Under Pressure

Insanity laughs under pressure were cracking Cant we give ourselves one more chance? Why can”t we give love one more chance? Why can”t we give love give love give love? Give love give love give love give love give love Cause loves such an old fashioned word And love dares you to care For people on the edge of the night And love dares you to change our way Of caring about ourselves This is our last dance This is our last dance This is ourselves under pressure Under pressure pressure Now that Bowie has graced the page with some of his lyrics, this post can”t be all bad now can it? That certainly takes some of the ”pressure” off me.. heh heh heh. Now to the knitty gritty – there was pressure! I will admit it… there was alot of pressure. Let”s see… pressure on whether I should review a product in the first place (thank you very much to to CSN Stores for sending it), pressure on how to put it together, pressure on how to start cooking something in it, pressure on what to cook in it, then the actual pressure once the device started making pressure itself (there was crazy rocking accompanied by some steam and a few scary moments until I realized there was nothing to be scared of). Yes, that is right – I am happy to report there is nothing to be scared of here, nothing. I did not blow the kitchen roof off, I did not lose an eye, not even any burns occurred while operating this new gadget. The only thing of great concern is what I am going to cook in it next?! because it rocks. For the trial run I decided to go with some pork spare ribs that I had in the freezer. In the spring our neighbour knocked on the door and asked us if we wanted to split on a pig. Well, the truth is, he was more sly than that.. he cooked us up some honey garlic sausages on the BBQ a few weeks before that,and had us drooling for more and THEN he came over and asked if we wanted to go splitzies.  Out of the half we received bacon,chops, sausages, roasts and more. There was this one package marked spare ribs and I had never cooked them before, so I decided that I would go with that as my first adventure into the pressure cooker world. I used a simple recipe that came with the cooker and adjusted only slightly but it turned out great. It”s true what people were saying in the comments on the initial post (read here), that the meat actually falls away from the bone and the cooking time is so fast. I ended up browning the meat and then locking the lid and then did the cooking from there. You barely have time to get a salad made before the timer goes off. Easy peasy. This beaut”  is really just a big pot that has a special lid that locks in place. I have learned that the way a pressure cooker works is that air inside the pot gets ”locked in” with your food, and as this air gets ”used up” as it heats, it then turns into steam. Since the steam is trapped in there, this creates the pressure and the pressure raises the internal temperature much faster than any regular pot with a normal lid. At 15 pounds of pressure, a temperature of 250ºF is reached very quickly and then the food cooks super speedy at those kinds of temperatures. The steam also acts as a tenderizer, as all that steam penetrates itself into the food and in turn, makes for a very moist meal. Pork Spare Ribs in a tomato sauce Easy steps: Brown the Ontario meat of your choice with some local onions, pour sauce over top, lock the special lid in place, place pressure regulator on top of lid, turn up the heat to high until the regulator starts to rock back and forth, once regulator reaches a steady “rock” – adjust heat to keep it steady and start the timer for 15 minutes, once the 15 minutes is up, turn off the heat and let the pressure come down on its own (don”t do anything). Once the lid is able to be unlocked, open it up and you will find moist, tender meat that is falling off the bone inside, all within the span of about 25 minutes total with prep. Vegetarians – I am sorry I went with a meat example here, but I will do a nice veggie soup in the future AND I am going to try and can/preserve in the pressure cooker and I will be sure to post all about that in the summer! Let me know what you think. Please share some recipes in the comment section, I would love some more ideas. For the record – CSN Stores delivered the cooker in under 8 days and it came right to the door. I think that is very fast. They were friendly and they have everything there on that website… everything.  Read More

Pressure Cooker Dreams

Does anyone out there own a pressure cooker? I know some of you do, or maybe you remember your mom or your grandma having one? Well, I do not own one and I have also never used one. I have terrifying memories of being in the kitchen with my mom when I was much younger, when suddenly a harmless, low whistle would emerge from a large pot on the stove. This low whistle would then gain in decibel quite quickly, until it was finally screeching itself silly – and it was at that point where I clearly remember my mom would start yelling at me “get out of the kitchen!” “go into the living room, right now!!!”. I think she was even more afraid of that pressure cooker than I was. I was asking her about this just the other night and she and I were giggling about those frightening moments, but she did remark that this scary device made the most juicy meat out of ”not so great” cuts of meat. She had me drooling with some of her recollections. I am branching out and I am going to review my very first product on this blog. I am sure this will not be a regular occurrence, but I have never been asked before and I actually thought that some of you may be interested in learning about pressure cookers. I have been contacted by CSN stores who sell all sorts of things for the kitchen, the home, the office and they even sell very cool Kids Bedding. They are going to send me a pressure cooker and I am going to make something for you all to drool over. That is the plan anyways, let”s hope I do not blow the roof off the kitchen! Stay tuned.  Read More