Hi Mamta, I've just bought a Crock-Pot CSC051 Express Electric Pressure & Multi-Cooker, 5.6L, and would like to use it to msk your curries with it.

I know you state in many recipes a pressure cooker can be used but I'm wondering what if anything I need to change using this cooker, can you help?

TC

Hello TC

Wow! Crock-Pot CSC051 Express Electric Pressure & Multi-Cooker should change your Indian cooking, along with every other type of cooking. In India, almost every family has a pressure cooker, even many people who live in makeshift huts and single rooms. A pressure cooker saves on time as well as fuel.

I am not familiar with this cooker, but there is only one way to learn :). Does it have a manual that gives a rough idea of times for various things like meats, beans, desserts? That would be a starting point.

Most dals, chickpeas, beans that take a long time to cook on a stove, will be done in minutes under pressure. In my recipes, I have given times for the old fashioned pressure cookers with a weight placed on the top vent, like Prestige and Futura. I have several of them, in different sizes. I don't have the modern ones.

I also use slow cooker for many things, like dals, meats, chicken curries, stews, Kadhi, rice pudding etc.

One pot curries where you put everything required together (no frying of onions etc) and leave to slow cook, come out great in slow cooker mode. For meat curries, follow the directions for casseroles and stews in your accompanying cookbook.

For dals, start by giving 5 minutes under full pressure for whole dals like Urad and less for things like chana dal or chana-urad mix. Chickpeas take much longer, up to 30 minutes in my type of pressure cooker. They must be soaked for a few hours before cooking, to reduce the cooking time.

Meat and Chicken curries cook lovely in a slow cooker, so use that mode. They are easy to over cook in a pressure cooker, especially chicken.

I am sure that you already know that Kidney beans must not be cooked in a slow cooker, they need pressure cooking to neutralise the toxin phytohaemagglutinin.

Rice pudding is delicious in either and quick in a pressure cooker, slow cooker cooked one being creamier.

I am sorry that I can not answer you more precisely, having never used one of these. If your cooker does not include a book, may be you could get one? It seems that Ninja Foodie has written a few, though I have never seen one myself.

Enjoy your new cooker and please let me know how you get on with it. It will definitely save you a lot of kitchen space to have an all in one pot.

Happy New Year to you and your family.

Mamta

I have had pressure cookers, but don't use them any more.

As regards cooking times, there is a rule of thumb which says that for an increase of 10°C, reaction times are halved. So a stew cooked at 90°C takes twice as long to cook than one at 100°C, and pro rata.

A pressure cooker running at 15psi will allow water to boil at 121°C, so a curry cooking at 100°C will take a quarter of the time to cook at 120°C.

I would normally cook meat curries at 90°C, so a pressure cooker is of no use to me, as, when the temperature of meat increases, it squeezes out more water, and leaves the meat tougher. However, I see the need to cook pulses more quickly, especially in India, where natural fuels are scarcer/expensive.

Thanks Mamta, It does have a manual setting so will give it a go with your lamb curry in a presuure cooker as it's one of my favourites.

Stay safe and well.

TC

Hello TC

Do please let me know how it comes out, perhaps take a few pictures and send me via the contact link. I have no experience of using it, so will love to hear of it works out.

Mamta