Electric pressure cookers and a recipe

[killing_rose]

We have an electric pressure cooker; for a variety of reasons, it replaced my beloved rice cooker, and earned the nickname The Circus. The Circus gets used when I can't remember that we need a meal or when no one can stand upright to deal with the stove; I'm eventually going to use it to make cheesecake, and it will be fantastic.

The Circus is great for my household's particular brand of disabilities; it weighs a decent amount, but the pot itself doesn't, and if we had the counter space, it could happily live on the counter and not have to be moved around at all. It requires no standing and poking at it, and it cooks a variety of meals with very little thought.

Last night, I came home having forgotten it was my night, spiking toward braindead from pain, and stared in horror. Ran up to the store half a block away, bought pre-cut vegetables and beef, and ran back home to make the following:

I threw the following into the Circus:

Two pounds stew meat
One large container of pre-cut stew-vegetables
A quarter of a small container of pre-cut red onion
Some carrot chips
Two cups of rice
Two cups of water
Enough coconut milk to cover everything in the Circus
Some rosemary
Some hyssop

I then let it go for 20 minutes on the meat setting.

Approximately 35 minutes after I started the process, we had dinner.

Next time, it needs salt in the cooking process. Also, it likes cheese.

But, seriously, I cannot extol the virtues of electric pressure cookers nearly enough. The Circus is worth its pricetag and then some.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Hmm, this demands further thought.

We had a stove-top pressure cooker which would get clogged and explode, so I've always been sheepish around them. Is an electric p.c. not subject to explosive decompression?

Is there a general guideline of stove-top time (or roasting time) vs electric p.c. time?

[killing_rose]

I'd never dealt with pressure cookers prior to the Circus; I am really grateful I came into this with no damned clue, because from what I'm told, electric vs stove is basically apples and oranges.

The vent doesn't get clogged. I don't have to vent it; if I'm not up for opening the vent when the Circus beeps to let me know it's done, I don't have to. It'll bleed the pressure off itself within 20 minutes, while still keeping everything warm.

I have to wipe the lid and vent down after use, but even when making potato chowder, there was basically nothing in the vent.

The explosion factor is exceedingly slim due to the ways that it regulates heat and temp; when we got the Circus, we looked into if it had that flaw, and no one had reported the issue. (Compared to that being a know issue with stove, which is why we hadn't considered the stove type.)

Some recipes take a little longer when you factor in the pressurizing process, but. My roommate made a roast a few weeks after we got the Circus. The roast was frozen when she put it in. We were finished eating 1.5 hours later.

The Circus comes with a ton of "chicken should be cooked for x time on this setting; quinoa takes 10 minutes on the rice setting,etc" guidelines in the guidebook, recipe book, and care and keeping of your Circus book. In addition, they add new recipes to the official site on a regular basis.

We haven't run into a recipe yet that we can't make at least an educated guess on time and setting from looking at one of the above.

We have a slow cooker, and it can do many of the recipes the Circus makes on a regular basis, but it takes more mental spoons to remember early enough to use it. For me, the Circus is awesome because we can go from frozen meat to dinner so damned quickly.

And hell, lentils and quinoa ONLY get cooked in the Circus.

[bibliofile]

Is it easy to translate slow cooker recipes to pressure cookers? because I have some lovely slow cooker recipes I'd love to try.

[killing_rose]

It is relatively easy, yes. I've converted several things, as have others in my house. We've made everything from chowders to roasts; the biggest thing to watch is that (at least for our house; we're pretty spice-sensitive) spices increase in impact when in the Circus. We tend to compensate by decreasing spices used in cooking, tasting when it's finished, and then adding a bit more if need be.

[birke]

WANT.

[killing_rose]

I love my Circus. My entire circle has gotten screeds on the subject from both myself and other members of my household.

(I was livid when I got the Circus. It got kept after we realized we could make food with little spoon expenditure.)