Jill Nussinow, MS, RD The Veggie Queen -- Planting Produce on Your Plate Read my blog at www.theveggiequeen.blogspot.com

You have my beet recipe from the Veggie Queen site on there but I now have a pressure cooking blog at http://www.pressurecooking.blogspot.com. Not enough people do it and it's essential. The reason that the Indians use them is lack of fuel and because they eat so many beans.

I hope that you'll try it. You truly don't know what you are missing. Quite incredible.

I'll definitely check out the pressure cooker blog and will add it to this post. Thanks for the info!

And I'm quite sure I'll be trying pressure cooking myself soon.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

http://www.enlightenmentgirl.blogspot.com

I have a Fagor Elite pressure cooker that I love.  To me, pressure cookers do what slow cookers do, just in opposite fashion.  Slow cookers are low and slow, cooking while you're at work, while pressure cookers are hot and fast, cooking when you've come home famished and realize you forgot to put your ingredients in your pressure cooker that morning.  I always suggest checking out cookbooks to see what you can do with a new appliance and to get basic info on handling them properly.  They can even help you figure out how to adapt your favorite recipes for pressure cooking. Two of my favorite pressure-cooker cookbooks are Pressure Perfect by Lorna Sass, and The Pressure Cooker Gourmet by Victoria Wise.

Growing up, my parents ALWAYS used a pressure cooker.  But I learned the hard way that if you don't use it right, it can give you quite a scare which we had a few times.  The pressure will build up in the pot and blow.  I now have one myself that probably has dust on it under my cabinets but this post has reminded me to pull it out and return to my roots.  :)
----------------------------------------
Getting Clean Never Looked So Good!
Store: http://www.serahsonline.com

I absolutely love to cook and have every gadget imaginble as well.  I have been thinking of a pressure cooker myself but had no idea of where to go from the purchase.  These links are great and I think one may be in my cabinet this weekend. 

Michelle

I blog at http://www.mommycan.blogspot.com/

I can't imagine cooking dried beans without it.  I'm not a big plan-aheader, so I rely on the PC to cook my beans up fast.

I really hope you get one!  If you don't mind a suggestion, I wouldn't bother with one of the cheaper brands.  I've had a Presto, and it was practically worthless. I graduated to a Fagor, and it was better, but it didn't last long and it was difficult to tell when it was at full pressure.  Finally I did what I should have done in the first place and bought a Kuhn Rikon.  It's so much better!  It has an indicator that lets you know exactly the level of pressure inside the cooker--no more listening to the "hiss"; plus, it has several safety valves so it's very safe.

Good luck, and thanks for linking to my recipe!

SusanV
FatFree Vegan Kitchen

I really appreciate the recommendations. I'm old enough to have learned the lesson about buying the best in the first place, so I'll definitely look for that brand. Actually looking forward to it more and more as more people chime in about how much they like them.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

;-)

--steph

A Year of CrockPotting

It would never replace the Crockpot for me either, but I do think it will be fun.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

When I was a wee child my mother cooked about 90% of our meals in a pressure cooker.  I grew up with the old type of cooker that had the jiggly thingy on top and made a lot of noise and produced the most wonderful concoctions in a matter of minutes. 

To this day I own no less than 5 cookers of various sizes that are used in various ways.  I have one in my RV that is used to cook, soups, stews, roast, beans and of course chicken and dumplings.   Several of them do not have the jiggly pressure thingy on top.  (I know I'm using pretty technical terms here but I'm like that)  They have a safety top. 

 This is a pretty nice addition since I have cleaned beans off the ceiling several times. 

They're quick, and save fuel, which is important.

Soaking dry beans overnite and pressure cooking them will save more fuel and time :-) In fact, I've never ever cooked dry beans without soaking them overnite. Here in India, lamb/mutton takes a long time to cook in a pot - a pressure cooker will cut the cooking time by more than half.

