The wonder of a Pressure Cooker

I am so in love with my pressure cooker! We bought one recently and that was the best buy ever (B$68 in Hua Ho :) ). I didn’t know about it actually (shame on me since pressure cooking has been around for a long time, lol). But I was not much of a cook until recently but really get into it now. Better late than never right???

The advantages of using pressure cooker are endless. See these and pay more attention to the font in bold!

Pressure cooker uses a fraction of the energy of conventional cooking methods. In a pressurized cooking environment (i.e. inside a pressure cooker), the boiling point of water is drastically lowered (allowing for higher cooking temperatures) and very little heat energy escapes. Food cooks more quickly requiring far less external heat, making pressure cookers one of the most energy efficient appliances you can own.

Pressure cooker saves time. Vital high protein, nutritious non-perishable foods – such as rice, beans, legumes and root vegetables – take a notoriously long time to cook using standard preparation methods. For example, dried black beans can take up to 6 hours to prepare (soak for 4 hours and simmer for 2 hours). In a pressure cooker, very same beans can cook in as little as 25 minutes.

Pressure cooker has no issues in areas with limited access to gas and electricity, it’s completely infeasible. Not to mention how hot your kitchen gets with all that heat escaping from a pot right into the air.

There’s also no need to worry when removing a pressure cooker from heat and removing the lid. pressure cookers have manual pressure valves that release the pressure to a safe level before allowing you to remove the lid. The steam that escapes is perfectly safe and will not burn you. You can also simply allow the pressure cooker to cool, which will naturally relieve the pressure inside the cooker.

I cooked using the pressure cooker at least twice a week nowadays. I love the fact that I don’t have to be there in the kitchen once I put everything inside the cooker. I could leave it there to cook. Contrary to the conventional cooking, where I had to be in the kitchen and monitor the food until its done, really troublesome, where the cooking could evaporate and I had to keep on adding water into the dish until it cooked.

And it took a fraction of a time when I cooked meat from tough to tender.

I love it.

But a word of caution though. Do Not open the lid until the pressure is released or you will get burnt from the hot steam.  Or just leave it there until it cools itself down.  Other than that, no issue whatsover!

My pressure cooker

Easy cooking in the making.