Due to a foreseen buttload of work overtime coinciding with seeing one for sale at Costco, I have a new kitchen toy. I’m hoping it will help us maintain the discipline to come home from work late and hungry and make something healthy (and cheap) like dal instead of ordering takeout.
So we bought it yesterday, and I just finished making a pot roast which smells fabulous (which is cooling in the fridge for tomorrow’s dinner) and am just starting up a batch of white bean soup with smoked pork hock, garlic, rosemary, celery, and parsnip. I’m beginning this thing could change my life; I’m not generally awake enough on weekday mornings to throw together something for the Crock-Pot, but this could accomplish much the same purpose.
So - give me some more ideas! Tips, tricks, and especially recipes - what do you cook in your pressure cooker?
I’ve had good luck adapting slow cooker recipes. Stew, shredded beef, that kind of thing. I typically use my pressure cooker when I decide I want something slow cooked for dinner but it’s too later for that, so I just wait until closer to dinner, toss it in the PC add more liquid then I would for the slow cooker and crank it up.
It would probably be very similar to a pot roast recipe. Brisket + liquid + spices/veggies + pressure cook for about 45 minutes or so and you should be good to go.
My tips are, when doing stews, brown the meat well before putting it in the pressure cooker to develop flavor (unless you are doing a type of stew that specifically avoids browning).
The pressure cooker is particularly awesome for stocks and broths. Absolutely phenomenal. Just use your favorite stock recipe, cook it under pressure for about 30-60 minutes (I do less for chicken, more for beef), and perfect stock without having to wait a whole day. I let it come down to pressure naturally on the stove after finishing it, but you can put it under cold water and release the pressure manually, if you’re in a hurry.
Oh, I should add, for certain stews, if you don’t want your vegetables to turn into mush, it’s best to add them about five minutes or so before the end. So, this means you need to take it off the heat, drop the pressure, add the veggies, return it to pressure. What I’ll often do is just use the pressure cooker for stewing the beef and making it soft/rendering out the collagen, and then dump it into a Dutch oven (or just keep it in the pressure cooker, but not under pressure) and put in the vegetables I don’t want to get mushy and finish them the conventional way.
Also, any tips for beans? The booklet that came with the pressure cooker says canellini beans should take 33 - 38 minutes, but the ones I put in an hour ago still aren’t done. I guess it’s just a matter of practice? Are cooking times for beans more reliable if you soak them first?
I remember him making it with prunes. I do, believe.
I think a prune- fresh, dried, pickled, salted and canned sauce with fresh habaneros, Dried Nag Jolkia Ghost Chiles Powder, garlic, black vinegar, 5 spice, dark brown sugar, Heinz 57, and pineapple juice would make a great wing sauce.