Cuisinart Pressure Cooker

I have very little time after work to fit in the multiple things I want to do, and also sometimes I just want to veg for a bit while things get done. I’ve gotten to the point of wanting to compress time used making soy based products (tempeh, soy milk, tofu, etc etc) along with soups, meatloafs, etc. I’ve also never had one in my life, but I’ve known people who have. I wanted a pressure cooker. It might seem like one of those things you just “have” and it’s there, no one is without one… but I’m a bachelor who lost most of his kitchen stuff during the move back to Arizona. Long story.

I found an awesome deal on overstock.com for a Cuisinart 6-quart electric pressure cooker, for a double-digit price!  http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Cuisinart-CPC-600FR-6-Quart-Electric-Pressure-Cooker-Refurbished/9561191/product.html

Mostly because it’s a refurbished product, but I’ve had good experiences with refurbished products over the last 5-7 years. This one is no exception, I cleaned it up and used it tonight for the first time! To test it out, I cooked a 1/2 cup of dry soybeans under high pressure for 30 minutes. Once it was done, I let it naturally release pressure and tried them. Amazingly enough, they were soft and very tasty.

After that, I figured I’d put it through a real-world test.  I pulled out some dry garbanzo beans, dry navy beans, dry long grain rice, dry TVP (textured vegetable protein), and dry lentils.  By eye, I poured a little of each into the canister, just enough to be enough for tonight and lunch at work.  Then I poured in 2 cups of water, locked the lid down and put it on high pressure cook for 15 minutes.  After it was done, I set it to simmer and put a little Sriracha sauce on the top and stirred it in.  It stayed that way for 5-10 minutes to evaporate some of the water.  After, I set it to ‘keep warm’ and put some into a bowl for dinner.  While the garbanzo beans were a little firm (not hard, just firm soft) and I could have added 5 or so minutes to the time to fix that, it was tasty with a dash of salt.

I bought this to speed the cooking of soybeans for tempeh mostly, but I see this puppy being used for lots of things with as much time as it saves!  I could actually make a small amount of chili just for myself for once, and not have it take hours.

Only thing I need now is an Excalibur dehydrator, and I’ll have the entire cycle of food creation! 😉

Yeah, as you can tell I love food.