Discover how delicious healthy food can taste!
PRESSURE COOKER
This cheesecake is creamy and rich tasting, but significantly lower in saturated fat and calories than most recipes because pureed low-fat cottage cheese is substituted for much of the cream cheese. It is hard to believe that you can “bake” a cheesecake in a pressure cooker in just 20 minutes, but remember that cheesecake is essentially a custard and is traditionally cooked in the moist environment of a water bath. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can bake the cheesecake conventionally in the oven.
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Why I Love my Pressure Cooker
I can't tell you how many times my pressure cooker has saved the day - or dinner at least. While I am often optimistic that I will be able to start a slow-simmered stew or pot of beans early enough in the day to eat at a reasonable hour, it seldom happens. Enter the pressure cooker: tender lamb stew in just 30 minutes or home-cooked dried beans in just 10. My pressure cooker allows me to prepare healthy, budget-friendly meals any night of the week. Best of all, the quality of the food is not compromised in any way. Braised meat becomes meltingly tender and moist, while the braising liquid develops a delicious intense flavor. I don't bother with a pressure cooker for foods that cook quickly, such as fish and tender vegetables, but it is fabulous for dried beans, less-tender cuts of meat, brown rice, wheat berries, beets,and stocks. I am also fascinated with unconventional recipes you can make quickly in a pressure cooker, such as cheesecake and custard.
I know there is a lot of fear about using pressure cookers, but those stories of pressure cookers exploding all over the kitchen are about the old-fashioned jiggle-top pressure cookers. Modern pressure cookers like the ones from Fagor and Kuhn Rikon are streamlined and extremely safe. They have built-in safeguards so that you cannot open the cooker while it is under pressure. I encourage you to get started using a pressure cooker. It will change your life! Here are some tips for using a pressure cooker safely.
Braised dishes like this succulent lamb stew are economical and healthful. They stretch a small quantity of meat with a full-bodied sauce and a generous quantity of colorful vegetables. Gremoulada, a simple mixture of parsley, lemon zest and garlic, sprinkled over the hot stew just before serving gives off a heady fragrance. A pressure cooker makes this kind of dish practical, even on a weeknight, because it cuts cooking time to just over half an hour. The pressure cooker also does an amazing job of tenderizing less-tender cuts of meat, while keeping them moist and juicy. You can certainly cook this dish conventionally if you prefer.
