Pressure cookers lock in the flavors of healthy meals

ST. PETERSBURG — Debra Murray is something of a home cooking evangelist. • So it is fitting that she's preaching the gospel of good food and good cooking in a hall at Our Savior Lutheran Church. • "Let me tell you," Murray says to about 60 people gathered for her recent Rethink the Way You Cook class, "an artichoke in a pressure cooker is a religious experience. I'd rather have that than lobster."

For 12 years, Murray, who is a member at Our Savior, has been the food stylist and on-air cooking aide for Wolfgang Puck and Suzanne Somers when they appear on HSN. She'll be working with Puck this weekend on several shows, both recorded and live, on the shopping network. He has written the introduction to her self-published cookbook, Let's Celebrate, which is available online at Amazon and HSN.

But this night, Murray is flying solo. She's careful to tell the audience she's not a trained nutrition expert, just a passionate proponent of home cooking that cuts back on fat and salt. ("You know you need to start cooking when you have a cup of canned soup and you can't take your ring off later.") She follows mostly a Mediterranean diet, whose hallmarks are olive oil, lean protein such as seafood, plus lots of fruits, vegetables and legumes. A display of foods on her "good" list attracts attention. It's January and people are thinking about eating better.

She also loves her flaxseed, a plant substance that contains omega-3 fatty acids that can help lower cholesterol and keep blood pressure in check. She grinds it to a powder and adds it to yogurt and even cookies. (Don't tell the churchgoers at Our Savior, but those after-service cookies are stuffed with flax seed, along with agave sweetener.)

During the free class, Murray extols the virtues of the pressure cooker, which can cook food quickly and helps preserve its flavor. Many in the audience remember the old cast metal pressure cookers from their mothers' kitchens and recoil a bit. That steam vent with the funny little cap conjures frightening memories. "My mom used to make us leave the kitchen when she used the pressure cooker," said one man.

Murray demonstrates Beef Stew in an electric Wolfgang Puck pressure cooker that looks no more scary than a Crock-Pot. In fact, push-button ease has lots of people rethinking their concern. Murray tempers her natural sales-pitch personality by telling people there are plenty of new pressure cookers on the market that work just as well. (The Puck version, about $120, is available at Dillard's, in addition to HSN.com, which is currently sold out.)

Murray's beef stew has no flour thickener or added fat, just a bit of barbecue sauce at that end to add depth. When we arrive at the class, she has a pot available for sampling but makes another batch during class. The tough stew meat is rendered tender in about 20 minutes, while the vegetables cook in another five.

Beef stew in 30 minutes? That's a recipe for a busy weeknight for sure.

"The benefit with pressure cookers isn't how rapidly it cooks, but that it keeps everything in," she says. "There's more flavor in the food because nothing leaves the pressure cooker."

By the end of the class, Murray has some converts.

To flax seed and pressure cookers.

Janet K. Keeler can be reached at jkeeler@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8586.