Category:Pressure cooker recipes
A wide range of recipes especially created for use in pressure cookers. These recipes have been fully tested and photographed. The pressure cooker is back! I expect many us remember our mothers using them in the 1960s and 1970s, along with the general noise and hiss they created and the possible fear of explosion. Then came the microwave and pressure cookers were consigned to the back of a cupboard, the garage or to your local scrap metal dealer. Nowadays, they are much quieter, safer and do retain more of the food’s nutrients than a microwave. Also, in the current economic climate, people are tending to buy cheaper cuts of meat which cook brilliantly in a pressure cook. Under normal conditions, most foods cook at 100°C. This is because water boils at this temperature in normal atmospheric pressure. If the cooking temperature is raised, food cooks much faster. For example, an increase of 20°C allows food to be cooked four times faster, retaining freshness and nutritional values.
Pressure cookers are made of stainless steel or aluminium and can vary greatly in size and price, so it is recommended that you read any reviews you can, before making your choice. Once you have received your chosen pressure cooker please ensure that you read the instructions carefully before use.
The modern-day pressure cooker makes almost no noise, certainly nothing like the hissing an steaming monsters of yesterday. They have come of age!
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WMF Perfect Plus 6.5 litre pressure cooker
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The internal pressure indicator on a second generation pressure cooker
Converting a normal recipe to a pressure cooker recipe
Having used my pressure cooker regularly for 6 months, I now feel quite confident in converting normal recipes for use in a pressure cooker. A few useful pointers:
- If the normal recipe uses flour or cornflour to thicken the stock, don't add this for the pressure cooking process. Because you can't stir a pressure cooker, it is very likely to stick to the bottom and burn. Instead, thicken the stock at the end of the pressure cooking cycle. Mix 1 tablespoon of cornflour to a paste with 1 tablespoon of cold water. Mix this into the stock, bring to the boil and simmer vigorously until it thickens. This will only take a few minutes.
- Most meat dishes benefit from 2 hours cooking in a pressure cooker. Providing the dish does not contain vegetables that need to retain shape and bite (like potatoes and carrots) then prolonged cooking just seems to concentrate the flavour and breaks down all of the collagen (gristly bits) into a sumptuous gravy.
- If the vegetables go very mushy, blend them with a stick blender to make a special gravy and cook accompanying vegetables separately.
- I generally all meat dishes at 15 psi (full pressure) and use the natural release method. I've not had a failure yet.
- 5 psi (0.34475 bar, 34.475 KPa) = approx: 100 °C (220 ° F)
- 10 psi (0.6895 bar, 68.949 KPa) = approx: 115 °C (239 ° F)
- 15 psi (1.03425 bar, 103.425 KPa) = approx: 120 °C (248 ° F)
(1 bar = 14.50326 psi), (1 psi = 0.06895 bar), (1 psi = 6.8948 KPa)
See also
- How to cook beans or pulses in a pressure cooker
- De-pressurising a pressure cooker
- BAR to PSI to KPa converter
Pages in category ‘Pressure cooker recipes’
The following 21 pages are in this category, out of 21 total.