I recently gave a nephew a pressure cooker for a wedding present and wrote up a few recipes for his use. From that document, I've cut and pasted a few tried and true recipes for the pressure cooker. If you'll pardon a LONG post, I can tell you that all of these recipes work well. The Osso Buco alla Milanese is terrific, but all the other stuff is good as well.

I never had a pressure cooker until I was in my fifties. Having used one, I now can't see having a kitchen without one. Quite simply, it changed the way I cook. You can cook a whole lot of good food really quickly with this item. Given the unpredictability of the schedules of two adults both working and having to cook for themselves, the pressure cooker can cut down on restaurants'and you'll have great food to boot, at a fraction of the cost of eating out.

There are several different applications at which a pressure cooker excels: one, you can cook healthy stuff in a lot less time. Beans and grains cook in a fraction of the time they would usually take. You can steam artichokes in 12 minutes instead of 45. Here in the South you can get your collard greens tender in about 5 minutes.

Another application it's great at is having comfort foods in a fraction of the time it usually takes. Pot roasts in under an hour. Corned beef and cabbage in about an hour. Chili. Soups and stews. Osso Buco alla Milanese in under an hour.

One other use: the pressure cooker makes nearly foolproof risotto in a matter of minutes. Risotto is a bit tedious and finicky to make by hand, so I rarely did so in the old days; now I can make it easily, with virtually no attention to the dish. You can be doing something else while the risotto is cooking, rather than laboriously adding broth the risotto bit by bit.

Yet another use: after a meal of roast chicken I'll throw the carcass into the cooker along with some water, onion, celery, carrot, etc. and bring it up to pressure. By the time I've cleaned up the kitchen, the cooker has made some yummy chicken broth to be used in my next meal.

Lorna Sass is the head honcho (f. honcha? honchess?) of pressure cooking enthusiasts. I have four of her cookbooks, and they're all good. The most complete one is Pressure Perfect. There's a recipe in there called 'Curry in a Hurry' which is great. For something thrown together in less time than it takes to cook a pot of rice, it's really tasty. Fair warning: Patak's Hot Curry Paste is exactly that--it's hot. You may wish to try the milder versions first.

I've never had a dud with any of her recipes. And, if you are considering going vegetarian for a while, or just want a good vegetarian cookbook, she has written a few. I have her Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure and it's quite good.

Another pressure cooker expert is Vickie Smith. She runs the website missvickie.com and has all sorts of pressure cooker recipes and advice, and has recently published a pressure cooker cookbook. All the recipes I've tried from that book have been very good.

Note that some recipes are quite specific about how to release the pressure after the cooking time has elapsed. Some meats (beef in particular) can get stringy if you reduce the pressure too quickly. So if the recipe calls for a quick release technique (i.e., venting the cooker or placing the closed cooker in the sink and running cold water over it) then do so; however, if it specifies 'natural pressure release', that means taking the pot off the heat and allowing the pressure to subside slowly by itself. If you try to hurry that, you might end up with stringy food. Follow the directions.

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This recipe for Osso Buco is from Lorna Sass's Cooking Under Pressure. I have made Osso Buco both as a slow braise (traditional), and made it in the pressure cooker'I actually prefer the pressure cooker version. Even if you're only cooking for two and using just two veal shanks, don't halve the remaining ingredients; the sauce is wonderful by itself, and any leftover sauce will make a great pasta sauce for the next day. Once you get the Osso Buco started in the cooker, cook up some pasta or rice to soak up the sauce. The gremolata garnish is traditional, but I don't care for it; some authorities, such as Marcella Hazan, don't use it.

OSSO BUCO ALLA MILANESE (Braised Veal Shanks, Milan-style) Serves 4

4 veal shanks, about 10 oz each
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine or dry vermouth
1/3 cup beef or chicken stock or bullion
2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced thinly
1/2 pound mushrooms, thinly sliced
One 14 oz can tomatoes, coarsely chopped, including juice
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste (less if using canned bullion)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Gremolata: (optional)

1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
1/2 cup finely minced fresh parsley

Rinse the veal shanks, pat dry, and dredge in flour, pressing the flour into the veal with the heel of your hand. Shake off excess flour.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in the cooker. Over medium heat, brown the veal on both sides and set aside on a platter.

