PRESSURE COOKERS ARE BACK !!

I remember as a young boy growing up in Gisborne in the 1950’s my mother had a pressure cooker that was a slightly terrifying thing to me. It hissed and roared and spat and I always had the feeling that it was about to explode. Then years later, in Napier in the 70’s I recall some friends of ours had one although I never saw it in use.

Well believe it or not they are back but no longer the historically dangerous and dated item I remember. Today’s new models are sleeker, more sophisticated and easier to use with options of electric models that you plug in or those you pop on the hob.

I know all about this because last week I received for review TWO new pressure cooker cookbooks.

The first one, The New Zealand Pressure Cooker Cookbook, (cover pic above), is by Lisa Loveday with photography by Alan Gillard and published by cookbook publishing veteran Renee Lang at Renaissance Publishing, and an excellent buy too at $35.00.
Written by Kiwi cook Lisa Loveday this book is packed with the kind of recipes you will want to make each night under sections headed Soups & Starters, Grains, Pulses and Rice Dishes, Mains, Vegetables and Side Dishes, Desserts. Each dish is photographed in colour and there are heaps of useful hints and tips to ensure you get the best use out of your pressure cooker.

The really appealing thing about pressure cookers of course is the fact that you can roast a chicken or prepare any number of main meals in 30 minutes. The chicken cacciatore I made was all done in about 20 minutes from start to finish and made a great mid-week dinner.

Renee kindly loaned me her pressure cooker for a few days so I could try out some recipes. Once I got over my initial nervousness it was a breeze to use and unlike the one my Mum had it didn’t hiss and roar at all. The first dish I made was Sweet Chilli Lime Steamed salmon and I have to say (in all modesty!) that it proved to be one of the very best salmon dishes I have ever tasted. It was DIVINE .

About the author:
Since graduating in Home Science from Otago University and then going on to complete her London & City Guilds in professional Cookery with Honours from AUT, Lisa Loveday has spent a further 20 years working with food including two and a half years with TVOne's popular Food in a Minute series.
About the photographer:
Allan Gillard's photography has featured in more than 50 cookbooks and dozens of magazines. In 2005 he was awarded a Silver Ladle at the World Food Media Awards.
About the publisher:
Since establishing Renaissance Publishing in 2004, Renee has published a number of cookbooks including the best-selling Kiwi Kitchen (over 25,000 copies sold) and Richard Till Makes It Easy. She has also packaged several cookbooks for leading New Zealand publishers and edited countless cookbook manuscripts.
Prior to setting up Renaissance, Renee was publishing manager at New Holland (1998-2004) during which time she commissioned a number of well-known cookbooks, including:
Penny Oliver and Ian Batchelor’s Beach Bach Boat Barbecue (finalist, Lifestyle category Montana Book Awards 2002)
• Julie Biuso’s Take a Vine-ripened Tomato, Fresh (winner, Lifestyle category in the Montana Book Awards 2002), Viva l’Italia (Best Photography, Gourmand International Cookbook Awards 2002) and Dancing on My Table (winner, Best Food Literature in the World, Gourmand International Cookbook Awards 2001)
• Ray McVinnie’s The Modern Cook and Eat.

The second pressure cookbook to arrive was 80 Recipes for your Pressure Cooker by Richard Ehrlich (Kyle Cathie ).

As one of the greenest, easiest and quickest cooking methods, pressure cookers are obviously fast gaining in popularity with a new generation of users, as they save a fortune in time and energy. This book shows that pressure cooking preserves more vitamins, minerals, colour and aroma in your food than any other method of cooking, whilst the high temperature reduces cooking times by up to 60 per cent.

Richard Ehrlich provides a complete guide to pressure cooking, with basic principles and techniques for beginners, and broadening the scope and range of recipes for old hands. The book includes a guide to getting started, including what pressure cookers do, operating procedures, safety concerns and freezing. Richard provides over 80 delicious recipes divided into chapters on vegetables, soups, meat, poultry, one-dish meals and puddings.

About the Author:
Richard Ehrlich is the author of The Green Kitchen (Kyle Cathie 2009), inspired by his former ‘Green Kitchen’ column for The Times. He won two Glenfiddich Awards for his work at the Independent on Sunday. Richard currently writes on both food and wine for the Guardian, The Financial Times, Good Housekeeping and Time Out, where he is also a contributor to the Time Out Eating and Drinking Guide.

I made this classic of Chinese home cooking which couldn’t be simpler than in the pressure cooker. Easy enough for a midweek dinner, it needs nothing more than boiled rice and a green vegetable.

red-cooked pork
serves 3–4
600g thick piece of boneless pork, from shoulder, leg or belly
100ml soy sauce
400ml water
1 star anise
1/2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
3 plump garlic cloves, peeled
1 thick slice of fresh root ginger, peeled

Put all the ingredients in the pressure cooker. Clamp on the lid. Bring up to full pressure, turn the heat down to medium and cook for 30 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave to vent gradually. Serve with plain boiled rice and some stir-fried vegetables, and with extra soy sauce and some chilli sauce if you wish. The cooking liquid is fairly salty and should be served in moderation. Economical cooks freeze it and use it for another pot of pork – but it does take up quite a lot of freezer space.

Extracted with kind permission from ‘80 recipes for your Pressure Cooker’ by Richard Ehrlich, published by Kyle Cathie and distributed in New Zealand by New Holland, RRP $39.99.

The same day that this book arrived I was reading the January issue of Jamie Oliver’s magazine, jamie, at my local cafe and noticed he had a section on pressure cooking recipes.
So I think we can safely say pressure cookers are back!

And I notice in city stores that cookers vary in price from $105 to $400 with most being around the $150-$200 mark. There are many models to choose from.