Is pressure cooking the answer? In my efforts to improve the quality of my diet and move towards a healthier lifestyle, I have been eating and cooking more beans and pulses. But beans take a mighty long time to cook, and then there is the soaking - a time consuming process. So beans, when I cook them, tend to be canned. Not ideal. Thank goodness for lentils I say. But that aside, I have had a flash of brilliance - a pressure cooker is obviously the answer! Food cooks a lot quicker - you use less gas/electricity - and because no steam comes out (and so they say, very little cooking smells) there may be no need for the extractor fan. Reduced energy use all round, faster and better food.
Apparently pressure cookers have been reinvented - most of the new ones don't have weights on them and apparently they don't explode all over the ceiling anymore. Taken the fun out of it really.
Anyway, I am thinking of buying one. And it will be new. This is not the sort of thing I would like to buy second hand, because they need to be in very good condition to work well. But on the plus side the ones I am looking at are apparently very high quality with a long guarantee.
But then again, I am minimising the purchase of new goods. Which way do the scales tip?
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One of my colleagues just got a pressure cooker that actually doesn't use any energy, after the initial heating of the food - she says it's fantastic.
They're available here, but they're fairly expensive.
I would say they'd pay for themselves over the long-term though - and I don't like your chances of getting one second-hand - I have been searching ebay for one with no luck at all.
More expensive than a regular pressure-cooker, but think of the no energy thing...
Just buy the cooker.
Alana,
On Kathryn Elliott's Limes and Lycopene blog she's mentioned a few times using a rice cooker for cooking pulses as well as other grains such as barley. Perhaps you should look into this as an option.
Cheers, Caroline
Microwave is a good alternative - less supervision required too.
There are lots of things that cook without heat once they've gotten up to boiling point in the first place (pressure cooker or no). For instance, I use boiled water for brown rice, bring back to the boil and then turn off the head and let the hot liquid be absorbed.
Or the beans thing. I confess I use tins too much too. But I remember Jamie Oliver saying once "just get over it. When you think of it, throw some beans into water, into the fridge. When you want em, cook em (or words to that effect). So I'm coming down on the side of no pressure cooker.
Pressure cooker was the best thing I have ever bought... you can put it on before you leave work (with only the feint possibility of coming back to a pile of ashes) and eat your deliciously tender and tasty food straight away.
Oh, I just remembered my grandmother used to boil water with rice in the morning, take the pot off the stove, wrap it in the doona on the spare bed and it would be ready (and warm) for dinner.
And actually, if you did in your own bed, you'd also have a warm bed!
I say get one. Not only will things cook markably faster. You don't need to keep the gas on through the entire process.
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