Pressure Cooking Meals

From Pot to Table

Q: Placing dishes inside your pressure cooker to steam desserts, grains, or other foods seems like a great idea, but how do you get them out of the pot at the end of cooking without dumping their contents?

A: Make a sling out of aluminum foil or cheesecloth. Tear off a length of aluminum foil, long enough to reach under the dish and tie over it. Fold it lengthwise into a wide strip that will safely support the dish you need to remove from the cooker. Then center it under the dish, and bring the ends and twist them over the dish to create a handle. Lower the dish into the pressure cooker with your sling. For more support, you can place the trivet on your sling, with the dish on top of the trivet.

For roasts and foods that need to be lifted from the pan intact, center the uncooked food on a double-thick layer of cheesecloth. Make the cheesecloth long enough to tie a topknot in over the food, convenient for lifting the food from the pot. A cheesecloth sling will also work for lifting out hot dishes of food.

* DVO welcomes your kitchen hints and cooking or nutrition questions! Email us and we'll post your hints and Q/A's in upcoming newsletters! *