I have often debated whether or not to try to cook sous vide in a pressure cooker. I have asked others for their thoughts on the process
. We felt that we could produce some exciting results in the process. Unfortunately, I was not confident enough to test it in our pressure cooker. What if the bag explodes in the chamber? What if the pressure cooker explodes? These fears kept me thinking instead of acting.
Thankfully, I received an email from Richard Blais who mentioned his recent success pressure cooking pork bellies sous vide. And like a lemming, I jumped off the cliff. My first test was caramelized yogurt. We used to make caramelized yogurt by cooking the yogurt in sealed mason jars standing in a water bath in the oven at 180 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours. Yesterday I was able to caramelize yogurt in ninety minutes. That is a heck of a difference in time and the results are the same.
We removed the yogurt from the pressure cooker and drained it. As the water leaches out it becomes firm and cheese like. We
then puree it with uncooked whole milk yogurt. The result is a fluid, decadent yogurt, which has complex flavors with the caramel notes and a lactic acid tang. It is a wonderful addition to the pantry and a strong building block for new dishes.
