It is more effective than soaking large amounts of fruit in the tiny amounts of liquid most recipes call for. The Pressure Cooker Bible from the Pressure Cooker Queen… Wonderful!!!' - Si King, The Hairy Bikers Adding bicarbonate of soda to bean cooking water helps them soften. When it comes to softening beans, (a little) bicarb is good, sugar and acid are bad. A small amount of bicarb definitely speeds up cooking, but don’t add too much or it will make the beans taste soapy. Salt also seems to speed up cooking slightly, and it’s great for flavour. Because sugar and acid are bad news for cooking beans, when making beans in tomato sauce, don’t add tomatoes (which are sweet and sour) until the beans are well and truly soft. The upside is that the tomatoes should stop the beans collapsing further.

Melt together sugar, butter and alcohol. You can add a bit of cream if you want a rich creamy one but Catherine loves the sugar and butter. If you haven't got Catherine Phipps' book, The Pressure Cooker Book, it really is worth buying. All recipes have familiar ingredients and measurements for UK Instant Pot users. It seems mould can happen above all when using greaseproof paper and foil or materials that are not very clean, also when the pudding hasn't been stored when totally cool and dry. If you leave it on keep warm for a few hours, that temperature will of course drop down. SubstitutionsBeans means… a longer life, according to a study at Norway’s University of Bergen. The research, published in the journal PLOS Medicine last month, estimated that changing from the typical Western diet to a better one – including plenty of pulses like beans and lentils – could add more than a decade to your life if you start in your 20s. Close, bring up to high pressure and immediately remove from the heat. In an electric pressure cooker this means programming 0 minutes. The pressure cooker is the number one gadget for people who want to slice huge chunks off the cooking time of meat, pulses and sauces. From ribs that fall off the bone, to stew, casserole or braised meat, a pressure cooker can achieve great results in under an hour. Pasta and rice can be made from scratch in less than 10 minutes; thrifty cooks can tenderise flavoursome cheap cuts in just 20 minutes and pulses can be cooked without having to soak them. Speed isn't the only advantage of pressure cookers - they also preserve nutrients and vitamins, as well as being a more economical way to cook. It gets better: pulses are also a rich source of resistant starch, fermentable fibre that is great for a healthy gut, and which may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. That resistant starch may be good for our brains too, with recent research suggesting that by boosting our intestinal microbiota, it can improve cognition through the brain-gut axis, and even our moods. Heat the olive oil in the pressure cooker. Add the bacon/pancetta and fry until crisp, then set aside. Toss the beef in the flour and mustard powder and season well with salt and pepper. Sear over a high heat in the pressure cooker pan until brown all over. Set aside.

I cook my 700 g gammon joints for 18 minutes. I know this is longer than the times stated above but it works for me every time as I tend to buy the same size joint. You can do more than one joint at the same time, I tend to do three 700 g joints in 18 minutes (mainly because Ocado tends to have 700 g gammon joints on offer). Increase the time for bigger joints. Phipps's exceptional book shows that the pressure cooker has moved far beyond its spluttering, drab 1970s incarnation' - The Sunday Times

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After the natural pressure release, remove the pudding basin carefully (a long handled trivet or a foil sling will be handy for this part). By cooking food at temperatures that are far higher than conventional ovens, pressure cookers drastically reduce cooking times enabling us to cook in a cheaper, healthier and greener way. Pasta and rice can be made from scratch in less than 10 minutes; thrifty cooks can tenderise flavoursome cheap cuts in just 20 minutes and pulses can be cooked without having to soak them. The blurb before the actual recipe is essential reading and it's laid out that way precisely so that you get all the information you need before you dive in. Author Catherine Phipps gently guides readers through everything they need to know about cooking in a stovetop or electric pressure cooker, with foolproof, step-by-step instructions. With 150 delicious recipes and beautiful colour photography throughout the Pressure Cooker Cookbook will revolutionise your mealtimes.

Or take it out of the pudding basing and wrap it, just make sure it has cooled down fully before you wrap it. And use very clean materials. height (can't be too high for your pressure cooker and it definitely cannot sit against the valves for your safety! You will end up with a very sturdy length of foil which you can use to lower your pudding into the pressure cooker. You have to ensure the Christmas Pudding is dry before you put it away, then wrap in greaseproof and foil or a sterilised muslin…

Undercooked kidney beans are toxic A lectin called phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) is present in lots of beans, including green beans, and in dangerous levels in red beans such as kidney beans, but it is destroyed by proper cooking. There is of course a minor downside: as the playground chant goes, ‘Baked beans are good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you fart.’ The wind factor is caused by indigestible oligosaccharides, the same annoying components that make Jerusalem artichokes so potentially embarrassing, while also being exceptionally good for your microbiome. Josiah Meldrum of British pulse specialist Hodmedod’s suggests adding a strip of kelp seaweed to your cooking water, as it is said to reduce the oligosaccharides. Simply put your dried fruit in the pressure cooker and add whatever liquid your recipe calls for. A general rule of thumb is 500g dried fruit needs around 150ml liquid to just cover it. Legumes are anti-nutritional. Legumes do contain tannins, lectins, phytic acid and oligosaccharides, technically ‘anti-nutrients’ that affect the bioavailability and digestibility of some nutrients and minerals, but their other nutritional qualities will far outweigh any loss.