The Pressure Cooker Gourmet: 225 Recipes for Great-Tasting, Long-Simmered Flavors in Just Minutes [Hardcover]

Victoria Wise (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2002

This book provides 225 dishes that are simple to prepare, cook in as little as 15 minutes, and retain all the natural nutrients that can be lost with other cooking methods.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As Wise notes in a thorough introduction that covers general methods, the pressure cooker is a time-saver; she then offers a nice range of recipes, from a relatively simple Trout … la Vapeur with Toasted Almonds and Parsley Sauce to a more complex Salmon Terrine with Asparagus Tip and Spinach Root Garnish that is packed into a loaf pan and steamed. However, Wise (who was the first chef at Chez Panisse) often undermines that savings in time. For example, a recipe for beef broth calls for roasting the bones for 30 minutes before cooking the broth. Other recipes simply would be almost as quick when prepared using normal stovetop methods, like a Spring Spinach and Scallion Soup that takes six to seven minutes to come to pressure, then sits for eight minutes as the pressure escapes. The pressure cooker works best for braised dishes such as Chicken Marengo with Porcini-Topped Fried Bread Rounds and Rabbit with Fennel Seed, Parsnip, and Prunes in Brandy Cream, but perhaps is not the optimal choice for delicate vegetables such as Asparagus with Shallot, Lemon, and Olive Oil Dressing. While the writing in their headers tends to be awkward (Chilled Potato Soup Mexican-style with Cantaloupe and Toasted Almonds begins: "It was the gazpacho in Grenada that showed, in the right setting at the right time, cold soup is an oxymoron of a notion but a lilt in the day's repasts"), the recipes themselves are clear and simple.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Wise is the author and coauthor of numerous other cookbooks, including The Well-Filled Microwave Cookbook. Here she provides dozens of recipes for today's "100% Safe" pressure cookers, from streamlined versions of pot roast to more contemporary, elegant dishes such as Pheasant Braised with Walnuts and Shallots. There are stews of all sorts, or course, but there are also quick (no-stir) risottos, vegetable dishes ranging from Baby Artichokes and Two Sauces to an easy Ratatouille, preserves like Green Tomato Chutney, and even desserts. A good companion to Lorna Sass's now-classic Cooking Under Pressure and its follow-up, The Pressured Cook, this is recommended for most collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Common Press (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558322000
• ISBN-13: 978-1558322004
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,337,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Old World Flavor in a Fraction of the Time!!!, March 15, 2003

By 

Daniel F. Moore (Yarmouth, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pressure Cooker Gourmet: 225 Recipes for Great-Tasting, Long-Simmered Flavors in Just Minutes (Hardcover)

The pressure cooker is making a comeback after years of disfavor. The old jiggle top units that could be opened and could cause severe burns are pretty much a thing of the past. Coincidentally, as people have less time to spend in the kitchen, the pressure cooker has come back to center stage. For people still a little leery of using one, this book will allay your fears. Victoria Wise discusses thoroughly the hows, the do's and dont's and generally instructs the reader in the proper and successful use of this versatile appliance.

The Pressure Cooker Gourmet includes recipes for soups, meat, poultry, fish, grains, vegetables, legumes, sauces and of course desserts. Although there are photographs of the finished recipes, the reader will delight in the many tips, subtitutions and suggestions that accompany many of the recipes. You will also appreciate the index of recipes with page numbers, that appear at the beginning of each chapter.

Being a poultry fan, I loved the Coq au Vin. The wine sauce was thicker than I ever remember from another method and the blend of herbs and spices was intensified by the increased pressure.

And if you can't resist a moist and rich cheesecake, try the Cheesecake with Mascarpone Cheese in Chocolate Cookie Crust. I had never tried Mascarpone (a very creamy cream cheese) and it, combined with the moist heat of a pressure cooker, was sinfully delicious.

I'm still experimenting with the recipes and there are a lot of them! It takes some 'old time' recipes and applies 21st century flavors and technology to help rekindle our culinary past. As you might imagine, I love this book and you will too! Buy it!!

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beware of some recipes, June 7, 2006

By 

Bruce of the Endless Mountains (Tunkhannock PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pressure Cooker Gourmet: 225 Recipes for Great-Tasting, Long-Simmered Flavors in Just Minutes (Non) (Paperback)

I wonder if Ms. Wise realy cooked and tried out all these recipes?
The garbonzo bean preparation recipe at the times and temperatures
specified, left the beans to hard and inedible. The Bolognese sauce ,cooked at medium heat, left my new Fagor pressure cooker with a horrible scorch that took me two hours to scour out.(Many of the temperature setting look way too high for pressure cooking) She states that only baby Artichokes can be cooked in a pressure cooker...not true.etc. etc For a better, more reliable, pressure cooker cook book try "Pressure Cookers for Dummys"

53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book, November 20, 2003

By 

Amy Lee Weitzman (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pressure Cooker Gourmet: 225 Recipes for Great-Tasting, Long-Simmered Flavors in Just Minutes (Hardcover)

I went to the bookstore and skimmed *all* of the pressure cookbooks they had (about 10 different authors). I found this one to be just the right mix between simple, everyday food and gourmet, international specialties. Also, you get many recipes in one book - more than most of the other books had. I made the split pea soup the other night - easy, quick, tasty, and HEALTHY.