Tinga - Mexican Spiced Meat Mixture
Serves 8-12

12 cups water
2 lbs flank steak
1 medium white onion, spiked with 4 whole cloves
1/2 head garlic, cut in half
2 bay leaves
1 sprig thyme
1 sprig marjoram
salt

3/4 cup olive oil or lard
6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2 medium white onions, cut on the diagonal
1 1/2 cups chorizo, fired
6 large tomatoes, roasted and skinned
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 to 4 canned Chiles Chipotles, in adobo sauce, cut in strips
3 dried chiles chipotles, washed fried and soaked for 10 minutes, cut in strips

4 bay leaves
2 whole cloves, ground
1/2 cinnamon stick, 4 inches long, ground
1 tsp. ground black pepper
Salt to taste
1/3 cup vinegar
3 Tbsp brown sugar

white rice
2 ripe avocados, sliced
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced thinly
4 canned chiles chipotles, in adobo sauce

Bring the water to a boil in a pressure cooker or large saucepan.
Add the meat, onion, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, marjoram and salt
to taste. Cook for 1 1/4 hours if using a pressure cooker, or 2
1/2 hours if using the saucepan, or until the meat is tender. Add
water if necessary. Allow the meat to cool in the broth. Remove
from the broth and shred finely. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking broth.

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Saute the garlic and onion.
Stir in the fried chorizo, tomato, garlic, chile chipotles with
adobo sauce and fried chipotles. Saute. Add bay leaves, cloves,
cinnamon, pepper, salt, vinegar and brown sugar. Cook until the
mixture thickens, about 45 minutes. Stir occasionally and adjust
seasoning to taste. Then add the shredded meat along with a cup of
cooking broth and cook another 25 minutes.

If the sauce is too thin, add about 2 tbsp. of masa dissolved in
1/2 c. water. Stir into the sauce and cook until the desired
consistency.  (or you may use 1 tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in cold
water)

MEXICAN STEAK FAJITAS - Genie

1 lb. round steak cut into cubes
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
2 Tbs. cooking oil
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 can (2 cups) whole kernel corn, drained
1 1/4 cups tomato juice
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 Tbs. cornstarch
1/4 cup water

Brown meat, onion and green pepper in hot oil in cooker. Season
with salt and pepper. Add corn, tomato juice and chili powder.
Cover, set control at 10 and cook 12 minutes after control jiggles.
Cool normally for 5 minutes, then place cooker under faucet to
release pressure. Thicken gravy with cornstarch mixed with cold
water. Cook until clear. Serve over rice, or mashed potatoes. For
something more tradtional, drain off excess liquid and roll steak
mixture in warm tortillas with fresh salsa. 4 Servings.

Mexican Shredded Beef - Genie

5 lb. beef and/or venison roast
3 onions, chopped
4 oz green chilies, chopped, mild
14 oz green chili salsa
1/4 tsp garlic powder
4 TBS flour
1 TBS salt
1 tsp. cumin
2 C. water

In your pressure cooker: Using med-hi heat, sear meat on both sides
until crispy brown or until it can be pulled away from the pan.
Add remaining ingredients.  Close up your pressure cooker and bring
up to 15 lbs pressure and cook there for 60 minutes.

Quick cool by sitting in sink and pouring cool water over the lid
(the spray nozzle works good for this).  Once all pressure gages
show no more pressure inside, you may open.  (This only takes about
30 seconds)

Shred meat with a fork or with a potato masher.  You can freeze
and add to your Mexican dishes. 


ENCHILADAS

1 med onion, chopped (about 1/2 C)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 C. chicken broth
1-2 TBS chili powder
1 tsp oregano leaves
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
8 oz tomato sauce
12 6" corn tortillas
3 C. cooked, shredded beef or chicken
1 C. (4oz) shredded montery jack or sharp cheddar cheese
Sour Cream

Cook and stir onion & garlic in 2 qt saucepan until onion is tender.
Stir in broth and spices.  Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer 10
min.  Dip each tortilla into sauce to coat both sides.  Spoon 1/4
C. of the meat onto each tortilla: roll tortilla up.  Place seam
sides down, in ungreased rectangular baking dish.  Pour remianing
sauce over enchiladas.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Bake uncovered 350
until cheese is melted, about 10-12 min.  Longer if meat was cold
when assembling. Top with sour cream, lettuce and diced tomato if
desired.

Note: To make ahead, place enchiladas in baking dish, top with
cheese, but do not pour remaining sauce over it.  Cover refrigerate
up to 24 hours.  Or cover and freeze.  Freeze sauce in a zipper
baggie.  To serve, thaw, pour sauce over enchiladas; bake uncovered
350 for 20-30 minutes.

SOUTHWEST SUCCOTASH - Genie

1 Tbs. safflower or canola oil
3/4 tsp. cumin seeds
2 tsp. finely minced garlic
1 cup coarsely chopped onion
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
1 to 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced, or 1 dried chipotle pepper,
   seeded and snipped into bits, or generous pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup water
2 Tbs. tomato paste
1 1/2 lbs. butternut or kabocha squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernals
Salt to taste
2 cups frozen baby lima beans, thawed
1/4 to 1/3 cup minced cilantro

Heat oil in pressure cooker.  Add cumin seeds; sizzle 5 seconds.
Add garlic; cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until
garlic turns light brown. Add onions, bell pepper and jalapeno;
continue cooking, stirring frequently, 1 minute.

