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Pressure Cooker - a meandering muse... |
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Effigy
Chef Joined: 17 June 2013 Location: New Zealand Status: Offline Points: 633 |
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Posted: 29 July 2015 at 22:52 |
I have acquired some new toys over the months I have been away.
I'm going to start with the happiest toy. My Cuisinart Electric pressure cooker. I have always had a slow cooker - work, kids, life - a great way to always have something hot and nourishing available. Some of you will remember my slow cooker posts. Well the little old slow cooker has not quite died - but neither is it up to being hauled off to provide after match food for the first fifteen anymore nor do I have to do 1stXV, because this year manchild is seven hundred miles away at university. So its just the old boy and me now. Thinking I would like a new slow cooker I went to the local kitchen shop to see what they had in that line. It was fatal attraction. The Cuisinart pressure cooker/slow cooker was marked down to half price! Ask yourself, what would you do in the same circumstance? But! I was responsible - I came home and used Mr Google thoroughly, and went back the next day with my money. Now the pressure cooker lives on the bench where the slow cooker used to and the first question in my mind is this. When the kids were growing up we had a tiny lounge, virtually no kitchen and they shared bunk beds in two small rooms, the slow cooker was quite small - 2 litre. Now I have high ceilings, a huge lounge and no kids, the bench and kitchen aren't massive but they are spacious and there is this giant 4 litre appliance where the little one sat all those years, and there is just me and the ol' boy. How does that work? So why do I love this toy so much? It is fast! Chuck steak, lamb shanks, Osso bucco, done in an hour and delicious too. There is another discussion going on about cheap cuts escalating in price - well pressure cooker osso bucco dudes! Mine aren't really veal, not even nearly - its 18month old shin bones. I use the browning setting which does what it says - it gets a good caramelisation happening, I add passata from the tomatoes I grew last summer (southern hemisphere don't forget) so only six months ago, celery - I grow great celery, and carrots - I'll show you my carrot garden in another post, garlic, and fresh herbs all from my organic garden. Salt / pepper jam the lid on and 50 - 55 minutes later it stops cooking and starts decompressing - At that point I prep the potatoes (or rice) and greens and it all comes together half an hour later. The recipe book that came with it is pretty good and you learn how to do a kind of "Take the total time and subtract minutes until everything arrives perfectly done in the one pot" sort of cooking - but in all honesty I have had some really good geriatric home results from that - MUSH! However the flavours and ideas in the book are easily adaptable by anyone who has a little nous in a kitchen. The corn beef I will do a post on because it is sensational. So, have any of you got pressure cooker stories and recipes to swap? |
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Resident Peasant
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gonefishin
Master Chef Joined: 20 September 2012 Status: Offline Points: 1778 |
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Sounds great effigy!
I haven't heard of a combination pressure cooker/slow cooker, now there's an oxymoron for us. After just doing some light reading it seems that this also works as a rice cooker as well? Having never used an electric pressure cooker, can you tell me if it comes up to temp/pressure in a reasonable time? The only experience I have with pressure cookers is with my stove top version, which I used to use from time to time...but it doesn't keep a good seal any more. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on your new toy! Can't wait to see more recipes!
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Enjoy The Food!
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Effigy
Chef Joined: 17 June 2013 Location: New Zealand Status: Offline Points: 633 |
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My mother had a stovetop pressure cooker, two or three I think and she was forever replacing the seals.
One of the things I checked for before purchase was the availability of replacement parts, Cuisinart seem to have fantastic customer service world wide - a few detractors have a grumble , but frankly they seemed like to sort who grumble because their lives are dull. All parts are freely available and not expensive (not cheap either, fair priced I would say). The other thing I took into consideration pre purchase was the fact that electric pressure cookers do not make quite as much pressure as stove top models, but in real terms its is maybe a difference of ten to fifteen minutes on a large lump of something like chuck, not an issue in my book. It reaches pressure in about two to three minutes and seals with a very satisfying 'thwunk' and then sits there merrily steaming ever so slightly for the duration of the cook, which because it is electric, is controlled by a timer. For those of us who enjoy a glass of wine while reading the news at days end and easily distracted by either something in the news or a second glass or both the ability to turn itself off is a most excellent feature. Yes it cooks rice, no, I haven't tried that yet. Beans, chick peas etc, from dry in the jar to tender takes 35 minutes, no soaking needed - wow! just WOW. |
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Resident Peasant
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Tom Kurth
Chef's Apprentice Joined: 10 May 2015 Location: Alma, MO Status: Offline Points: 251 |
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is it usable for canning/
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Best,
Tom Escape to Missouri |
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Effigy
Chef Joined: 17 June 2013 Location: New Zealand Status: Offline Points: 633 |
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Probably you could use it for that - I am a bit lazy with my preserving - I just freeze what we need. and here we call it 'bottling' not 'canning', using glass jars with dome seals. But I don't bother because we wind up with such a glut that I can't get rid of it.
I will definitely be using it for passata and tomato paste in the summer. |
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Resident Peasant
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gonefishin
Master Chef Joined: 20 September 2012 Status: Offline Points: 1778 |
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I think you just forced me to look for deals on one of these...maybe around Cyber Monday... ...it's sounding very good! I like the idea of a quick heat, no waiting for finicky seals and electric element heating. Thanks
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Enjoy The Food!
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gonefishin
Master Chef Joined: 20 September 2012 Status: Offline Points: 1778 |
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I Just got an Instant Pot...works so much better than my conventional pressure cooker. Just got done cooking 2" chunk chuck roast for 35 minutes...turned out wonderful. In addition to being a pressure cooker it will also sautee (handy before PC), slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer and a few other options.
Really seems nice so far
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Enjoy The Food!
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Percebes
Chef's Apprentice Joined: 10 October 2014 Location: Calgary Status: Offline Points: 449 |
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I have been eyeing the models that have a yogurt function. Does yours? If so can you tell me the temperature range that can be achieved in that setting? I do not make yogurt, but see a possible application that may simplify my cheese making |
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I am a wine enthusiast. The more wine I drink, the more enthusiastic I become.
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gonefishin
Master Chef Joined: 20 September 2012 Status: Offline Points: 1778 |
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I have the Instant Pot Lux, which is a 6 in1 cooker...which does not have a yogurt option. The Instant Pot Duo is very similar, is a 7 in 1 cooker, and does have the yogurt option. You can see the yogurt temperatures below for the Duo versions Comparisons between Instant Pot IP-DUO and IP-LUXFeature comparison between Instant Pot IP-LUX and Instant Pot IP-DUO. The highlighted features are unique in IP-DUO series.
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Enjoy The Food!
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Melissa Mead
Master Chef Joined: 17 July 2010 Location: Albany, NY, USA Status: Offline Points: 1174 |
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I got a mini Instant Pot for Christmas. Looks like it can do all kinds of fun stuff!
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pitrow
Master Chef Joined: 22 November 2010 Location: Newberg, Oregon Status: Offline Points: 1078 |
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I picked one up on black friday, but so far I've only done boiled eggs. They peel so easy from the pressure cooker. BTW, there are instructions on the interwebs for doing yogurt in the LUX models without the yogurt button. It's a much more manual process, but can be done. |
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Mike
Life in PitRow - My often neglected, somewhat eccentric, occasionally outstanding blog |
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Melissa Mead
Master Chef Joined: 17 July 2010 Location: Albany, NY, USA Status: Offline Points: 1174 |
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It did a great job of turning stew beef tender.
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Melissa Mead
Master Chef Joined: 17 July 2010 Location: Albany, NY, USA Status: Offline Points: 1174 |
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I just made Zuppa Toscana in it, and it turned out well.
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