Seasonal menus and pressure cookers

[helicaldrive]

It's the season to get on a pressure cooker roll. Inspired by Venus, this is another way to relieve the election stress.

What about this devious thought for a candlelit dinner on a cold and rainy Saturday night?

In one pressure cooker, make pork pot roast with butternut squash, peas, fresh sage, garlic and toasted hazelnuts.

In the other pressure cooker, make porcini mushroom risotto and then drizzle it with truffle oil -- or how about oven roasted new potatoes with garlic, rosemary and plenty of sea salt.

On election night, I broke the suspense by using my 10 quart pressure cooker to wing a big pot of minestrone soup with beef shanks, bacon, smoked pork shanks, onions, celery, carrots, parsley, lotsa basil, zucchini, cabbage, kale, turnips, tomatoes, and cannellini beans.

Let's have your ideas....recipes, photos, whatever. And always remember, you can never have too many pressure cookers.

 

[tlee618]

It all sounds good to me Steve, what time is dinner??

 

[panthera]

Sweet Potatoes

As the "American" in the group, I got stuck with the sweet potatoes for an early Thanksgiving dinner this weekend. I hate the usual overly sweet, marshmallow-y orange colored goo which most folks burn in the oven and plop onto your plate. So tried this version:
Peel and cut into 2x1 pieces.
Steam in pressure cooker at 2 rings (highest pressure) 25 minutes (That was about 3.5 pounds, big pressure cooker).
Let cool overnight.
Next day add 1/3 cup butter (not margarine), two tablespoons vegetarian soup base (the kind which doesn't start with salt) (no msg) freshly ground nutmeg (just enough to dust the entire surface) and juice from one large orange.
Warm to serving temperature.
Garnish with finely chopped parsley - two bunches.

Two my delight, everybody liked it - even me. Best of all, three folks from New Hampshire asked me what it was - they only new the gooey variety and thought this was something else.

Someone have a pressure cooker recipe for a good onion soup?

 

[helicaldrive]

sweet potatoes and onion soup

None of us like cloying sweet potatoes either, so I usually put an egg or two in when I whip them so they firm up a little when they bake again in the casserole, and I also add, to taste, a couple spoons of canned chipolte chiles in adobo sauce. It gives them a little kick without covering up the sweet potato taste.

Here is my onion soup recipe, but I can't see how it could be adapted to a pressure cooker. It's Julia's recipe, with ideas from several other recipes added in. It's a lot of work, but well worth it.

Brown a small piece of salt pork in soup pot (say, 2 X 3 inches). Then add one and a half pounds of thinly sliced yellow onions with enough olive oil to keep them from sticking. Cover and cook over moderately low heat 15 to 20 minutes until the onions become translucent. Then uncover, raise the heat to moderately high, sprinkle the onions with a little salt and sugar, and cook and stir for about half an hour until the onions are dark and carmelized. They'll reduce to a couple small tangled clumps. Lower the heat to moderate, add 3 tablespoons of flour and a few tablespoons of butter, and stir and cook a couple minutes to brown the flour and eliminate the raw flour taste. Slowly blend in 2 quarts of beef stock (I use Swanson's canned beef broth. If it's not available, at least in the USA there are no other decent brands, so you'll have to make your own from oven browned bones, beef shanks, carrots, onions, celery and all that stuff. Labor of love.) Then add 1 cup of red or dry white wine, 1/4 cup cognac (optional), 1 clove of pressed garlic, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika, a bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon of crumbled dried (not fresh) sage leaves. Simmer 30 to 40 minutes and season with salt and pepper if needed.

While making the soup, cut slices of French bread, brush with olive oil on both sides, and toast both sides under the broiler. Then put the soup in broiler proof bowls, float a crouton on top, sprinkle some grated Parmesan, cover with sliced Gruyere, sprinkle with grated Parmesan again, and brown under the broiler.

Variations:

Add some portobella mushrooms at the last minute. Really awesome. Saute them separately and very briefly, and add them at the last minute. Oh, and add some fresh thyme too! If 'shrooms or fresh thyme cook more than few minutes, their flavor cooks away, for some reason. Why is that?

For the croutons, you could use different types of herbed/onion bread and season the olive oil with herbs and garlic too.

Paired with a salad, it is surprisingly filling and makes a wonderful dinner on a cold and rainy Fall or Winter night.

