Simply Ming Pressure Cooker Review

For some time I'd been thinking about getting an electric pressure cooker.  After all, pressure cooking speeds the cooking process and that can be a good thing.  The hold up on getting one came down to a couple of things, one being that most didn't seem versatile enough and the second being I didn't like the controls being on the side.

We had gotten a new slow cooker and found we didn't like it because the sides got too hot.  Then, while channel surfing I saw Chef Ming on HSN.  I do like watching the chefs on the shopping networks for some reason and Chef Ming was talking about his electric pressure cooker so I decided to watch.  I called the good wife into the room to check it out.  In the end, I went online and ordered it from HSN.  It is no longer on HSN's web site but it can be found on Amazon.  My good wife's sister recently bought one through Amazon.

The Simply Ming Pressure Cooker has several functions and I've used them all.  Best of all, the control panel is at the bottom and faces up so it is easy to see and use.  You can use it as a pressure cooker, slow cooker, a steamer, keep food warm until ready to eat, and it has a sear function.  It comes with a measuring cup for rice and a rice scoop for after it is done.  When I placed the order it also came with 50 recipe cards.  While some of them sound good, many have ingredients that even I don't keep around and the preparation instructions are lacking in completeness and are not for the pressure cooker.

The pressure cooker function was the first one I tried.  I used it to make hot wings.  Our usual way of making them had been putting them in the oven to cook then toss them in my home made buffalo style sauce.  From frozen, it takes 45 minutes to cook the wings this way.  With the pressure cooker, they are done in 20 minutes once it gets to temperature.  The pressure does make them a bit soft, so I do a quick toss in flour and fry them then toss in the sauce.  I also end up with a cup or so of chicken broth that gets frozen for later use in soups.

18 frozen chicken wings ready to go.

The second use of the pressure cooker was for rice.  I had some sushi rice for making kimbop so I used that since Minute Rice was the only other rice we had on hand.  Now, I just buy any long grain rice.  To pressure cook rice, use the included measuring cup then add water to the line marked on the cooker that corresponds with the number of cups of rice you put in.  Rice is done with 6 minutes on the timer.

The next function tested was the slow cooker and delay setting.  To test that, I made my version of stuffed cabbage leaves in a tomato sauce.  That was written about here, Cabbage Rolls.  I made them up the evening before and set the pot in the refrigerator.  I put it in the cooker in the morning before I left for work and set the delay to start the cooking a little before I got home.  It was cooking merrily away when I got home and it finished when I expected.

Stuffed Cabbage ready to cook

The sear function was done in conjunction with another slow cooker meal.  I made venison rouladon for supper.  The rouladon were seared in batches then stacked in the pot and slow cooked.  Being able to sear in the pressure cooker meant one less thing to wash after supper.  That recipe was written about here, Venison Rouladen.

The only function that hasn't been used repeatedly is the steamer function.  The reason being that we don't steam vegetables very often.  Contrary to my Southern roots I don't cook my vegetables to death and we're not afraid of a bit oil or butter to help carry seasonings on the vegetables.  The pressure cooker comes with a small rack to keep what you are steaming above the liquid.

Another benefit of the pressure cooker has come in the form of broths.  I processed 8 bone in pork butts for sausage and as usual saved the shoulder blades to cook for broth.  I fit all 8 in the pressure cooker, added a coffee cup worth of water, then pressure cooked them for 40 minutes.  The bits of meat were soft and tasteless after that time so all the goodness had been squeezed out to make the broth.  The resulting broth was used to make Pork Belly Soup.  It was a far cry from the old way of covering the bones with water and slowly simmering to get the same effect then having to reduce the water to concentrate the flavor.


A quick word about clean up, it's fast and easy.  The non-stick coating is amazing.  We've not found anything that couldn't be cleaned up simply by wiping with a paper towel.  We still use soap and water to be safe but the inside is clean when we do it.



I am quite pleased with my Simply Ming Pressure Cooker and would recommend it for anyone that was looking to get an electric pressure cooker.  At 6 quarts capacity it can handle most anything you want to cook.

Uncle T