Dinner Under Pressure
Two passionate cooks live at my house. Both my husband Howard and I love to experiment in the kitchen. We have completely different approaches though. I am the Luddite. Aside from combining ingredients in the food processor, blender, or stand mixer, it’s a mostly manual process.
On the other hand, for Howard, it’s all about the technology. He’s been into sous-vide cooking for years, first assembling his own water immersion unit, then recently buying a more professionally built one. He has a hefty vacuum sealer and the Modernist Cuisine library.
The most recent addition to his arsenal is a pressure-cooker. Pressure cookers aren’t actually new-fangled, or even electric, in this case, so I suppose it’s debatable whether it’s a truly high-tech device. All I can say is that the idea of pressure cooking has always terrified me. I always imagine a resulting explosion and food all over the kitchen ceiling. I’ve been assured by kitchen shop salespeople and more fearless cooks than I that current pressure cooker designs make disaster unlikely, but I’ve had my doubts.
Howard did extensive research, and we visited multiple kitchenware stores. The winner was a Fagor Duo (also a top pick by Cooks’ Illustrated).
So, what to make as the debut pressure cooked recipe? Howard’s research indicated risotto would be an excellent choice. We have always enjoyed risotto, at home more than in restaurants. I make it somewhat regularly, though not often. There are infinite variations. It’s the perfect vehicle for leftovers. But all that stirring? It’s time-consuming.
Howard told me that once all the chopping was done, risotto in the pressure cooker would take only 7 minutes, unattended. Humph. That seems work a try, as long as he was in charge of the pressure.
We started with a basic risotto with onion, garlic, carrots and fennel. To turn it into a meal, we added assorted leftovers at the end: shredded turkey confit, mashed rutabaga, and braised kale.
It worked. Once the pressure was reached, Howard turned the heat down just a little to stabilize things. Seven minutes later, the rice was perfectly moist and cooked through. Amazing!
I like knowing that when we’re short on time, we can make such an elegant and easy dinner from pantry items and added inspiration from the leftover stash in the refrigerator. Who would think?
Pressure-Cooked Risotto
Serves 6-8
¼ cup olive oil
1 onion, diced
½ bulb fennel, cored and diced
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1½ cup Arborio rice
2½ cups chicken stock
2/3 cup dry sherry
Chopped fresh rosemary and thyme leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
2-4 cups of additional ingredients, i.e. shredded cooked meat, cooked vegetables, vegetable puree
In the pressure cooker base, heat the oil over medium heat. Add onion, fennel, carrot, and garlic. Cook until tender and translucent, about 3 minutes. Stir in the rice so that it coats with oil and starts to turn translucent, about 2 minutes. Add chicken stock and sherry and stir. Pressure-cook on high for 7 minutes. Start timing when full pressure is reached. Depressurize the cooker. Taste for doneness. If it isn’t quite done, simmer for a few more minutes, uncovered, no pressure. Stir in fresh herbs and season to taste. Fold in any additional ingredients and serve.
ffwd: shrimp and cellophane noodles
This week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie is a bit of Asian fusion, sort of. Dorie says she was first served this dish, Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles, by her friend Hélène Samuel as part of a dinner of orange food. Interesting… I’ve been wondering which part of the dish is considered orange. The coral of the cooked shrimp or the red of the tomato puree. I’m not sure.
Ingredients for this dish spawned a trip to HMart, a gigantic nearby Korean supermarket with a usually large selection of Asian ingredients. Though they have more choices of kimchis and marinated meats for Korean BBQ than I’ve seen anywhere else, their inventory usually includes what’s needed for most Asian cuisines. For some reason, this trip, I was surprised that there was only one choice for tree ear mushrooms and one choice for cellophane noodles. On the bright side, half of the back wall of the store is a fresh fish counter, so I could pick up shrimp and make it a one-stop shop.
To be fair, this recipe should have been named Shrimp, MUSHROOM, and Cellophane Noodles. The dried tree ear mushrooms, once rehydrated, were the main ingredient. I couldn’t believe how much the mushrooms, well, mushroomed. The little one ounce pack grew to fill a medium sized bowl with gigantic tree ears. I debated using only half of the mushrooms, once shredded, but ended up using it all.
Also, I didn’t understand why the rehydrated noodles were doused in sesame oil and then, shortly before assembling the dish, cooked ever so briefly in the pot of water which simply washed the oil off. I added more sesame oil afterwards, but I wasn’t sure about the purpose this step. Anyone have a clue?
Asian ingredients with tomato puree sounded like we were in for a bit of fusion cooking. Unfortunately, the end result was weird. I mentioned the large amount of mushrooms. The dish offered varied textures with the firm shrimp, the slippery noodles, and the dominant shredded mushrooms. I didn’t expect it to taste Italian from tomatoes alone, however, the tomatoes seemed to flatten out the taste completely. There wasn’t any hint of the Asian flavors, even though there was ample sesame oil, five-spice powder, and garlic in there. To Howard, it tasted very sweet, though we couldn’t figure out if that was from the miniscule amount of sugar or the warm spices in the five-spice powder. The consensus at our table was that this dish didn’t quite work.
We don’t post the recipes, but you can find it in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. To see what other Doristas thought of this recipe, check out their posts here.
A Plateful of Happiness 