Under pressure

Finishing school and not starting my job yet have meant that I have more time than I have since before Eden was born to delve into matters domestic.

My favorite aspect of this realm is cooking, because above almost everything else, we Sullenbrands love to eat.

My mom has had a pressure cooker for the past 33 years, but I can't remember ever seeing it used. So when I got married and registered for kitchen stuff, we registered for a Cuisinart food processor, a KitchenAid mixer, a crockpot, and a slew of pots and pans, but it never occurred to me to register for a pressure cooker. Or to use one. Or what I might use one for.

Well, the Cuisinart and the KitchenAid lived up to my expectations, but I can't say I ever got next to the crockpot. First of all, I found it unreliable. Sometimes things were less done than I expected, necessitating removal to the stovetop and a hasty attempt to finish them before dinnertime. More often than not, they cooked much faster than expected, even on the low or keep warm settings, resulting in a burned-on mess with a barely-edible center. Either way, I never found it to live up to the "set it and forget it" promise that seems to accompany crockpot cooking. Nor did it live up to its reputation for tenderizing things, namely grass-fed meats, the way people promised it would--tough and stringy was more often the disappointing result. It required close babysitting and regular adjustments--not an improvement over the oven or the stove, in my mind. Plus, it's bulky, requires even more advance planning than cooking a regular meal, and lastly, imparts a hot-plastic kind of smell to the kitchen that I find rather toxic and disturbing.

Enter the pressure cooker, which I came across in my mom's cupboard the other day and which vaguely dawned on me as the solution to being busy with a toddler all day, up until about 15 minutes before everyone was hungry for dinner. Simple, multipurpose (cook with it! can with it! marinate in it overnight! use it like a regular saucepan!), and best of all--quick and effective. The first thing I tried was Spicy Shredded Pork, which I'd made several times in the oven as the recipe originally calls for. When I made it in the oven, cooking it for 3-4 hours on low, the results were tasty, but the pork was kind of tough and not very juicy, regardless of how much cooking liquid (or what kind--water, broth) I started with.

For the pressure cooker, I started with a 90-minute cooking time because general pressure-cooker guidelines call for reducing the cooking time in "your favorite recipes" by 2/3. Spicy Shredded Pork originally calls for a cooking time of "several hours," so 1-1.5 hours in the pressure cooker seemed like it should be more than adequate--and I didn't want to risk rare pork my first time out of the blocks.

Here it is marinating:90 minutes later:

And OH. MY. GOODNESS. Absolutely succulent, melt-in-your mouth results from a process that couldn't have been easier.

Pressure-Cooker Pork (adapted from the Pioneer Woman's Spicy Shredded Pork)

-Pork roast (butt, shoulder, whatever--approximately 3-5 lbs, depending on the size of your crowd; but believe me, you'll want to make extra. We ate roughly twice as much of the pressure-cooked pork as we ever did of the slow-baked oven version!)
-2 cups water
-1 large onion, roughly chopped
-Several cloves of garlic
-Splash of white vinegar
-Splash of olive oil
-Squeeze of lime juice
-Few tablespoons each of cumin and chili powder
-Few teaspoons of salt and pepper

Place all but the pork roast and the water in a blender or food processor and blend until it's a chunky paste. Rub onto pork roast, leaving to marinate as long as overnight (you can marinate it right in the pressure cooker if you like) or as little as a few minutes. When you're ready to cook, add water to the pressure cooker, lock on the lid and turn the stove on medium-high. Once the regular starts rocking (don't come a-knocking), reduce the heat to keep it rocking slowly. Cooking time begins now. Cook for 90 minutes (again, I'm guessing you could get away with less, especially if your roast is on the small side), then either let the pressure fall or cool it rapidly by running cold water over it. Pressure is reduced when the pressure valve drops. Carefully remove the lid, remove the pork and shred it with two forks. Drizzle on cooking juices as necessary (not very, in our case, but it comes in handy for keeping any leftovers moist.) Serve with lime wedges, sour cream, tortillas, buns, or whatever strikes your fancy.

You're welcome.

Beef stew is another recipe that we've made often, because stew meat is cheap, and it's a hearty, filling, and healthy meal. It's especially one of Eden's favorites. However, once again, regardless of how I cooked the meat--searing it first, not searing it first, slow cooking it, stovetop-cooking it--it still had a tendency to become even drier and stringier the longer I cooked it. Not a fatal flaw, but not an entirely satisfactory result, either, especially for hours of cooking. BUT. Twelve minutes in the pressure cooker (somewhat akin to seven minutes in heaven!) yielded (you guessed it) succulent, meltingly tender stew meat and perfectly soft, delectable vegetables. Not to mention the fact that you can go from thinking about dinner to having it on the table in under 30 minutes--tell that to your crockpot.

