15-Bean Soup with Sausage (PCP)

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 12 ounce hot or sweet Italian sausage
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped fine
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme or 1/4 teaspoon dried
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 10 ounces (1 1/2 cups) 15-bean soup mix, flaring packed discarded, picked over, rinsed, and salt-soaked [Soaking overnight is generally recommended for cooking beans though I have never bothered to before.  However, it is very important to do so while using a pressure cooker as this helps reduce foaming that can clog the cooker.]
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 ounces Swiss chard, stemmed and chopped
•  1 large tomato, cored and chopped
• Salt and pepper

Mise en place.

Brown sausage in oil over medium-high heat.

Set aside and cook onion and carrot until softened.

Stir in garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant.

Stir in broth, soaked beans, and bay leaves, scraping up fond.  Add sausage and any accumulated juices.

Bring to high pressure and cook for 25 minutes.

Transfer sausage to cutting board and cut into 1/2-inch slice.  Meanwhile, bring soup to simmer, stir in chard and tomato, and cook until chard is tender.  Add back sausage and season with salt and pepper.

I'm pretty sure this was my first pressure cooker dish.  Mindblowing how beans can get to such a perfect consistency and the soup is so richly flavored with such a short ingredient list.  I've become officially a believer of pressure cookers.

Swiss chard, chickpea, and tamarind stew (Plenty)

• 4 tbsp seedless tamarind pulp [Too lazy to seek this out in some crazy market.  Super 88 if they have any is too much of a trek.]
• 1 lb Swiss chard (stalks and leaves), cut into 3/8-inch slices
• 1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to finish
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• one 14-oz can chopped plum tomatoes, with their juices
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 2 1/2 cups freshly cooked chickpeas (or a 14-oz can, drained)
• salt and black pepper
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 cup Greek yogurt (optional) [Nope]
• generous handful cilatro leaves
• 1 3/4 cups short-grain rice
• 1 1/2 tbsp butter
• 3 cups water

Toasting the coriander seeds.  I'm sure I could've easily just whizzed them in the coffee grinder, but I decided to do what Ottolenghi said and broke out the mortar and pestle.

Mise en place.

Blanching the chard in salted water.

There were some steps in here, but it seems like I figured to only photograph very few of them.  Basically this is a bowl with practically everything in it except for the cilantro and lemon and...

Rice pilaf.  Which strikes me as far more foolproof a way of cooking rice on a stovetop than normal rice.  Not like I do that since I have a rice cooker.

Very good dish.  I only added the juice of half of a lemon since I thought the dish was quite sour enough as is.  I guess I didn't have cilantro this time around.

This is also a weird culinary mash-up since I'm pretty sure they don't use tamarind in the middle east.