Cooking Under Pressure -The Ultimate Electric Pressure Recipe Cookbook and Guide for Electric Pressure Cookers.: Revised Edition #3 - Now Contains 175 Electric Pressure Cooker Recipes. (6 page)

Chicken Camp
eche

A wonderfully spicy, cheesy chicken dish in the style of Southern Mexican Cuisine.

■
2 large skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets

■
2 cups water

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1/4 block of Velveta Queso Blanco Cheese

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8-10 drops Mesquite Liquid Smoke

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1/3 cup, + 4 tbsp. salsa

■
Salt and pepper to taste.

Warm up the cooker.

Add water, Liquid Smoke, and 4 tbsp. salsa.

Drop the chicken breasts in, lock the lid, seal the vent and set the timer for 12 minutes if the chicken is frozen, or 8 minutes if it is thawed.

When timer is done, release pressure and remove chicken. Pour up the remaining liquid and save it for use in other recipes.

Cut chicken into 1/4” cubes and return to the cooker. Set cooker to heat.

Add a small splash of water to the bottom of the pot to keep cheese from sticking and burning.

Add cheese, the rest of the salsa, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir until the cheese is well melted and the chicken is coated.

Serve over Mexican Rice

Chicken with B
lueberry Drizzle

Mouth-watering, moist, tender chicken fillets, with a delicious blueberry sauce, and a side of steamed zucchini. Out of the ordinary, and a cut above. Your taste-buds won’t know what hit them.

For the sauce:

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1/2 cup blueberry jam (sugar-free, or all-natural is OK)

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1 tbsp. Agave Nectar (or honey)

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1 clove garlic, crushed (or 2 tsp. garlic powder)

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1 tsp apple cider vinegar

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1/2 tsp. salt

■
1/2 tsp. pepper

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1/2 tsp. Pecan, or Mesquite liquid smoke

For the Chicken:

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2 cups water

■
4 large boneless, skinless chicken breast fillets

■
2 pounds zucchini (or similar vegetable, such as squash, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, etc....), cut into large chunks

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1 tbsp. butter or margarine

■
Salt and pepper to taste

■
4 squares of foil, large enough to wrap each fillet in

In a small mixing bowl, whisk all the sauce ingredients together until well mixed, and set aside.

Add the water, zucchini, butter, and a little salt and pepper to the pressure cooker.

Lay out the 4 squares of foil, dull-side up, and spray with a non-stick cooking spray, or oil.

Lay each breast fillet in the center of each foil square.

Lightly salt and pepper each side of the fillets, and drizzle a little sauce over each one, on both sides. Be sure to reserve at least half of the sauce.

Roll each fillet up tightly in the foil, and seal the ends by folding them up, on the seam side.

Place the fillets on top of the zucchini, seam-side up.

Put the lid on the pot and lock it, and seal the pressure valve. Set the timer for 12 minutes.

When the light goes to ‘Warm’, you can carefully release the pressure manually if you want, or let it reduce on its own.

Remove the fillets and carefully unwrap them (they will be hot). Discard the foil.

Arrange the fillets, one to a plate, and spoon zucchini on the side. Place a dollop of butter or margarine on the zucchini, and drizzle a small amount of the blueberry sauce over each fillet.

Serve with chilled Black Bean Salad

Enjoy!

Basic Chicken N
oodle Soup

A simple, wholesome American standard, and still great comfort food.

■
4 cups water

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2 large chicken breasts (or 2 lbs. of any other kind of chicken)

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1 small bag of noodles, or 1/2 lb. of spaghetti

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1/2 onion, chopped

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2 ribs celery, chopped

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2 carrots, chopped fine or shredded

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2 cloves garlic, minced

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2 tbsp. oil, butter or margarine

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1 tbsp. salt

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2 tsp. black pepper

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1 tsp. thyme

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2 bay leaves

If you already have some cooked, or canned chicken, omit the first step.

Set the pressure cooker to heat. Add the oil and allow to heat.

Add onions, celery, carrots and garlic and sauté until the onions are transparent.

Add water and chicken. Close and lock lid and set the timer for 15 minutes (if chicken is frozen, set to 20 minutes).

When time is up, reduce pressure, open the lid and remove chicken.

As soon as chicken can be handled, shred it and return it to the pot. Add noodles, salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaves. Close and lock the lid, and set timer for 6 minutes.

When time is up, reduce pressure manually, or naturally. Remove bay leaves.

Serve with crackers and a side-salad.

Varitations:

Substitute rice for the noodles and set timer for rice, to make chicken rice soup.

Substitute turkey for the chicken.

Add lemon juice for Lemon-Chicken soup.

