Kuhn Rikon Switzerland - Celebrity Chef Lorna Sass

Featured Chef Lorna Sass

Bio

We welcome back Lorna Sass as our celebrity guest chef:

Lorna Sass is renowned as the country’s leading authority on pressure cooking and is often credited with reviving America’s enthusiasm for this time-saving appliance. In addition to Pressure Perfect, her latest book on the subject, she is the author of Cooking Under Pressure, Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure and The Pressured Cook. Lorna Sass holds a PhD in medieval literature from Columbia University. She is also the award-winning author of numerous historical and vegan cookbooks. She and her collection of pressure cookers reside in New York City.

Interview

What trends do you see in cooking?

I think that people are making a concerted effort to eat more meals at home. For convenience, they are purchasing part of the meal already prepared and making part from scratch.

How did you become an expert in pressure cooking?

My mom brought a pressure cooker back from India in the mid-eighties.
She was a terrific cook, and when I'd have dinner at her home and complement her on the dish, she'd say, "That took 10 minutes in the pressure cooker." I was bewildered that we weren't all using pressure cookers, which seemed the perfect appliance to suit our busy lifestyles. So I bought myself a "pc" and started experimenting. My enthusiasm with the results led me to write Cooking Under Pressure and the rest, as they say, is history.

Tell us about your newest cookbook.

After Cooking Under Pressure came out in 1989, I continued to pressure-cook regularly. As time went on, I continued to learn how to make the most of the cooker. For Pressure Perfect, my aim was to distill more than a decade of experience into one comprehensive volume. In addition to over 200 tasty recipes, the book takes readers by the hand and explains how to select the best cooker and how to maximize its use.

Since people turn to the cooker when they are in a hurry, I aimed for recipes that were simple, yet produced very good results. I also did many experiments to develop methods for cooking the whole meal at once by adding potatoes, rice, or foil-wrapped vegetables to the main dish. In fact, more recipes have footnotes called "cook-alongs" which suggest ways to expand the basic dish into a full meal.

Some of the recipes will surprise people. For example, you can cook pasta, meatballs and sauce in five minutes all at once and the pasta has a terrific texture. (It's not mushy at all!) I developed a meatloaf recipe that cooks in 10 minutes and doesn't taste at all steamed. The meatloaf is cooked on a "shelf" of potatoes so that the potatoes get cooked at the same time.

Newcomers to pressure cooking are also surprised that you can cook delectable desserts under pressure. How about a chocolate cheesecake in under half an hour?

What do you like about pressure cooking?

I'm not a patient cook, and I like the fact that when I'm in the mood for a split pea soup I can be eating it about 20 minutes later. I can prepare a beef stew in about a half hour and a pot roast in an hour. I like being able to make an impromptu risotto for friends in 10 minutes.

I also like the fact that you can make the whole meal without having to turn on the oven. The pressure cooker is a great appliance for folks who cook in small spaces, like in galley kitchens on boats or in RV's. The cooker is also a terrific appliance for a college student with a limited budget since it does such a good job of tenderizing tough cuts of meat.

What tips do you have for someone using a pressure cooker for the first time?

Read the instructional booklet and the introduction to one of my books to familiarize yourself with the parts of the pressure cooker and learn how it works. Pour one cup of water in the cooker and bring it up to high pressure. Quick-release the pressure, then pour out the water. After this quick and simple "test run," you will be ready to cook any dish with confidence.

What are some of your favorite recipes in Pressure Perfect?

I'm very proud of my recipe for the whole stuffed chicken in balsamic-fig sauce. It has only a few ingredients, but looks and tastes quite elegant. I also love the Sage-Scented Butternut Squash Soup, Lamb Shanks with White Beans, Beer-Braised Ribs in Barbecue Sauce, Beef Curry in a Hurry, Ziti with Three Cheeses, and Porcini Risotto.

What projects are you working on for the future?

I'm on a mission to spread the word about pressure cooking. How else can you achieve 2-hour taste in twenty minutes?

Previous Features

Featured Chef Lorna Sass

Bio

Interview