Pressure Cooker

OK, along with some non-food gifts I got Betsy a simple pressure cooker (6 qt Fagor) for her birthday. There's a cookbook included, but recipes are a bit simplistic for her cooking preferences. I've searched here, and printed a few things (Salil's dhal and pork rib guidelines, Jenise's artichokes). Plus ordered a couple books. But thought I'd throw it out there to see if others have any favorite PC recipes.

Here is a great source for pressure cooking info: http://missvickie.com/
Dry beans and brown rice are two items I use the pressure cooker for.

We do our whole cornbeef and cabbage (w/potatoes & carrots) in ours.

And IMHO it is only way to do wild rice properly. Put one cup in the cooker w/4 cups of beef stock. Cook under 20 lbs pressure for 45 minutes. Never get stabbed in the gums by an undercooked grain of wild rice again.

Things that seem to take forever on the stove top such as red cabbage, are done in four minutes in the pressure cooker.

Process a can of sweetened condensed milk for a while. Let cool. When you open it, you will find that the sugar has caramelized and you have made a lovely spreadable dulce de leche. Try it on toast.

Carl, thanks for ideas. Will pass along.
Jeff, I don't eat sweets, but will pass along to her (she does).
Howie, by chance I ended up on the Miss Vicky site last night. She had searched and found an aloo gobhi with rice pressure cooker recipe. But it was from someone Indian who measured time in ...whistles. I search for "pressure cooker convert whistles minutes" led to http://missvickie.com/library/whistling.htm

it was amazing how fast everything cooked.

thanks everyone

Awesome. There's a lot to do with the pressure cooker. I'll keep adding in recipes here, hope you and Betsy have fun with them. Let me know if you need any particular spices for some of these.

For most Indian legume dishes (channa masala, rajma [kidney beans curry], etc), the approach is pretty standard:

Soak the dried legume for anywhere from 6 hours to overnight (usually 1 cup of the dried legume to 2 cups of water)
Pressure cook the legumes (usually 6-7 minutes at high pressure for kidney beans, 4-5 for white chick peas, 10-13 for black chick peas) until almost entirely done.

In a separate pan/skillet, saute a diced red onion, 1 tomato, minced ginger and garlic (most Indian grocery stores usually have ginger/garlic paste you can buy that makes this much easier) with some garam masala, cumin, salt, coriander seed powder and turmeric.

Lots of variations from here possible - you can add milk and cardamom (and maybe use more tomato/less ginger/garlic) for a sweeter, richer gravy; use more cumin and chilli powder for a spicier curry, etc - but I normally cook those together, then add to the legumes as they're done, stir, cover and let simmer over an hour with occasional spice adjustments for taste.

------------

First of a few daal recipes:

2 cups dried toor dal [yellow split pigeon peas], soaked 12 hours in about 5 cups of water (at room temp)

Pressure cook the daal for about 4 minutes at high pressure (or just boil for however long it takes). Once the daal's soft, add 3 cups water, 1-2 tbsp butter, salt, pepper, 2 pinches of asafoetida and any one of the following 'tadka's.
a) One small onion and one tomato, both diced small, and one finely chopped clove of garlic. Fry the garlic and onion first, then add the tomato; add in a tsp each garam masala and coriander powder, and 3 tsp freshly ground roast cumin (roast the cumin seeds on medium heat for a few minutes beforehand - you'll notice the aromatics changing a LOT - then grind)
b) An extra 2 pinches asafoetida, 4 tsp freshly ground roast cumin, half a tsp ground mustard seed, tsp of coriander
c) One diced onion fried with 3-4 crushed dried chillies, whole cumin, and mustard seeds (1 tsp of each)

[Jenise]

Great and thoughtful gift, Dale.

But I can't add much. I don't use recipes per se, but other than the artichokes you already found I only tend to use the PC to hasten other intermediate processes like beans, stew meats or, say, pork for carnitas.

As Salil said, a pressure cooker is a big time-saver for Indian dried legume (dal) dishes. Especially whole chana (chickpeas) and rajma (kidney beans), which, even after soaking overnight, take hours of boiling but only minutes in a pressure cooker. I don't own a pressure cooker, but I'm considering getting one for cooking dals.

-Paul W.

Another fun dal recipe I've been having fun with recently - made dal makhani a few days ago, and it was delicious (though very rich).

You'll need equal portions dried kidney beans (rajma) and small black gram lentils (urad dal), 2 large tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic and some ginger (I just use ginger/garlic paste, I'm lazy ) and butter.
Wash and soak overnight, then pressure cook. Once done, lower the heat, add a little water, a teaspoon of cardamom powder, a pinch of asafoetida and turmeric and allow to simmer.

In another pan/wok, fry cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, finely chopped garlic and ginger (again, ginger/garlic paste is great here). Once the garlic browns, add the chopped tomato, a teaspoon of mild Kashmiri chilli powder and a couple of pinches of asafoetida. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes, then add to the legumes along with a tablespoon of butter, a few whole cloves, a few pieces of cinnamon and salt to taste . Stir through, cover and let simmer for another 30 minutes.

Great and thoughtful gift, Dale.

But I can't add much. I don't use recipes per se, but other than the artichokes you already found I only tend to use the PC to hasten other intermediate processes like beans, stew meats or, say, pork for carnitas.

jenise, I'd love to hear about your carnita recipe. It's something I've just begun fiddling with (very much JUST).

Dale, posole. Use a mix of beef stock and chicken stock to cover. It rocks.

[quote="Carl Eppig"]

And IMHO it is only way to do wild rice properly. Put one cup in the cooker w/4 cups of beef stock. Cook under 20 lbs pressure for 45 minutes. Never get stabbed in the gums by an undercooked grain of wild rice again.

I would say that is a great idea for commercially grown "wild" rice. However, I would never pressure cook good long grained hand parched true wild rice. The real stuff pops easily. the only use I have found for the commercially grown stuff is the grind it into flour and use as part of the flour in my wild rice pancakes.
FYI with real wild rice:
1 cup wild rice yields 3-4 cups cooked rice
1 lb wild rice equals 2 ¾ cups
To cook: Wash 1 cup wild rice. Add to 2 cups boiling water or stock in heavy saucepan. Return to boil. Stir, reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes or until rice pops. Yield 3-4 cups.