How to Add Ingredients without Overcooking
Cooking on a pressure cooker seems easy. You just have to fill the
cooker with enough water, mix the food and spices into the water and
lock the lid, cooking for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the
recipe. Unfortunately, when you follow directions like this, you could
end up with saggy vegetables or undercooked meat. Because different
ingredients have different cooking times, it isn’t wise to throw
everything together in one go and just wait for an hour for them to
cook. This is particularly important in pressure cooker recipes that
call for meat, vegetables, rice, beans and several other ingredients. So
how do you cook such recipes to perfection?
The solution is called phased pressure cooking. As its name suggest, you
add ingredients in different phases to ensure they are cooked properly
at the same time without serving soggy baby-food-like dishes. Using the
beef casserole recipe, here’s how to follow the phased pressure cooking
method:
Beef Casserole Using the Interrupted Cooking Method
| Phases |
Ingredients |
Directions |
| Phase 1 |
• 1/8 cup oil
• 4 large onions |
1. Heat 1/8 cup of oil in the pressure cooker
over medium-high heat.
2. Brown onions. When they turn golden brown, remove from the
cooker and set aside in a small plate. |
| Phase 2 |
• 1/8 cup oil
• 1 kilo braising beef
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup of red wine
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• Dash of Salt
• black pepper |
3. Add the other 1/8 cup of oil.
Brown the beef cubes in two or three batches over medium-high
heat.
4. Once all batches of beef are browned, return all the beef to
the cooker, sprinkling a dash or two of flour. Cook for two to
three minutes while stirring.
5. Add wine, herbs and garlic. Add a dash of salt and pepper, or
to taste.
6. Close lid and lock securely. Bring cooker to low pressure
over high heat.
7. Reduce the heat to stabilize pressure once low pressure has
been reached. Cook for 20 minutes.
8. Remove cooker from the heat and release the pressure using
cold-water or quick-release method. |
| Phase 3 |
• ½ kilo potatoes |
9. Uncover and add the potatoes.
Quickly cover and bring the cooker back to low pressure over
high heat.
10. Repeat step 7, but cook for another 10 minutes.
11. Repeat step 8. |
| Phase 4 |
• 3 carrots
• A basket of cherry tomatoes |
12. Uncover and add carrots,
tomatoes and the browned onions.
13. Repeat step 7, but cook for only five minutes.
14. Repeat step 8.
15. Remove the lid. Make sure to check if everything is cooked
and tender. |
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In phase 1, you cook the onions separately because it is the easiest
to cook and leaves juices that could help your beef become flavorful.
Once done, you start with the beef (or any food that takes the longest
cooking time). As you can see from phases 2 to 4, you end by
interrupting via quick release method to drop pressure fast enough so
you can add more ingredients and be able to increase pressure quickly.
Unlike the recipe above, you can also use the phased cooking method only
once, usually when separating cooking times for the main meat and its
accompanying vegetables. Obviously, vegetables require lesser cooking
times than meat, as you can see on phases 3 & 4. If you decide to add
the potatoes and carrots along with the meat, your vegetables will turn
into baby food, which is always a bad thing unless you’re cooking food
for your baby.
The quick release feature is used in interrupting your cooking because
it doesn’t allow the pot to cool easily, giving you ample time to return
to the cooker and increase pressure quickly after other foods have been
added. If your pressure cooker doesn’t have a “quick release” feature,
you can simply use the cold water release. However, be aware that it
would take the cooker longer to heat up again when using this method,
but it works just as well as the quick release. Read more about ways to
release pressure.
You may just have discovered the name of this method, but it’s more than
likely that you have followed this type of pressure cooker recipe
before. The good thing about following this method is you’ll never have
to worry about the veggie’s vitamins and minerals getting lost in the
cooking process. Instead, you’ll be able to serve hearty, healthy dishes
with very tender and flavorful meat.
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