Over the last few years, I've discovered many ways of cooking food that is nutritious, healthy and fast (or easy) to cook.
But please remember "faster, easier, better, choose any two". You can't have your cake and eat it too.
The First Principle of cooking:
"Cook in a pressure cooker wherever possible."
Here's why.
1. It cooks faster.
2. Retains aroma.
3. The food is more nutritious (usually) than its counterpart cooked in open utensils.
The Tao of Pressure Cooking:
1. When trying to cook food, let it heat up till the boiling point without the whistle on the vent. Put the whistle on the vent when the steam just starts to escape. (This creates an environment inside of water vapor, instead of air, and it cooks faster coz water vapor has a greater specific heat)
2. Most food items don't require 3-4 whistles. Heat only upto the point that the whistle might blow up. Switch it off, and let it cool down on its own. The steam trapped inside would cook the food over the next 10-12 minutes.
The Zen of seasoning:
1. Do not prepare seasoning after boiling lentils, and add to it. Do it at the time of boiling. Fry ingredients like jeera, chopped onions and diced tomatoes in the pressure cooker, then add the bulk of lentils, water and bring to boil. Add the spices, stir well, and close the lid.
In the "conventional" cooking, they boil lentils separately, and then add seasoning to it later. They create the seasoning by heating together ingredients like oil, jeera (cumin seeds), chopped onion, some spices and then add this to the boiled lentils later. They love the aroma this generates. However, the aroma in spices comes from "essential oils", which vaporize at relatively lower temperatures. When you expose them to an open environment and heat them, you have effectively vaporized the oils before adding the seasoning to the lentils. The place for the aroma is the food, not the kitchen.
This is a Control-A Control-C Control-V of what I posted for my friend Somik at http colon slash slash www dot stanford dot edu slash tilde somik slash bachelorCooking dot html.
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7 comments:
Informative post, but I think pressure cooking is good for certain foods, not all. Certain veggies get really too mushy and watery in pressure cooking.
Wonder what was the need for spelling your friend's url :)
For those veggies, try to get a "tray" that sits in a pressure cooker. Put a little water in the cooker, and place the veggies on the tray. The tray keeps the veggies away from water.
As for the friend's URL, it wasn't "his" URL specifically. I just liked the way to describe the URL. Yes, I could have mentioned "And yes, one of the best blogs on the Internet is http colon slash slash dewdy dot blogspot dot com" :)
Hmm, you mean steaming the veggies.Ok good idea
Best blog eh? how do you know, you've quit visiting that space
is dis guy a bawarchi ?
I hate cooking.....thanx for the tips..
The First Principle of cooking:
"Cook in a pressure cooker wherever possible."
Here's why.
1. It cooks faster.
2. Retains aroma.
3. The food is more nutritious (usually) than its counterpart cooked in open utensils.
1) Not necessarily! It cooks faster but it mashes stuff as well.
2) Aroma of spices is much better in open-pan vessels. My mother prefers Kadahi when she has to cook for special occasions because it is slow and more tasty.
3) I differ bigtime with 3). How do you know what is lost in open heating? One theory says that cooking faster means the taste+food-molecules dont' break down properly and aren't fit for eating. Other theory says that there are many "non-nutritious volatile stuff" which evaporate out in open pan vessels.
All these theories are just speculative. It's really hard to know the truth
Saby,
I am a driver when I drive to work, I am a designer when I design systems, developer when I code, I am a hog when I eat, I am a bawarchi when I cook and I am a boxer when I beat people up :) Just kidding dude ... enjoy your day. And yes, post more often - I like your curt comments :)
Avik,
Any particular reason? Too messy? Or you cant cook well? If its the latter, then let me assure you that its not rocket science. Try it a couple of times. You've only one way to go - towards beinng better.
Bhaalu,
1. The mashing happens when the food remains in water and gets the heat. In a kadahi, food remains in a lot of oil. As I mentioned, you can keep the foodstuff in a tray where water doesn't touch it - it'd cook faster.
2. I agree that kadahi can be more tasty but not because its nutritious. Chemically, aromas are "volatile oils". You are able to smell them because they escape in air easily - quite like perfumes. So when you heat them in the open, its like heating an open bottle of perfume. The perfume escapes and you've only the bottle left to yourself :)
3. I would agree to both of what you said. Let me play the devil's advocate and also add here that pressure cooker cooks at a higher temperature than open cooking in water, and thus might lead to coagulation of proteins and rendering them unabsorbable by the body. This is a contentious issue and I am glad you raised it. I would cover it in my blog sometime soon. Thanks for your comments bro !!
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