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Under Pressure
by Guest Writer, Valerie Whitmore No, this is not a post about my stress levels here at CDK with Turkey Day looming in the very near future. Rather, it's about my new kitchen toy
One of the few (very few) kitchen gadgets I haven't owned is a pressure cooker.
Until now.
I've always been curious about them but also a little scared. I tend to stay away from things that have potential to explode.
It was definitely an impulse buy. I normally research any appliance before I buy it to find out what brands are good, what features to look for, and what to avoid. Not this time. I saw it on sale online and I bought it. Two days later it was sitting on my kitchen counter, staring at me, tempting me to try it out.
We have over 100 recipes that require a pressure cooker on CDK. I've never been able to test any of them (obviously) so I was kind of excited looking through them to see what the possibilities were.
Since today concludes National Split Pea Soup Week I thought it would be appropriate to test a recipe for split pea soup made in the pressure cooker. The recipe calls for a smoked ham hock, bacon, onion, carrots, potato, and green or golden split peas, stock, and seasonings. I could only get green split peas but that was fine with me because that's what I'm most used to
One of the things I liked about the recipe I selected was that I'd get to use out some of the various settings on my new toy. It has modes to brown, saute, and simmer in addition to cooking at high or low pressure. The recipe called for browning the bacon, sauteing the onions, and then cooking the whole shebang on high pressure for 15 minutes.
The recipe says to "Close lid and bring to high pressure. Cook for 15 minutes." At first I couldn't get the lid on right. Then when I did I kept checking it to make sure it was locked in place before turning the unit on. I must have checked it 25 times. I had visions of split pea soup covering every square inch of the kitchen if that lid wasn't on right. Finally, when I figured I'd been obsessive enough about it I turned the unit on.
Lo and behold, nothing exploded
The unit cooked for 15 minutes then went into the natural pressure release state. That took another 20 minutes. I kept checking the manual to see if I was supposed to be doing something, because it seemed weird to just be standing there - waiting. And I'm so used to stirring and tasting that I felt myself becoming very impatient.
But I was a big girl and waited. When it was done, it was magnificently done!
The peas were completely smooth and cooked. One quick stir and everything was mixed. I removed as much ham from the hocks as I could (there wasn't much, unfortunately) and added that and the bacon to the individual bowls
My first adventure in pressure cooking was a delicious success!
Of course, now that I'd gotten my feet we (not literally of course, because remember nothing actually exploded with the new kitchen gadget I decided to try something different: a dessert.
Most of the pressure cooker recipes we have on CDK are for savory dishes so when I found one for individual pumpkin custards I was intrigued
The ingredients are very simple in this recipe: canned pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, cinnamon, candied ginger, and ground cloves
I halved the recipe to only make 4 ramekins. I figured this would work ok since the original recipe has you cooking them in two batches anyway. I divided the pumpkin filling among the ramekins. They were just a little over half full
Normally when you bake custard you don't cover it, but you do in the pressure cooker. So here they are with their little tinfoil hats.
The recipe says to cook them at 15 PSI for 10 minutes. My pressure cooker has HIGH and LOW settings, and no mention of what the PSI is for either anywhere in the manual. I did a little googling and found others complaining about this lack of information. However, one person had actually contacted customer service at Cuisinart and found out that HIGH on this unit is only 10 PSI, which is lower than most units.
This means I had to adjust the cooking time a bit, and since I'm new to pressure cooking I wasn't sure the recipe would turn out with my guestimating.
I cooked it on HIGH (10 PSI) for 15 minutes. I let them cool and this was what was under the foil when I removed it.
It looked like it might have been overcooked, but it wasn't, thankfully
I ate two of them and when I woke up the next morning Brent had eaten the remaining ones. I'd say that recipe was also a success!