Steve

 

[panthera]

Steve,

Sounds good. As a vegetarian, I'll have to work on that one a bit...hmm, a good deep red wine will usually replace the beef taste...
Thanks!
Got a phone call today from another dinner guest - asked if I remembered who made the tomato soup. Said nope, but say it was good. Was also done in a pressure cooker...as was my orange goo and the turnips (rutabagas for non-New Yorkers).
Wonder why things taste so good in a pressure cooker despite the short cooking time and so, well, boring out of the microwave. Is it the steam? The higher temperature (microwaves can't, by definition go over 100°.)

 

[helicaldrive]

Something about it

I don't know why the pressure cooker tends to intensify flavors, or keep them from cooking away, but it sure does, doesn't it?

I also like the way meat retains some of its texture, whereas it can turn to mush in a slow cooker.

Every time I serve broccoli or asparagus steamed for exactly one minute in the pressure cooker, people always ask what I did to make it taste so good and keep its color.

IMHO, the microwave makes broccoli and asparagus taste absolutely awful. Some claim it also destroys most of the nutrients too. For years I thought I simply didn't know how to select broccoli, and then a roommate clued me in that microwaving was the problem.

Other people have taught me more about cooking than any cook book ever did.

But it doesn't look like pressure cookers are going to gain popularity any time soon, at least not in the USA. Just yesterday I was telling someone how well they steam vegetables, and she replied, "Well, I've never had any desire to try one out after my grandmother exploded hers in the kitchen. There was split pea soup everywhere, including split pea stelactites on the ceiling." That was my laugh of the day.

 

[panthera]

pressure cookers and safety

Same mentality on the part of many over here in Europe - although they are pretty popular.
I've been cooking with them since the 1970's and only had one - minor - problem.
And that was entirely my fault.
You have to follow the rules.
Anything that foams is a no-no. If you want to cook beans or lentils or stuff like that, then you have to put in enough oil to break the foam.
Never overload.
Remember that liquids are actually above 100° (212°F) when you first open the lid...so they can explode out. Never had it happen but always open the lid away from me, just in case.
And so on - just read the rules and you will be fine.
As for microwaves, I have been using them just as long and don't believe any of the nonsense about radiation (how? non-ionizing energy here, folks) killing nutrients more than "conventional" cooking, etc.) But it is true - stuff tastes better in a pressure cooker.
Another recipe:
Even those freezer bag soup vegetables taste good when you pressure cook them. Add 1/2 cup white wine, 1/2 cup water, 3 Tb non-msg vegetarian broth, 1/3 stick butter or 2 Tlb. good olive oil. Once the pressure is up, cook just till tender - in mine that is about five minutes. Take out the vegetables. Whisk in starch or flour (pre-dissolved in liquid or you will get lumps) and bring back to boil just long enough to have a cream sauce.
Serve at once.
Cheap, fast and tastes much better than one has any right to expect. (When non-vampires are present, I also add a clove or two of garlic, but not through the press. If you must, chop up fine and dissolve in salt.)

 

[veg-o-matic]

I avoided pressure cookers for years, probably due to Mom's story about an aunt's PC "exploding." Once I realized that if that really happened, it was probably more than 40 years ago and the technology must have changed in the meantime.

Now I couldn't live without the dern thing! I think the pressure cooker is tied with the Crock Pot for my most favorite appliance. I love the Crock Pot because with a little planning, almost random ingredients turn into dinner with no intervention on my part.

I love the pressure cooker because I can't always muster "a little planning"!

veg

 

[jamiel]

My grandmother's sweet potato recipe (no lie)

Bake sweet potatoes in their skins.
Cut them into slabs about 3/4 inch thick.
Brown cut edges in a little butter in a skillet
Sprinke with lemon pepper seasoning and serve.

MMM.

(I cannot stand sweet-cooked vegetables as such...sweet potatoes in syrup or with marshmallows blecch)

 

[panthera]

oh, yeah - but forget the "little butter"

part. Make that "lots of butter."
And the lemon pepper part is important.
I think it's the second heating that really bring out the flavor - where'd this nonsense of marshmallows start, anyway?
Like putting saccharine on sugar cubes.

