Thursday Night Disaster

It had been quite a while since I had a real screw-up in the kitchen that led to something inedible. Yesterday was my day to break that streak.

I set out to make something that used up the last of the leftover chicken and kielbasa, so I combined those things with dried navy beans, onions, garlic, celery, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, pepper flakes, tomato paste, white wine and water in the pressure cooker, sealed it up, and set it to cook. I then made a "sauce" by combining peeled red pepper, crushed garlic, fresh basil, lemon zest, lemon juice, and good olive oil in the mini-food processor. The idea was to serve the bean mixture over rice, topped with the sauce.

That was the theory.

After 35 minutes of cooking, the pressure cooker opened way too easily; there was pretty much no pressure. I'm not sure what happened here, because there was some hissing coming from the cooker; I guess it just wasn't enough. Needless to say, the beans weren't cooked at all.

So I closed the pressure cooker back up, brought it back to pressure, and let it cook another 35 minutes, over higher heat this time. As the thing cooked, tantalizing smells emerged, redolent of kielbasa and rosemary. After maybe 15 minutes, there was a strange note in the smell that I couldn't really place, oh well. After 35 minutes, when I was releasing the steam, that strange note became clear: burnt food.

Opening the pressure cooker revealed the extent of the mess: the sides of the pot were black and there was a thick layer of solid burnt crap on the bottom. Shit. Ruined! I ran a bunch of water into the pot, covered it, and put it on the back of the range to try and forget about it.

Dinner ended up being quickie omelets with ham and parmesan cheese, topped with the red-pepper sauce and served with rice. Those tasted good but were ugly as sin; my french omelet technique leaves pretty much everything to be desired. Gotta practice that!

General disaster comments:

1. I think part of the problem was insufficient water in the pot. The book that came with the pressure cooker suggest adding extra water based on cooking time, and I didn't do that. Dumb.
2. Another potential snag is the tomato paste. I'm suspicious about how easily the mess cleaned up and how it didn't really smell like burning beans. So maybe the sugar content of the tomato paste is just excessive for this. Probably better to add it after the cooker is open.