Saturday, December 4, 2010

Time Saver Recipes -- Pressure Cooking

Today I thought I would share a new kitchen tool I recently purchased.    It is a digital pressure cooker.





I have always been afraid to use one because I have heard tales of them exploding.  lol   But after seeing this one demonstrated on the Home Shopping Network I decided to give it a try.  
Mostly I was looking for a way to cook beans without it taking all day.    To my surprise the electric pressure cookers are very easy to use.
And my first trial,   I cooked one cup of dry beans in two cups of water.   And in 6 minutes I had 3 cups of beans perfectly cooked!
Next I decided to try making stew.  
I browned some stew meat.   Tossed it in the inner pot with onions, potatoes, frozen carrots and peas,  some chicken broth (I was out of beef broth), 2 cups of water and seasonings.    It took 20 minutes to cook.    The meat comes out so tender it practically melts in your mouth and the vegetables are perfectly cooked.

I am totally sold on this time saver tool.   Clean up is very easy,  too.   There are a lot of brands of digital pressure cookers out there and they can be pretty expensive.   I was very lucky to be able to get a Wolfgang Puck refurbished one from PremierAppliance.com  for $40 including shipping.    

I am looking forward to lots of time saving cooking with this fun appliance.