Add basil and oregano (or Italian Seasoning) to make Italian Chicken Soup

Add broccoli, cauliflower, and/or Brussels sprouts to make Vegetable Chicken Soup

Add barley to make it even heartier.

Coconut Chicken

A
Chinese Buffet favorite. Adapted for the pressure cooker.

■
2 cups water

■
4 large boneless, skinless chicken breast fillets

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2 cans of Coconut Crème

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2 onions, chopped

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3 cloves garlic, minced

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1 tbsp. lemon juice

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1 tbsp. soy sauce

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1 tsp. ginger

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1 tsp. chili powder

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Salt and pepper to taste

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Add few sprigs fresh cilantro for garnish

Plug in the pressure cooker, set to heat, add oil

Add onions and garlic. Sauté until onions are translucent.

Add water, soy sauce, lemon juice, ginger, chicken, chili powder, salt and pepper. Close and lock the lid, seal the vent and set timer for 10 minutes.

When timer is done, reduce pressure. Open the lid and remove the chicken.

When you can handle the chicken, cut into 1” cubes and return it to the pot.

Add coconut creme to the pot, set timer for 15 minutes and stir until chicken is well coated. Continue to cook until desired thickness is attained, stirring constantly to avoid scorching the coconut creme.

Garnish with shredded fresh cilantro, or fresh mint leaves.

Serve with Fried Rice, or Coconut Rice, and egg rolls.

Cooking in Parchment (
en Papillote)

Cooking with parchment in your pressure cooker is a wonderful way to prepare foods, especially delicate foods such as fish, some vegetables, and even chicken. The food steams in its own juices, and comes out melt-in-your-mouth, tender.

Many may ask, “Why wrap it in parchment? Doesn’t a pressure cooker make steam?” It’s a good question. It has to do with the way pressure cookers work. Since the steam cannot escape, it build up pressure (hence the name, pressure-cooker). As we said before in the ‘How It Works’ chapter, the pressure allows the water and steam to achieve a higher temperature than the normal 212°F at 1 atmosphere of pressure. That’s one reason why the food cooks so much quicker. But it comes at a price. The environment inside a 15 psi pressure cooker is very turbulent and violent. For most foods, it’s not a problem, but delicate morsels like fish would quickly succumb, and turn to mush. The way to get around that is to wrap the fish with a layer of paper. This protects the tissues from direct contact with the super-heated steam, and also holds in all the juices. The result is unbelievable. You can also use foil but don’t seal to tight.

This is a very easy technique, once you get used to it. For this demonstration, I am using a steak, cut from a London Broil, because I was hungry for a steak, and they are superb fixed like this. The steps work for any kind of meat or vegetable. Here are the steps:

1.
Set up your pressure cooker and add 2 cups water (or whatever liquid you want to use, to the bottom. Add any potatoes, carrots, celery, etc. you want, to the bottom and set the rack on top. In this case, I am adding beer to the liquid, just because I happen to have had one open (writing makes me thirsty...), and to show how fool-proof this is. You can also use tea, juice, wine, liquor, coffee, soda, stock...any water-based liquid, as long as it is non-dairy.

And just to show how really ridiculous you can get, and still be successful, I’ve added the juice from the mushrooms as well, because it was there, and I hate to waste anything.

So this is how it looks, so far....

2.
Prepare your meat or vegetables however you want. I would advise leaving just a little bit of fat on cuts of meat, because that’s where all the flavor is... This technique works on just about anything...and to prove it, I am not even going to use a recipe. I’ll make it up as I go..... This London Broil is a bit big for a steak (even for me), so we’ll start by cutting in two pieces.

Next, I’ll just ‘butterfly’ it by cutting through it laterally, and leaving a bit attached at the center (a good kitchen knife is essential for any food preparation. This is my Cold Steel Western Hunter, possibly the greatest utility knife ever made. Make sure you get the best quality knives you can find).

Now, that’s what I call a steak!

2.
Cut a sheet of parchment paper at least 2-1/2 times the width of the food. Also, make sure it is long enough to fold up the ends. Lay the steak on the paper. Drizzle oil, lemon/lime juice, melted butter, margarine, olive oil, wine, or whatever you want. Just splash a bit on. It doesn’t take much.

3.
Sprinkle on your dry spices, such as garlic, tarragon, basil, etc....don’t forget salt and pepper to taste. I’m just using a little Garlic Powder, salt and pepper here.

6.
Flip the food over and repeat on that side. I added a little Worcestershire just because the bottle was handy.

7.
Now, add your onions, green/jalapeño/poblano peppers, celery, carrots, mushrooms, etc.... It looks good enough to eat right now, doesn’t it?

8.
Carefully fold one side of the paper completely over the steak.

9.
Make another fold, being sure the food is completely enclosed.