Carne de Panela - Portuguese Beef Tips

I love food, always have and I think I always will, and I may sound very biased, but without a doubt, for me, one of the best foods on earth, is Portuguese.

You may say that I only think that because I'm Portuguese, but that's not necessarily true, seeing that I also think Mexican, Chinese, Indian and Italian are some of the best too.

For me though, growing up in a Portuguese home, learning to cook from a very young age and being surrounded by flavor, fresh ingredients and nothing but the simplest of homemade meals, created a love for real comfort easy dinners.

I was never one for gourmet, never one for expensive or intricate recipes or exquisite weird ingredients.  Cooking needs to come from the heart, and most importantly from your home and what you have on hand.  A little of this, a pinch of that, and a finished dinner that will stick to the ribs and leave everyone asking for more.

The recipe I'm sharing with you today is one of the simplest ways to prepare a pot of beef tips that can be served with mashed potatoes, or rice, pasta, whatever your heart desires.

I paired mine with some simple buttery white rice and some homemade pressure cooked beans with bacon.  (the recipe for those will be up shortly)

Carne de Panela - Portuguese Beef Tips

1 pound of stewing beef
4 garlic cloves
Tablespoon of kosher salt
Paprika
Chili flakes to your liking
Cheiro Verde (This is a mixture of parsley and cilantro, to taste
Olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
Half a green pepper, diced
15 oz. can of tomato sauce
2 cups of water


Using a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic cloves along with the salt, paprika and chili flakes.

In a pot, add a little bit of olive oil and the garlic mixture you just crushed.  Stir, then add the beef cubes.  Cook over medium heat until nicely browned.

Next, add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well to combine, check the seasonings and add more salt if needed.  Cover and let cook over medium heat until meat is tender and the sauce has reduced to a nice thick gravy.

Pressure Cooker Beef Tips

Ok, so this is how this meal came about.  When I meal plan I usually will write the page number of the cookbook I'm using, or make a note that it is on my blog or online elsewhere etc.

Tonight I was supposed to make Beef Tips and forgot to write any notes down.  I searched the cookbooks I'm using this week, I looked online, I looked at my blog and nothing.  I don't know where I got the idea from, but low and behold, it was there and I had already bought the meat so had to wing it.

Good thing about loving to cook and knowing how to cook, is that you pretty much know what flavors work well with others and you're not scared of trying new things.

Since getting my Pressure Cooker, I've been using it a lot and trying out different recipes.  I have yet to find one that didn't turn out well, so I figured this would be the perfect time to try cooking up some stewing beef which is one of those beef cuts that need to cook for a very long time to get it nice and tender.

I didn't have a long time, it was 4pm and I needed to get dinner on the table by 5pm.

I threw in a bit of this and a cup of that and 25 minutes later had the most delicious tender beef tips.  I'm so excited with the pressure cooker that I just have to come and share this recipe, well that and the fact that I've been so bad about sharing recipes lately and need to get butt in gear.

Now I'm sure you could certainly adapt this recipe to make it in a slow cooker for a couple of hours, or even on the stove top for two or so hours, at a low heat to get them nice and tender, but this recipe is for the digital pressure cookers.  By the way, mine is a 4 quart Gourmia Smart Pot Electric Pressure Cooker.

Pressure Cooker Beef Tips

2 pounds stewing beef
1 onion, diced
1 orange pepper, diced
2 tablespoons flour
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
olive oil
Half a bottle of Guinness Beer
1 envelope of Onion and Mushroom Soup
Worcestershire sauce
1 cup of water


In a ziploc bag, add the beef, flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion and mushroom soup.  Shake well to cover the meat.

Set your pressure cooker to Saute, add a little bit of olive oil to the bowl, dump in the onion and pepper and saute for a few minutes until onion is transparent.  Add in the meat mixture and brown.

Once the meat is brown, pour in the Guinness Beer, a few dashes of Worcestershire Sauce and the water.  Stir well.

Place the lid on and lock it.  Make sure the pressure release is set to airtight.  Cook on high for 25 minutes.  I actually used the Soup preset button which is exactly 25 minutes.  Walk away and let it do it's thing.

When the time is up, either let it release pressure on it's own, or use the quick release.  

25 minutes was enough time to make the beef tender and to create a nice thick sauce.

I served mine with rice.