Culturally cooking-Under Pressure

I am a member of a Women's Group here in Cyprus, by the name of Cyprus Women of Today. Today it was my pleasure to host one of our Culturally Cooking events. What we do, i a member invites us to her home, and teaches us to cook something. A discussion had arisen over how to use a pressure cooker, and what kind of things you can cook, so i decided to cook a few different dishes, to show how quick and easy and versatile the pressure cooker is. A menu was born-black eyed beans, followed by spare ribs,and  finished off with a steamed chocolate pudding with chocolate fudge sauce...

So, we started with the black eyed beans. I took 2 cups of beans, and placed in the pressure cooker with 1 tablespoon of salt, and 5 cups water.
I sealed the pressure cooker, brought it up to pressure, and cooked for around 9 minutes. I used the quick release, so that i could check on the beans, and saw they needed another 5 minutes. Total cooking time 14 minutes. To serve, ladle into a bowl, not forgetting to add some juice, then drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. This is traditionally served with boiled vegetables (either zucchini or perhaps some swiss chard). We also like to eat a tuna salad as a side dish- 1 can tuna, 1 bunch of parsley chopped,and 2 spring onions chopped.

Now for the  "Oh My" spare ribs (so called because that is the comment they got from one of my best friends, when she first tried them!)

I took about 4 kilos of spare ribs, cut into 2-3 rib pieces thanks to my lovely butcher, and rubbed them down with the seasoning (1tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tsp chili powder, and 1 tsp paprika). Then i heated about 2 tablespoons oil in the pressure cooker, and browned off the ribs

I added 4 onions that i had sliced into half moons, and the 1.5 cups of ketchup, as well as 0.5 cup of vinegar.

Then i closed the pressure cooker, and brought it up to pressure (then turned it to low to cook), and cooked the ribs for 15 minutes.

When you open the pressure cooker (after letting the pressure dissipate on it's own, or hitting the quick release button) you will smell the most wonderful smell :)

Last but not least, I made a chocolate steamed pudding...I took a 1/4 packet of chocolate chips, and 1 tablespoon of dairy free butter and melted them together in the microwave. Then i added the dry ingredients, 1.5 teaspoon baking powder, 0.5 teaspoon salt,0.5 cup sugar,and 1 cup of flour, to the chocolate/butter mix, and added the liquid ingredients-0.5 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix until the batter is smooth, then turn into a cake tin (small enough to fit into the pressure cooker). Place a rack inside the pressure cooker, and then place the cake tin on top. Close the pressure cooker, and bring up to pressure. Cook for 30 minutes, and then check the pudding (you check the pudding the same way you would a cake- stick in a knife and if it comes out clean, it is ready)

So here it is, a full meal cooked int he pressure cooker :) :) :)