125 Best Pressure Cooker Recipes [Paperback]

Given today's requirements for energy conservation, the pressure cooker is poised for a comeback. It cooks foods quickly, consuming less gas or electricity than other methods. Chavich has selected a list of The Best Pressure Cooker Recipes and gathered them in a single volume. Those who've never used a pressure cooker will delight in standard dishes such as Swedish meatballs and mushroom and barley soup. More adventuresome cooks may branch out into Jamaican chicken fricassee or Indian lamb rogan josh. Fish dishes and even risotto find a place in Chavich's recommendations for pressure cookery. Some may draw the line at preparing cheesecake in a pressure cooker, but it's good to know that Chavich says it can be done. Recipes conveniently list both American and metric measures. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Stellar recipes that include Cajun Black Bean and Sausage Gumbo, Chunky Tex-Mex Chili over Crispy Rice Cake, Banana Bread Pudding and more. Chavic shares helpful tips and kitchen wisdom for each recipe. There is also a comprehensive introduction to pressure-cooking, with guidelines for adapting your own recipes and compensating for the effects of altitude. (Gay Francisco Paris Post-Intelligencer 2011)

Cinda Chavich is a food writer and editor whose work has appeared in newspapers and magazines throughout North America. She is the author of the Wild West Cookbook.

Introduction

When it comes to naming the kitchen tool of the millennium, my vote goes to the new generation of safe and foolproof pressure cookers.

I am a kitchen gadget junkie, but few of my new acquisitions frilly deliver on their promises, and many are relegated to the culinary scrapheap. So when the best kitchen stores began carrying a reportedly foolproof new generation of the old 1950s wonder the pressure cooker, I was skeptical. I'd heard the horror stories -- erupting pots of pea soup and rocketing valves. Who needs to risk life and limb to cook dinner?

But professional curiosity got the better of me. The new pressure cookers are lovely, sleek and shiny stainless steel pots with heavy bottoms and loads of safety devices. Gone is the hissing pressure regulator, bouncing precariously on a jet of steam. In its place, most modern machines have a new regulator and quick release valve that lets you release the steam instantly, without hauling the hot and heavy monster over to the cold-water tap to cool it down. They have more backup safety mechanisms, so you can't build pressure if the lid isn't properly affixed, or inadvertently clog the main pressure vent and end up with lima beans all over the ceiling.

There really is nothing to fear from this new generation of safe pressure cookers. But that wasn't what hooked me. It was the food. Hands-free risotto, cooked to creamy perfection in six minutes. The house filled with the heady aromas of tender beef and red wine stew in half an hour. Almost instant homemade stocks and broths, with all of the infused flavor you'd expect from hours of slow cooking.

Suddenly, I could make healthy meals reminiscent of my grandmother's kitchen in less time than I could sauté a chicken breast.

This is what really makes the pressure cooker indispensable. It's not for all kinds of cooking, but it's a tool that can save you time and energy without compromising quality.

We are eating more beans and whole grains -- ethnic dishes like Indian curries and Mexican black bean soup on Wednesdays or daube of lamb with niçoise olives and succulent short ribs for dinner parties. This kind of old-fashioned peasant food is back in style, and that's where the pressure cooker shines. So think about savory stew, coq au vin, or rogan josh tonight. Have a healthy grain pilaf with your grilled fish, or simmer a big pot of bean soup for lunch in less than 15 minutes.

Screw up your courage and crank up your pressure cooker. Once you've served a perfect pot roast after work, you'll be hooked. And you'll never get tired of your new toy. In fact, you won't know what you did without it.