Quote:
Originally Posted by JiriHrdina
I'd like to hear more about the pressure cookers. What other types of meals can you make with them?
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Mainly soups and stews I believe. Almost anything that you usually use a pot normally for. I've also seen a lot of experimentation with pressure cookers for things like rice.
I haven't done much cooking via pressure cooking, but things I noticed:
- Foods cook anywhere between 2/3 to half the regular cooking time. I've seen even higher savings for foods that need simmering. I just turn off the power sooner and let it sit inside. My dad has a few recipes that generally take something like 3:00 to do can do the soup/stew in something like 40 mins to an hour.
- Meats cooked in stews etc. isn't ever dry/hard and often ends up "softer". "Over cooking" often obliterates meat and turns it into something like shredded pork. In certain recipes, you want this to happen and can't emulate it on a stove.
- Less water is required to cook the food. Tweaking water ratios is necessary at times. Flavour is retained well. Using boiled water in the pressure cooker can also save a bit of time. Just turn on the kettle while prepping the other food to go in.
- Although there is a bit of steam that comes out after cooking (de-pressurizing) that may spray a little bit of water here and there (I sometimes toss a wet rag close to the release valve) cleanup is relatively easy. Furthermore, with less simmering soups and stews on the stove, less clean up there too).
- You can't really over cook anything. You can split a meal like pressure cook chicken breasts or pork tenderloin in less than 30 minutes while cooking greens on the stove on the side. No need to monitor the meat other than a timer too.
- Allows me to experiment with more complex recipes for meals as the time savings means I won't starve as long or snack as much while cooking if I decide to try cooking something more intricate.
There are also new electric pressure cookers now that can be acquired on Amazon. My parents have one and I am contemplating getting one soon as well. They easily are much more convenient than the stove top pressure cookers.
http://www.amazon.ca/Instant-Pot-IP-...essure+cookers
I think my dad has mentioned it has a slow cooker function, but I really don't know. I have only used it a few times mainly for soups and stews.
EDIT: After taking a look, I think my dad has the model lower to this.
I think it's either this one or the model just lower than this. My dad even brought this thing camping and made rich soups in less time than it took for us to split wood and start a fire.
http://allrecipes.com/recipes/11978/...essure-cooker/