Let's Hear it for the Pressure Cooker!

 
The pressure cooker was a daily part of my childhood during the 1950’s. My father had heart disease, and my mother was a devotedly healthy cook. She had a huge vegetable garden from which she (with occasional help from us kids) canned, froze, and preserved large quantities of fruit and vegetables. We had veggies from the garden year round, always cooked for a quick few minutes in the pressure cooker. Its use was so routine that the sound of steam being released signaled that dinner was ready.

Pressure cookers became popular along with many other labor-saving appliances after World War II. Then, with the advent of prepared food, frozen entrees, and microwave ovens, pressure cookers disappeared for a while. But cooks like my mother, who valued freshness, nutrition, and taste have always known that pressure cooking produces great results.

Along with a Singer Featherweight sewing machine, one of my mother’s major gifts to me as a new bride was my own pressure cooker. At first I used it the way my mother had, mostly for vegetables. Then I branched out to beans and other entrees. My mother-in-law contributed a delicious recipe for Transylvanian Goulash: pork chops or shoulder with sauerkraut, sour cream, paprika, and dill and caraway seed. You’d think that recipe has too many strong flavors, but pressure cooking melds them beautifully in a short time.  

In a pressure cooker you can make:

• Soups and stocks
• Beans (including “baked” beans)
• Rice
• Curries
• Meats and main dishes
• All kinds of vegetables
• Puddings and desserts

Fissler pressure cookers in two sizes are available in our Kitchen Corner, and we have classes on how to use them. A sample class menu with an Italian theme is:

• Risotto Milanese
• Braciole in Rich Tomato
• Red Wine Poached Pears with Amaretto Crunch