{"id":2789,"date":"2009-04-20T11:30:51","date_gmt":"2009-04-20T18:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lee.org\/blog\/?p=2789"},"modified":"2010-01-15T12:09:29","modified_gmt":"2010-01-15T20:09:29","slug":"cooking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/2009\/04\/20\/cooking\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a page that I had on my website at http:\/\/lee.org\/cooking\/index.html<\/a> for many years. I post it here for archival purposes. I have much more to say about food on my blog. And I can see that how I cook bread has changed. You can see part of that here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here is my online archive of recipes, including Ida’s recipes!<\/a><\/p>\n

I won’t say I’m a very good cook, but I’m enthusiastic. ;-)<\/p>\n

For whatever reason, I rather enjoy making individual dishes. I think I have
\na fear of commitment when it comes to making enough courses to fill out an
\nentire meal.<\/p>\n

Pressure Cooker<\/h2>\n

X-mas ’99: Shara and her ex- got me a pressure cooker. I’ve used it a couple
\ntimes but haven’t fallen in love with pressure cooking.<\/p>\n

It’s a little scary. When you cool it down, it makes all kinds of hissing
\nnoises that just don’t sound natural for a cooking product. Sometimes it makes a
\npopping noise like on Das Boot<\/a>
\nwhen they dove down to twice the rated depth of the sub. Is she gonna crush
\nus all?<\/em> Of course, it’s not actually going to blow up, sending gravy-soaked
\nshrapnel through my dinner guests, but they don’t know that, do they?<\/p>\n

It only speeds cooking that would normally take a very long time. If it would
\ntake 20 minutes on the stove, it’ll take “4 minutes” in the pressure
\ncooker, + 5 minutes to get up to pressure + 10 minutes to cool it and get the
\ntop off. Woo hoo! we saved 60 seconds!<\/p>\n

Things come out gray. I made a stew and everything came out looking the same
\ncolor. One could argue that’s how its supposed to look. After cooking a stew for
\n8 hours in a normal pot it should<\/em> look like that. Well, I dunno, maybe
\nI’m just not a fan of that style of cooking.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t get the gassiness out of beans. When I got the cooker, I was
\nexcited to think I could go from dry beans to cooked beans in only 20 minutes.
\nWell, it works, but there is a component in beans that gives you gas. The longer
\nyou cook it and\/or change the water, the more this stuff is removed. I haven’t
\nhad very good luck with the pressure cooker. Maybe I should cook them longer?
\nMaybe I have a bummy-tummy? I don’t get gas from most canned beans but… woo
\nhoo!! Dem pressure-beans start a fire under my butt!<\/p>\n

I really wanted to fall in love with it. Fagor’s moniker is “The single
\nmost important piece of cookware you’ll ever own.” Now that is a pretty
\ntall order for anything, but I was still pretty excited about getting it… I
\nresearched it for hours and hours. I’m unhappy that I didn’t catch
\npressure-cooker fever. Well, a friend wrote to me recently, saying how a
\npressure-cooker makes an excellent risotto in no-time flat. I’m going to have to
\ngive that a try… I’ve made risotto the traditional way and it sucks to stand
\nthere for 45 minutes gradually adding broth and stirring. There is room yet in
\nmy heart for a pressure cooker!<\/p>\n

Cook’s Illustrated<\/h2>\n

My very favorite Christmas gift in ’97 was a large anthology of Cook’s
\nIllustrated<\/a> magazines. I’m all excited about trying out all those new
\nrecipes!<\/p>\n

I got a C.I. in ’97 from my friend and ex- Heidi<\/a>
\nand really really enjoyed the French Toast recipe and a bunch of other items in
\nit.<\/p>\n

Recipes I love (and where I learned them from) include:<\/p>\n