Stew with Big Fluffies

It is a rainy cold gray morning and Raul has his hands full with a stressful situation. What to do when under pressure? Drag out the pressure cooker and make stew.

Raul thaws some steak that was a gift from the lovely Princess Seraphina next door who is somehow convinced that R&D need fattening up so she often proffers food. Seraphina is also enamoured with the dog because of his ability to terrorize door to door annoyances - he is very good at scaring them away as long as the door isn't opened so that they can discover he is only eight pounds of sheer volume. "I thought you might use these," she said, "just in case you missed the sale."

Raul caramelizes a chopped onion. He then adds, chopped, two stalks of celery and two carrots which are also caramelized. The steaks are browned on the bbq and all is put into the pressure cooker with six cups of stock. The mixture is cooked at 12 psi for 30 minutes. The meat is cooled while the vegetables are strained out of the stock. He brings the stock to a boil and then makes and adds roux (flour and oil cooked slowly until it browns. He then adds four chopped potatoes, three cups of vegetables (frozen carrots, broccoli and cauliflower in this case) and the meat cut into cubes with salt, pepper and herbs to taste, and leaves it to simmer about 20 minutes or long enough for the potatoes to get tender and to make the Big Fluffies. 

Just before serving Raul stirs in a cup of frozen peas and ladles the hearty concoction into bowls. The dog who has been frantic with anticipation sits as patiently as he is able while the rich aroma fills the apartment - after all the meat was a gift thanks to his watchdog skills. The pressure cooker cuts the time down immensely - the meat is tender and the stew tastes as if it had been cooking for days, the flavour is intense and blended. Biscuits and stew, suddenly there is no stress or rainy day feelings.