pressure-cooker hoppin' john

For New Year's, I fried up a quarter pound of chopped bacon, one chopped carrot, one chopped onion, and some chopped celery in the pressure cooker and then added 1.5 cups of rice and 1.5 cups of black-eyed peas, 3 cups of leftover turkey broth, 4 cups of water, less than a tsp of harissa, lots of pepper, and 1 tbsp of salt. I cooked it at pressure for 24 min and then let it come down in pressure naturally. We ate it with spinach sautéed with onions, garlic, vinegar, and olive oil, and some bacon bits.

We ate it with hot sauce and celebratory champagne. The crowd of four was very happy; it would have served at least six lumberjacks. Next time I would switch to 2:1 ratio of beans to rice, drop the liquid by at least one cup, and reduce cooking time by a couple minutes.

pressure-cooker baked beans

Same recipe as usual (I used butter as the fat, and a 50-50 mix of maple syrup and molasses as the sweet), just 30 minutes at full pressure in the pressure cooker instead of six hours in the oven. It worked! Full disclosure: I began with the parboil step, so the end-to-end time was a full hour. But still awesome.

lentils and lamb and... pumpkin?

I sautéed a chopped half-onion, half-carrot, half-parsnip, and half-pepper along with a small lamb shank in lots of olive oil in my pressure cooker. I added half a cup of french green lentils, one cup water, and a tsp each of salt and cumin. Then, in a refrigerator-clearing move, I added the flesh from a small pumkin-like squash (the 'fuzz says its name starts with a "k").

I put the lid on and took the cooker to high pressure for 14 min and then let it cool down for 15 min. I opened the cooker, pulled the meat off the bone, chopped it, and stirred everything together into pumpkin-lamb dal. I added more salt, as usual. The 'fuzz made couscous to go with. Slightly sweet and very delicious!

black beans

The 'fuzz gave me a pressure cooker for my birthday and I am learning how to use it. I made great lentils and great vegetable stew, but bad beans. So I am trying again, with a very small quantity. Here's what I tried tonight:

• three rashers bacon, cut into small pieces
• one small onion, chopped
• one clove garlic, chopped
• 1/2 cup dried black beans
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp cumin

Fry onions and bacon for a few minutes, then add garlic and beans and water and cumin, bring to high pressure for 40 min, let cool off for 10 min. Add salt and pepper to taste.

They came out good. We ate some in quesadillas and ate some more mixed with corn and hot salsa. Next time I will make them with a lower bacon-to-bean ratio and a slightly lower water-to-bean ratio.