The One Kitchen Appliance Busy Families Can’t Live Without
Written by chef Mayumi Tavalero, Published on 12/10/2020
What is the one kitchen appliance that busy families can’t live without? Read on to find out!
Even Chefs Go Through the Drive-Thru
Several years ago when my boys were playing baseball, getting a nutritious dinner on the table at a reasonable hour was an enormous challenge. Most of the games were between 4-7 pm and with two boys on two different teams, we were pretty much there the entire time. It was too early to eat dinner before we left and too late after. In those days we made many trips through the drive-thru or even worse, ate at the ballpark snack bar.
Originally I was looking for a slow cooker, basically, an appliance that would cook our dinner while we were gone, but I soon discovered that a slow cooker was really SLOW. I would need to think about dinner in the morning!
Exploding Pots
After some research, I discovered the electric pressure cooker. At first, I had visions of exploding pots, food on the ceiling, and all those horror stories associated with pressure cookers. Modern electric pressure cookers are so different than the old stovetop kinds. You can add food, set it, and when you return have a wonderful meal waiting for you. The pressure is automatically regulated and when the cooking is done it switches to “keep warm” so food is never cold.
The Quick Cooker
One of my goals was to cook faster and I was so happy to have finally found an appliance that could do that! An electric pressure cooker really should be called a quick cooker because it saves you so much time, freeing you up to do other things (like watch your kids play baseball!). A pot roast will come out tender and juicy, and dried beans are perfectly cooked, both in less than an hour. This would normally take hours on the stovetop. You can cut cooking times on average by 2/3, for foods that aren’t traditionally cooked for long periods of time, and even cook frozen meat without thawing.
The Magical of an Electric Pressure Cooker
Using a pressure cooker allows you to eat healthily, and who doesn’t want that? According to scientific research, because of the quick-cooking times, nutrients are trapped in the food instead of escaping through steam.
An electric pressure cooker is energy efficient, so it saves you money. This one appliance is capable of so many functions. No need to purchase a slow cooker, rice cooker, yogurt maker, or additional pots or pans, or even use your oven. And because very little heat is produced outside the pot, you can feel free to cook on a hot day without having to crank up the air conditioning. Food comes out tender and delicious in a pressure cooker. Tough meats like pot roast, pork shoulder, and ribs come out falling off the bone or ready to slice or shred.
This miracle appliance freed up my time to do other things (sounds like a Foodom chef!). No need to babysit pots on the stove or food in the oven. I could just set it and forget it. An electric pressure cooker is a must-have kitchen appliance, and once you have one you’ll be wondering how you ever lived without it!
Are you interested in buying an electric pressure cooker? Here’s a link to my favorite one.
Electric Pressure Cooker (aka Instant Pot) Dishes Available From Foodom
Interested in having a chef from Foodom cook with your pressure cooker? We have a pressure cooking category, check it out in this link.
Here is a sample of pressure cooker dishes:
