Electric pressure cookers for the win

[slackerinabox]

Not one to usually plug cooking appliances, but we recently picked up a refurbished cuisinart pressure cooker and, in less than two weeks have made up the purchase price ($50 shipped) in delicious, easy, and healthy meals.

Dinner takes 15 minutes if that - throw some raw pasta (no boiling!), sauce, and cut up vegetables in plus a dash of white wine and what comes out is creamy, rich and fantastic even though there's no dairy involved. Mac and cheese comes out gourmet, and we look forward to seeing how chicken and red meat comes out. We've cut back on using oil and cream and are cooking at home because, frankly, it's faster than delivery.

Lost 2 pounds too, adding wine (white for pasta /risotto, red for meat) is really a nice low-cal and fat way of adding some deep flavor to a healthy meal.

 

[DrPizza]

How the heck do you cook mac & cheese in a pressure cooker?

edit: if you even mention a box with the word "Kraft" on it, it completely discredits your ability in the OP to make claims of "delicious" or "fantastic."

 

[waggy]

yeah how do you make those.

i would like more info on these please.

 

[Kaido]

yeah how do you make those.

i would like more info on these please.

Ditto. Have had one of these on my wishlist for awhile now.

 

[slackerinabox]

How the heck do you cook mac & cheese in a pressure cooker?

edit: if you even mention a box with the word "Kraft" on it, it completely discredits your ability in the OP to make claims of "delicious" or "fantastic."

Ha, not at all - we got a pressure cooker cook book with recipes for things you wouldn't think can be made in one (brownies, pasta dishes, risotto).

Similar to this recipe, but actually easier (cooks the mac 2 minutes longer but skips steps 6-8, you just mix in the shredded cheese and milk instead of browning anything):
http://eatathomecooks.com/2014/03/pressure-cooker-macaroni-and-cheese.html

 

[slackerinabox]

yeah how do you make those.

i would like more info on these please.

Pasta we just sorta winged it - threw in half a pack of uncooked pasta, put sauce in until submerged and added a cup of white wine plus the veggies, cooked 6 minutes which was a bit too much (we're still figuring it out).

Here's a cook chart: http://missvickie.com/howto/pastas/pastatiming.htm

Liquid does not mean just water, meaning you don't cook the pasta and the sauce separately or add more water. It stews in the sauce. Easiest damn meal ever.

Oh, i forgot - my wife made turkey meatballs once as well. Came out amazingly flavorful and juicy with the garlic and wine from the sauce infused into the turkey. Same deal, pasta, sauce, and meat cook together (she lightly browned the meatballs first, pressure cookers have a browning mode so it was still one pot).

 

[NetWareHead]

I use a pressure cooker to slice the amount of time needed to tenderize meats or cook items such as dried beans or grains without soaking them. For instance, you can get veal shanks for osso bucco to a fall apart texture without all of the hours braising needed in an oven. This is I feel the best use for a pressure cooker.

 

[slackerinabox]

I use a pressure cooker to slice the amount of time needed to tenderize meats or cook items such as dried beans or grains without soaking them. For instance, you can get veal shanks for osso bucco to a fall apart texture without all of the hours braising needed in an oven. This is I feel the best use for a pressure cooker.

I can't wait to try cola short ribs, supposed to be amazing for braising.

To be clear, it's not for steaks - sticking by my old cast iron for that.

http://www.chow.com/recipes/30305-pressure-cooker-cola-braised-beef-short-ribs

 

[trmiv]

I need to look into one of these. I'm so tired of all the dinners we make now, and everything that looks super tasty takes so frigging long.

 

[Anubis]

How the heck do you cook mac & cheese in a pressure cooker?

edit: if you even mention a box with the word "Kraft" on it, it completely discredits your ability in the OP to make claims of "delicious" or "fantastic."

TBH I prefer the boxed mac and cheese over home made 90% of the time /shrug

actually the save a lot brand is even better vs craft

 

[sunzt]

InstantPot for the Win!

