After an Aunt had a pressure cooker blow its top, putting cabbage on the ceiling, many decades ago, and hearing of other horror stories involving pressure cookers, I was always extremely dubious of them.
It was not until my wife’s sister and her husband told us about the fantastic results he was achieving with the stove top one he had bought that I became interested. He was cooking legs of lamb in red wine which they both said was the best they had ever tasted.
I purchased a stove top 8 litre Tefal unit from Harris Scarfe in May, 2016 on sale for $159.95 but I see they have them on sale today for just $119.95. The claimed RRP is $329.95. After overcoming my initial concerns, I find it extremely easy to use, and we have never had a dish that we were not happy with, or that was not just as good, if not better, than the conventional or slow cooker equivalents.
Pea & ham soup in just 20 to 30 minutes without any peas being burnt or sticking to the bottom. Osso Bucco in just 30 minutes. Tender, juicy corned beef in just 30 to 40 minutes. Thick, rich stews in 30 minutes. Tender lamb shanks in 30 minutes. Plus lots of curries and other delicious dishes. I sometimes cook a whole duck in it for 20 minutes so as to steam cook it prior to roasting it on our Weber Family Q.
With most dishes, the pressure cooker virtually cleans itself, but if food is stuck on the sides, a little further pressure cooking with just some water quickly loosens the residue. We now use our electric and stovetop skillets and frypans only for fried eggs, scrambled eggs, omelettes and roast potatoes, and our saucepans for mashed potatoes, sauces, Cous Cous and boiled eggs, and the wall oven for baked sweet potatoes.
All roasts, grills and pizzas get cooked on the Weber and all stews, curries, corned beef, Osso Bucco and such like get cooked in the pressure cooker. We have a gas cooktop fed by two 9 Kg gas bottles with a changeover valve plus a 9 Kg gas bottle for the Weber plus a spare gas bottle. A gas bottle for the cooktop lasts around 12 months and we use 4 to 5 bottles a year for the Weber so that our annual cost for LPG is around $120.
Our electricity bills for our present residence are around $2,000 per annum which is almost half the cost of our previous residence, despite now having a swimming pool. So that is it in a nutshell. Quick delicious meals with reduced energy costs.