Making Friends With the Pressure Cooker

It took me a long time to miss the good old American Crockpot. I think it's mostly because the first few years I lived here I was more into learning how to cook Italian than making chili. I was experimenting with homemade pasta (amazing salmon and ricotta ravioli one time, but what a pain!), gnocchi (sometimes great, sometimes gummy), and bread (too much salt, not enough salt, sometimes decent). I was stewing ragus and toasting bruschetta, layering lasagnas and tossing up and spinning pizza dough (actually, I flattened it with a floured rolling pin, but that's not poetic) and decorating it with gorgonzola, asiago, and gouda. 

But then the cravings hit: tuna sandwiches, my grandpa's chicken soup, Ranch dressing, brats, cranberry juice, potato salad, buttermilk biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, cheese and sausage on crackers, tacos, cole slaw, turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes, and the American classic: chili.*

WELL EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT CHILI IS BEST WHEN IT SITS IN A CROCKPOT ALL DAY AND STEWS. But I couldn't find a crockpot anywhere, so I made it in a big pot and cooked it for three hours (Great Grandma Toodles' recipe says three hours MINIMUM) and that worked okay UNTIL I DISCOVERED THE PRESSURE COOKER!

COOKING REVOLUTION

Basically, like a crockpot, you can throw just about ANYTHING you want in there, and as long as  you keep the water below the line marked on the inside, you can close it and let it whistle however long you need and it will turn out perfect** really fast, which makes it like a crockpot, BUT BETTER! Plus, it's economical-- just ask anyone you know who is older than about 75. I'm sure they will have one collecting dust in their pantry and will be happy to unload it. That's how I got mine (Thank you, Long Gone Nonna Ofelia!)

THE PRESSURE COOKING COMMUNITY

Once you get into pressure cooking, you start running into other people who like them, and then you get all kinds of new recipes to try. My friend Graziano (who is an Engineer) appreciates the efficiency of the pressure cooker, the fact that it uses little water, and you don't dirty so many dishes (no dishwasher). He is the Master. Thanks to his tireless experimenting, I know that you can throw dry pasta, whatever sauce you want, and half the water you would normally use to cook the pasta and let it whistle for half the time that the pasta package says, and it will turn out delicious.

THE MIRACLE OF SOUPS

Like at least one family that I know (Elizabeth and Mauro), I have started making a pot of soup a week (sounds repetitive, but it becomes addictive, and, as Elizabeth points out, most schools that offer lunch serve either vegetable or meat broth as a starter to students daily and they never get tired of it) and the pressure cooker has made it even easier.

Here's what I made today: PUMPKIN SOUP!

Here's how:

I cut up  and sautéed a leek, three carrots, three stalks of celery (the numbers are arbitrary, I use what I've got) and a small piece of Hen (vecchia gallina fa buon brodo, but chicken will do) threw it all in the pressure cooker with some rock salt, a bouillon cube, two hunks of garlic and pieces of half a small cooking pumpkin and three peeled potatoes. I filled it with water up to the line. Then I shut it and turned on the gas and let it cook. When it started to whistle, I timed it for 30 minutes.

When I opened it I seasoned it with: All spice (thanks, mom), cloves, a little cumin, and some cinnamon. I took out that piece of Hen (the meat is too tough to really eat) and blended it with a hand blender, and VOILA!!  Excellent soup. Try it.

BUON APPETITO!

*I learned how to cope with variations in ingredients as best I could (brown sugar equals a cup of white sugar with a spoonful of honey, baking powder equals 1/4 teaspoon baking soda + 1/2 tsp cream of tartar. Don't have cilantro? Try some diced celery, it's not the same but does freshen things up in a similar way.  3 tsp lemon juice are the equivalent of 1tsp of cream of tartar, etc). Note that in 6 years I have never found a suitable replacement for American Vanilla extract, although I did find a recipe for making it yourself, which I will probably try this winter with the grappa that we make, or with last year's leftovers.

**(boiled potatoes: 10 minutes, stewed meat and onions: 30 minutes, add potatoes and cook another 11 minutes and WOW!)