Pressure-Cooker Beef Stew
(adapted from the Presto Pressure Cooker Owner's Manual)

2 pounds lean beef, cut into 1-inch cubes (or 2 lbs prepared stew meat)
2 cups water
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 chopped onion
3-4 small potatoes, diced
Several sliced carrots
1-2 stalks chopped celery
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 teaspoon salt
Sprinkle of black pepper

2-4 tablespoons of flour
1/2 cup water

Sear the stew meat over medium-high heat in the pressure cooker. Add ingredients up to and including black pepper into cooker. Close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 12 minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly. Let pressure drop of its own accord. Add flour to water to form a paste (depending on how thick you want the stew) and whisk into stew, bringing to a boil until stew thickens, 1-3 minutes. I also add a cup of frozen peas at the end.

You can also branch out into casseroles, desserts, seafood, and all kinds of other things in the pressure cooker. I've got a sneaking suspicion that it just might turn chicken breasts from a dry, tasteless, unappetizing diet food into something--well, better than that. I'll let you know when I test my theory, but know in the meantime that you can cook a whole chicken in 15 minutes, and a chicken breast in just 3-4. You can also cook dry beans in just 3-10 minutes (carefully following the manufacturer's instructions, as beans are one of the foods that foam quite a bit during cooking and so care is required not to overfill the pressure cooker lest the vents should become clogged.) You can cook brown rice in just 10-12 minutes, and white rice in just 5-6. You can make stocks and soups in less than half an hour that taste like you simmered them all day, and you can even cook cheesecake in just 15 minutes!

And SOUP? You'll never have a need for canned soup again when you can make your own from scratch in under 20 minutes. Throw in a chicken breast, a few cups of water, some chopped carrots, celery, and onion, and a little salt and pepper, and you've got it made. If you're really feeling fancy, you can cook some noodles on the stove while the pressure cooker does its thing, then shred the chicken a little and add the noodles and voila, all in about the time it takes to open and heat up a (sodium, soybean oil, and MSG-laden) can:
Are you seeing where I'm coming from yet?! And best of all? These miraculous machines retail around $40-50 and can easily last for generations.

I know one question lots of people have is safety. According to Wikipedia:

"Pressure cookers have a reputation as a dangerous method of cooking with the risk of explosion. Early pressure cookers equipped with only a primary safety valve were at risk of explosion if poorly maintained, allowing food residues to contaminate the release valve. Modern pressure cookers typically have two or three independent safety valves, as well as some additional safety features, such as an interlock to prevent opening the lid while internal pressure exceeds atmospheric pressure. However there is still a risk of explosion, especially if cookers are not thoroughly and regularly maintained in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions."

To further reduce your risk, here's a link to a list of tips for making sure your pressure cooker experience is as safe as it is satisfying.

Here are a few other recipes from the Presto owner's manual:

BEEF POT ROAST
3 pounds beef pot roast
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups water
Salt and pepper
1 small onion, chopped
1 bay leaf

Pour oil into cooker. Turn heat selector to medium and brown roast well on all sides; remove roast. Pour water into cooker. Place roast on rack in cooker. Season roast with salt, pepper, onions, and bay leaf. Close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 45 minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly. Let pressure drop of its own accord. Thicken gravy, if desired.

SPAGHETTI MEAT SAUCE
1 pound lean ground beef
1 can (14 to 15 ounces) diced tomatoes
1⁄2 cup water
1 cup chopped onion
1⁄2 cup chopped celery
1⁄2 cup diced green pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Turn heat selector to medium and brown beef. Stir in remaining ingredients except tomato paste. Close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 8 minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly. Cool cooker at once. Stir in tomato paste and simmer, uncovered, to desired thickness. Serve sauce over spaghetti. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

CHICKEN CACCIATORE
3 pound chicken, cut into serving pieces
1 cup diced tomatoes
1⁄3 cup white wine
11⁄2 cups sliced onions
1⁄2 cup chopped carrots
1⁄2 cup chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper

1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste

Place all ingredients except tomato paste in pressure cooker. Close cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 8 minutes with pressure regulator rocking slowly. Cool cooker at once. Place chicken on warm platter. Stir tomato paste into sauce in cooker. Simmer until thickened. Pour over chicken and serve.