Sunday, March 9, 2008

A pressured day

Amazing! A disaster free dinner preparation! I was excited about trying out the new pressure cooker, and somehow less afraid of this one, although there was no reason for that, really. I remembered a recipe from the distant past for black beans cooked with oranges and served with rice, and I remembered that it was very good. I thought it was from Diet for a Small Planet, but I could not find it. Rebecca, who is an expert at finding anything, anywhere, looked as well but to no avail. I was resigned to making black bean soup ordinaire, but I flicked through the book one last time, and noticed Feijoda Brazilian Dinner – not what I would ever thought to have looked up! (Reminiscent of the time I could not find the recipe for Bodega Bay Bars because they were actually called Montego Bay Bars.) There was much more to the recipe than I remembered, including the black beans cooked with a whole orange which mooshes itself up into the beans, and a gazpacho like sauce served over the rice and beans. Cooking the beans was a miracle. The recipe said to cook them for two to three hours, and I cooked them to perfection in nine minutes! Thank you, Rebecca Ross and Lorna Sass for convincing me that a pressure cooker is not a lethal instrument. We had also New York Times bread, my busy day option – and just now, my no KitchenAid option. Also some tiny bok choy purchased on the recent trip to Viet Wah.
Note that, in addition to my new pressure cooker, I have used my new salad dressing thing, and my new red soup server.
Here is Tom about to enjoy the dinner!

1 comment:

The Veggie Queen said...

Lorna is my pressure cooking guru, too, and I have since taken off and starting teaching pressure cooking for more than 10 years. I now have a pressure cooking DVD to help people over their fear. You can check it out at http://www.pressurecookingonline.com.
Thanks for posting about yummy black beans.