I’ve been cooking in so much clay lately that I thought I’d give some love to my pressure cooker. This was a gift from the wonderful Lorna Sass but I’ve also been reading posts from a great Facebook group of vegans who use an electric pressure cooker called the Instant Pot.
I have a regular modern pressure cooker. It’s weird how quiet it is, especially having grown up with the loud, hissy rattlers of the past. It doesn’t compare to clay but how else can you cook a pot so quickly with such little effort? People who live at high altitudes know that they are essential and even Mexican food maven Diana Kennedy told me she often cooks beans in a pressure cooker and then finishes them off in a clay pot once they are almost cooked through.
Is there a prettier bean?
I start with onions, garlic and olive oil, just like I would with any other method. I have heard the oil prevents foaming that can clog up the release valves, but I would do it anyway for flavor.
The Ayocote Morados are added and water to cover by about one and half inches. Note that the beans are unsoaked. I cover the pot and “lock” it and turn the heat to high. Once the high pressure is acheived (as in the photo), I turn the heat down to low and time 35 minutes for ayocote beans. I would probably do 20 or 25 from most Rancho Gordo beans but ayocotes are extra dense and big and the farmers in Mexico aren’t as consistent as we are in California. A few extra minutes with these big beans won’t harm them.
Once the timer goes off, I cut the heat and let the pot come down in pressure on its own. I don’t unlock it and I don’t add cold water over top, a technique that can be used for other food.
Once the pressure has dropped, I remove the lid and turn the heat up to medium and allow the beans to finish and the bean broth to evaporate a little, making it extra delicious.
I had masa on hand this morning, so I made tortillas while I was waiting. I don’t want to show off, but I did manage to get them all to puff, the goal of all tortilla makers!
The beans were gorgeous and within an hour of a whim, I had beans and tortillas, making for an excellent breakfast and a happy way to start the day.
Jill Nussinow, a pressure cooking evangelist and author of The New Fast Food, prefers to soak her beans before pressure cooking. I think she’s right, as you get a more consistent result. She says you can also soak and then freeze, popping the frozen beans into your pressure cooker as needed. I hate freezing things and I rarely can plan to soak. The lesson here is there’s no one technique and as long as you’re cooking beans, I believe you are ahead of the game.
I guess I’ll have to dust off my pressure cooker and give this a try–Lord knows I have plenty of your great beans to use, I think I’ll use the Ayocote Negro–
I’ve been reading the archives–I’m up to August 2009–great stuff! It’s fun to read them and see what was going on “way back then”…esp. politically! 🙂
I thought of an add line for you, “Our Beans are Uncanny!!!”
??no??? ok,…..
Works for me!
Be sure and report back if you end up using the pressure cooker. I was really off it for years but I’m slowly coming around.
Just made the ayocote negro beans in my pressure cooker–it took about 45 minutes to get them to the preferred texture, but WOW were they delicious.
I wish Rancho Gordo would make a nice chart for us who use a traditional pressure cooker. The one for the‘Instant Pot’ gadget (despise small appliances) does not easily convert. Instant pot has a sustained max pressure of ~10-11 psi. Stovetop pressure cookers are either 8 or 15 psi.
I’m with Patty! I’d love a chart for us stovetop pressure cooker users!
Out of curiosity I picked up a bag of Ayocote, to google when I got home. Finding your website, I’ll now look for a tortilla harina recipe and have burritos for breakfast the day after tomorrow..
Thanks for the freezing tip. Will give it a go.
I am new to Rancho Gordo beans and I would like a chart for pressure cooking your unusual beans varieties on a stovetop and instapot. Thank you for offering such fresh and tasty dried beans!
Ditto what John Bilic wrote! I joined the Rancho Gordo bean club and bought an Instant Pot at the same time. I don’t cook (at all), and was hoping the Instant Pot might be the answer for me. I prefer natural release recipes (to avoid all that steam). Thanks!
If you are in the club there is a instant pot/ pressure cooker file available in the files.
Yes I would love a chart for time to cook for instant pot. I have tried several times and they come out too done….so working on trying to cook less.
A few nights ago we made the ayocote negro beans, which are incredibly delicious. We set our InstaPot for 25 min and did the natural release. Not enough time! We cooked it some more on the stove, at least 15-20 minutes. Tonight we cooked the ayacote rojos. We did 33 minutes and it still wasn’t enough. 6 more minutes pressure cooked was perfect. 5 more would have been fine. This was for 2 pkges of beans, plenty of water, some olive oil and Rancho Gordo oregano. I suspect the time is a little less for one package. These beans are extraordinary, very distinctive. Next time I’ll try mustard seeds till they pop amd cumin seeds. Yum!!
If you soak the Ayocote beans overnight what is the cooking time in a pressure cooker? Sam, said it took 45 minutes in the PC, was that with
dry or pre-soaked beans?