Pressure Cookers
A pressure cooker is a one-pot cooking phenomenon. It cooks all your ingredients at the same time - and seals in the goodness for an extra nutritional boost. Safe and super simple to use, with easy locking systems (they’re a far cry from the hissing, lid-rattling versions of old), they’re a brilliant way of cooking healthy, economical food in half the time you’d spend using other methods.
Pressure cooking frees you up to do other things instead of hovering over the hob for hours, stirring, basting and adjusting temperatures. Simply load the cooker with ingredients, pick your pressure setting, set the timer and you’re good to go.
Convenient cooking
Juggling our busy lifestyles – and finances – in today’s world isn’t easy, but clever shortcuts and thrifty, energy-efficient cooking can make such a big difference to your quality of life. Ideal for making traditionally slow-cooked meals such as curries, stews and casseroles much faster, pressure cookers are a great way of eating healthy ‘proper’ food regardless of how crazy life gets. And because you can cook food more quickly in a pressure cooker, you can save money on your energy bills, too.
Faster food
Quick, efficient, and up to 90 per cent faster than a pan on the hob, a pressure cooker has to be one of the most economical cooking methods. It boils liquid like water, stock, wine or broth inside a sealed cooking pot, increasing the pressure and the liquid’s maximum temperature, which significantly increases the cooking speed. The steam is locked into the food as it cooks, so it keeps more of its flavour and vitamins, giving you and the family succulent, tasty and healthy meals in no time.
What can I cook in a pressure cooker?
With a pressure cooker, meat goes from tough to tender in a fraction of the time it takes to cook beef, lamb, pork and chicken in traditional ways, like roasting. Because of the way it cooks, a pressure cooker is particularly well-suited to cheaper cuts of meat, along with inexpensive pulses like lentils, peas and dried beans. Rustle up some ribs that fall off the bone, a hearty stew or a creamy risotto - the possibilities are endless. This nifty kitchen gadget is great for desserts, too, especially steamed caramel custards, bread and butter pudding, cheesecakes and Christmas puddings.
How to choose the right pressure cooker
There’s lots of choice when it comes to picking out the perfect pressure cooker, so think about how many people you’ll be cooking for, how much storage space you have in your kitchen and how long you want to spend on cleaning up afterwards. If you’re a batch cook or catering for a big family, a pressure cooker with a larger capacity is your best bet. Cooking for two? A smaller option makes for a compact solution that’s easy to stow away between uses. And what about cleaning? Stainless steel pressure cookers are durable and easy to care for - especially if the cooking pot is dishwasher safe.
