Buta no Pressure

This is a pressure cooker version of buta no kakuni, which is a pretty common household dish. While the traditional recipe takes about 3-4 hours to cook, my pressure cooker version takes about 1.5 hours to cook. RESULT!

BUT FOR REALZ. This is one of my favorite dishes. Total comfort food. I'd always go to a restaurant or depend on a friend's mom to have this dish, and it wasn't until about a month ago that I HAD to make it for myself. Due to today's Life 2.0 pace, I had to make it quicker.

1. On a hot pan put a little oil and brown the pork on all sides. I use a bit of salt and pepper to get the flavor going.

2. When browned gently transfer the pork to a pressure cooker and add the sake, ginger, green onion and put enough water to cover the pork. Whack on the pressure cooker lid and set it on high until the pressure release is piping on a steady rate. At this point, reduce the heat to medium and let it do it's thing for 30 minutes.

3. When the 30 minutes are up, run cold water over the pressure cooker to lower the pressure and safely remove the lid. You should at that very moment get a wonderful aroma of sake, ginger and pork. Beautimus.

4. At this point, I gingerly transfer the pork to a seperate place (be careful, they are pretty damn soft at this point) and strain the cooked sauce to get the ginger and green onion bits out and transfer some of the broth back into the pot (I saved about 1/2 for future use).

5. Put the pork back into the pot with the broth and add the soy sauce, mirin, sugar and radish (you can at this point also put soft- boiled peeled eggs). With the lid off, let it simmer for about an hour.

6. When the sauce has reduced a bit and everything has a wonderful caramely color. Serve and enjoy.

The only downside of the pressure cooked version is that it somewhat beats up the pork. But I think the for the quickness, it's worth it.

*I can't believe I used the term "Life 2.0".