Any Pressure Cooker fans?

[Chil1234]

I'll admit, my childhood experience of my mother's old pressure cooker with its wobbly weight on top, hissing away bad-temperedly like an unexploded bomb, put me right off buying one for decades. :) But, after reading an article by Heston Blumenthal about the wonders of cooking under pressure, I was persuaded and bought myself one.

No wobbly weights or hissing valves in the latest models I was pleased to find. And, you know, he was totally right about pressure cooking keeping in a lot more of the flavour. Haven't bothered using it for delicate things like veggies because they steam beautifully in next to no time anyway. But I've had some good results with casseroles, soups and especially stock

Anyone else a convert?

Did your cooker get to pressure? Is there some kind of indicator? The amount of water sounds fine and potatoes cut that small would only take 10-15 mins to boil conventionally anyway.

When you say steam was coming 'gently from the lid'... did the steam stop coming out when the pressure valve kicked in?

Thanks DonaAna 6 mins seems a long time but I'll have a go.

Politix, all pressure cookers (and stoves) are a bit different. My 3-litre cooker requires cooking times that are usually at least 1 minute longer than those in most recipes. Cooking time is counted from the time when your PC is pressurized (=working at full steam and you can turn down the heat a bit). Set a timer.

Potatoes need varying cooking times depending on how big they are. Jacket potatoes require 6-12 min in my PC instructions, diced 6-8. I usually use smallish ones and quarter them and 8 minutes is about right for me.

I found I needed to practice a few rounds before getting timings right.

Moo, you need to experiment with the cooking time. Overcooked risotto is terrible, so decrease the time if it seems too much for your cooker - you can always keep cooking it conventionally for a few extra minutes. However, hand-stirred risotto takes about 20 minutes on minutes on my stove. Anyway, using the PC risotto has become one of our quick weeknight staples.

Chili and DonaAna - thanks for this! I will have another go, I think I might not have got the pressure cooker up to full steam so I will see if I can get it really blasting out of the steam valve before I turn it down.

:-)

Phew, getting there. I have got the steam up to a good head and some very nice boiled potatoes came out. Just need to cut the pieces of potatoe a bit smaller, I think. On to the next Prestige recipe!