Forum Thermomix
Welcoming Center, Management and General Chat => Chit Chat => Topic started by: bellesy on May 08, 2011, 05:54:14 am
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I know I thought I'd never need another kitchen gadget after getting my TMX (and I use mine daily if not multiple times a day and adore it) but I'm a little bit taken with the idea of getting a pressure cooker. Mainly because it's like a slow cooker on warp speed.
I've borrowed a few pressure cooker recipe books and by using both appliances, it should be amazingly fast to get delicious meals on the table. Most stews and soup recipes look like they'd be quick to make if I chop onions/garlic/veges in the TMX, maybe saute in there as well, before adding that to the pressure cooker, and then putting in the meat and other ingredients.
I'm excited about the possibilities! Does anyone else use both appliances together and how do you find it?
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Hi Bellsey, I have a pressure cooker (telfal) and I love it. Have never used it in combination with the TM but I suppose you could. Goodluck Trudy
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I haven't used my pressure cooker in about 10 years ;D ;D Mine is so large that it is even too big for our family of 7!!!! It weighs about 6kg and was my grandmothers :D
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I also have a pressure cooker, but rarely use it now that I have the TMX - main reason being that it's another pot to scrub, when it is just as easy to cook everything in the TMX. However, being a vegetarian, the pressure cooker does have a place when I am cooking dried beans as it is so much quicker, or else if I am brewing an extra large pot of soup, etc.
I have never made a meal combining TMX preparation / pressure cooking, but I see no reason why that can't be done. Wonderful as the TMX is, it is a tool (one that I wouldn't be without, mind you) and each one of us utilises it the way that best suits our individual needs.
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I think if mine was smaller I would probably use it a little more, especially for my beans etc. It is just too big and heavy and to try and wash it is a joke. I have to admit, that I have admired the new ones when I have been in the kitchen stores as they look so much user friendly...though don't know how much use it would get after DH killed me for buying one if I did lol
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I'm a woose and I'm scared of pressure cookers.
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Me too Cookie, ever since I took the lid off with that little knob thingy still on the top when I was a kid and I ended up with pearl barley chicken soup all over myself, the walls and the ceiling :-)) :-)) Someone offered me a modern one a few years ago that they no longer used but I declined.
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When I purchased my pressure cooker a couple of years ago, JD and Cookie, I also was a bit wary because the older style ones were scary. However, the new ones are much safer and less fraught with safety issues. When I got it initially I was more than a little wary of it (and I still am a little, to be honest), but I use it with more confidence than I did when I had one of the older style ones - it helped that my DH purchased me a book "Pressure Cookers for Dummies".
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To put out a dummies book just proves there are lots of people out there who have a fear of/do not understand these cookers Cuilidh - Cookie, you and I are not alone by the sounds of it :D :D
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I had an older type but also didn't use it. The new ones can't blow and the one I have a Tefal has a little timer that attaches and rings when it has reached pressure and then counts down the cooking time - Magic. It also doesn't make the horriable noise that the older ones make. I agree that you don' t want too large a one.
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My friend has a pressure cooker and a tm. When i was over at her place, she cooked her chick peas in 15 minutes and the homous it made was really good, but I'm not sure whether i want to get a pressure cooker just yet.
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I've had a pressure cooker for a few years, and I love it. The Telfal ones sounds really good, as mine is fairly manual and basic but I have never had a scary experience with it. I have about 5 recipes that I use it for, and they are just so delicious. You can have meat falling off the bone in 30 mins.
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Oh CreamPuffs, please don't tempt me! :D I have an internet friend who has the 8 litre Tefal one (below) and she says it's fantastic. Even though there's only her husband and herself she says it's a really good size. Only the price has put me off getting one so far as I've not sampled food out of one and so am worried whether the food comes out as tasty as when I do it on the stove top. ??? Unfortunately I don't know anyone who has one so I can't borrow one and give a try. :(
http://www.yourhomedepot.com.au/products/tefal/clipso-control-plus-pressure-cooker/pressure-cookers-amp-accessories
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i have a Breville Fast Slow Cooker (pressure and slow cooker combined), its electric...love it...use my TM to chop the vegies etc and use the pressure cooker when im wanting to make curries or stews using cheaper meat cuts...as TM just doesnt cut it for me for those type of dishes
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I love my pressure cookers and they and the TMX are the two top kitchen appliances.
Here's what I wrote for the eGullet Forum topic on them.