Add the remaining oil and saute the onions until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the red wine and stir, taking care to scrape up any browned bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the stock, browned shanks, carrots, celery, mushrooms, tomatoes, basil, oregano, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

Lock the lid in place and over high heat bring to high pressure. Adjust the heat to maintain high pressure and cook for 18 minutes. Let the pressure drop naturally or use a quick-release method (venting the steam or putting the cooker in the sink and running cold water over it). Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to allow any excess steam to escape.

Prepare the gremolata, if used, by combining the garlic, lemon zest, and parsley. When the shanks are done, stir in the gremolata and simmer for a few minutes. Adjust seasonings and serve.

Note: if using smaller shanks, check for doneness after 15 minutes of high pressure.

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CORNED BEEF WITH CABBAGE AND POTATOES

A pressure cooker makes this traditional St. Paddy's day meal much easier. Ordinarily, a corned beef brisket would take 3 or 4 hours to cook. Here it's about a third of that, and most of that time you're not having to do anything. --From a meal-planning standpoint, this is a very convenient dish. A packaged corn beef brisket stays good in the fridge for several weeks, and a cabbage has a long storage life as well--so you can have those items available in your fridge for cooking at the last minute. You can make it with just cabbage, or throw in some root vegetables like potatoes and carrots. Either way, it's ridiculously easy and good. The leftovers (if there are any) make excellent sandwiches or hash.

4 cups water or other liquid (see Variations below)
2 large bay leaves
3 to 5 lb corned beef brisket
4 lbs potatoes, scrubbed
1 small (about 2 1/2 lb) green cabbage

Put the water in a 6 qt or larger pressure cooker. Add the bay leaves. Put corned beef in pressure cooker, fatty side up, along with any juices from the package and the contents of any spice pack that may have been packed with the beef. Don't worry if the brisket doesn't fit on the bottom; just let one side point upwards along the side of the cooker. (It's going to shrink a huge amount, probably 50%.) Arrange the potatoes on top of the beef.
Lock the lid in place. Over high heat, bring the pressure cooker up to high pressure and adjust the burner to keep it just at high pressure. Pressure cook it on high for about 55-60 minutes for a 3 pound brisket, 65 minutes for a 4 pound brisket, or 70-75 minutes for a 5 pound brisket. Then allow the pressure to go down naturally (that is, don't vent the cooker or put it under cold water)--that might take as long as 15 minutes. During that time, trim the cabbage: remove the outer layer or two of leaves, cut the cabbage in half (pole to pole, not through the equator). Cut the dense core out of the stem end of each half and discard. Cut the halves in thirds lengthwise (along meridians, not across the equator). Once the pressure is down, open the cooker and remove the potatoes to a platter, covering with aluminum foil to keep warm. Put the brisket on a platter, fatty side up. If there is less than 1 cup of liquid in the cooker, add sufficient water to make 1 cup. Put the cabbage in the cooker, put the top on, and return the cooker to high--once on high, cook for 3 minutes. You can bring the pressure down quickly now, either by venting the pressure cooker or by putting the cooker in the sink and running cold water over it. Open the cooker and scoop out the cabbage, allowing it to drain, and place it on the platter.

Don't try to carve the corned beef until it has rested for a while--it'll shred to bits. Remove a lot of the surface fat from the beef by scraping it with a blunt instrument like a teaspoon. Carve by starting at one corner, carving the corned beef across the grain--otherwise it'll be stringy.

Guinness stout goes very well with this.

Variations: instead of water, use stout or beer or any combination of those three liquids.

