to my kitchen!!! I have wanted a pressure cooker for preparing meals for quite a while. I have a ginormous canning pressure cooker, but I wanted one of the top-of-the-line models in a more dinner-friendly size.
Judy L swears by Kuhn-Rikon. They are pricey, but it’s something that would be used often, plus the reviews on these cookers are very good. DH told me some time back I should go ahead and get one, if that’s what I wanted. Yes, that’s what I wanted, but $200 for a pot? I wasn’t sure I could do it.
Well, it took me a year of dithering, and Saturday I took the plunge. I went to Eden Prairie Center to a shop called Kitchens so I could touch it before buying. I got the 5-quart, which is a great size for the two of us (remember, you can only fill it 1/2 to 2/3 full).
Saturday night I cooked up an inexpensive roast using a recipe out of the included cookbook. It made beef chunks in an orange-infused sauce. I think the cooking time was something like 20 minutes. Counting the chopping time, browning the meat (in the same pot, just no lid), bringing the cooker up to pressure, letting it come back down — the total dinner preparation time was probably an hour. Click here for the recipe.
But the food tasted like it was from a high-end restaurant! Yummmm. The meat was tender beyond belief, the sauce (which had a little wine, chicken broth, orange zest, garlic, etc.) was so tasty! Saturday night we had the beef with yams (Target had them for 5 cents a pound after Thanksgiving, so I baked a panful to have ready to heat & eat.) There was so much of this thin sauce with the meat that I should have had rice or noodles with it. There was enough meat left for dinner Sunday, and we had it with rice this time. Fabulous!
This is the pressure cooker I got. Besides considering the size, you also want to pop for the stainless steel over the aluminum, if you can. Also, you want to have the second handle opposite the big, main handle. This pressure cooker was a breeze to use after reading through the booklet and noting the safety precautions. The lid locks on very easily and securely, and the pressure gauge was also easy to monitor. My only regret is that I waited a year to buy it.
Pal Marcia gave me Miss Vickie’s Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes for Christmas (we girls celebrated Saturday), and it’s going to be fun trying out different receipes; just reading through the book last night, I think I gained five pounds. Tonight I am going to pressure cook a chicken. Math Lesson For The Day: Less time cooking = more time quilting!
–Sue
