PRESSURE COOKING WITH LORNA SASS

Lorna teaching a pressure cooker class in Logan Utah

LORNA SASS is fondly known as “The Queen of Pressure Cooking.”  She is also a widely published food writer and an award-winning author of 15 cookbooks.  Lorna currently spends a good deal of her time as a Transformational Life Coach which has made her even more grateful to the “pc” for the fast, healthy meals it makes possible.

This blog contains pressure cooker recipes and chronicles Lorna’s ongoing adventures with the “pc.”  She invites you to contribute your own favorite recipes in the comments section of this blog.

Lorna decided to write this blog because she thinks it’s sad that many Americans are still afraid of pressure cookers.  She believes that the pressure cooker–which turns out soul-satisfying meals in 1/3 or less the normal cooking time–is the answer to getting healthy, flavor-packed food on the table quickly. Pressure cooking is not only time efficient, but fuel efficient as well–an important consideration in these days of trying to lower our carbon footprints.

HOW THE PRESSURE COOKER WORKS

Family sagas of split pea soup on the ceiling are just that: stories from the past. The newly designed cookers are 100% safe!

In the sealed pot, water boils at 242 degrees F instead of the standard 212F.  At this higher-than-normal boiling point, the fibers in food break down in record time, turning inexpensive cuts of meat into meltingly tender forkfuls in a matter of minutes.  The “pc” is also terrific for cooking dried beans (no pre-soaking necessary, whole grains (so good for you), and dense vegetables like potatoes and beets.

Lorna became interested in pressure cooking during the mid-eighties after her vegetarian mother carted a cooker back from India and began producing delectable curries and dals in a matter of minutes.  Realizing that the pressure cooker could produce “fast food” that was both nutritious and delicious, Lorna began culinary experiments that led to the publication of COOKING UNDER PRESSURE by William Morrow in 1989.

COOKING UNDER PRESSURE sold briskly from the start and has been back to press 28 times, claiming  best-seller  status. With almost 300,000 copies in print, COOKING UNDER PRESSURE is considered the bible on the subject and Lorna is considered the country’s leading authority on pressure cooking.  The 20th anniversary edition of COOKING UNDER PRESSURE has just been published, inspiring Lorna to start this blog on her frequent adventures with the “pc.”

Lorna followed COOKING UNDER PRESSURE with GREAT VEGETARIAN COOKING UNDER PRESSURE (actually vegan), and THE PRESSURED COOK.

In 2005, William Morrow published Lorna’s PRESSURE PERFECT, her definitive work on pressure cooking.  This latest volume contains over 200 recipes and divulges all of the cooking secrets Lorna has developed over almost two decades of cooking under pressure.

For many years, Lorna was a vegan.  During this time she wrote many vegan cookbooks, including RECIPES FROM AN ECOLOGICAL KITCHEN (now called LORNA SASS’ COMPLETE VEGETARIAN KITCHEN in the paperback edition), SHORT-CUT VEGAN, THE NEW SOY COOKBOOK, and THE NEW VEGAN COOKBOOK.

Her fourteenth cookbook, WHOLE GRAINS EVERY DAY, EVERY WAY,  was published by Clarkson Potter in November 2006 and was recently awarded the prestigious James Beard Award in the “healthy focus” category, reflecting her passion for an organic, health-promoting, sustainable way of eating. It is already in its third printing! She followed up with WHOLE GRAINS FOR BUSY PEOPLE.

Lorna’s food articles have been published in dozens of newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Prevention, Vegetarian Times, and Metropolitan Home.   She blogs for the Huffington Post and Green Fork and has written a monthly food column for the newsletter of localharvest.org and essays for the TVFN web site.

Lorna is a member of Slow Food, the NY Women’s Culinary Alliance, and the Women’s Leadership Forum.  She is also an alumna of Les Dames des Escoffier, an organization of the top women in the food profession.

Here’s Lorna, informally explaining how she got into pressure cooking:

For further information or to contact Lorna, visit www.lornasass.com.