Fasting for Russian Orthodox Christians: Shrimp Coconut Curry in the Pressure Cooker

It's that time of year again, when the Orthodox world begins fasting, so here's another quick and easy recipe to get you through until Christmas!

This ranks among my easiest recipes, so feel free to throw this together when you have only minutes!

First, toast rice in your pressure cooker until the kernels give off a nutty aroma. Add a heaping spoon of curry powder and stir. Add coconut milk in the ratio of 1-1 liquid to rice, and a package of frozen spinach, and stir food again until well mixed. Lock the lid and cook on med (not high) until the pot reaches high pressure; for a stovetop cooker, lower the heat until the jiggler is barely rocking, time 18 minutes and then use natural release to unlock the lid (don't wait any longer!).
Open the lid, correct your seasonings (go easy on the salt) and add a package of frozen shrimp. Stir thoroughly and replace the pressure cooker lid. Wait ten minutes.
If the shrimp isn't cooked thoroughly at this point, heat the food in the pot for a few minutes until the shrimp are opaque and pink. Serve!

No pressure cooker? Toast rice and spices; cook rice in usual proportions with coconut milk instead of water. When done, add frozen spinach and shrimp, and stir; keep pot on low heat until shrimp is cooked.

Pressure Cooking Rice on the Induction Burner

One of my family's so-called "poverty meals" that turned out to be a favorite even in prosperous times is chili rice. Yep, rice with a can of chili and some fixings added to it.

I hadn't tried rice in the pressure cooker yet, so I decided to go all in and try the pressure cooker and the induction burner. Now, my Presto pressure cooker advises that you cook the rice in a bowl, but I didn't have a bowl big enough for two cups of cooked rice that will fit in the pot, so I decided to cook it in the pot itself.

Because you don't lose water (much) during pressure cooking, you don't need much to begin with. Since I was a child, I've always used the formula 2 parts of liquid per one part of rice. But with the pressure cooker, you need only 1 1/4 cups of liquid per one cup of rice (kind of).

I toasted the rice for a while, then added the liquid. I stirred for a bit until the dish reached a simmer, then locked the lid, set it on 212F while the water came up to a boil, then set it on 248F to come up to pressure.

Now here was my problem: I can either set the burner at 212F, which is not enough to jiggle the rocker, or at 248F, which is violently jiggling the rocker. So I tried to compromise, and alternated every minute or so between 212 and 248. Then the phone rang when it was set at 248, and, well . . . a few minutes later I noticed that the noise from the rocker had ceased. The formula I had said to set the timer for 18 minutes but it still said 6 minutes to go.

So I turned off the burner, waited for the lid to release, and held my breath to see what had happened.  (That's the part I hate about pressure cooking--not being able to see what is going on!) The rice turned out beautifully, and here is the finished dish:

Gorgeous, right?

And the moral of the story is: do your homework, but remember at some point you're going to have to improvise!