Customer Reviews

The Pressured Cook

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Every time I try a recipe and it doesn't turn out, it breaks my heart. I borrowed this cookbook from the library looking for pressure cooker recipes for beans & legumes, but have had nothing but disappointment -- the three dishes I've tried have been bland or downright tasteless:

'Red Lentils with Swiss Chard' -- bland
'Asian Beans with Barley and Bok Choy' -- Yuk!
'Chickpeas in and Eggplant Tahini Suace' -- Yuk!

If you're looking for flavorful bean dishes, search elsewhere...

Side Note: One of the recipes that other reviewers praise, 'Pork Vindaloo' is a modification of a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's Quick and Easy Indian cooking. I love that cookbook and whole-heartedly recommend it. If you're at all curious about Indian cooking, pick it up... it's why I bought a pressure cooker in the first place.

Lorna Sass knows her stuff when it comes to pressure cookers. Her first pressure cooker book was great with lots of basic, down-home recipes and lots of basic information which is necessary for the beginner. However, this book is for the bored, more advanced cook. Recipes are a little more time consuming, with ingredients that one does not always have in their cupboard. I find that I do not use this book as much as some others. If you are just learning to use the pressure cooker, I would not recommend this book. Try her first book, "Cooking Under Pressure" or "Pressure Cooking for Dummies".

I am not experienced with a pressure cooker, let me say that upfront. I made several of these recipes. They were largely complicated, took a long time to put together, and required ingredients that I had to spend some time looking for at the store. To me, this defeats the purpose of a pressure cooker. For the time it took to make some of these, I might as well have done it in the oven or the stovetop. I am interested in fast, tasty meals from the pressure cooker, not gourmet pressure cooker recipes. If I want a gourmet meal, I know how to fix one the regular way. Unfortunately, the dishes, after all the effort, were very bland. It might have been me, or my inexperience with the pressure cooker, but this has been put away.

Yesterday I tried the risotto with olives, tomato sauce and smoked mozzarella.
IT WAS ABSOLUTELY DIVINE! What a great recipe! (It is also remarkable the fact that the ingredients are everyday stuff that I normally have at home).

A young friend of ours came over unexpectedly (like young people usually do). We asked her to stay over for dinner and, thanks to your delicious recipe, the dinner was ready in 7 minutes... Furthermore I could enjoy our friend's company rather than being at the stove adding broth and stirring.
:)
I must say that I didn't find any difference in the risotto cooked in the traditional way or under pressure . Actually one point is in favor of cooking it under pressure. In fact with your recipe the risotto was cooked perfectly al dente.

I was so happy that from now on I will cook risotto only under pressure...
:)

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Discovery of the pressure cooker has been one of the best things that ever happened to me as a cook. I regularly serve these dishes to guests and they almost all universally love them. The Chipolte chili, Andoille w/ Collards, and the gumbo are all staples in my household!!! The Lamb Vindaloo with some modifications to really make it more like Korma is restaurant quality and regularly makes it to my table.

Beans cook in no time flat, rice in less, veggies in less than that. This cookbook has been singularly responsible for me purchasing 3 pressure cookers.

I do highly recommend the European 2nd generation cookers. Although I have used the old fashioned jiggle top the newer ones are just so much easier and less fiddley.

I have "Cooking Under Pressure" and "Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure," so I thought surely I would love this book. Instead I was sorely disappointed. It contains the same stuff all over again, only this time the recipes are very meat- and fat-heavy. It's almost as if the author went backward in time instead of forward. Lorna, what happened?

I am constantly amazed at how quickly I can put dinner on the table for my family when I use my pressure cooker. And I couldn't do it without this book. Each recipe I try is better than the next - full of flavor and color without a lot of fat or fuss. So often I buy cookbooks that appear great but then I find only a few recipes I truly like. In this book, I've tried more than 2 dozen of the recipes so far, and loved all of them. The minestrone soup is delicious and takes only 4 minutes! I'm happy the book includes a number of recipes for beans - as well as lots of vegetables. The chilies, both The Black Bean Chili With Squash and Corn and Turkey Chili, are family favorites. The lamb stew with white wine, prunes and apricots melts into a luscious sauce to accompany fork-tender lamb (in 16 minutes). Previous to buying this book, my favorite beef stew cooked for almost 3 hours in the oven. The Old-fashioned Beef Stew in The Pressured Cook takes 30 minutes and is so delicious. I could go on and on. I have recommended this book to any friend who buys a new pressure cooker. Having a pressure cooker without this book would be akin to the proverbial ship without a sail.

well, cookbook, anyway, it would be this one (and i've got Julia, Marcella, Claudia and Paula in my kitchen library!) I like to eat good food, and feed my family good food, but I don't have time or patience to play slavish chef and pot washer. "Simmer for hours" does not joy make (or something like that...). And it's just not necessary! The Pope is not served finer Osso Buco than Lorna's with porcini, white beans, and escarole (my favorite company dish). Time saved, tenderness rendered, nutrition and flavor maximized, the pressure cooker doesn't have an equal. And these visually beautiful recipes work flawlessly: no missing steps or disappearing ingredients, no esoteric processes, no component so exotic that it can't be found at your local supermarket. You could choose a different recipe from this book each day and never be bored.
So if i could keep only one pot...

I was happy and excited to buy this book. Lorna Sass was touted to be the "Mother of Pressure Cooking". Meanwhile, I have not been impressed with a majority of the recipes in her book. Complaints: She uses the weirdest ingredients that are probably available in NYC but not in the suburbs of Boston. Come on, what market DOESN'T stock fresh Swiss Chard? Well, Lorna ... almost no stores stock fresh Swiss Chard. The thing is that going to find all the exotic ingredients is contradictory to the concept of pressure cooking! It is supposed to be fast but if you spend days looking for weird ingredients that's not saving you any time. My other complaint is that that a lot of the recipes just aren't that good. I think she stretches the envelope too much in trying to do crazy stuff and it just doesn't turn out well. I tried the "BBQ Chicken and Corn" and the "Lentils and Swiss Chard". They were both bland an unappealing. There are a few recipes that are good, but they are more basic like the "Pork, Sauerkraut, and Potatoes" recipe.

I think this is wonderful. I am a bsuy person who likes to eat well. I enjoy a bit of diversity and excitement in my food and this cookbook allows me to venture out of the"Box". Everything is very tasty, easy to prepare and comes to the table in rapid time thanks to the pressure cooker. I have been a lover of pressure cookers for many years and Lorna Sass makes it a wonderful tool.