Since my adventures in pressure cooking have gone so smoothly and deliciously so far, you can probably expect to see more recipes being tested in the very near future
Get the recipes:
Pressure Cooker Golden Split Pea Soup
Petite Pumpkin Custards
One of the few (very few) kitchen gadgets I haven't owned is a pressure cooker.
Until now.
I've always been curious about them but also a little scared. I tend to stay away from things that have potential to explode.
It was definitely an impulse buy. I normally research any appliance before I buy it to find out what brands are good, what features to look for, and what to avoid. Not this time. I saw it on sale online and I bought it. Two days later it was sitting on my kitchen counter, staring at me, tempting me to try it out.
We have over 100 recipes that require a pressure cooker on CDK. I've never been able to test any of them (obviously) so I was kind of excited looking through them to see what the possibilities were.
Since today concludes National Split Pea Soup Week I thought it would be appropriate to test a recipe for split pea soup made in the pressure cooker. The recipe calls for a smoked ham hock, bacon, onion, carrots, potato, and green or golden split peas, stock, and seasonings. I could only get green split peas but that was fine with me because that's what I'm most used to
One of the things I liked about the recipe I selected was that I'd get to use out some of the various settings on my new toy. It has modes to brown, saute, and simmer in addition to cooking at high or low pressure. The recipe called for browning the bacon, sauteing the onions, and then cooking the whole shebang on high pressure for 15 minutes.
The recipe says to "Close lid and bring to high pressure. Cook for 15 minutes." At first I couldn't get the lid on right. Then when I did I kept checking it to make sure it was locked in place before turning the unit on. I must have checked it 25 times. I had visions of split pea soup covering every square inch of the kitchen if that lid wasn't on right. Finally, when I figured I'd been obsessive enough about it I turned the unit on.
Lo and behold, nothing exploded
The unit cooked for 15 minutes then went into the natural pressure release state. That took another 20 minutes. I kept checking the manual to see if I was supposed to be doing something, because it seemed weird to just be standing there - waiting. And I'm so used to stirring and tasting that I felt myself becoming very impatient.
But I was a big girl and waited. When it was done, it was magnificently done!
The peas were completely smooth and cooked. One quick stir and everything was mixed. I removed as much ham from the hocks as I could (there wasn't much, unfortunately) and added that and the bacon to the individual bowls
My first adventure in pressure cooking was a delicious success!
Of course, now that I'd gotten my feet we (not literally of course, because remember nothing actually exploded with the new kitchen gadget I decided to try something different: a dessert.
Most of the pressure cooker recipes we have on CDK are for savory dishes so when I found one for individual pumpkin custards I was intrigued
The ingredients are very simple in this recipe: canned pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, cinnamon, candied ginger, and ground cloves
I halved the recipe to only make 4 ramekins. I figured this would work ok since the original recipe has you cooking them in two batches anyway. I divided the pumpkin filling among the ramekins. They were just a little over half full
Normally when you bake custard you don't cover it, but you do in the pressure cooker. So here they are with their little tinfoil hats.
The recipe says to cook them at 15 PSI for 10 minutes. My pressure cooker has HIGH and LOW settings, and no mention of what the PSI is for either anywhere in the manual. I did a little googling and found others complaining about this lack of information. However, one person had actually contacted customer service at Cuisinart and found out that HIGH on this unit is only 10 PSI, which is lower than most units.
This means I had to adjust the cooking time a bit, and since I'm new to pressure cooking I wasn't sure the recipe would turn out with my guestimating.
I cooked it on HIGH (10 PSI) for 15 minutes. I let them cool and this was what was under the foil when I removed it.
It looked like it might have been overcooked, but it wasn't, thankfully
I ate two of them and when I woke up the next morning Brent had eaten the remaining ones. I'd say that recipe was also a success!
Since my adventures in pressure cooking have gone so smoothly and deliciously so far, you can probably expect to see more recipes being tested in the very near future
Get the recipes:
Pressure Cooker Golden Split Pea Soup
Petite Pumpkin Custards