What's in the Pressure Cooker?

After a few meals of turkey we are always ready for something a bit different. Now we have been on this use it up trend since we returned home from our trip. Part of the reason is reducing what's in the freezers in prep for new meats but another part is the weather has turned cold so hibernation is a good thing.

Mystery

These are days I love my pressure cookers mainly because I do feel lazy. Pressure cooking is so easy and so much quicker than slow cooking but with a lot better results than using a slow cooker. A pressure cooker can save as much as 70% in energy usage and it doesn't heat the kitchen. It was the precursor to the microwave oven and remains more energy efficient than the slow cooker. Unlike the microwave oven or slow cooker, any meat can be browned in the same vessel saving time and foods do not need to be thawed although thawing does speed up the cook time. In terms of a cooking utensil a pressure cooker is one of the most frugal items in your kitchen.

Pictured is my Fagor 4 qt pressure cooker. So what is cooking? I pulled 3 nice sized country cut pork ribs from the freeze then let them thaw to where I could pull them apart. They were placed in the pressure cooker and the rest is history :)

Cooked

I started with 3 large country cut pork ribs just browned then added carrots, onions and a bit of stock to do the initial pressure cooking that took 20 minutes. Then I de-pressurized and added Diana Sauce® then brought it back up to pressure and cooked under pressure for 5 minutes. The result was a wonderfully tender meat perfect for a cold night's meal.

Pictured are the country cut pork ribs I made in the pressure canner. Doesn't this just look yummy? The carrots and onions were for flavour only and they really did do their job. Once the sauce caramelized a little the ribs were ready for serving with steamed potatoes, niblet corn and homemade bisquits.