Cooking Under Pressure -The Ultimate Electric Pressure Recipe Cookbook and Guide for Electric Pressure Cookers.: Revised Edition #3 - Now Contains 175 Electric Pressure Cooker Recipes. Read Online Free Page A

with spatulas.....
    There are several ways to cook in a pressure cooker. The easiest is just to throw everything in, add water and set the timer. I have included some “dump” recipes later in the recipe section. This is fine for things that have similar cooking times, but what if you want to cook things with greatly different cooking times, such as a beef stew with brisket. Brisket takes a little while to tenderize, and your potatoes and carrots would undoubtedly turn to mush. To get around this problem, use the phased cooking method. Just put your brisket in the cooker with enough water, and cook it until it is done. Then, just do a manual pressure release (or use the cold water method with a stop-top cooker), add the potatoes, carrots and other stuff, put on the lid, close the vent and continue cooking until the veggies are done. For cooking several things at once, but still keep them separate, you can use the tiered cooking method. All you do is put the different items in separate pans that will fit in the cooker, and layer them (but not more than 3/4 of the way full), one on top of another. Some models come with stackable pans, and after-market kits are easily available. You may come across some cookers that call themselves infusion cookers. Don’t be miss-lead. It is just a marketing ploy to get you to buy another expensive kitchen appliance. All pressure cookers are infusion cookers. That’s the way they work. They drive the flavor of your cooking water, and the foods own natural juices deep into the food, instead of leaching it out. That’s why you don’t need a lot of spices. Want some smoked chicken, but only have a hour or so to cook? Put 2 cups of water in your cooker, along with 6 or 7 drops of Liquid Smoke, and maybe a little garlic powder. Add a whole chicken (on the trivet, so you can get it back out in one piece), close the lid, seal the vent and cook for 20 minutes or so. Ease the bird out, and....instant smoked chicken. It tastes just like it’s been in the smoker for 6 or 7 hours, except is isn’t nearly as dry. Next time, try using orange juice instead of water. Add barbecue sauce to the liquid. Cook your rice in Green Tea. Try doing a ham in Coca Cola, Pepsi, or (delicious) 7-Up. Add some maple syrup to the liquid the next time you do a chicken or ham. Go ahead...be creative.
    There is no hard and fast formula for converting a regular recipe to a pressure cooker one. But the good news is that pressure cookers are incredibly forgiving. A few basic guidelines are to limit the amount of fats and oils to no more than 1/4 cup, total. Add milk and dairy products after pressure cooking, so they won’t scorch. Reduce liquids by at least 1/3, because the water will not evaporate in a pressure cooker. It is a closed system. Except for what the food absorbs, what you put in is what you will get out. Reduce the cooking times by 2/3rds, and be sure to use the cooking time charts if you are not sure. Add thickening agents such as roux, flour, cornstarch, etc...After pressure cooking. Just allow the food to continue cooking with the lid off until the desired thickness is achieved.
    To troubleshoot, there really isn’t much to worry about. Only a few things can happen, and none are really that bad. If you used too much water (not really a bad thing), you can ladle the extra liquid out, and save it to use in future recipes. It will freeze just fine. If you didn’t use enough liquid, your first warning will be a scorched smell. Immediately reduce pressure manually, and check the food. It will probably be just a little scorched on the bottom, and the rest will be salvageable. Just trim the crispy stuff off, and save it to use in other recipes, or give it to the dog, cat, garbage disposal, or whatever, and pay more attention next time. If you really over-cooked the veggies, to where they are just mush, remove the meat, and use an immersion blender or pour it into a regular blender, and puree it all into a rich