Add water, tomato paste, squash, corn and salt. Lock lid in place.
Over high heat, bring to high pressure. Lower heat just enough to
maintain high pressure; cook 2 minutes. Reduce pressure with
quick-release method.  Remove lid. If squash is not quite tender,
replace but do not lock lid; allow squash to steam a few more
minutes in residual heat.

Stir in lima beans; simmer, covered, until tender, 2 or 3 minutes.
Stir in cilantro just before serving. Serves 6.

Refried Beans - Genie 

2 lbs dried pinto beans 
2-3 onions
1 tbsp. salt
water
3-4 slices bacon (optional)
chopped peppers (optional)

Your cooker should come with basic instructions for cooking pinto 
beans.  Look there first for water/bean ratios, times and pressures.
I've included numbers for my cooker.  Speaking of which, my cooker
is actually a canner, so I don't know if a cooker can actually hold
two pounds of cooked beans.  Assume the beans will double in size
and don't overload your cooker.

Soak and wash the beans as described above.  If you put the lid on
while heating the water, remove the gasket first and leave the
weight off the vent tube.

Refill the pot with beans and water as described by your cooker
manual.  My instructions suggest about 14-15 cups of water are
needed for two pounds of beans.  Do not skimp on the water; you do
*not* want the beans to absorb all the water and boil dry during
the cooking process.

Prepare the other ingredients as described above, but cut into
smaller pieces.  Add all ingredients to the cooker.  If not using
bacon, add about a tablespoon of vegetable oil to prevent foam from
gunking up your cooker hardware.

Cook as specified for your cooker.  Mine generally takes about 15
minutes to bring to a boil, five more minutes bringing the pressure
up, 10 minutes cooking at pressure, and a five minute cooling period
before the pot may be opened, for a total of 35 minutes.

Making refried beans

Beans & broth from step one
Vegetable oil or lard  (lard is more traditional and supposedly tastes
  better, but on the other hand, it's lard)

Heat about 1 tbsp. of oil or lard in a large skillet, and add enough
drained beans (with onion bits & so on) to cover the bottom of the
skillet.  Allow them to fry for a moment, then mash them with a
potato masher as they continue to cook.  Depending on preference
you may or may not mash them completely, but reduce them to at
least a lumpy paste.  Stir to mix and add a bit of bean broth if
necessary to keep them from drying out too much; you want something that's barely thick enough to hold its shape when spread.

You'll probably have to do this about four times to use up all the
beans.

Black Beans - Genie

1 lb. black beans
1 medium to large onion
1 medium green pepper
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 bay leaves
12 green olives

Procedure to soften beans:  Look through beans and discard any
rocks and ugly beans.

Using a pressure cooker (best method) - put the beans in the pot
(spread them on the bottom) and add enough water to have 2 fingers
of water over the beans.  Add a big slice of the green pepper.
Cover and cook for 20 minutes (this is 20 minutes after the pressure
cap starts rocking)

Without pressure cooker - The night before, put beans in a pot and
cover with water just as in the pressure cooker method. Let sit
overnight. Add a big slice of green pepper and boil covered for
about 2 hours until softened.

After beans are softened:  Sautee chopped onions, crushed garlic,
chopped peppers in olive oil. Add the sauteed mixture, pepper,
oregano, bay leaves and salt to beans.

Cover (if you're using pressure cooker don't cook in pressure, just
cover the pot without tightening the cover like a normal pot) and
boil at low to medium heat for 1/2 hour. Don't let it full boil,
it has to be inbetween simmering and boiling.

Add the olives and cook for 15 to 30 minutes more uncovered, until
it reaches the consistency you want. Some people like the water to
thicken more than others, but keep in mind that it will always
thicken more after cooked and settled.

A couple minutes before they are done, add sugar, vinegar and more
salt if desired. Cook for a couple more minutes.  You will have to
taste for salt as you cook them, but for 1lb., 2 tsp should be
enough.

If you want to double the recipe, you don't need to double the
olive oil, just add enough to be able to sautee the ingredients.
You also don't need to double the olives. You will probably need
more than double the salt. And for each lb. of beans you need 2
fingers of water over the beans (so 4 fingers for 2 lbs.).

Mexican Tortilla Soup - Genie 

1/3 cup oil
2 onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 can (15 oz.) tomatoes, drained
3 quarts chicken broth
Tortilla chips
cilantro, chopped
1 pound grated cheese
lime wedges (optional)

Heat oil in cooker, then add onions and garlic cloves. Saute until
deep golden brown.  Remove from cooker and puree with tomatoes in
blender or food processor until smooth. Return to cooker and add
broth. Heat to boiling. Bring up to high pressure, reduce heat and
cook 10 minutes. Release pressure and remove the lid. Add cilantro
and salt to taste. Place cheese and tortilla chips in individual
soup bowls and pour hot soup on top. Serve with lime wedges, if
desired.