Under pressure!

We've had an old-fashioned WearEver pressure cooker for some time (the date stamped on the bottom is 6-94). It's the kind with a vent in the lid that you put the weight on to regulate the pressure. When it gets up to pressure the weight wobbles and lets out some of the steam. We then have to fuss with the burner to make the weight wobble every few seconds. You don't want it to constantly wobble because that would mean it's too hot and you don't want long pauses between wobbles because that would mean it's not hot enough inside. You have to hang around to make sure the burner is at the right setting.

The last few times that Jerry made us beans in the pressure cooker the weight decided not to wobble at all. It just got stuck open and let out a constant, high-pressure steam jet. That seemed to be worse than constant or infrequent wobbling. And it was scary.

Jerry got fed up with this old technology.

We decided to go with the high-tech approach to pressure cooking. We got the Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker. It minds the temperature and pressure for us so all we have to do is fill it with the ingredients and tell it how long it is supposed to cook under pressure. And tell it whether we want low or high pressure. It adjusts the temperature to maintain the proper pressure and we just sit around waiting for food.

Tonight we used it for the first time. We had Pasta e Fagioli.

Pasta e Fagioli

This device isn't just a pressure cooker. It did all the cooking steps for the soup. It has a sauté setting. Jerry put in the olive oil, onions, carrots, celery, garlic, and Italian herbs and sautéed away. Then added the water and dry beans, put on the cover and set it on high pressure for 35 minutes. When it got up to pressure the timer started counting down. When it got to zero it beeped and started cooling. Once the pressure was down (about 25 minutes later) it let us open it and he added the vegetable stock, tomatoes, and more Italian herbs and pushed the "Brown" button. That brought it to a boil. In went the pasta and it boiled for ten minutes.

Then we ate. Yum.

The recipe was for the full capacity of the machine. We have a lot of leftovers.

I'd have thought that we wouldn't be getting too many new kitchen gadgets. But we have another gadget planned already. I need to do some more research on that one. I'll keep you posted.