamese dish.  It is very simple and tasty.  It makes a fantastic, fresh dinner and leftovers keep well for lunch the next day!

Here's what you need:

Pork with Roasted Tomatillo Sauce

In the spring we planted four tomatillo plants in our garden.  Tomatillos are in the nightshade family, related to tomatoes.  I haven't had much luck with tomatoes in my garden, so I wasn't expecting much.  

But our tomatillo harvest has far exceeded expectations!  In August we harvested twelve pounds of tomatillos, and we have plenty more still growing.  

Braised Red Cabbage

Although it doesn't have the green of St. Patrick's Day, this is still a lovely side dish for your corned beef.  I served it with smoked pork chops and boiled potatoes and it was a perfect match.  The cabbage is nice and sweet and a great match for the salty smoked pork.

Here's what you need:

Pork & Mushroom Dumplings

Well, these were fantastic!  It's a bit of a project to assemble the dumplings.  It takes a little time but it's not that hard. And the effort is worth it. 

This recipe made 40 dumplings, so there were plenty leftover to freeze.  

One special ingredient I needed to track down was round dumpling wrappers.  My local supermarket has a decent supply of Asian ingredients, but only had square wonton wrappers, so I had to go to the Chinese speciality store for these.  But they only cost a buck!  

Here's what you need for these fantastic dumplings:

Pork Roast with Cider Gravy

I'm really enjoying pork roasts lately.  They are easy to cook and as long as you serve them with a tasty sauce, they're always moist and delicious.  A 1.5 to 2-pound pork roast serves us dinner plus lunch the next day with enough leftovers for another meal, like pork fried rice.  

I roasted this pork in the oven with mushrooms and onions, then made a pan gravy by adding cider, mustard and honey.  Here's what you need:

1 boneless pork loin centre roast

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, sliced

250g cremini mushrooms, quartered
3/4 cup apple cider or apple juice
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp ground cardamom and/or nutmeg

Pork Chops with Pears and Quinoa

You can't argue with pork and pears together.  This recipe adds quinoa and some goat's cheese for a creamy, tart compliment to the sweetness of the pears.  

Here's what you need:

Pork and Plantains with Cilantro Pesto

I used to hate cilantro, but I'm becoming much more tolerant of it.  This pesto works really well with the pork and plantains and the cliantro adds a fresh, tasty kick in this interesting dish adapted from Clean Eating magazine.

Plantains were easier to find than I expected.  I thought I might have to go to the Asian grocery store, but my regular supermarket had them in stock right by the bananas.  Plantains are shaped just like bananas but are much firmer and starchier.  They need to be cooked before eating.  

Carne Adovada (Pork with Red Chilies)

This recipe comes from The Food Lab on Serious Eats.  I love this column; it has illuminated so many cooking techniques for me. The author tries many different methods until he gets the perfect result.  This might not be a 100% authentic dish, but it is 100% delicious.  

Carne Adovada is a dish from New Mexico.  It's pork stewed in a sauce made from dried chilies.  It's not terribly spicy but you get such a rich, warm heat from the chilies and spices.  The combination of chilies actually makes it taste a little chocolatey.  

Pork with Cranberry Madeira Sauce

Here's another recipe using Summer Fresh Sauces.  Summer Fresh was nice enough to send me some of these sauces to try.  This time I tried the Cranberry Madeira sauce.  

For this recipe for 4 you need:

8 thin, boneless pork chops
1/4 cup flour
10 sage leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper 
Summer Fresh Cranberry Madeira Sauce

First finely chop the sage.

Spread the flour out on a plate. Season with a little salt and pepper.

Press the chopped sage leaves into the pork chops and then dredge in the flour.

Coat both sides in flour and shake off the excess.  

Heat the oil in a non-stick pan and add the pork.  These little chops are so thin they only need a minute or two per side.  Brown on both sides.

Then remove the pork chops to a plate and cover to keep warm.

Pour the Cranberry Madeira sauce into the pan and bring it to a simmer.

Add the pork chops to the sauce and simmer 2 minutes until heated through.

I served the pork chops with a little sauce on top over an Israeli couscous mix with some steamed broccoli on the side.  They'd also be great with rice, mashed potatoes or bulgur.