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/136745-pressure-cookers-2011/page__st__30
In a bit of a rush to get thesis that I edited to neighbour, so a quick, but long post. cheers Miranda
I’m something of a pressure cooker addict. I have, um, eight or is it nine of them. I don’t use the large ones much any more as I have trouble dealing with their weight when full, but totally agree for stocks etc. And for doing that turkey recipe from Mexico: the beautiful, where it is wrapped in spices, avocado leaves and co, cooked, then served sliced with an orange based dressing. {sorry, doing that from memory}.
So, I downsized to the small 2.5L, 3 L and 4.5L versions that are ideal for dinner. Curries, stews etc in one, and rice in the other. Not being one to follow instructions well, I now combine all of it in one cooker. Make sure you use the trivet in the bottom as pressure cookers go from nearly cooked to horribly burned in a flash.
For a curry or meat dishes, I mix the paste with nearly boiling water or stock [cuts down on cooking time] put in the rice and meat, hard veges like potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, bring to pressure, cook for five minutes, let cool, add fresh veges and herbs and eat. {yes, I know I lose flavour by not frying the paste, but I’m often not well enough to do that.]
For pasta, I ignore the instruction to say I shouldn’t, add pasta, boiling water or stock, olives, anchovies, tomato paste, if using, dried herbs, small amount of sugar [I’m told tomatoes need it!] mushrooms, etc etc. Bring to pressure, pay attention to how it is going and cook for two, no more than three minutes. Let cool down, then do further pasta things to it and eat. One gets that wonderful concentrated pasta water this way
For ‘risottos’, use the trivet and add rice and stock and whatever. I make a Japanese ‘risotto’ by adding different seaweeds, especially kombu, black sesame seeds, soy, ginger, dried shitake mushrooms, mirin etc. bring to pressure, cook for five minutes, let cool then add miso, fish, etc. Not great on the aesthetic side for a Japanese dish, but tastes good.
I even make up meals that Dexter the Airedale and I can share. This is where the Kuhn Rikon ‘frypan’ model is very useful. If I’m making, say, a Middle Eastern Tagine, I leave his side without too many spices and have them on my side of the pan.
So, I have:
Kuhn Rikon 2.5L fryer braiser–Excellent and such a great design
Silit set of 4.5L and 3L, and a 2.5L in yellow [!]. these are excellent and have a non-stick interior so even more points for that.
Scanpan 6L good, not great.
Magefesa a well-known Spanish brand, 6L and 8L very good for the price,
Fissler, two 3L and a 6L excellent as you would expect, but they no longer make the seals for the smaller ones, which partially explains why a few new smaller ones have followed me home.
I had some arcosteel cheapies with the weight on top. They always worked well. I have given them away to friends.
Hope this is of some help. And I hope you are not too horrified at some of the short cuts and compromises I take!
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I still thInk that the book by Juanita Phillips titled "A pressure cooker saved my life" is compulsory for any decent cook to purchase. It totally invigorated my love of pressure cooking ( obviously I have a passion for my TM as well) and now I can't live without either appliance.
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I looove my PC, and use it in combination with my Thermo Chef all the time. In winter, I don't even bother putting my PC in the cupboard as it's in constant use along with my TC. I make lots of soup - I chop the veges in the TC, sauté them in the PC, add the soaked beans and the ham hock or other meat and cook them in the PC.
I make bolognaise sauce in the PC, but chop lots of veges to go into it in my TC.
I make lots of casseroles/stews in the PC , but use the TC to chop the veges.
I also cook curries and dahls in my PC, but grind the spices or curry pastes in the TC as well as chopping the veges in the TC.
I definitely use them to complement each other.
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I do a chicken in my pressure cooker regularly for sandwich/salad meat. 20 to 25 minutes gives the most moist tender meat.....and you get the bonus of chicken stock. I normally dump about 500ml of water into the bottom and get my first lot of stock. Without washing the pressure cooker, I strip the chicken meat from the bones and then pop the bones back into the pressure cooker with whatever herbs and vegetables take my fancy with about 1 litre of water and cook it on high pressure for about 30 minutes to get my second batch of stock. The only disadvantage with doing a chicken this way is that it has soggy skin, but I don't really want the skin for sandwiches, so I normally dump the skin or feed it to the dogs if I'm feeling nice.
I have both an old prestige aluminium pressure cooker and a cuisinart electric. The only way that I know to do silverside/corned beef is in a pressure cooker. My grandmother taught me years ago...20 minutes per pound, plus 20 minutes extra. Meat covered 2/3 with water, a splash of malt vinegar, peppercorns and bay leaves. Serve with cabbage cooked with more pepper and a little butter at the end....if you are really decadent (and not kosher...:) ) add a little chopped up bacon to the cabbage. YUM. Apparently according to my family you have to have mashed potato as well which I do under protest (I don't like it very much)
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I have my thermomix, and i bought a Nu Wave 5 in 1 about 2 months ago.
