Carolyn Humphries - Making the most of your pressure cooker: how to create healthy meals in double quick time

Contents

Other cookery titles from Spring Hill, an imprint of How To Books

EVERYDAY COOKING FOR ONE
Imaginative, delicious and healthy recipes that make cooking for one fun
Wendy Hobson

THE EVERYDAY FISH COOKBOOK Simple, delicious recipes for cooking fish
Trish Davies

EVERYDAY THAI COOKING
Easy, authentic recipes from Thailand to cook for friends and family
Siripan Akvanich

THE EVERYDAY HALOGEN FAMILY COOKBOOK
Sarah Flower

MAKEYOUR OWN ORGANIC ICE CREAM
Using home grown and local produce
Ben Vear

HOW TO COOKYOUR FAVOURITE TAKEAWAYS AT HOME
The food you like to eat when you want to eat it at less cost and with more goodness
Carolyn Humphries

Write or phone for a catalogue to:

How To Books
Spring Hill House
Spring hill Road
Begbroke
Oxford
OX5 1RX
Tel . 01865 375794

Or email:

Vist our website www.howtobooks.co.uk to find out more about us and our books.

Like our Facebook page
How To Books

Follow us on Twitter
@Howtobooksltd

Read our books online www.howto.co.uk

Published by Spring Hill, an imprint of How To Books Ltd.
Spring Hill House, Spring Hill Road, Begbroke, Oxford OX5 1RX United Kingdom
Tel: (01865) 375794 Fax: (01865) 379162
www.howtobooks.co.uk

First published 2013

How To Books greatly reduce the carbon footprint of their books by sourcing their typesetting and printing in the UK.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or stored in an information retrieval system (other than for purposes of review) without the express permission of the publisher in writing.

The right of Carolyn Humphries to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Text 2013 Carolyn Humphries

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978 1 905862 05 1

Produced for How To Books by Deer Park Productions,Tavistock, Devon
Designed and typeset by Mousemat Design Ltd
Illustrations by Verity Thompson: www.sketchy.org.uk
Printed and bound by in Great Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow

eISBN: 978 1 908974 22 8
E-Book production by Mousemat Design Ltd.
www.mousematdesign.com

NOTE: The material contained in this book is set out in good faith for general guidance and no liability can be accepted for loss or expense incurred as a result of relying in particular circumstances on statements made in the book. Laws and regulations are complex and liable to change, and readers should check the current position with relevant authorities before making personal arrangements.

Contents

Introduction

In this fast-moving society we live in, no-one seems to have the time to cook from scratch for their everyday meals or, when they do, they want something thats incredibly quick to make.

Now for many people that means chucking a piece of expensive, tender meat in a pan and serving it with a salad or, at most, cooking some pasta and a simple sauce. But we can do so much better than that!

Using a pressure cooker is the way to get food fast but not just fast food! With this device, you can serve real, healthy meals for yourself and your family in a fraction of the usual time.

A pressure cooker can cut the cooking time of most foods so drastically that just for instance you could have a delicious hearty stew, using a cheaper cut of meat and lots of veggies, in just 20 minutes (instead of two hours cooked conventionally). That also means that, because its quick, it saves you masses of fuel so is economical and eco- friendly into the bargain.

Plus there are other advantages, too.The food is either steamed or cooked quickly in its own juices, making sure it retains loads of valuable nutrients that promote the health of you and your family. And as the pressure cooker is a sealed container, it doesnt fug- up the kitchen nor does it permeate the house with strong odours, as most of them are contained in the cooker. The benefits just keep on piling up!

Pressure cooking is also very versatile you probably expected to find casseroles, soups and stews in this book, but preserves, pts, bread, cakes, poached fish, risottos and pasta? I think youll be surprised by the range of dishes you can cook in the pressure cooker! And thats not to mention some of the most divine desserts you can think of, like chocolate pudding with a built-in chocolate sauce or the classic crme caramel.

In Making the Most of your Pressure Cooker , youll discover exactly that: how to get the best out of your pressure cooker, making it work for you to make your life easier, your cooking less stressful, and the results on the plate more varied, healthier and more delicious.

Once youve tried a few of the recipes, youll soon begin to understand how it can become the best friend you have in your kitchen and how it can be used, on its own or in conjunction with other cooking methods, to make mouth-watering meals in record time!

The recipes in this book are based on a large 6 litre pressure cooker.

Most pressure cookers cook at one of two pressures but some have three. For the purposes of this book, I have used High pressure (1215lb depending on your cooker) and Low pressure (57lb).

I used a Prestige High Dome, aWMF Perfect Plus and a Tefal Secure 5 to test the recipes.

Chapter 1

Cooking under Pressure

Unlike other types of cooking, pressure cooking uses a different process, therefore you need to make sure you understand how it works in order to be able to use the technique safely and appropriately.

How Pressure Cooking Works

At normal atmospheric pressure, water boils at 100C, a temperature which doesnt change however long you boil the water.When cooking in a pressure cooker, the weight on the top increases the pressure inside, which raises the temperature at which the liquid boils and so speeds up the cooking. The steam created is forced through the food, tenderising it as it cooks.

It is important to remember that the cooking time depends on the size of the pieces of food, not the quantity so 450g carrots will cook in the same time as 1kg.

What to Do

These are the basic cooking procedures but you should consult your manufacturers leaflet for guidance on your specific cooker.