Slow Cookers & Pressure Cookers

Slow Cookers & Pressure Cookers

Today’s busy lifestyles don’t have to mean that home-cooked meals and good nutrition fall by the wayside. There are a few kitchen tools that do most of the work for you, so that you can multi-task or just relax while you wait. Slow cookers are an invaluable tool. Put in your ingredients in the morning, and by the evening, there is a delicious meal, fully cooked and waiting for you, hours after you’ve exerted the effort. In addition to doing some of the work for you, a slow cooker does it without generating a lot of heat, and it frees up space in the stove if you’re cooking multiple dishes at the same time.

Williams-Sonoma offers a variety of slow cookers to suit your needs. If you’re hosting a large gathering, opt for the Breville Slow Cooker, the All-Clad Gourmet or Deluxe cookers or the Cuisinart Multi-Cooker. With these, you can make a pot roast for your next family gathering or enough chili for all the guests at your next Super Bowl party. Slow cookers that include cast aluminum inserts can be transferred from the stovetop to the slow cooker for those pesky recipes that require you to saute vegetables before slow cooking. There are color choices to match your kitchen decor, and a variety of options for pre-programming and controlling temperatures and cook times. You are sure to find a slow-cooker that meets your needs.

If you don’t have hours and hours to cook your food, consider a pressure cooker instead. With this old-fashioned invention, infused with modern technology, you can quick-cook foods that normally take so long they’re saved for special occasions. Boiling foods like beans for several hours leaches out some of their nutrients, but a pressure cooker gives you what you want without taking anything away. Vegetables, beans and meats all cook quickly, so you can enjoy weeknight meals that taste like they took hours in the slow cooker. The Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker automatically switches to the warming feature once cooking is complete, so you don’t have to worry about overcooking anything. For ultimate efficiency, the Breville Fast Slow Pro Pressure Cooker does it fast or slow, giving you both functions in one appliance, when space is at a premium. Speaking of convenient multiple uses, the Fagor Innova Pressure Cooker includes a steamer basket that doubles as a food grater and trivet.

The multi cookers are some of the most popular in this category, serving both slow cooking and fast cooking functions. Some, such as the KitchenAid Stainless-Steel Multi-Cooker, include a steaming/roasting function for cooking vegetables and roasts.

Another popular dish that many cooks don’t have an hour to wait for is rice. A rice cooker does it for you in less time. Simply add the rice, the water, even some vegetables in the steaming tray, press a button and go attend to other tasks. You no longer have to watch for the water to boil, find the right temperature and keep checking the rice until it’s done. For a special dish, try the Breville Risotto Plus, which takes care of the time-consuming process of cooking risotto, so that you can enjoy some wine and an antipasti platter while you wait.

Slow cookers make a very useful gift for the bride on your list, or any person who could use multi-functional kitchen tools.

Being short on time doesn’t mean your meals have to be short on flavor or nutrients when you make use of some of these convenient products. With all the time you save, you can even shop for gourmet food items as you plan your next ingeniously simple culinary masterpiece.