On the Porch
Onisha Ellis
Five Reasons Not to Fear a Power Pressure Cooker
Did you know there is an overwhelming about of articles and blog post on how to generate more traffic, thus more readers to a blog? Many have the same advice- give readers a reason to read your blog. They suggest a blog post have titles like 5 Easy Ways too…… or 3 Simple Hacks….
I suppose it is good advice since, I tend to be tempted into reading how to posts. I decided to attempt to follow this model, but for the life of me, I couldn’t think of anyway to turn my rambling words into bullet points. I cast my eyes over the house, surely there is something here I can write a few bullet points about. Inspiration escaped me until I saw my favorite Christmas gift, a Power Pressure Cooker XL. I love this pot!
I grew up using a pressure cooker and I am completely comfortable with them but most of my friends think they are scary. I currently own three pressure cookers, a large one and a standard sized one at our home in North Carolina and a standard one we have at our daughter’s house in Florida. ( I cook her meals during the winter to earn my keep.)
So why would I need another pressure cooker? Because this one is cool! No really, it is cool. The steam remains in the cooker. In Florida, keeping the house cool with minimal A/C use is important to one in my “time of life. Meals that usually require using the oven, I can pop into the Power Pressure Cooker, no heat and cooks fast too.
See, it doesn’t look scary at all!
So here we go, my five reasons to not fear a power pressure cooker!
- No more scary sounds- Have you been traumatized by the hiss and jiggle of traditional pressure cookers? Fear no more. The new electric power pressure cooker is pleasantly silent except for an occasional bump as the pot builds pressure.
- It’s a rice cooker– Yes, it cooks rice. It has a rice setting with 3 sub settings for White Rice, Brown Rice, and Wild Rice. These individual sub settings are program specify for each rice with time and pressure.
- It’s a slow cooker– Have you ever wished your slow cooker had a delayed timer? Well this one does! Of course it turns off automatically once the cooking time has ended, then it goes into stay warm mode.
- Set it and forget it-If you have used a pressure cooker in the past, you know that you have to keep an eye on the cooker until it begins to jiggle, then adjust the heat to make sure it jiggles at the correct frequency. ( Ok, explaining jiggle frequency is just too weird.)
- Great meals- A power pressure cooker is 70% faster than oven or stove top methods. The literature claims more nutrients are retained in the food, due to the shorter cooking time. I don’t measure nutrition so I can’t back this claim up but I can tell you, everything I have cooked in mine tastes great!
Our daughter Rebekah, loves Italy and after reading Under The Tuscan Sun-At Home in Italy, she bought The Tuscan Sun Cookbook-Recipes from Our Italian Kitchen by Edward and Frances Mayes. Last night I made a recipe from the book and adapted it for the Power Cooker. On a funny note,when I went online in hopes of locating the recipe so I could copy/paste, I found it on the AARP website! I am sharing it and making notes on how I modified the recipe.
Chicken With Artichokes, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Chickpeas
INGREDIENTS
- 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 3 chicken breasts, halved, skin on ( I used 4 chicken thighs, skin on. I think chicken breasts are very unforgiving.)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ cup red wine
- ¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas ( I used one can of chickpeas, drained)
- 2 14-ounce cans water-packed artichoke hearts, drained ( I used quartered ones, canned of course)
- ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, slivered, or 1 cup sliced oven-roasted tomatoes (I soaked these in the ½ cup of wine for 30 minutes)
- ¼ cup fresh thyme or fresh marjoram leaves or 2 tablespoons dried
- ½ cup black or green olives, pitted
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Nope, no heating the oven for me!
Over medium-low heat, in a large, enameled ovenproof pot with a lid, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Sauté the onion, and after about 3 minutes, remove it to a medium bowl.
I pressed the chicken meat button, added 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sautéd the onions for two minutes.
Season the chicken breasts with the salt and pepper. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil to the pot, raise the heat to medium-high, and brown the chicken for 3 minutes per side. Add the wine, bring it quickly to a boil and then turn the heat off immediately.
I didn’t change the settings, just put the meat in and browned it for about 4 minutes. Since I had soaked the tomatoes in the wine, I strained the tomatoes and put the wine in the pot to bring to a boil. Once it boiled, I lifted the inner pot out of the cooker and set it aside.
Combine the onion with the parsley, chickpeas, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, thyme and olives. Spread the combined vegetables over the chicken, and bake, covered, for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces, turning the chicken once. Serve right from the pot or transfer to a platter.
