Tag Archives: pressure cooker

Chocolate Brownies in the Pressure Cooker

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Although it was a beautifully sunny day today, the backlog of everyone’s dirty clothes meant that the washing machine had priority over the mini electric oven.

So, this is my latest experiment at cooking cakes in the pressure cooker and I wanted to give brownies a go . This time, I decided to make a chocolate pudding and wanted to try out the idea of one with a sauce. I wasn’t sure what the result would be in the pressure cooker, but it worked out perfectly and was delicious.

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

INGREDIENTS

    • 85g butter
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
    • 2 tablespoons water
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 2 large eggs
    • 1 cup all-purpose flour
    • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

    METHOD

    1. Line a 7″ cake tin with baking parchment.
    2. Place a heatproof bowl over a saucepan with some boiling water.
    3. Add the butter and melt over the heat.
    4. Stir in the sugar and cooked until melted
    5. Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder, water and vanilla until smooth.
    6. Add the eggs and beat well.
    7. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and continue whisking
    8. Fold in the walnut pieces.
    9. Pour the cake mix into the cake tin.
    10. Pour 1 cup of boiling water into the pressure cooker and place a silicone mat on the bottom.
    11. Carefully lower the cake tin into the pressure cooker.
    12. Cover and bring to pressure.
    13. Turn down the heat and cook for 20 minutes.
    14. Turn off the heat and leave for 10 minutes.
    15. Quickly release the pressure and leave the tin on a baking rack for another 10 minutes.
    16. Remove the brownies from the pan and leave to cool.
    17. Serve with ice cream or cream.

NOTE: If using a normal oven, cook the brownies at 160ºC (bottom + fan) on a central rack for 20-25 minutes.

 

Pork Stew in a Pressure Cooker

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Pork Stew

Pork Stew

NOTE: If you are using dried butterbeans, you will have to soak them overnight. You can add any vegetable you have to this stew according to what’s in season (courgettes, carrots, aubergines, etc.).

NOTE: You should only start timing the stew once the pressure cooker has reached pressure.

INGREDIENTS (serves 6):
pork ribs, cut into pieces
4 or 5 medium potatoes: 2 grated, 3 cut into chunks
250g dried butter beans, soaked overnight
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
3 or 4 cloves garlic
2 green peppers, roughly chopped
3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
a pinch of chilli pepper
olive oil
salt and pepper
stock or water

Heat some oil in a large pressure cooker and fry first the onions, then the green peppers and then your other vegetables until soft. Add the tomatoes and fry for another couple of minutes and before adding the pork and potatoes. Stir well and season with salt and pepper.

Cover well with water and bring to the boil. You will probably need about 1.2 – 1.5 litres of water/stock. The beans will absorb some of the water so it is important that you have enough liquid in the pan. If you bring the mixture to the boil before putting on the lid, you can see whether you need to any more liquid. Generally speaking, there needs to be about an inch of liquid above the level of the stew.

Cover the pan with the lid, engage the mechanism and bring to pressure.

Once the pan has reached pressure, cook for 30 minutes before turning off the gas.

You can either let it return to normal pressure or run it under the cold tap to lower the pressure quickly.

DO NOT OPEN THE LID UNTIL THERE IS NO LONGER ANY STEAM COMING FROM THE PAN.