 

[whirlcool]

Next time you have a Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato sandwich, use some Lemon Pepper on it. You will never have one again without it!, I guarantee! Tomatos and Lemon Pepper seem to be a match made in heaven!
The weather just needs to get a bit cooler so that it'll be time to make up a Westphalian Hot Pot dinner!
Does anyone have a good recipe for a good German Potato Soup in a pressure cooker?

 

[rp2813]

Exploding Pea Soup

HC, I'm pretty sure my pressure cooker's instruction booklet warns against cooking peas and other things that could loose their casings and clog up the vent. That was probably what happened to your grandmother's pea soup. I don't think technology has changed much over the years. Relief valves may have been added or improved, but other than that it's more or less the same gasket type of seal on all makes that I've seen.

I love my old 60's Mirro 4Qt, and my recent 8Qt Presto cooks things even faster than the Mirro. Way better than the microwave, and with a gas stove way cheaper too if you're counting your pennies. Artichokes are my favorite. My microwave turns them into an impossbly stringy chewy mess but they fall apart after 15 minutes in the pressure cooker.

Re: crock pots, today my partner and I are trying a recipe for stuffing that's made in a slow cooker. We won't have room for a casserole dish with a good sized turkey in the oven next Thursday, so are exploring alternatives. This recipe comes from a little booklet that came with a 70's Rival Crock Pot. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. Tried to campaign for using my mom's 50's vintage Westinghouse roaster like an extra oven but partner has no faith in older appliances. I haven't given up. If the crock pot recipe is a bust, then plan B will have to be considered!

 

[maytagbear]

My mother's potato soup

My mother was of Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsche) heritage, and here is her way of potato soup.

In large saucepan, or small dutch oven:
(I suppose it could be converted to pressure cooker, but it takes just about 45 minutes to an hour conventionally.)

3-5 slices bacon, cut into small crosswise strips with scissors, fried, and reserved. Remove most, but not all of the dripping, reserve separately.

1/2 to 1 medium onion, peeled and coarsely chopped.

2 stalks of celery, sliced medium thin.

Saute onion and celery in some of the reserved dripping until soft, but not coloured.

5-6 potatoes, peeled and trimmed (as necessary), cube all but one of them into about 3/4 inch dice, cube the other one more finely.
We use Russet Burbanks (baking potatoes) for this.

Place potatoes into pan with onion and celery, add water to BARELY cover. Cover, and simmer until potatoes are tender, and the finer cut ones are more or less dissolved, stirring every few minutes or so.

Optional-- make a paste of equal amounts of butter and flour ("Beurre manie," if we're being accurate and French) Add in small bits, stirring until thickened and smooth, cook for a few more minutes.

Add enough milk to get to a nice consistency, 3-5 cups. Bring up to serving temperature, stirring often.

Return the cooked bacon, stir. Taste for seasoning, correct, and maybe add a spoon of the reserved bacon dripping.

Ma served it plain, or sometimes with ketchup on the side (one of the few times she ever used ketchup)

I like it with a very little extra sharp Cheddar on top.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[panthera]

Can't beat Lawrence's soup, but here is the non-pork

(English follows)
1-2 mittelgroße Kartoffeln
1 Ei, Salz, 1-1/4 l Brühe
Petersilie, Schnittlauch, Majoran oder Bohnenhraut
Kartoffeln schälen, reiben, mit Ei und Salz abrühren, in gut abgescheckte, kochende Brühe einrühren, 15-20 Minuten kochen lassen, abschecken mit Persilie oder Schnittlauch, mit Major bzw. Bohnenkraut.
(aus dem bayrischen Kochbuch, 54. Auflage 1992)
So, once again in English:
1 or 2 big potatoes
2 small or 1 large egg(s)
Either 1-1/3 Quart vegetable broth with salt or non-salted with added salt to taste (remember, the potatoes "eat" a fair amount of salt)
Peel the potatoes, rice them, rub in the egg and some salt, add to the boiling broth. Cook at ring 1 for 10 minutes or without pressure for 20 minutes. Add either parsley or chive, majoram or Bohnenkraut (you get it at fine cuisine suppliers) to taste, finely chopped or floating attractively on the top just before serving.
Very hearty, fast and tastes like fall.
Works especially well with red russets.
(The different amounts reflect the differences between the US and the German "potato" and metric/common.)
I would add a good tablespoon of butter or pumpkin seed oil if this were going into the pressure cooker just to be sure there was no foaming.