Thanks for chiming in. Love the idea of soaking beans and them cooking them even faster, since I'm starting to love dried/soaked beans and want to stop using canned ones so often. Better for the environment too.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

I teach pressure cooking so I can honestly say that I have more than 5 of them but truly use about 3 of them. They are the new spring-valve, quiet type. I am really scared of the other ones, having heard my mother's cooker explode and seeing the food everywhere. The noise it made scared me, too.

I use my cookers almost every day to cook beans, grains, stew, soup, chili and more. One of my students figured out that the money she saved by cooking her own organic beans in the pressure cooker for 1 year would actually pay for the pressure cooker.

The pressure cooker is the greenest way to cook, saving lots of energy. I'd marry mine but then I'd be a polygamist so I'll just love them without commitment.

 Jill Nussinow, MS, RD The Veggie Queen -- Planting Produce on Your Plate Read my blog at www.theveggiequeen.blogspot.com and http://www.pressurecooking.blogspot.com

Okay, I guess you have the record! I took my buddy Susan V's advice and ordered a Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker from Amazon.com, along with Lorna Sass's cook about vegetarian cooking in the pressure cooker. Also subscribed to your pressure cooker blog! Can't wait to try it.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

 I still prefer good ol' old fashioned cooking but sometimes it's nice to know that I can whip up a GOOD, quick meal that is NOT processed;) Thanks for the link love.  I do appreciate it. And I do love the pressure cooker feature on that particular pan.  It's extremely safe!
  *******************

My Wooden Spoon ~ Where it's perfectly legal to use a little pot!

A Cowboy's Wife ~ Ranch photography and tall tales from Son up to S

Once you start pressure cooking regularly you can get pretty addicted to it. Some of the things that I rarely make but hear are great are pot roast, corned beef and other kinds of meat, too. I made my husband meat loaf in it and it was quick to do and he said that it was delicious.

After you use it for beans, try it for other things. The Kuhn Rikon is a good cooker but more expensive than some of the others. Anything without a jiggler is just fine for me.

 Happy PC Cooking.

Jill Nussinow, MS, RD The Veggie Queen -- Planting Produce on Your Plate

Read my blog at www.theveggiequeen.blogspot.com and www.pressurecooking.blogspot.com

Hi -

I handle the PR for Fissler and thought I'd share a little info about our pressure cooker for those interested in trying one out (Fissler is well-known in Europe, but still fairly new here).

If you read the review that Kalyn linked to above from A Cowboy's Wife, she is using the Fissler Blue Point pressure pan set. This is an ideal set for someone who isn't very familiar with pressure cooking because it is many sets in one - pressure cook, grill, sear, fry, sautee, steam and braise. It's super safe too, as it exceeds saftey requirements in both the US and Europe.

It also has a super thick aluminum core base which means the base will never separate, warp or develop hot spots. Fnally, the surface is a Novogrill frying surface, a honeycomb texture for grilling and searing that requires little to no oil (healthy coking).

This set is silent, cooks super fast and requires less liquid. I admit I never used one until I started working on Fissler and was pretty impressed. I was hesitant at first, but quickly sold. It's nice to come home from work after a long day and still make a nice dinner but in half the time.

At any rate, just thought I'd pass along this info since there seems to be such a growing interest in pressure cooking - and now I know why!

http://www.enlightenmentgirl.blogspot.com

It got cool enough in Tennessee for soup this week, so I got out my pressure cooker for the first time in a while.  I made a beef vegetable soup from a Weight Watchers recipe that would normally take 75-90 minutes to simmer.  In the pressure cooker, it took 15, plus 5 minutes to cool and release pressure.  Yummy, tender carrots and zucchini, top round beef that fell apart like a fattier cut, brown rice cooked to perfection.  I'm eating off of  this this for the week!

I also make a tomato meat sauce in my pressure cooker that is not only faster than  conventional methods, but it just tastes better too.  Somehow the texture is better; the carrots and celery are tender and the whole sauce just tastes "silkier."

So far, my Fagor is working just fine, but I am intrigued by the info about the Fissler.

Can't wait to have a chance to try it out. Thanks for sharing your experience with it.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen