JoNorvelleWalker

Yes, but the little stones still managed to get in. I just came back from the store with a bag Bob's Red Mill steel cut oats. I'm hoping the premium price might discourage pieces of rock. And there was an error in the recipe I posted (complicated recipe, I know). The Kosher salt was 1/2 teaspoon, not 1/2 ounce. I'm fond of salty porridge, but that would be pushing it.

I've had a few more successes: Steel cut oats 2 1/2 oz with 10 oz water and 1/2 oz Kosher salt cooked a pint canning jar on high for 23 minutes (I aimed for 20, I'd go for 25 next time). Best steel cut oats I've had...except for the two small pretty stones I found...found the hard way. Green beans cooked on high for a minute or two. Wonderful! I first tried lindag's 3 minutes from the pressure cooked thread and ended up with mush. I guess I need a timer. Last night was chicken cacciatore cooked on high for 20 minutes. I do like my chicken well done. Now if I could only cook long enough to get the stones to tender.

The cooker I have is the US version of the Fissler Vitaquick Quatro Set Large. I made the risotto in the 4 liter pan. I know MC recommends Kuhn Rikon, but after a lot of discussion in the pressure cooker thread I decided on Fissler. I added the refrigerator temperature stock and wine to the hot rice and shallot. I did not bring to the boil before covering the pan. Since this was a new method for me I used MC@H's exact weights of rice and liquid. When I make risotto by the tradditional method I don't weigh anything. I stop adding liquid when it's right. I stirred continuously while reducing the liquid but I did not add additional butter and beat because by that time the rice was over done and the texture of the rice did not seem right to me even before reducing. I can only describe it as the texture of rice in a rice soup. My understanding is that risotto is thickened primarily by the rice starch and not so much by the emulsion at the end. I don't think beating in more butter would have magically fixed everything but I could be wrong.

Moving on from polenta, I tried Modenist risotto: I finely minced a shallot and cooked it in clarified butter in the base of a pressure cooker without browning. I added 150 gm of Arborio rice and continued to cook for about four minutes on low heat. I added a bit of saffron, 210 gm of stock, 90 gm white wine, and a teaspoon of Kosher salt. I put the lid on the pressure cooker and cooked at high pressure for 6 minutes. I cooled the pan in the sink under a stream of cold water. When I opened the lid I had perfectly al dente rice...swimming in a chicken/saffron broth. Not good. I reduced the soup for ten minutes or so to a consistency sort of like risotto -- if one has a good imagination. The rice was now overdone, and at no point was it ever close to creamy. The sad part is this travesty took as much time as whipping up a batch of classical risotto in my Falk copper sauciere. Where did I go wrong?

I too like to add my basil after baking. This summer I have been using fresh tomatoes on my pizza, but as of two days ago I have a canning jar of MC@H pizza sauce put up. I use a pizza stone rather than a plate of steel, which I don't think that I could lift. Now off to start a batch of dough for tomorrow.

Tonight I got home from work, badly needing a protein fix. I made Laura Pazzaglia's pressure cooker boiled eggs: http://www.hippressurecooking.com/cracked-soft-medium-and-hard-boiled-eggs-in-the-pressure-cooker/ Apart from one omelet I have not cooked an egg all summer (except as an ingredient in ice cream/hollandaise/mayonnaise, pavlova and maybe a small cake, if lady fingers qualify as a small cake -- oh, and pastry cream and creme anglaise -- but since the mayonnaise's not cooked it doesn't count). It has been years since I've tried to cook an egg in the shell. (And with good reason.) If it didn't work, I figured that's what the dishwasher is for. But the technique worked wonderfully. Four minutes yielded two perfect, easy to peel eggs. For those familliar with Modernist Cuisine's egg pictures they corresponded to between 72 and 74 deg C. Whites were well set with no more than a tear of liquid yolk. Thank you, Laura, if you happen to be reading this.

I made the stock by the MC method that calls for pressure cooking at 15 PSI for 1 1/2 hours. But the stock sat in the refrigerator for two days before I put it into canning jars.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/144208-home-made-ice-cream-2013/ I understand the heating and cooling time is longer in a larger vessel but an hour is well longer than any canning recipe I have seen for chicken stock.

Wonderful news, Bojana! I had been thinking about making coconut since this summer I've been playing with pina colada recipes, but I never got around to attempting it, and now, as you say, it's autum. Yesterday two of my coworkers were discussing salt and caramel. A couple of weeks ago I sampled salt and caramel at the local ice cream parlor, and it was pretty good. Cardamom and saffron are still on my list to try. No flavoring at all, other than the eggs and dairy is nice. And need I mention vanilla?

Would using a finer grind of cornmeal also help?

Busted Barrel is the first product of a two person distillery. The rum went on sale last month. My bottle is from batch 2. I have no connection other than geographical proximity. I can't wait to try the barrel aged. http://www.jerseyartisandistilling.com/#!OUR STORY/c18bc

Tonight I made MC@H pressure-cooked polenta with (what they call) pizza sauce. I followed the pizza sauce recipe exactly except I cooked it in two one pint canning jars. One jar of sauce was just enough for one jar of polenta. The pizza sauce was very good and just what I expected. The polenta, for which I followed the recipe except for salting before cooking rather than salting after cooking, was good enough but not quite what I expected. The consistency was more friable than creamy. Perhaps if I had added cheese to it as MC@H suggests the polenta would have been more creamy. Anyone have thoughts for making creamier polenta in the pressure cooker? By creamy I mean polenta that could be poured out to harden.

