Hawkins Cooker Starter
Even if you have experience with pressure cookers, don’t ignore the need for a trial run out. Your Hawkins Pressure Cooker will come with complete instructions that are easy to follow. It doesn’t take up much time and it’s worth the effort.
If you are a newbie to pressure cooking, you should start with the simple things.
First, remember that when the required pressure is reached, keeping the cooker on high heat doesn’t make things go faster. So turn the heat down and check on the cooking time.
While you are learning, be prepared to turn off the heat before the recipe’s time recommendation to check how well done your food is. You can always continue, and even finish without pressure if you are close to done.
If you are preparing foods with different cooking times (sweet potatoes and carrots for example), you have several options. You can cut the slower item into smaller pieces or you can begin with one and then stop the cooking to add the more rapidly cooked item.
You don’t have to overload your cooker with liquid as there is very little evaporation. Plus you are not limited to water. Stock, wine and even beer can be used to enhance flavor. Just be careful not to overseason. You will discover that your taste buds will be very happy with the enhanced flavors derived from pressure cooking.
I have always cooked with gas, and was trained by my Mother to make sure the gas flames did not come up around the sides of the cooker, and to turn down the heat when the pressure was reached.
Hawkins recommend the Ekobase and Futura pressure cookers to be used on an electric stove.
An interesting development is the use of smaller pressure cookers for outdoor cooking (which make a lot of sense regarding time and heat requirements). Hawkins strongly advise there should be no direct contact with campfire coals with at least a 1 inch / 2.5 cm gap between the burning coals and the base of the cooker.
The Hawkins website has detailed instructions and advice regarding their excellent equipment as well as recipes (mostly Indian, which are worth trying).
Pressure cooking can make much kitchen work easy, quick and convenient. You will also find that it adds great quality to the performance.
There are some great recipes using pressure cooking, so now is the time for discovery.