Cooking Adventures: Pressure cooking times

Not too long ago, I stumbled upon this amazing site called Hip Pressure Cooking. Interesting name, right?

Of course I was curious, I know a lot about canning with my large 23 qt. pressure cooker.

I also know that many myths about pressure cooking, such as most of the nutrients are lost, are simply not true! But I don’t know a lot about preparing meals with a small pressure cooker! Browsing through the site I can see it’ll come in handy since I recently purchased my Presto 8 qt. pressure cooker.

I was thrilled to see an extensive list of food that could be cooked within the pressure cooker complete with the cooking times.

Wow, I was blown away by the cooking times for some of the foods. Some of those items used to take me hours to complete, not so with a pressure cooker. For example basmati rice takes one minute to make. Boneless chicken breasts take four to five minutes! Four to five minutes, oh my that’s fast!

So if you want to check out pressure cooking times, definitely look at this site.

While browsing through this informative site, I thought about Suituapui. He left the below comment on my post about Siga Wot, Ethiopian Beef Stew. It made me smile…

15 minutes!!! That would take hours over the gas stove…and the meat would still be as tough as leather…and many many hours if using the slow cooker. Hmmm…I must look for a small one, if not here…maybe when I hop over to Kuala Lumpur again.

Based on his comment above, he might be blown away by the limited cook time on some of these dishes, and purchase his own. Even a multi-tasker like me, would appreciate not having to constantly watch something since that time can be spent doing other things.

I instantly thought of this scripture passages that  he’d linked too in one of his blog posts…

Luke 10:38-42

38 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; 42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

New American Standard Bible

I’ve always loved this passage, I’m definitely more of a “Mary” than a “Martha”. At times we need to relax and spend time more time with those we love, the other stuff can wait.

Admittedly, my reasons for wanting Suituapui to get a pressure cooker are a bit selfish. You see, I truly enjoy Arthur’s site since it opens a window to some amazing foods I’ve never heard about.

He’s a great virtual host and is an incredible source of inspiration, not only with the food he prepares, but also his amazing relationship with his daughter.