IntroductionWelcome to the world of healthy cooking using your electric pressure cooker or multicooker! With your pressure cooker or multicooker and this cookbook, you’ll be making nutritious, delicious foods that are easy to prepare and cook more quickly than with many traditional cooking methods.
Home cooks have been using stovetop pressure cookers for decades to prepare foods, but these original cookers required making adjustments to the heat to regulate the pressure as needed. Today’s electric pressure cookers are preset and automatic, so you don’t have to guess at the heat setting and you can set the timer so you can do other tasks without fussing over the cooker.
Multicookers are usually pressure cookers, but not all electric pressure cookers are multicookers. A multicooker is just what the name implies—a versatile, jack-of-all trades kitchen appliance. The features and settings vary by the brand, but typically they are pressure cookers with additional settings for slow cooking, steaming, sautéing, and even cooking rice and making yogurt, among other techniques. A benefit of this appliance is that you have only one device to learn how to use and to store in your kitchen. This appliance is the new modern-kitchen workhorse that you’ll want to use often.
Using a multicooker on the pressure cooker setting and using an electric pressure cooker are quite similar, so the cooking times and the tasty food that results will be the same. However, using a stovetop pressure cooker will require different cooking times and may give different results. All of the recipes in this book were tested in electric pressure cookers or multicookers, not in stovetop pressure cookers. When the recipes call for using a “pressure cooker,” this refers to the pressure setting on your electric pressure cooker or multicooker. All of the recipes in this cookbook were developed for and tested in a 6-quart multicooker or electric pressure cooker. If you have a larger or smaller appliance, you’ll need to adjust the recipes for best results.
The Instant Pot® is one popular brand of multicooker and because it’s so common, you may hear people refer to this appliance category by that brand name. (It’s similar to when people refer to a tissue as a Kleenex® or call a slow cooker a Crock Pot®; these are all brand names and are registered trademarks.) However, there are other brands of multicookers on the market, including ones from Cuisinart, Fagor, Breville, and Tristar, among others, offer- ing different models and features. Choose the appliance that best suits your budget and needs. The recipes in this cookbook will be successful with any brand.
Benefits of Pressure Cooking Quick cooking Each recipe in this book includes the time it will take for you to prepare the dish, from chopping the ingredients to letting pressure build, cooking, and releasing pressure. Pressure cookers work by building up steam, which cooks foods more quickly. The boiling point of water is 212°F, but in a pressure cooker the temperature of the liquid rises to approximately 250°F. The result? Faster cooking, which means less time in the kitchen for you and food on the table more quickly for your family. So, for example, in a pressure cooker dried beans take 30 to 45 minutes to cook whereas when prepared on the stovetop they can take hours—and that’s in addition to soaking them ahead of time. The same is true for many other foods, too, such as beef brisket. Using a pressure cooker, you’ll have a tender, moist piece of meat in less than an hour. If you cook the brisket in the oven, it’ll take hours.
Great flavor Pressure-cooked foods often are more flavorful than foods cooked with other cooking techniques because in a pressure cooker the flavors are concentrated under pressure. The results? Less need to add unwanted sodium and “bad” fats to flavor the food.
Safe and efficient Today’s electric pressure cookers and multicookers have interlocking lids and are engineered for safe, efficient cooking. Gone are the days when the buildup of too much pressure inside the pot forced the lid off, resulting in a dangerous situation and food everywhere.
Variety You can cook a variety of foods easily and deliciously in a pressure cooker. Since pressure cooking uses moist heat to cook, it’s an ideal way to cook soups, stews, dried beans, sauces, and any dish that you’d typically braise or simmer.
Copyright © 2018 by American Heart Association. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
