This Christmas was the Year of the Gadgets. When the dust settled, our kitchen had acquired a pressure cooker, ice cream maker, bread machine, and wine making kit. We also received what appeared to be an electric knife which I then regifted without first looking in the box--oops! Luckily that was to Wife's mom, who thought it was funny.
Anyway. With all of these new contraptions around, I've been having a series of minor failures in the kitchen lately. The bread I made had a mushroom top that collapsed. I've made some amazing ice cream, but also some not-so-good ice cream. But I have repeatedly tried and failed to get a handle on this pressure cooker thing.
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| The shiny menace! |
I have successfully used it to cook potatoes, but that's been the long and short of it. When I've tried to use it to actually prepare a dish, I've ended up with something soggy and not at all appetizing.
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Norwegian Surprise: as delicious as it sounds.
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So, dear reader, I am asking you for assistance! Do you have a pressure cooker? Do you have a recipe you always like to make with it? I'm all ears!
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| I know there is the potential for deliciousness in here. |
I don't have a pressure cooker, and when I acquire one, it will be a pressure CANNER--double-duty type and all, and HUGE. However, from what I've heard, people mostly use the pressure cooker to cook grains and beans quickly, then make something out of those. Owning the contraption means never having to buy canned beans again--I'm a little jealous. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteI have heard about your first couple of attempts--what else have you tried?
ReplyDeleteAlton Brown, good eats, uses it to make stock quickly.
ReplyDeleteI use mine all the time, which is why I gave you The Shiny Menace, and I also use it a lot for quickly making soup--basically the preperation of most kinds of soups can be significantly accellerated up with it.
ReplyDeleteYes! My mom makes mashed potatoes in a pressure cooker. Instead of boiling potatoes for thirty minutes, you let it get hot and then it's only ten minutes of actual pressure cooking before the potatoes are ready. Also, my mom swears that the pressure cooker helps give the final product a more fluffy texture.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, the only things I know how to make in a pressure cooker wouldn't do you much good, as they are mostly some form of brisket. I will poll some of my other culinary inclined fiends to see if they can help with this challenge!
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to report that I successfully prepped hoppin' John and chili in this, so as far as beans go, we are friends.
ReplyDeleteOne of the main purposes of the pressure cooker is to speed up cooking times while preserving nutrients (because things are not cooked so long). Although it is great for things like potatoes and beans, it is also wonderful for tenderizing poor cuts of meat--as Chris pointed out. But as you are not interested in meat, no matter whether tender or tough, that is not a trait that wins many points with you.
ReplyDeleteI get the impression that part of the problem in your previous experiments was that things came out tasting bland and rather mushy--which may have been the result of overcooking. Here is a recipe I made up a couple of weeks ago that is tasty and which makes good use of the pressure cooker's ability to speed up the process, thus saving energy.
Hungarian Fish Soup
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 slices of bacon (for those of your readers not disgusted by meat)
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs of sweet Hungarian paprika
1 vegetable bullion cube (if possible without MSG or any of that flavor-enhancing ilk)
1 pound of fish fillets, cut up small (frozen fish works well--you do not even need to thaw it all the way, just enough so you can cut it up)
2 red potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 green peppers, chopped
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 cup of frozen corn
1 cup of chopped celery
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut up
1 tsp marjoram
cayenne pepper to taste (or 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped up fine)
dash of liquid smoke (this helps pep things up if you do not use bacon—-but it is also optional)
salt to taste
In the pressure cooker, fry the onions and garlic (and bacon if you are into it) in the oil until the onions are glassy. Then add the paprika and fry it with the onions for about 20 seconds—but don’t let it burn! Then add the other vegetables and fish and the remaining seasonings, except for the salt, then enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. Close the pressure cooker and bring it up to pressure over high heat. Then turn off the heat and let the soup finish cooking using just the residual steam left in the pressure cooker. This normally takes about 10 minutes or so. Once the pressure has come back down again, the soup will be done. Add salt to taste and adjust the seasoning, if needed.
Good luck!
The only things I know of using a pressure cooker for are canning and speeding up cooking times on things like beans and grains. But then I don't own one, so my experience is quite limited.
ReplyDeleteOk, here is another soup recipe that makes use of the same technique as the one above (bring it up to pressure and then turn off the heat).
ReplyDeleteShrimpy Cream of Leek Soup (serves 4)
For the soup:
3 big leeks
3 tbs of butter
1 garlic clove
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 1/2 cups of vegetable broth
3/4 cup cream
pinch of nutmeg
dash of Worcestershire Sauce
dash of Tabasco
salt and pepper to taste
few gratings of lemon peel
Marinated Shrimp for the soup:
1/2 pound of frozen, cleaned and peeled shrimp
1 tsp of cornstarch
1/2 tsp of finely chopped ginger
1/2 tsp of finely chopped garlic
2 tbs of corn oil
1 tsp of sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs sherry
a sprig of chopped cilantro
a sprig of chopped parsley
a sprinkling of sugar
Carefully clean the leeks--dirt tends to collect where the leaves separate from the stem. Chop the white portions of the leek, reserving the green portions for later. Melt 3 tbs of butter in the pressure cooker along with the garlic. Add the white part of the leeks, the potatoes and the vegetable broth. Close the pressure cooker and bring it up to pressure, then turn off the heat and let the residual steam cook the soup. Once the pressure has come down again by itself, the broth is done. Then puree it with a hand blender, and add the seasonings, adjusting to taste. The last thing that goes in is the cream.
While the soup is cooking, prepare the shrimp: Pour some boiling water over the frozen shrimp and then drain after 30 seconds, and then rinse under running cold water. Dry them off with a paper towel, and set aside. Chop the ginger, about a cup of the remaining leek (don't use the tough dark green leaves, just the light green, tender parts), cilantro, parsley and garlic. Then just before you want to serve the soup, fry the shrimp, leek, and garlic quickly in the oil (I use a wok) until the shrimp turn pink. Remove from the heat. Then add the finely chopped parsley and cilantro, sugar, the soy sauce, sherry, salt and pepper to taste. Evenly distribute the shrimp in four bowls, pour the broth over them and serve immediately.