Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: titch on December 28, 2009, 20:05
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My mum has given me a pressure cooker - her old one - any ideas where i should look to find out how to use this, recipes, what i can do with it etc etc
all she said was - it makes lovely stews, which i am sure it does but also sure it can do so much more - mum is not an adventurous cook at all - good but not adventuruos
all help appreciated
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Have you looked at Jamie Oliver's website - he has a range of cooking stuff including a pressure cooker so there may be recipes on there?
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Hi Titch, is this site any good?
http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blpressurecook.htm
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just Google 'pressure cooker recipe' and pages and pages are shown.
Something for everybody :)
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thanks for the replies, will get on google later plus the jamie site and the linky you posted poolfield -
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I don't really do 'recipes' with my pressure cooker, but all my beef stews are done in it. Really makes the difference between tough to tender. I prep all my veg except potatoes into the cooker, including meat cubes, broth so its only at the half level (otherwise the froth gets into the steam release) and after it comes to the boil then turned down, I let it rattle away for 40-45 minutes. During that time I get the potatoes cleaned and cooked, and once the top comes off the cooker, I make the gravy then add the spuds.
I've also done a few small roasts with the cooker, mostly cheap tough cuts. I sit those on the little rack that fits the bottom, add the water, wine, broth, whatever, all seasonings, and let it rattle for about 90 minutes. Yummm.
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Very handy for cooking dried beans.
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oooooooh i did not know that - whenever i have tried to cook dried beans in the past they never turn out soft - always still a little bullet like in the middle
when all the madness has died down i am going to have a go with this new toy
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I use mine on a daily basis for cooking my veg (we like it cooked - not raw!)
Great for stews, fry off meat, add veg, add stock, cook for 20-25 mins of full pressure, then thicken or add a dumpling or two.....
Great for joints, I do beef (if had a lazy sunday morning in bed) for 20 mins a LB then finish off in oven - also ham joints the same way.
Rice pudding is JUST DE-LIS-IOUS.
Look on internet for an instruction book for your model, this will give you ideas and timings for basic things like Veg and meat etc.
Enjoy - cooking things in a saucepan will never be quick enough again....... - I've got two going dusty on the shelf....
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How funny you are on fast forward cooking and I'm really into slow cooking, my slow cooker goes on for stews and whole joints of meat and yes rice pudding too. It's quieter than a pressure cooker too, I once blew the weight off my Mums pressure cooker and never got my nerve back :D
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made a stew and a soup in the pressure cooker, but tbh could not see anydifference between that and the slow cooker ones i do, so no benefits that i can see,, but then the slow cooker means i come home and the house smells amazing............my guess is that the pressure cooker will get used sometimes but the slow cooker more often - sausage casserole is amazing this way
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I have a slow cooker and a pressure cooker and I move between the two depending on .... not sure really! Mood, life pressures, what I am cooking??? When the builders were here, working inside, the slow cooker was banned. The smell made them hungry all day. :D
Sometimes I'll have phases for pasta or soup or curries or casseroles .... I'm definitely not one of those 'cold meat monday, mince on tuesday .... fish on friday .. roast on sunday" people. I suppose I also therefore have cooking equipment phases too. :unsure:
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I can't be in the same room as a pressure cooker when it's working. They scare the bejesus out of me. :unsure:
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I can't be in the same room as a pressure cooker when it's working. They scare the bejesus out of me. :unsure:
Pretty much the same here! John has to use ours - I can't! It "boils" down to when my Dad managed to somehow, when taking the pressure off, having a steaming hot load of stew erupting out of the top and hitting the ceiling - followed by days of him cleaning it off (Mum was in hospital having my second brother). It was only 50 years ago :unsure: :unsure: :unsure:.
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my memories of my mum using one are of her, with teatowel over her arm, the longest wooden spoon she had in her hand, standing at arms lenght from the pressure cooker trying to whack the wieght off the top :lol:- probably why i hav#nt had one before :wacko: - i was scared using it for the first time - worried about the stew fountain that might erupt but so far so good
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Ha Ha,
That just brought back memorys 8)
I remember my mum doing just that with the wooden spoon and a tea towel when i was a kid.
Isn't it strange how the most simple things can bring back a long forgotten memory :happy:
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my memories of my mum using one are of her, with teatowel over her arm, the longest wooden spoon she had in her hand, standing at arms lenght from the pressure cooker trying to whack the wieght off the top :lol:- probably why i hav#nt had one before :wacko: - i was scared using it for the first time - worried about the stew fountain that might erupt but so far so good
That's one of the main reasons people have accidents with pressure cookers - they try to take off the weight too soon. Once the item has cooked, you take the pot off the stove and leave it until all the air has hissed out and the emergency valve deflates. Could take about 5 minutes. Once the emergency release valve deflates, then you can remove the weight (held in a potholder or oven mitt - it's HOT) and take off the pot lid.
If I'm in a real hurry, I hold a spoon to the weight and only slightly lift one side so that I get a slow hiss to gradually release the steam. This method takes about a minute. Once the steam is gone, proceed as above.
To remove the weight before releasing the steam is literally asking for an explosion as others above have described. Too much pressure suddenly released through a tiny hole is impossible to contain. Steam is something that must be respected, and if you do, you'll have no trouble. The first time I used mine, I sent the kids out of the kitchen in case there was an accident. I followed the instructions and haven't had an accident.
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If you need to remove the steam quickly, I hold the side of the cooker under running cold water (DO NOT LET THE WATER ANYWHERE NEAR THE WEIGHT), this releases it much quicker and you are not tempted to HELP it along (unless you have 3 hands!!!!!) ::)
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received from my mum today a spare gasket seal (just as well cos the one it came with did not seal properly ??? ::) ) and a pressure cooker booklet that came with my nans, pretty much the same as the one mum gave me...............has some pretty strange recipes in that i WONT be trying, but gives timings etc for all kinds of things so will prob use it more now
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I'll listen out and hope I don't hear an explosion then :D
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I use a combination of slow cooker to cook a stew all day while I am out and then pressure cooker to do the spuds and veg in 4 mins when I get home. That gets the meal on the table quicker in an evening.
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Kind of hare and tortoise then :lol:
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:lol: :lol: :lol: exactly. CC
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My mum blew the pressure bit off hers several years ago but carried on using the pot as a soup pot because it was pretty big. Just before Christmas she damaged it (can't remember how) and said she would have to replace the pressure cooker. My response was what for as you haven't used it with pressure in the last decade. I bought her a stock pot for her wedding anniversary instead for soup and she was well chuffed. I wouldn't have a pressure cooker either because they scare me witless.