Which, effectively, means me, even though I used a pressure cooker extensively, in the 80s, the world, and pressure cookers, has moved on. The basics however remain the same – just enough heat input to maintain pressure, but not so much that you vent steam excessively.
Right now I’m cooking a Continue reading
I got my new pressure cooker yesterday, and today I tried it on my solid-ring electric cooker.
I’d assumed that the cooker would be too sluggish in its response to the controls, as solid rings are cast-iron and retain a lot of heat, to be able to use the pressure cooker safely, but I got past that by Continue reading
One thing that gets in the way of my cooking is the time it takes. For, example, cooking a joint to freeze, when finished, as sliced beef in gravy is a 2-day event** if I use my slow cooker, which leaves me with a heavy, and hard to handle, earthenware crock to wash. Trouble is, I can’t often get two good days together.
**About 5 hours to cook in the slow cooker, plus an overnight cool-down – cooling meat in the cooking liquor is always a good idea – then sliced and portioned the next day.
Then there are things like soups and stews, which need regular attention to ensure they don’t stick and burn when simmered on the hob.
A few weeks ago, I bought an induction hob, thinking that this would Continue reading
Last year I bought myself a new electric cooker, one with solid plates, and for one very good reason, they’re very easy to keep clean. For spoonies, that matters – a lot.
A lot of people, however, dislike solid plates as they’re slow to respond to the controls, being made of cast iron, which is slow to heat up, and slow to cool down. However, in normal cooking it is a simple matter to adjust your technique to suit these characteristics, turning Continue reading
Though not a vegetarian, of late lots of pulses (beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc), have been finding their way into my diet, the more so since I started tinkering with food that has a pronounced Spanish influence (the flavourings, rather than the actual recipes, though my home-made versions of chorizo and morcilla are rather good).
The trouble with pulses, though, is Continue reading
