Pressure Cooker

[Jugglering]

I cook a lot of pulses (beans, lentils etc) and was thinking a pressure cooker might save me a lot of time (and money). Any advice on make, model, whether it's really worth bothering with etc ? Also, where on earth can you buy them these days ? I popped into Curry's last night - the kiddies in there had never heard of a pressure cooker, they offered me a slow cooker - different animal I reckon. Oh, and what sort of shop does not do what it says on the tin - there was absolutely no curry to be had in Curry's, not even a hint of garam masala !!

[oldwoman]

Good old Argos do them. H ow did you expect the kiddies to know, they dont know what food is. I did some mushy peas in mine, knew I shouldn`t but was in a hurry. The steam came out and the peas followed,the ceiling was a lovely shade of green.

[Jugglering]

Thanks - any recommendations on make and model ? Great news about the new pea green colour on the kitchen ceiling - I do hope it wasn't too vivid for you !

[oldwoman]

Always bought Prestige, there`s an offer on a half price Tower one at the moment,might be a bit small at 4 litres.

[Ethel]

I love my prestige pressure cooker.

Does everything I want pressure cooking wise, and is also a very solid pan for ordinary cooking.

[crisgal]

i bought a tower one from qvc about two years ago and honestly wouldn't be without it.
It came with two pans and an extra lid - very handy.
You do have to be really careful when cooking pulses in it though - but the instructions will tell you all about that.
There are some good modern cookbooks for pressure cookers in the library too.

[Buenchico]

To be fair to the 'kiddies', Curry's do sell mainly electrical goods and, to the best of my knowledge, there's no such thing as an electric pressure cooker. Basically, it's only a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid and a pressure-release valve. Curry's don't (as far as I know) sell saucepans, so why should they sell pressure cookers?

Because a pressure cooker is basically not much more than a 'special saucepan', there's probably very little difference (apart from size) to choose between them. The Argos range is here:
http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servl et/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId =-1&searchTerms=pressure+cooker&go.x=15&go.y=1 3
I've also seen them in Tesco Extra.

I like your idea that shops should be compelled to sell 'what it says on the tin'. Staples already sell staples so, obviously, Curry's should sell curry. Sorry, I must stop typing here because I want to be first in the queue; I've just heard that there's a sale starting tomorrow at the Virgin megastore ;-)

Chris

[aurelia]

I bought a cheap one from Aldi's about 2 years ago and it has been brill - i think they had one on sle recently at their offers. I do chicken pieces in mine. I have them with couscous or rice to serve with but the meat is lovely and tender.

the instruction booklet told me what setting to put it to and how long to leav it on for.

You can use pressure cookeras for green beans as my family in france do that all the time but it's a miniscule amount of time their pressured for and then they boil them and store them away in jars to have over the winter months as they can't get them then personally I think they cook them to death.

A slow cooker is totally different as I have both. The slow cooker is for putting a meal on to cook slowly while you're at work and you come home to have your tea ready. I've not got round to using mine yet.

pressure cookers have change over the years - as in th olden days they did not have safety valves on them and my mum freaked me out after I bought mine by telling me that before the valves a woman was making soup in er pressure cooker and took the lid off before the pressure had subsided and the soup eploded over her - and killed her as she was burned to death.

I turned the valve down with oven gloves on the first time and a towel near my face - LOL

[Jugglering]

Many thanks everyone - Chris, you are quite correct, Curry's are an electrical retailer, my apologies to the kiddies working there!! Still, you'd think they'd have a faint aroma of curry wafting about the place, just for the name's sake !!

[Solarjunkie]

I often see pressure cookers on sale in small ads, car boot sales etc, as new.
The trick to cooking pulses in them is to add a teaspoonful of oil which stops them frothing up. Then freeze the cooked beans & they're ready for anything. Have you got The Bean Book, by Rose Elliott? Highly recommended.
I adore pressure cookers - I had four at once for a while! Also particularly good for beetroot instead of boiling for hours. (and jam, steamed puddings, boiled ham, potatoes, etc etc!)

[WendyS]

We have an ancient Prestige "Skyline" pressure cooker which is idea for cooking pulses and making stock & soup but it's 40 years old now and still going strong. (In fact, I have two of them because I bought a second one in a car boot sale for the spare valve, suspecting the model is now obsolete !!). I'm sure Prestige make an up to date model.
Just one thing to beware of. Let the pressure come off naturally and don't try to speed things up by flicking up the pressure valve with a fork to release steam more quickly.
The first and only time I did this, we had to redecorate the kitchen after the walls and ceiling were sprayed with lentil soup which dried like sandpaper !