True, but we in New Jersey have Busted Barrel.

I recently made a batch of Modernist Cuisine recipe (more or less) chicken stock that had been sitting in my refridgerator for about two days. I wanted the stock to last perhaps a couple weeks in the refrigerator, I was not aiming for shelf stable for four years. What I did was the following: I strained the cold stock through cheesecloth and a fine mesh sieve into quart canning jars. Since my pressure cooker holds one of these jars at a time, I placed a jar on the pressure cooker steamer insert, and pressure cooked for an hour on high pressure. I allowed the cooker to cool naturally. Surprisingly, when I opened the cover, the jar had not cracked to pieces. I had been a bit concerned about pressure cooking cold stock. I did not want to let the stock warm up first for fear of contamination. There are still two more quart jars of stock for me to process. What is the best way? Or should they be OK in the refrigerator as they are?

Thank you! I had not seen it. Now if I only had the ingredients...

Many thanks. I have never made either but in the 1970's and 1980's, on business trips, I was fond of Mai Tais and Zombies. What kind of absinthe would work well?

Excellent idea. I too do that with tropicals that I otherwise find lacking (like my "Piña Colada," which I make with dark rum, added lime, and a barspoon of allspice dram). In some cases, a small amount of a pie spice amaro (Ramazzotti, etc) can similarly add depth and spice; I like Luxardo Abano, which has a cola character but adds a great savory black pepper note. My favorite Tiki drinks tend to have a depth of spice to them; it's one reason I generally prefer Don the Beachcomber's drinks to Vic's (as much as I love the glorious Mai Tai). Can you give your recipe for the Mai Tai? I've been studying Wayne Curtis' book, and a Bottle of Rum. Curtis' Mai Tai (which I think is derived from Trader Vic's) is 1 oz Jamaican rum, 1 oz medium bodied rum, 3/4 oz orange curacao, 3/4 oz lime juice, 1/4 oz orgeat. He also lists a Don the Beachcomber's Mai Tai as: 1 1/2 oz dark rum, 1 oz medium bodied rum, 3/4 oz lime juice, 1 oz grapefruit juice, 1/4 oz falernum, 1/2 oz triple sec, 2 dashes Angostura, 1 dash Pernod. I'd also be interested to see good recipes for the Zombie. Does anyone use real absinthe in their Mai Tai or Zombie formulae?

Tonight I repeated the above recipe, omitting the lime juice altogether, adding a dash of Angostura, and reducing the coconut oil to 1/2 oz. Very good. My only complaint is it could have used more rum! I think I prefer my pina coladas without any lime at all. For anyone following along at home, I have not been idle since last I posted: I made up a pina colada with the above recipe, but doubled the coconut oil to 2 oz. When the mixture was cooled the coconut oil solidified in big disgusting chunks, in a thin, vile liquid. That I drank only because it contained a lot of expensive Barbancourt. A little coconut oil goes a long way.

I tried putting my bowl in the top rack of the dishwasher and it came out OK. However I think I'll usually put it in the bottom section, as I have always done.

I made a Modernist Cuisine chicken stock tonight. No idea how it turned out, as it is still cooling. I was working with leftovers so I did not have as much chicken as they call for, and I had no leeks. Plus I did not use pepper. So much easier than in an open pot, that much I can say. Almost forgot...for dinner I cooked an artichoke. Twenty minutes on high pressure, steamed above the water. Turned out a little dry. Maybe just because this is not the season for good artichokes. I have another artichoke left, and I think I'll pressure cook it in liquid. Once I figure out what to do with all the stock.

Since I can't edit my last post, the bottom of the Vitaquick base lists the maximum operating pressure as 150 kPa, which is 21.76 PSI.

I spoke with a representative of Fissler about having received the wrong manual with my Vitaquick. She said they ran out of Vitaquick manuals and she is mailing me a photocopy. I asked for a printed manual when they are again available. A note in the package would have been helpful rather than just shipping the wrong manual, but I did not tell her this. I also asked her about any pressure difference between the US and the European Vitaquick. She said the models were the same. I pointed out that the lid of mine is stamped "US". She said the "US" just means it has UL approval. She added that the maximum pressure of the Vitaquick is 15-18 pounds per square inch. The UK Vitaquick manual lists the high pressure setting as 80 kPa, which is 11.6 PSI. Pazzaglia, if you are reading this, could you use your Fissler contacts to get further clarification from the factory?

I use a Chef's Choice for sharpening. Works well for me. I used to hand sharpen on a stone but I never achieved a good edge. This led to embarrassment when my son brought home a friend in the restaurant business. When we started to fix dinner she commented favorably on my knives...until she tried to cut with one.

Since it is too late to edit, I misremembered and misspoke: the rice pudding recipe I usually use, from Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah, pp 165-166, calls for 1/2 cup rice and 5 cups of liquid (not 4 1/2 cups).

I've been using this method for about eight months now, as I see from my last post date. I just bought a Fissler pressure cooker set, one pan of which has the dimpled surface that Fissler calls Novogrill. I can report that this works well for steak, although I need a bit more work to figure out the temperature with it. I think the pan tonight was a bit too hot. To keep it from getting overdone I took the steak off the heat before I had a chance to baste with butter. While the steak was resting I sauteed mushrooms and garlic in the Fissler, then deglazed with red wine and finished with parsley and the butter I would have used for basting. Cooked just to my taste and tender, but maybe not as flavorful as if I had cooked more slowly and not skipped the butter step. I was pleased how easily the Fissler pan cleaned up.