Turning up the heat

A quick one this evening while I'm in a particularly productive mood...

I finally succumbed to the urge and bought a pressure cooker this evening. Not a cheap buy for a pot with a rubber seal and a couple of pressure valves, but I thought it was probably worth the investment. After one evening I can see that it absolutely will be.

As I've mentioned before, the Spanish supermarkets are kind enough to give away bones for free. I can pick up three of four chicken carcasses while I'm doing my normal shopping and normally I save them in the freezer for when I have a few spare hours. My particular recipe for chicken stock normally takes around five hours, all in. This is not only a lot of time to have to be at home, but it also uses a lot of gas.

Well, for a stock which is just as rich as the normal one I now need to spend around 30 minutes, which is a serious saving not only of time, but of gas too. After the attempt I now have several litres of chicken stock cooling down, to be put in the fridge and freezer for soups, paellas and sauces.


There are a huge number of websites dedicated to pressure cooking and I'll be trying a few of the recipes out soon. The idea that I can cut down the time and money spent on the cooking process by such a huge margin is going to make life that fraction better.

Huajiao in a Baoji market

Almost three years ago now at the beginning of my stay in China I discovered a weird and wonderful spice that I'd never heard of before. Huajiao, or Sichuan pepper contains hydroxy-alpha-sanshool which leads to a tingly, numbing feeling and, along with the subtle clovey/lemony overtones makes for a rather addictive experience. A mapo dofu (麻婆豆腐) would be nothing without the use of a good handful of huajiao and the expat favourite, gongbao jiding (宫保鸡丁) would lose a vital dimension sichuan pepper-free.

Anyway, I'm writing this to link to this photo, taken in Baoji, Shaanxi province as I went hunting for the solar eclipse last month. I often found that markets were good places in China for getting shots of the street-sellers who were usually very happy to have their photo taken, given a few minutes of small-talk first.

Right now, having arrived back here just a couple of days ago I'm having to stock up on food and having made a batch of humous which should last a good few days I have a chicken soup on the boil now. The local shops give away chicken carcasses for free and the pot is now full to overflowing with six carcasses. The smell is not helping my work!