Completely random, I know, but I'm just starting this blog, and I'm still trying decide what to write about and how to write it. And I realized that Pressure Cookers are highly under appreciated.
Growing up using a crock pot, I've always liked the idea of putting the meal together in the morning, leaving the pot plugged in for the day, and coming home to a ready cooked meal. But I'm just not that organized, and my firefighter boyfriend isn't too keen on leaving anything hot plugged in all day. So, I've rediscovered the pressure cooker. I can cook dried beans in 30ish minutes- without even soaking them! Turnips, beets, hosts of hard vegetables... they all take no time at all!
When I was living in Costa Rica, my host mom cooked rice and beans every night. In contrast to the cooks I met in Haiti, Guatemala, and Honduras, she spent NO time slaving over the stove. She's a single mom, works cleaning houses all day, and needs to throw together dinner when she gets home. The black beans (enough for dinner and tomorrow's breakfast and lunch) go in the pressure cooker for 30 minutes. Meanwhile she puts the rice in the rice cooker for 30 minutes. As they're both cooking independently, she cuts up vegetables to steam, makes fresh juice (pineapple, tamarind, you name it), and gets the table set. Her efficiency inspired me.
Gary was good enough to get me a pressure cooker last Christmas. For as much cooking as I do do, it's underused, but not under-appreciated. I cooked a casserole with bulgur wheat one time and added steamed vegetables. I've cooked many many random soups. It's fun to experiment, and I'm thrilled that it makes healthy eating easier. I can actually cook a meal in the time that it would take us to choose a restaurant, drive there, sit down, order, and wait for the food to arrive.
Part of my goal for eating healthy involves cooking more. Going through college (dorm food), medical school (whatever-I-could-grab food), and residency (more-of-the-same-grabbed food), I've finally gotten to a point in my life where I've realized that I need to know where my food comes from. I need to pay attention. And learning to cook is part of that. And yes, Gary, someday I'll learn to cook. :-)
Anyway, for anyone interested in learning more about pressure cookers, here's a really helpful site.
pressure cooker website
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