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CURRY IN A HURRY

This recipe from Lorna Sass's Pressure Perfect is a quick and easy way to make a pretty tasty curry. You can make it with chicken, beef, lamb or pork, and vary the hotness by using mild or hot curry paste. 2 tablespoons of mild curry paste makes a pleasant-but-wimpy curry; 4 tablespoons of mild paste makes it pleasantly zingy; 4 tablespoons of hot curry paste makes it very hot, near my limit of tolerance (and I really like hot food). I generally use 2 tablespoons of hot and 2 tablespoons of mild curry paste. This is another recipe that's ridiculously easy yet produces delicious food. If you don't want to mess with the yogurt, peas and cilantro, don't bother--the dish will still be very tasty, but the sauce won't be as rich or velvety-smooth. ( I personally don't like cilantro, so I don't use it.) The recipe calls for 3 pounds of bone-in chicken; I find it easier to use about 2 or 2.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs. --Once you get the pressure cooker up to pressure, make a pot of rice. By the time the rice is done, so is this.

1 cup water
4 tablespoons Patak's Mild Curry Paste
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
3 pounds bone-in skinless chicken thighs or breasts, or 2-2.5 lbs boneless skinless thighs, or 2 lbs. other meat
(see chart below)
1 cup plain yogurt
1 1/2 cup frozen peas
3 tablespoons cilantro, chopped (optional)

Pour the water into a 4-qt or larger pressure cooker and blend in the curry paste. Place on high heat and add the onion and meat of your choice.
Lock the lid in place. Over high heat bring up to high pressure. Reduce the heat just enough to maintain high pressure and cook for the time indicated in the chart. Turn off the heat. Allow the pressure to come down naturally. (If cooking chicken, release any remaining pressure after 4 minutes.) Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to allow steam to escape. If the chicken or meat isn't tender, cover again and simmer until done.
If necessary, skim off the fat that rises to the surface or degrease the broth in a fat separator. Blend the yogurt into 1 cup of the broth. Stir the peas into the curry and simmer until they are defrosted, about 1 minute. Turn off the heat and stir the yogurt mixture into the curry. Stir in the cilantro and salt to taste. Serve in bowls over rice.

Meat choices Cooking times

Chicken (see notes above) 8 minutes high pressure, 4 minutes of natural release, then quick release

Beef (boneless chuck, 1" cubes) 8 minutes high pressure, then natural release

Pork shoulder (1" cubes) 8 minutes high pressure, then natural release

Lamb (boneless, 1" cubes) 12 minutes high pressure, then natural release

If using beef, pork or lamb, trim off excess fat and cut the meat into approximately 1" cubes before cooking..

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What is mirepoix, and why should I care?

Most cuisines use aromatic vegetables to add flavor to meats being cooked. In Cajun cooking, you'll hear about 'the trinity'--onions, celery and bell pepper. In Spanish cuisine, you'll hear about sofrito--onions, garlic and tomatoes. Italian cooks use the word soffritto to denote something akin to the French mirepoix, which consists of roughly 2 parts onion with one part each celery and carrot. It's pronounced meer-PWAH. You use these vegetables in a 'sacrificial' manner--you cook them until they disintegrate and give up their goodness to the sauce and the meats.

Here's where a food processor comes in handy. Buy a bunch of onions (ten pounds, if you have the freezer space), along with about half as much each of celery and carrots. Run them through a fine blade on the food processor so that the stuff is finely chopped (not pureed) and mix them by volume in a 2-1-1 ratio. Scoop it up into quart ziplock bags and freeze. A quart bag holds 4 cups of mirepoix nicely. I generally have mirepoix frozen in 2 or 4 cup amounts. Having that available makes this next dish a no-brainer, and easy to do when you come home from work. Very little effort, and once you get the pot up to pressure there's very little to do except relax and wait for it to be done.