No baking for me! Once all the ingredients were together, I put the inner pot back in the cooker, changed the setting to soup/stew and left it alone.(I chose that setting since the meal seemed liked a stew. Once it pressurized, the cooking time was 6 minutes.
Another nice thing about this pot is that once cooking completed, it remained in the warm cycle while I put the finishing touches to the rest of the meal
And it was wonderful!! This is the photo as shown in the book.
Thank You AARP for posting recipes from the cookbook. Click this link to view this recipe as well as as others.
My daughter found a great deal on my Power Pressure Cooker XL at Kohl’s. It was on sale plus 30% off and she used Kohl’s Cash. It is also on Amazon and comes in 6, 8 and 10 quart size. Mine is a 6 quart and a good size for a small family.
Now that I have followed blogging advice, I simply need to sit back and watch our reader numbers soar…..right?
I would like to hear your pressure cooker stories. What is your favorite food to cook in one? Or share your fears and scary stories.
Old Things R New 
I admit that I’ve been afraid of pressure cookers, probably because my mom blew one up in our kitchen. (She was a terrible cook.) Your recipe looks fantastic and the bullet points worked, so I need to try each of them. Still not sure about the pressure cooker but you made a few good points. LOL
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Diane, these new ones eradicate the fear factor. Just curious, what was your mom cooking when it blew up.
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A post about writing and cooking, complete with bullet points and a recipe! Perfect. Next time, maybe you can write a bullet point-filled post about the proper use of bullet points.
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I would need to learn that, Scott. LOL Who knew there was bullet point etiquette.
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Love this post so much, thanks so much for sharing this!
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We cooked all kinds of things in a pressure cooker when we lived on the boat. Ours was a stovetop one, but it didn’t hiss and carry on like those old ones did. It saved a lot of propane, and it kept the heat out of the galley, too.
Gotta try that recipe.
Oh, and good job on the bullet points.
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Using a pressure cooker on a boat is a brilliant idea. Not a bad idea if the power goes out here in Florida during storm season. I can use my stove top one on the grill.
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I have been waiting to hear how this thing works. My friend bought one for his wife, she thought it would be great. Uh, that was over a year ago and she hasn’t used it yet. I’m thinking of getting one for my wife, but the larger version so she can use it for canning purposes, too. and especially for meals when the all the kids show up: 4 boys, 4 wives, 10 grandkids, 2 great-grandkids. BTW, the recipe sounds great and I bet those thighs were cooked to perfection.
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The large one would be great for your big family. I think your wife would love it. I don’t know your elevation, but if it is over 2,000 feet, check to see if the model you are looking at has an elevation restriction. The thighs were cooked perfectly. I had some chicken homemade stock in the fridge and I added that to the leftover chicken and veggies to make a hearty Tuscan soup.
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This recipe looks delicious! I had to chuckle about the pressure cooker. I remember my mother had an old fashioned one with some kind of clamp to keep everything under wraps. One time, I heard a commotion and stepped into our kitchen. The thing had exploded and splattered food all over the ceiling. All we could do was laugh! You sound like an expert in the pressure cooker department!
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I just bought a new pressure cooker from Amazon and I am so excited. I’ve had my old one for almost 50 years and though I’ve been happy to have one and I always liked what I cooked in it, I have not been happy with the cooker itself. It’s bit and stainless and very heavy and I can’t use it without a basket or fitting because if I do the bottom burns. In a few days that will be all over and I can start doing some new things. Right now my two favorite things to cook in it are beef roast with potatoes, onions, and carrots, and artichokes. I don’t know a better way to cook either one. Also it’s neat for egg custard.
I was tickled to see all the features on the XL.. That really was a very good post – you sold one. That proves you’re a great marketer with happy customers. Thanks. Every cook in my family has used one since my grandmother, so like you I’m completely comfortable with them. There was one incident when we invited a new bride into the circle and somehow her pressure cooker exploded when she was cooking beans. No one got hurt, but she had beans on the cupboards, beans on the floor, and even beans on the ceiling. I think she gave up on pressure cookers after that. Who could blame her. Personally I think she just filled it too full.
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I believe you will love it! I have never cooked artichokes with a roast. I have to give it a try. A lot of pressure cooker explosions seem to involve dried beans. Since they expand, I wonder if it is as you said, they put to much in the pot.
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