Pressure cooker recipes / questions

seraphina

coggin wrote: »

I purchased a PC some months ago and love how it speeds up my spuds and veg, I have done some meats in it as well but what I can't understand is do you need to have all the food in the trivet and raised above the water. In many of the receipes it talks of browning the meat in hot oil before bringing it to pressure, so do you need to put the food in the trivet or do you just cook it all in the bottom of the PC.

Thanks for any help

You don't need to have the food in the trivet -for meat, you just brown as usual and then treat it as a normal saucepan - add your stock/tinned toms or what have you then bring to pressure.

I only use the trivet for steaming things - like new potatoes, or to rest a pudding basin on.

No matter whether you're using a trivet or not, your pressure cooker will specify in the manual a minimum amount of liquid - usually a few cups or so. It's essential to have at least this amount of liquid in before you put the lid on and bring it to pressure.

cooking-mama

Lakeland are selling a handy little pressure cooker book for £4.99,i'l try and post some recipes once ive tried them.
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/the-pressure-cooker-book/F/keyword/pressure+cooker+book/product/14207

Thriftybynature

hello! I want to get to grips with PC cooking - have got an old one from my gran but I just don't trust it! Have only every used it to do last years xmas pud & it wasn't too successful so the seal may have gone! Has anyone seen a PC bargain about?

I do have a nice book but was bought from the 'bookman' that comes to my work! Amazon have it though:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everyday-Pressure-Cooker-Recipes/dp/1741856094/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1280406327&sr=1-1

as a PC newbie it is full of comforting advice & recipes!

morganlefay

We've all been very quiet on here lately...very busy enjoying all the time we've saved by pressure coking perhaps !
I bought the Suzanne Gibbs cookbook and it's got some good recipes in it but I just wondered if anyone had tried her 'pressure cooked roast potatoes' - p58. I'm a bit nervous as they have so little water in them and I don't want to destroy my pc but the picture looks very yummy - anyone tried them ?

seraphina

I've just bought the Vegetarian Cooking under Pressure by Lorna Sass. Got lots of lovely wholegrain recipes in it I'm looking forward to trying! I did make a brilliant vegetarian chilli (my own recipe, not one from the book) in the PC at the weekend to feed a horde of friends that descended:

125g black beans
125g kidney beans
soaked all day whilst I was at work, then the water changed and cooked for 12 mins at 15lb pressure. Let cool naturally and drain.

Then, finely chop:

2 onions
2 sticks celery

and fry in a glug of oil until soft and going brown at the edges. Add:

2 cloves minced garlic
2 red chillies, deseeded and chopped
1tsp fajita mix (had it knocking around)
1tbps cumin
1tbps ground ginger
2tsp smoked paprika

Stir and fry for a few mins until the spices begin to smell nice. Then add:

1 red pepper, chopped
200g mushrooms, chopped

Fry for a minute and add a generous glass of wine. Let that bubble and add:

2 cans tomatoes (I used 1x chopped, 1x whole)
a few squares chocolate
1tsp Marmite

Close lid, bring to pressure and cook for 15mins at 15lbs pressure.

Use natural release to cool. As you don't lose any moisture during cooking, it's quite liquidy so then I take half the reserved beans and puree them with a little of the reserved bean cooking liquid in a food processor. Stir into the tomatoey/veg mixture along with the rest of the beans and it thickens up a treat! I stirred in a big bunch of corriander at the end as well.

seraphina

morganlefay wrote: »

We've all been very quiet on here lately...very busy enjoying all the time we've saved by pressure coking perhaps !
I bought the Suzanne Gibbs cookbook and it's got some good recipes in it but I just wondered if anyone had tried her 'pressure cooked roast potatoes' - p58. I'm a bit nervous as they have so little water in them and I don't want to destroy my pc but the picture looks very yummy - anyone tried them ?

As long as you use at least the minimum water specified in the KR manual it should be fine. I can't remember the last time I cooked spuds, other than jacket potatoes, not using the pressure cooker:D So nice not to have a steamy kitchen in the summer.

Also, how come all my veg keep their colours so well in the pressure cooker? I thought the high temperatures would fade the colours, but peas stay bright green and red peppers look even redder after cooking!

unhappy_shopper

I have a Hawkins Futura pressure cooker and 2 Prestige pressure pans. These form the mainstay of my cooking utensils. Anything and everything is prepared in these. They are especially time & money-saving when cooking lamb/chicken/beef. This site has very good recipes for pressure cookers.

http://fastcooking.ca/pressure_cookers/beans_rice_risotto_recipes_pressure_cookers.htm

propinquitas

HI. Just spotted this thread and this may be a tad late but you do not need to soak pulses overnight or for 8 hours prior to cooking them in a pressure cooker. I only soak for max 1 hour in boiling water any pulses I cook with and that includes kidney beans. These were the instructions I had with my very first pressure cooker that I had as a wedding present 26 years ago.

We eat alot of pulses and the pressure cooker is excellent as you don't have to plan from the day before and remember to soak.

Hope this helps - sorry it's late.

cooking-mama

morganlefay wrote: »

I bought the Suzanne Gibbs cookbook and it's got some good recipes in it but I just wondered if anyone had tried her 'pressure cooked roast potatoes' - p58. I'm a bit nervous as they have so little water in them and I don't want to destroy my pc but the picture looks very yummy - anyone tried them ?

Morganleyfay,is this a similar recipe?...this is from the kuhn rikon swiss website(you can download "quick quisine recipe book" free.

Pressure Roasted Potatoes
with Herbs

1. In a 2.5-quart or larger pressure cooker, heat
oil over medium heat.

2. Add onion and cook until softened.

3. Add potatoes and brown , turning to brown all
sides evenly.

4. Add herbs and stir to coat the potatoes.

5. Add water and bring to a boil.

6. Close lid immediately and bring pressure to
second red ring over high heat. Adjust heat to
stabilize pressure at second red ring. Cook for 5
minutes.

7. Remove from heat and use Natural Release
Method, see page 10.

Makes 4 servings

I have finaly ordered the kuhn rikon from Lakeland,after deliberating over the Electric PC,I then spent days wondering if i should order the 2.5L pressure frying pan instead,but was worried it was too small...altho it appears it can do up to 2lbs of meat which is plenty for us...maybe if i get on well with my kuhn rikon 5L pressure cooker,I may get the frypan too(I just cant help myself. lol)

cooking-mama

Heres the link to kuhn rikon.com(where the recipes are,I dont think there are any on kuhn rikon.co.uk),If you scroll down to the bottom of the page theres a wee box for Email address etc.fill this in and you will get a pdf with lots of recipes.

http://kuhnrikon.com/recipes/quickcuisine.php3