I use it to make all kinds of rice, congee, stew, etc. You can use any type of rice (brown, white, black, etc) and they all turn out nice and soft without any pre-soak needed for the non-white rice. Plus, no non-stick coating concerns.

http://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-IP...ds=instant+pot

 

[NetWareHead]

Pasta we just sorta winged it - threw in half a pack of uncooked pasta, put sauce in until submerged and added a cup of white wine plus the veggies, cooked 6 minutes which was a bit too much (we're still figuring it out).

Here's a cook chart: http://missvickie.com/howto/pastas/pastatiming.htm

Liquid does not mean just water, meaning you don't cook the pasta and the sauce separately or add more water. It stews in the sauce. Easiest damn meal ever.

Oh, i forgot - my wife made turkey meatballs once as well. Came out amazingly flavorful and juicy with the garlic and wine from the sauce infused into the turkey. Same deal, pasta, sauce, and meat cook together (she lightly browned the meatballs first, pressure cookers have a browning mode so it was still one pot).

Ok now I see your method. In one shot you make the sauce and cook the pasta. I could see how a pressure could also be used to make mac & cheese this way.

6 minutes is a very short window to get it right as the increased temps will rapidly cook the raw pasta. Even a minute too soon or late will have very differing results to the pasta texture.

 

[solsa]

I've had a few stove top pressure cookers and loved them. They save time and save a lot of money, too because they allow you to make stuff you would have to buy canned. Without the pressure cookers, I would never have made beans or lentils at home. It just doesn't work with an ordinary pan.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I like a pressure cooker, it's a good appliance to have around for emergencies when you need to cook a tough piece of meat quickly. They do a great job on stuff like pot roasts. But I would never even consider making mac and cheese in one.

 

[ponyo]

Never take a cooking advice from someone who eats turkey bacon and turkey meatball. They obviously have no taste.

Pressure cooker is great for braising tough cuts of meat like beef short ribs or quickly cooking grains like rice. Sure you can use it for other things like pasta but that cooks so quick in a simple sauce pan, why would you? Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

 

[slackerinabox]

Never take a cooking advice from someone who eats turkey bacon and turkey meatball. They obviously have no taste.

Pressure cooker is great for braising tough cuts of meat like beef short ribs or quickly cooking grains like rice. Sure you can use it for other things like pasta but that cooks so quick in a simple sauce pan, why would you? Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Well, I love real bacon and absolutely adore beef, I've just done a lot of damage to my arteries already and turkey meatballs is a small step in the right direction 🙂 Besides, fuck off with your snarky self, I never proclaimed myself as someone with a bit of culinary expertise, I'm just a lazy american who can't cook sharing my newfound love of my $50 gizmo.

What we like about cooking pasta is that we're city dwellers with a tiny kitchen - instead of a pot of boiling water and a pan for veggies/sauce, we just throw everything into one pot and call it a day. The creaminess of the sauce was pretty spectacular though and not something we could have done stove top with our limited skill set (the veggies were infused with this richness that's awesome).

We're still working on timing though, I wouldn't say pressure cookers are the best thing ever for pasta (it was just an example of a cheap, quick meal). Rice came out awesome though, better than our fancy japanese cooker.

 

[slackerinabox]

InstantPot for the Win!

I use it to make all kinds of rice, congee, stew, etc. You can use any type of rice (brown, white, black, etc) and they all turn out nice and soft without any pre-soak needed for the non-white rice. Plus, no non-stick coating concerns.

http://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-IP...ds=instant+pot

Hot! When the refurb breaksdown we'll upgrade, that seems really spiffy.

 

[Ns1]

Need some pics of these supposedly amazing meals you guys are making with crockpots.

 

[slackerinabox]

Need some pics of these supposedly amazing meals you guys are making with crockpots.

Ha, I don't take pictures of my food and it's a pressure cooker, not a crockpot (I hate crockpots, so bland). And the food we're cooking won't put Per Se out of business, it's just pretty tasty for the time (and skill) investment involved.