Pressure cooker lesson and Hippocrates Soup

In my list of goals for this year I mentioned wanting to learn how to use the pressure cooker that sits in its box in my garage. My dear friend Laurie volunteered to show me how to use it, since she uses hers occasionally.

First we had a lovely lunch of her latest soup discovery: Hippocrates soup. Here is Laurie's post about it on her blog. In a minute I will give you my rendition.

Back to the pressure cooker...now remember I have some trepidation going into this. I associate pressure cookers with exploding beans and hot steam.

Laurie gets out the instructions, reads them through, explains stuff to me about seals, and release valves and I can feel my eyes ( and ears) glaze over. She wisely decides to test my pot by boiling water in it. As it boils I quiz her about how often she uses it and for which recipes. So far I have not heard anything that really sells me on it. Most of the stuff I can do either in my slow cooker or stove top with a dutch oven.

The cooker heats up and steam starts coming out, but the top doohickey doesn't wobble like it is supposed to and steam is coming out of some other hole in top. We turn it off but it is still a safety hazard, yikes. After reading through the instructions, it turns out I am missing a very small but, yes, essential part of the top. I breathe a big sigh, not of disappointment but of relief. Maybe I don't need to overcome this fear and instead I have one less piece of cooking equipment to store in my pantry !!

I did get a very tasty soup recipe out of our afternoon together. Laurie sent me home with with a sample. Bob liked it so much I decided to make it a couple of days later.

To find out more about why it is called Hippocrates soup, go to Laurie's blog.
I am sharing this recipe because it is a wonderful, flexible, rich pureed soup that reminds me of a French potage. It's a soup for the soul !!

My version of Hippocrates Soup

Ingredients

2 large yellow potatoes
2 leeks
2 carrots
1 large onion
1 fennel bulb
1 celery root ( or 2-3 stalks of celery)
1/2 cauliflower
1 cup purple cabbage
2 cups roasted tomato puree ( or whole tomatoes)
fresh herbs( small amounts of anything you have on hand, oregano, basil, thyme, sage, rosemary)

2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste

1) The original recipe tells you not to peel most of the vegetables. I did peel the onion and the celery root. Otherwise just chop all the vegetables in large chunks except the garlic.

2) Place in a large pot on the stove and fill with just enough water to cover. You could also use stock if you prefer.

3) Add the tomato puree and fresh herbs.

4) Bring to a simmer and cook for two hours. You can also do this in a slow cooker overnight.

5) When it has cooled enough, puree in small batches in your blender. This is when I add the two cloves of garlic and the salt and pepper to taste.

6) Garnish with fresh parsley, yogurt or sour cream.

Next time: I try some parsnips, a bunch of fresh parsley or some chard.