PRESSURE-COOKED CHUCK POT ROAST

Chuck roast, 3 to 4 pounds
4 cups mirepoix (if not previously made and frozen as described above, you need roughly 2 cups onions, 1 cups carrots and 1 cup celery, all finely chopped)
Chicken broth
1 large cup of mushroom stems & pieces (optional)
Black pepper

In the pressure cooker, put a 4 cup block of frozen mirepoix. Add about a cup of chicken broth. Attach the pressure lid and bring up to pressure for a few minutes. While you're doing that, trim excess fat off the outside of the chuck roast, but don't be too aggressive--you want to leave some for flavor. If you want to, sear the chuck roast on high heat in a frying pan (that's optional--it'll still taste good if you don't do that).

Reduce the pressure quickly and open the pressure cooker. Mix in the can of mushrooms into the now-thawed mirepoix. Scoop out roughly half of the mix and reserve. Give a generous grinding of black pepper to what remains in the cooker. Put in the pot roast. It's okay if it comes up the side of the cooker a little bit. Grind some more black pepper on the top of the roast, then put in the rest of the mirepoix/mushroom mixture on top of the roast. Reattach the pressure lid and bring the cooker up to pressure on high heat. Once it gets to pressure, cut back the heat to where it's just keeping the pressure on high.

Now, don't do anything for a while. After some time (roughly 45 minutes for a 3 pound chuck roast, 50 or 55 minutes for a 4 pounder), turn off the heat. Don't vent the pressure, but rather allow the pressure to come down by itself. It'll probably take at least 15 minutes to do so. During this time, you might want to make a batch of rice or couscous to catch the juices.

Once the pressure is down, remove the lid. Remove the roast to a platter. The juices in the pot will be delicious with no other treatment, but if you wanted to get fancy and strain them you could. Slice the pot roast and serve with rice and the pot juices.

typo--in that last recipe for pot roast, it should be one large CAN of mushroom pieces, not cup.

I just re-read your original posting. While all of the dishes I posted are delicious to my taste, none of them produce rare meat. I don't find them overcooked, though. The PC isn't something you'd use on a steak anyway, or on anything you might want a rare finish. Searing a steak in a hot skillet or grilling it will give you a nice cooked exterior and a rare interior. The technique of pressure cooking is akin to braising on hyperspeed--it's a moist cooking process, speeding up the long & slow cooking which you might find in stews, soups and braises. Just like you wouldn't expect slow-cooked braised beef ribs to be rare (they come out cooked through, but still moist and juicy) meats cooked in the PC come out tender and moist, unless you forget about the timing.

Arley, thank you for your wonderful posts and information. I will try the recipes you posted and look into the links as well.

Just to clarify, I mentioned my beef preference just so that some others with the same type of preference can tell me what they love to make in their pressure cookers. I love chili and that will be another thing I will make for sure, I also like ribs and not raw but falling off the bone kind :) Risotto is tempting, I have never made it because it was too involved, my son loves it and his chef friend likes to make it for all his friends. Now I can try the simple version and see how my son likes that.
I make lots of chicken stock and use it in many places, so making stock with my new toys will be a pleasure as well.
Again, thanks for taking the time to educate this newbie here.

L.

Last week I did 2 cups of small, dried red beans for future batches of chili in only 22 minutes.

Brown rice in 12 minutes, which I freeze in 1 cup servings.

Country-style pork ribs cooked with sauerkraut:

1 1/2 to 2 lbs. pork country-style ribs, trimmed of extra fat, cut into 3-4 inch pieces
oil, a drizzle to brown the ribs
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 large onion, sliced
2 cups sauerkraut - drain and save the liquid from the sauerkraut
1 TB brown sugar
1/2 t. salt
freshly ground black pepper
1-2 med. to large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled cut in 4 pieces
1 large carrot, peel cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 t. dried thyme
1/2 cup sauerkraut juice - saved from draining the sauerkraut
1/2 cup apple juice or apple cider
1/2 cup water

The ribs are browned in the heated PC in just a little olive oil. Then add garlic and onion on top of the meat. Mix sauerkraut, brown sugar, salt and pepper in a bowl and pour over ribs in pot. Push the potato and carrot pieces down into the sauerkraut and added a sprinkle of dried thyme. Add liquids to pot.

