Mar 11, 2013

They all cooked in their Indian pressure cooker and it didn’t blow up their face!

I asked and you delivered. You are the best bunch that a blogger could ask to support an event to refute an opinion stated as a fact by a slow cooker cookbook author (now say that fast!). You cooked in your Indian pressure cookers, clicked pictures of them and narrated stories and adventures you have had with them. Thank you for validating and proving that Indian pressure cookers are indeed safe and easy to use. Here is the roundup in the order I received them. If I missed any of your entrees, do let me know and I will add you promptly with my sincerest apologies.

 
When Soma moved to America with her husband, she couldn’t bring her pressure cooker with her. It was fortuitous too because she made friends with another girl and borrowed her pressure cooker whenever she needed to use. The lending and borrowing of pressure cooker blossomed into a lifelong friendship. And yes, she did eventually buy her own pressure cooker and recently, a spanking new Futura in which she cooked this delicious lahsuni dal.

During her courting days, Anita would visit her in-laws and help out with the Sunday morning ritual of cleaning the weekly vegetables and preparing a simple lunch that included sada varan bhaat. After marriage, she learnt that overcooking toor dal to make sada varan bhaat wasn’t frowned on South of the Vindhyas. The girl from North of the Vindhyas now overcooks her toor dal without any qualms and feeds her family this comforting meal every Sunday.


 After getting hitched, Priya’s techie man brought a 3 ltr Contura based on her specifications and she has never needed another cooker since. She says it “serves all her purposes”. She makes this Kerala potato curry in her pressure cooker all the time and so far the cooker hasn’t blown up in her face.

Siri grew up watching her mom cook in not one but sometimes two pressure cookers simultaneously. It is now an integral part of her household as well. So much so that she “literally wakes up every single morning with the sound of the whistle whooshing across the kitchen till our bedroom”. In case you are wondering, it is her mother-in-law who is using the pressure cooker in the mornings. She made a filling one-pot achari chana pulao in her 3 ltr pressure cooker.

Princy calls her prized Hawkins pressure cooker her “best pal” in the kitchen. She uses it every day, sometimes twice a day. She cooks this scrumptious and filling egg biryani when she is feeling lazy but still wants to eat something spicy and yummy.

Lata remembers her mother and grandmother using the pressure cooker since the appliance was first introduced in the market. She remembers them cooking dal for rassam and sambhar and steaming idlis and vegetables in it. She made a delicious dhal kalbeliya, a blend of three lentils pressure cooked and then sautéed with tempered onions, garlic and tomatoes.

Preeti talks about her first taste of momos (steamed dumplings) she had in Bhutan as an air force base kid. She hadn’t liked the look of them but when she tried one she couldn’t have enough. She decided to relive that memorable trip with her friends and family by steaming some momos of her own in her pressure cooker.


Growing up, Sandeepa never cared for her grandma’s famous and much in demand Gota Sheddho. A traditional meal in Bengali families the day after Saraswati Pujo, she usually swallowed a morsel of the cold dish and called it a day. Now all grown up with kids of her own, she revived the tradition with a few changes of her own. A one pot dish, she cooked the Sheddho in her pressure cooker and ate it hot with a squeeze of lime.

Manisha learnt to use the pressure cooker when she was 9 years old. She now lives in a high altitude area of 5320ft and values her two pressure cookers ever more. They are indispensable tools in her kitchen. She not only cooked a delicious whole red lentil curry (massorichiamti) in her pressure cooker but wrote an excellent post to demystify urban legends about pressure cookers not blowing up in people’s faces.

Pavani owns half a dozen pressure cookers that serve different purposes in her kitchen. She uses them to cook rice, lentils, veggies and curries. She showed her love and appreciation for her pressure cookers by making this tasty Goan Mixed Vegetable curry and jeera rice in her two Prestiges.

Shri wrote an almost poetic odeto the workhorse of the Indian kitchen and wrote down detailed directions on how to cook chickpeas and lentils using the separator pans in the pressure cookers. Check out her beautiful photographs and her post here.


Mandira owns three pressure cooker and all of them are put to good use including the small Hawkins which she uses to cook lunch for her kids. She made a nutritious moong dal with peas and carrots in her pressure cooker.


The girl who hosts A Mad Tea Party recently posted her dad's tomato-beetroot soup recipe that is strikingly similar to my mom's tomato-beetroot soup recipe. As if that was not enough, both of them pressure cook the vegetables and then puree them to make an amazingly delicious, nutritious soup that is ready with the rest of the meal. The next time you are craving some soup, make this in your pressure cooker and you will be glad you did.

This brings us to the end of the roundup which was a little shorter than I expected. My contribution in defense of the Indian pressure cooker is here and here.
I had a lot of fun visiting your blogs and reading about your experiences with the Indian pressure cooker. It is heartening to know that they are such an integral part of your kitchens. Pressure cook on.

21 comments:

  1. This was a nice event, Jaya, very original and rightfully missionary :)

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    1. Thanks Sra. I like that you called it missionary. :-)

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  2. lovely article... i use my pressure cooker to the max, from making rice to a full curry in it... that much i am attached. i have three cookers and i really do not know where i would be without them... :)

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  3. Thanks for the roundup and for hosting. I will have to try some of the other recipes in the pressure cooker. :)

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    1. You are welcome Mandira and thanks for participating.

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  4. Hmmm so it was slow cooker against pressure cooker?:) Pressure cooker wins in my kitchen. Long live our Indian pressure cookers. And thanks much for giving all of us a chance to introduce our faithful friend to the world (and telling them not to worry); a reader bought a pressure cooker after I posted. YAAAY and an Indian one too! Beautiful recipes here.

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    1. Pressure cooker wins in my kitchen too. Thanks for participating Soma.

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  5. Awesome roundup Jaya. More recipes to try in the pressure cookers. Thanks for hosting and the roundup.

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  6. Indian cooks have really adapted their cooking to the pressure cooker, and what a time-saving (life-saving!) devise it has become for all of us. I cannot imagine a day in the kitchen without it!

    Thanks, for highlighting this and hosting the roundup, Jaya!

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  7. A refreshingly different and nice round-up of recipes !

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  8. Jaya, Beautiful roundup. Pressure cooker is my everyday friend. A small correction on the Gota Sheddho. Check FB msg

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    1. Thanks Sandeepa. I did the correction. Thanks for letting me know.

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  9. Loved this round-up! So many new recipes to try!

    And, yes, it doesn't blow up if you use it properly. As with any other appliance! I hope the word gets out that it's all just a matter of common sense and following basic safety guidelines.

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  10. Very nice post, looking at it made me realise how many people in Blosphere have posted Photos of Pressure Cooker ;)

    Glad to be your new follower Jaya.. looking forward to see more of these interesting posts from you ..

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  11. Here after looong time Jaya. Nice to see such a lovely post about home cooking. Pressure cooking is almost equivalent to home cooking in our homes :-)
    I don't get your updates on fb it seems..

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  12. Just when I came back from my break, Google Reader went kaput. Sorry I missed this Jaya. Next event, am in. :-)
    Hope you are doing good. :-)

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  13. Hello, I am living in India and looking a aluminium pressure cooker that suits my kitchen requirement. Please suggest me which cookware brand I go for and please also suggest me should I choose hard anodized cooker or aluminium cookers. It would be a great help to me. Thanks in advance.

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Thank you for visiting my space. I miss my former editors, so any form of criticism/ appreciation is welcome. :)

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