Pressure cooker steamed pudding

YES WAY! 

So, I love steamed pudding from back in the day from across the pond. My British family are steamed pudding machines and can whip one up, steam it for 4-5 hours and produce the most delicious, lovely, unctuous, tender, soft, rich, flavorful pudding you'll ever eat.

I did futz my way to a great recipe which is on the blog here: http://www.tracycooksinaustin.com/2010/12/steamed-syrup-pudding-oh-yes-baby.html

My international tester (it's my mom!) was playing with the steamed syrup pudding and had the brainstorm to pressure cook it. NOT only to pressure cook it but then to freeze it both before and after it was cooked. Guess what? BRILLIANT! We are always trying to figure out what we'll test next in the pressure cooker and she hit the jackpot with this one.

The recipe works perfectly in the pressure cooker, in individual jars (I have to have my jar fix) and you can cook it fresh, prepare the batter then freeze it in the jars and cook it from FROZEN, you can prepare the batter, freeze the whole batch, then defrost and divide and then cook it. Seriously, she's one hell of a thorough tester.

Here's the recipe again:
In a bowl, cream
120 g sugar (4 oz)
120 g butter (4 oz)
ADD
2 beaten eggs
120 g a/p flour (4 oz)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
drop/s of vanilla

golden syrup or jam or marmalade or fruit

Cream the sugar and butter, add the rest of the ingredients and beat until it's a thick, smooth, batter. I never bother with the Kitchen Aid, I just use beaters. 

Butter 5 mini jars or ramekins and put a tablespoon of your favorite gooey treat... jam, marmalade  golden syrup, maple syrup, pie filling.... whatever you think of you'd love warm and on top of a steamed pudding. 

Divide the batter between 5 mini jars (or ramekins), put lids on (or cover with plastic wrap) and freeze.

When you are ready to use them, remove the lids and cover loosely with greased foil. Place then in a pressure cooker over 4 1/2 cups of water, set the STEAM timer for 35 minutes. When the timer goes off, release immediately, remove from steamer, turn into a vessel for eating and EAT IT!!
Here is the long winded, picture heavy, play by play: 

Cream the butter and sugar, then add the rest of the ingredients.  I love my beaters ;)

  
Here are my 5 little jars, all buttered.  In two of them, I put raspberry jam, about a tablespoon.  In two of them, I poured the nectar of the Gods, Golden Syrup and one I left plain... all for science.
 
Beat the batter until it's smooth and creamy and very thick!
    

Spoon the mixture into the jars, over the filling which will be the topping!

  
Put the lids on, put them into a circle to take their picture then pop them into the freezer!
  

Take the frozen puddings out of the freezer and remove the lids.  Solid as a rock!  Make very tall tinfoil hats for them and seal around the side of the jar, we're just trying to stop water from getting in/on top.

   

Awww... little foil hats.  Now then, put them on a rack in your pressure cooker over at least 4 1/2 cups of water.  

  

LOCK AND LOAD!  Set the rocker to VENT and the STEAM timer for 35 minutes. 

 

DING!  *I'm dying to see how these worked!!
  
TA DA!  LOOK!!  Look at them! HAHAHA  They rose like CRAZY!

  

I grabbed the jam one first... Run a thin knife around the edge and tip into a beautiful vessel...OOOOOOOH!!!   
It looks stodgy but it's NOT!  It's light and delicious and warm and tender and absolutely perfect.  Yeah, I ate it.
 
Golden Syrup time!!!!! OH MY GOD
  
LOOK how perfectly this came out!!  Just as light, just as tender, as delicious, as easy.

 

WELL, well, well. 

I think we've learned something here.  There's no reason on earth NOT to eat a steamed pudding every.single.day.  Make a batch in jars and shove them in the freezer, bring one, two, three out when you want and steam them in half an hour and you have the perfect dessert/treat without having to steam it for 4-6 hours.  Seriously. 

OH and Tester advises that you can make the batter and freeze the whole batch in a bag, thaw it in the fridge and then steam it in the pressure cooker in individual servings the same way and it comes out just as perfectly.  *we skype cooked today so I saw how well hers rose too. 

Go and get some jars and make yourself a steamed syrup pudding. 

/enjoy

Pressure Cooker Vegetables in 3 minutes

OK, I caved in and decided to pressure cook the vegetables... after some recent experiments that went very very right, I decided to go through my fridge, see what was there and cook them in the pressure cooker, see what happens...

I have a new pressure cooker, this one:



and I absolutely completely highly recommend it!!



Here's the results:

Everything cooks in 3 minutes! HAHAHAHA  SERIOUSLY!  

I'm not kidding, it's weird but everything I found today cooked perfectly in 3 minutes:  I don't think it was clear but I quick release all the vegetables :D

I put cut up carrots on the trivet, over some water and locked and loaded for 3 minutes.  PERFECT!
*I tossed the carrots with a little of the water, a blob of butter, salt, pepper and tarragon and put over high heat until they were lightly glazed and put them aside, covered, they reheat beautifully.

I threw the brussels sprouts from Greenling.com on the trivet, over water (the carrot water once it had cooled) and locked and loaded for 3 minutes.  PERFECT!
*I tossed the sprouts in some bacon fat heated over pretty high heat and tossed them around so they got some bacony goodness and some brown bits then put them aside, covered, they reheat perfectly!

I cut up 3 broccoli heads (with stalks) and threw them on the trivet, over water (the brussels sprout/carrot water, once it had cooled) and locked and loaded for 3 minutes.  PERFECT!
*I simply put the broccoli in a covered container, I will reheat lightly later, also a great do ahead veggie.

I cut up a head of cauliflower, with stalk, and threw it on the trivet, over water (the brussels sprout/carrots/broccoli water) and locked and loaded for 3 minutes.  PERFECT!
*I put the cauliflower in a container to reheat later, I will save some of it and make a bechemal to do cauliflower cheese tomorrow or another day.

Here's some action and some beauty shots:

All the dishes started like this:  trivet over about 12-16 oz of water and a little salt.  
*I cooked these vegetables one after the other in the Nesco electric pressure cooker.  I did allow it to cool between uses as I prepared the vegetables.  I did add a little water each time to keep the level just below the strainer/steamer/trivet

 

Then prep your vegetable of choice and toss them on the trivet/steamer:
   
LOCK AND LOAD THREE MINUTES ON HIGH PRESSURE.  Perfect veggies, tender crisp and ready to either eat, chill or doctor up and save.
 
I tossed the sprouts in bacon fat and shushed them around a bit then put them aside, covered for later.
   
or broccoli:

   
or cauliflower:
 

Go cook yourself some veggies... FAST!  This HAS to be better than boiling or blanching, there's no evaporation and the veggies taste so very very much like themselves this way!  plus, it's THREE minutes!  I saved all the water and will use it to make gravy with the roast chicken drippings later.  Yeah, look at me planning ahead ;)

/enjoy