Cooking

I have not been cooking a lot lately, hoping to remodel the kitchen. Oh I heat up the occasional pizza in the over and make pasta, but have not been really cooking for a while.

A few years back I bought an automatic rice cooker at Costco. You measure in rice and either water or stock (perhaps adding some meat), close it up and push a button. In not too many minutes, rice!

So it was with a bit of trepidation that I recently bought a pressure/slow cooker. The fact that it looks and operates very similar to my rice cooker did not surprise me.

I bought a corned beef brisket at the warehouse store and popped it in. Pressing the “Meat” button sent the unit into cooking mode and soon I was enjoying corned beef. Yes I know I was just heating it but still, it took no time at all.

When I was on the mainland I have a nice large kitchen and new appliances. I used to make pot roast and cook it for quite some time. Here I bought a 4 pound roast (already sliced in half) and put 2 pounds in the cooker, a bit of water and some spices. In less than half and hour (including the time to sear/brown the meat) I had pot roast. It took me all of a week or so to finish that 2 pounds and then I cooked the second piece using different spices. Recently I cooked yet another 2 pound roast.

My next step may be chicken but I don’t know. The cooker did not come with a regular cook book so I may improvise. Still, it is nice not to have to use a lot of electricity here to cook, because the cost of power is very high.

Today I slow cooked some Chicken Alfredo.

So if you have slipped in a rut, you might try a pressure cooker.