I love them both.
I made a pea and ham soup in the PC yesterday in 25 minutes, then whized it in the thermomix.
About 4 litres of soup.
Robyn
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"The Pressure Cooker REcipe Book" by Suzanne Gibbs, "Womens Weekly Pressure Cooker" and "Food for Friends" by Womens Weekly has some scrumdedidellydumptious recipes. I upgraded last year and bought a really large Kuhn Rikon PC. If it ever gets to the point where its just DH and I sitting at the dining table ;D I will get a smaller one. They are brilliant (and safe).
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i do have PC that i have never used its about 20 years old, how can i tell if it still safe to use :)
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Creampuff I've bought the Suzanne Gibbs book and just waiting for it to arrive
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i do have PC that i have never used its about 20 years old, how can i tell if it still safe to use :)
The major concern that I would have would be if the seal had perished. If it has, the pressure cooker may not come up to pressure. I had to replace the seal on mine because it was hissing out of the side of the seal....it would come to pressure but you risked burning yourself on the steam leaking out the side. That was on my manual one....my electric one has also had a new seal but that was because my husband thought washing his fdick knives at the same time as the seal was a good idea and managed to slice into the seal. I believe that the Pressure Cooker Centre in WA carries a lot of parts for different brands of pressure cookers. They may also be able to tell you whether it is safe.
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i do have PC that i have never used its about 20 years old, how can i tell if it still safe to use :)
uni, why not call the Pressure Cooker Shop (http://www.pressurecooker.com.au/about-us.asp) and they will be able to help you.
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by the way :)...I wasn't being rude about my husband's knives...they really are f.dick knives....that's the brand...and the blasted things are extremely sharp!. I can also recommend the Suzanne Gibbs and Women's Weekly cookbooks. I find them so useful that I have actually scanned them in so I have them electronically. I wish that more publishers would start releasing cookbooks as epubs or pdfs...I love being able to browse through my books on my ipad.
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I have the women's weekly and Suzanne Gibbs books as well as the one by Lisa Loveday- The pressure cooker cookbook and the one by Dale Sniffen- all great books and I have made most of the main meals out of all of them. The only thing I haven't tried yet on the PC is desserts eg steamed puddings etc. I can't wait for winter to fully arrive so I can start doing my PC lamb shanks again.
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by the way :)...I wasn't being rude about my husband's knives...they really are f.dick knives....that's the brand...and the blasted things are extremely sharp!.
think thats the brand that Lorena Bobbitt used ;)
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:D :D :D
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by the way :)...I wasn't being rude about my husband's knives...they really are f.dick knives....that's the brand...and the blasted things are extremely sharp!.
think thats the brand that Lorena Bobbitt used ;)
I very seriously considered doing a Lorena Bobbitt the night that I discovered what he had done to my pressure cooker. It was one of those bad nights when you are in a rush to get dinner on the table and the pressure cooker just would NOT come to pressure. I was not a happy camper when I discovered what had happened to the seal and even less happy when I made a mess transferring the casserole from one pressure cooker to the other. His precious knives were nearly used against him :) Luckily he has many redeeming qualities.
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I don't blame you Stacelee! I think we all would have been furious, just like when my DH used metal cutlery to SCRAPE out mashed potato from the TM bowl- he has only ever done it once as I keep reminding him about it!
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Thinking, considery but probably not as they scare rhe **** out f me.
BUT Julie O's meals look sooooo gooood.
H :)
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I'm a woose and I'm scared of pressure cookers.
and JD . . you can add me to that list . . Mum's pea soup was TDF . . . but the thing scared me half to death although I didn't have that terrible experience you had, Judy. That must have been so frightening for anyone, let alone a youngster!
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I am tempted to buy a Pressure Cooker. Just have to convince DH. He thinks we don't need one as we use the slow cooker a lot.
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DG do you know how much they cost
H :)
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H there is a huge price range from what I can tell. I guy at work who is a bit of a stove top PC expert even bought one from Aldi last week which was very cheap (around $50 from memory) and he's very happy with its performance. I decided on the 5 in 1 so it was one simple action rather than having to wait for it come to pressure then start timing. Just a bit lazy.
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I used my PC a lot when the kids were little but haven't had it out of the cupboard for about 20 years now. I have looked at it several times lately since everyone has been talking about them but I have to admit I am a bit scared of getting it out now and having a go. I must look through my books to see if I still have the instructions.
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Ok, still scared....
H :)
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Hally, I think the new electric ones seem to be safer and easier to use. They are more expensive though. Saw some the other day at Big W or Homeart for about $50. Will check next time I go shopping.
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They scare me too Hally