Whiz-bang awesome pressure cooking made no-brainer by Cuisinart

This, ladies and gentlemen is what real foodies will want from Santa this Christmas. The Cuisinart CPC-600 Electric Pressure Cooker. T’aint many gifts that you can buy for well under $100 smackers that will pay back so handsomely in fast, healthy and imminently tasty homecooked meals.

This is not another kitchen gadget that will sit unused.

Oh, and I don’t want to hear another story about your great-aunt Ethel whose pressure cooker with the old jiggler valve blew beans all over the ceiling. Even my 20 year old Swiss Kuhn-Rikon pressure cooker wouldn’t do that. Lose the eight track player and join us in the Common Era.

This is the iPhone of pressure cookers. Well, maybe not that exactly. Not quite that many apps. Google Maps doesn’t work for sour owl shit on it.

This is the braised beef short ribs - grass fed, of course - that I made in it the other night, in just around 30 minutes.

Oh, and big, beefy whole grains - even at Reno’s altitude of 4,412 ft - don’t stand a chance of being tough and undercooked. In less than 30 minutes. Start to finish. No soaking. As in just got home from work and wanted beef with wheat berries, or rotisserie and brown rice soup. Yup.

We’re talking push button controls, easy to read digital display, preprogrammed settings and safety that eliminate the guesswork of using a pressure cooker - which has long been the kitchen staple in energy concious Europe.

Right out of the box, with a rinse out at the sink, here’s my first dish:

6 meaty beef short ribs

A large handful of those baby carrots out of the bag

A couple ribs of celery chopped

One really big turnip, cut into chunks ( or potatoes if that’s what you’ve got)

Two or three smallish golden beets, peeled and quartered

3 large shallots, peeled and sliced thickly ( or one small sweet onion, cut up roughly)

About two cups of roughly chopped mushrooms of your choice

Optional: a big handful of - as in my own homemade - dried mushrooms

Several big peeled cloves of fresh garlic, sliced

2 anchovies, from that stinky little jar or can

A couple of big tomatoes, chopped

One scant cup each of white wine (whatever you’re drinking ) and unfiltered apple cider.

One cup low sodium beef or veal broth

Optional: 2 teaspoons of Mushroom Demi-Glace

1-1/2 teaspoons of salt or Herbamare (available at Whole Foods type stores or online)

3 big Bay Leaves

1/4 cup olive or grapeseed oil for sauteeing the meat and veggies.

 

Plug the pressure cooker in and push Menu, then Browning. Salt and pepper the meat. When the pot becomes hot (Ouch! Dammit!) add the oil and the beef short ribs. Brown the short ribs all over. Browning equals flavor, kids. Don’t skimp on this step.

Remove the meat, and start sauteeing the veggies. Add the onions, then the hard veggies first and then the softer ones. Don’t forget the dried mushrooms, if you’re using them.

Now, put the meat back into the pot, the anchovies, your broth, the wine - and mushroom demi-glace if you’re using that. Put the lid on, lock into place. Make sure the pressure valve is set to Pressure and not Pressure Release. Select Menu until it lights up High Pressure. Punch in the Time for 10 minutes. That’s right. Ten minutes.

Let’r rip. Walk away. Go watch the news and drink wine. Relax. When the pressure cooker beeps - and it will automatically go to Keep Warm - go release the Pressure valve, allowing the little red ‘float’ to sink down into it’s hole. That’s when you can open the pot.

Stir things. Poke the meat with a fork. Not quite there? Put the lid back on and give it another 10 minutes on High Pressure. Oh, yeah, baby. Now it’s there.

Tender. Succulent. Melded flavors like it cooked all afternoon, yet, the veggies are still shapely and recognizable. Voila! Dinner is served.

 

Bon appetit!

-maven

Healthy whole grains get better, faster in the Cuisinart pressure cooker!

Cooking and living the whole grain life - here at high altitude (4,412 ft) in Reno - can be something of a challenge. One option is to have one of the fuzzy logic rice cookers, which Maven has used for years. But, as good as it is, it’s damn slow. Brown rice takes freaking forever. It’s not something you want to do at the last minute for unexpected company.

Enter the Cuisinart CPC-600 6-quart electric pressure cooker. This is what lucky foodies and cooks will find under the Christmas tree this year!

I’m running this baby through it’s paces here at Kitchen Maven - what I do for you, my readers! And, today I did whole wheat berries and brown rice.

Oh, baby. Fast. Simple. And incredible.

I had to practically force myself to put the damn spoon down! Put the finished grains into the fridge for later use. Waaaaa. But they were so yummy! Just toothsome enough, not really al dente actually. Tender but whole. Not mush. They both could’ve got right into some outstanding soups with sauteed veggies and meat (unless you’re vegan, of course).

The wheat berries took the longest - 33 minutes ( I added 3 minutes for the altitude), with a 10 minute Natural Pressure Release. In other words, you don’t quickly release the pressure by turning the valve. Just let it cool down naturally. Since I was actually busy doing my exercise for the day, I let them simmer for probably 20 minutes until I could take them out and photograph them.

I used one cup of rinsed wheat berries to 3-1/2 cups of water, with 1-1/2 teapoons of the Herbamare seasoning salt, and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Incredible. When done, I kept uh, tasting. Just a bit more.

The same results with brown rice. Only the brown rice took 13 minutes. The book said 10, but again, this is Reno. I used the same High Pressure and the slow Natural Pressure Release method.

Now, I realize they are more ‘soupy’ than a rice cooker would do them. But it’s a simple matter to drain off the excess liquid (shame, since it’s soooo flavorful) and use either grain in a pilaf side dish or such. But the sheer speed makes these grains so accessible for a weeknight supper that it’s well worth an extra step. With a bit of practice, I think I can pair down the amount of water.

On my next experiment, I think I’ll saute (on the saute setting of the wonderful Cuisinart) some onion in grapeseed oil, with some Juliet Mae Garam Masala Indian spice, then add the brown rice, with a chicken or vegetable broth.

Oh, gosh. That sounds great.

At any rate, this pressure cooker makes healthy, inexpensive whole grains completely accessible to the modern, time crunched home cook. I got this Cuisinart Pressure Cooker online at Amazon for well under $100, with no shipping charges. Now that’s real economy.

-maven