New To Us Pressure Cooker - Galley Bling Bling

Our stainless steel pressure cooker lid finally gave up the ghost at the end of last season.  It wasn't sealing quite right and I didn't want to take a chance using it.  The aluminum (that is al- u-min-ee-mum for you Brits) pressure cooker also has a broken lid latch but it functions with the use of a knife to open it - only after it's properly cooled down of course.  So....I knew I would need to get a new pressure cooker.  You all know I can't cook without one now.  I really can't.  40 mins for brown rice is insane!!

Before traipsing off to Port Of Spain to to spend $$ on a new one, I decided first to try my fellow cruisers on the off chance there might be someone out there that bought a pressure cooker right before setting off to cruise and then never learned to really use it.  No matter the size of your boat, unused equipment sucks up precious cargo space.   So I asked on the morning cruisers VHF net.

Sure enough, boom - the first day I said I was looking for a good pressure cooker, a guy hailed me after the net saying he had one I could just have.  SCORE!  FYI - in Trinidad and in many other Caribbean countries it is illegal to buy and sell goods BUT you can swap, trade or barter between foreign flagged boats....wink, wink.  

We popped around that afternoon to the boatyard where sv Simple Abundance is on the hard.  Wolfgang quickly came down the ladder with beautiful, shiny stainless steel pressure cooker.  It looks as though it's never been used.  He even put the instruction manual inside.  "My wife isn't coming this season so she won't miss it."  D-oh!  He said she had only used it once or twice.  He handed it over and we asked what he wanted for it.  "I like Carib beer."  Okay. 

An hour later I delivered a flat (case) of Carib beer back to him.  He was blown away.  I think he thought we would only bring him a 6 pack or so, but we felt a case was needed for a culinary score of this level.  

I have yet to cook with it as that night was Swordfish night at the Wheelhouse.  But tomorrow we will break it in aboard sv Honey Ryder.  Brown rice with some yet to be determined flavoring - 15 mins flat! Woot woot.

Side note -
The pressure cooker is on the heavy side so I was carrying it with both arms....sort of hugging it in front of me.  We walked down to the dock to see a friend and then back through the boat yard, up the road and out onto the main road.  We walked a short distance west and then crossed the road to the RBC Bank.  Tom tried the ATM out in front of the bank while I stood back 5 ft or so just hanging out....hugging my new pressure cooker....in front of a bank......an important business!  The ATM was Out of Service so we departed.  It occurred to me as we walked away that if I had done the same in the USA......strolled up to the front of a bank hugging a pressure cooker and than just hung around for a bit, I would probably get to have a very long, intense and personal chat with some heavily armed officials about the wonderful benefits of pressure cooking food!

Update -
The new one works great!  We put our old stainless steel pressure cooker out on the cruisers VHF net this morning thinking that someone might be able to use the pot at the very least.  Sure enough, Joanne (sv Out of Africa) came and got it.  She thinks her hubby can make it function again as a full blown pressure cooker.  Good on ya Joanne.

Food Trends

Every year there seem to be new food trends.  Last year was anything bacon, weird flavored vodkas, and Gelato.  Previous years it was fried turkeys, smoothies, wraps and lime flavored Bud-Light.  A current food trend is SLOW COOKING.  Everyone seems to be going crazy for this cooking method again.  And I do mean again.  Growing up my mom used the heck out of her crockpot.  All day roast, beef/vegetable soup, pork chops....you name it, she cooked it all day long in the crock pot.
Well I am bucking the trend.  I am fast cooking.  Since The Great Pressure Cooker Recipe Test of 2012, I have kicked my pressure cooking into high gear.  Almost every night I use my pressure cooker to make fast, easy and healthy meals. On a few occasions I have used  BOTH my pressure cookers!  Why plug in an appliance and have it running all day sucking energy when I can use my pressure cooker for a quick, fantastic dinner.  It's perfect for the boat as it saves on propane.  And I am spreading the word through this blog and dinners severed to friends using my pressure cooker.  To date four friends have bought pressure cookers.  So watch out, we are setting the next, big food trend. Go out and get your own pressure cooker at Sears, the local hardware store or Amazon and be a part of this next trend. 
  

Beans for Breakfast

We are really into beans.  In the past I have relied on can beans because it was usually a spur of the moment "I think we will have beans with dinner."  I never really thought far enough in advance to soak dry beans.  Additionally, the perceived cooking time for dry beans made me shy away from them.  But not any more.  I soaked a 3/4 c garbanzo beans, 1 c navy beans, and 2 c black beans - in three separate containers before I went to bed last night.  This morning I pressure cooked them in three, separate batches all before 8 am.  Quick and easy with my pressure cooker.  Now we have a supply of home pressure cooked beans to use for the rest of the week.  Excellent!!  Cheap too!   Tom has been tossing them in to go with his homemade lunch each day.  I added a couple of big scoops of navy beans to my salad today - Yum!  I even caught Tom eating a handful of the garbanzo beans like candy last night.