Put on the lid, put on the temperature gauge and turned up the heat to medium high. After the gauge begins to rock, turn down the heat to low and set timer for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, cut off the flame on the stove and let the pot sit for 3 minutes. Carefully carry the pot to the sink and turn on the tap for a slow drizzle of water over the pot. When the handle lock latch and the over-pressure vent go down, it is safe to open the pot.

Teresa

Cook dry lentils, beans, legumes, barley, peas etc without bothering to pre-soak.

Slow cook meat until it is falling off the bone, but skipping the "slow" part. Pork and beef is what I use it for. I've not tried chicken, might be overkill. Beef shanks, boeuf bourguignon, pot roasts, pulled pork, oxtail, that sort of thing.

10 minute risotto (okay more like 15, start to finish).

Fast stocks. Bring home a whole chicken. Start water boiing in the cooker, whack off the legs and breasts, toss the carcass in the cooker, seal it up, then start trimming the pieces, you can have stock by the time you're finished cleaning up the fowl goo.

Make gelatin from knuckles, feet, necks, backs, etc. I don't know if it is cheaper than Knox powdered gelatin, but it seems tastier.

I'm told that in Switzerland, most homes have more than one pressure cooker.

LOVE my pressure cooker. My mother taught me to use one when I was a teenager, and I have passed her love for the pan on to both of my married daughters.

Pot roast
Chili
Spaghetti sauce

Those are my favorites..

Donna

In addition to all the above, I use my PC to make rice.

Using a smaller container to go inside the PC, basically pressure steam the rice.

You can never burn the rice this way. If you didn't add enough water and the rice comes out too tough, add some more water and PC it again. You can't do this cooking rice the normal way.

dcarch

If you like chili, be on the lookout for beef shank or beef shin (whatever your local market calls the 'forearm' of the steer). It's got tough, rough meat and not much of it, but it's full of flavor, along with all the collagen and marrow and other goodies. A pressure cooker can tenderize that a lot faster than a 4 or 6 hour braise can, and the results can be fantastic.

Favorite use- make meat tender.

I'll echo what Arly said. I'm a "rare meat" kinda gal AND I love my pressure cooker... and nary the twain shall meet. That is, I don't use my pressure cooker to cook cuts that are best rare, and the cuts of meat that I *do* cook in the pressure cooker would be *terrible* rare.

I'm a big believer in getting a good specialty cookbook or two with a new appliance, and bought two with my first pressure cooker: Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes by Vicki Smith (also recommended by Arley), and The Pressure Cooker Gourmet by Victoria Wise. I read the first book cover to cover to acquaint myself with the mechanics, basics, and a full range of options, but found that the second book, while not as comprehensive, has been chock full of the kind of recipes I've been both tempted by and happy with. I recommend both books, but for different reasons.

I've been happy with all sorts of rabbit, beef, pork, veggie and bean dishes in my pressure cooker. I also like it to make stock... and recently invested in a mac daddy pressure canner so I can keep the stock I make in the cooker, (and meat that won't fit in my freezer) shelf stable in mason jars.

I've found that most braising, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes can be easily adapted to the pressure cooker. In other words, any recipe which calls for long slow low cooking works well in the PC, only of course, it cooks much more quickly.

I refer to my Lorna Sass cookbook (I can't remember which one I have) for cooking times when adapting a recipe. I just look for a recipe in which she is cooking a similar piece of meat (cut & weight) and then figure the time according to that. Works great.

I LOVE my PC!

I use a pressure cooker for nearly everything I cook. Hardcooked eggs, oatmeal, risotto, meats, steamed veggies, bread pudding, cheesecake...the list is endless. I made corn bread this afternoon. There are a number of really good recipe books I recommend:

Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes
All the books by Lorna Saas (there are a number of them)

What everyone else said, plus artichokes and sweet potatoes.

Graceunderpressure, you hardcook eggs in yours?!?! How?