The Cone Issue #9 Spring 2016 | Page 63

2 Pressure Cooker Photo by Hustyedt Pressure Cooker. A few years ago, someone who clearly loves me gave me a $50 gift certificate to Sur La Table. I used it to buy a pressure cooker. There were many to choose from, but I purchased the second least expensive one they were offering - the Fagor Duo. My mom used to cook with a pressure cooker when I was growing up, since her budget only allowed her to buy tough, but cheap cuts of meat like oxtail and stew meat. Once in a while, the pressure valve came loose and we'd have a messy explosion. It wasn't that my mom was inept, it was that the technology back then was rather faulty and such eruptions were common. Luckily engineers have made advances in this area of applied science and today's pressure cookers are less likely to detonate. I first decided to give pressure cooking a try while watching an episode of Ming Tsai's cooking show "Simply Ming" in which he used it to soften super tough rib meat to fall-off-the-bone suppleness in a few minutes, instead of the several hours it takes using a slow cooker or a standard cast Le Creuset. This meant that I could prep and cook my stews and soups quicker and with less pre-planning. As a bonus, I do think the pressure cooker concentrates flavor better than the slow cooker. 63 THE CONE - ISSUE #9 - SPRING 2016