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.