A must have
Indian cooking becomes ridiculously easy with a pressure cooker - especially if you are planning on cooking lentils or beans. Not only do you save time, you also retain nutrients which can otherwise be destroyed when exposed to high heat for long periods of time.
Safety is virtually guaranteed with Hawkins' foolproof design - if the lid is not closed properly, the cooker just won't attain full pressure and so won't become dangerous; if there is even a little pressure remaining, the lid just won't be forced open. And if - this happened to me once - you put in too little water by mistake and the cooker boils dry, you are still okay thanks to a safety valve ingeniously placed just under the bar on the lid - so that when it opens up, the heat gets deflected away from you.
I have only used aluminum cookers, but the stainless steel ones are great too - if a little more expensive. Worth it if you want to avoid stains that can sometimes be a problem with aluminum...
A Superior Pressure Cooker
I got this little Hawkins (the 2 liter model, stainless steel) from Kitchen Deals for You, and I'm sitting here right now eating 17-bean soup from Trader Joe's that this kicked out in 25 minutes. The design is so great. Having the lid fit inside the top lip of the pot eliminates all the drama of screw-type-closing lids. And though this should probably fall under the genre of "jiggle-top" cookers, it really is jiggle-top bumped up a notch by some neat engineering. The metal band surrounding the base of the weight on this cooker also serves as a stop, allowing the weight to rise and vent like a steam whistle blowing at the end of the work day. Like any jiggle-top, this one will occasionally foam as steam comes out the top. That's normal and depends on what you're cooking. Same thing happens with Prestos. I've used pressure cookers for 25 years, and this little Hawkins is a superior cooker at a great price. No wonder it is so popular in India. Good food, easy clean up (it's no...
Indian whistling pressure cooker is a kitchen champ
I absolutely love my Hawkins pressure cooker.
The construction is top notch, a well engineered design that has the oval top lid actually under the top lip of the pot, sealing like the door of an airplane. It is impossible to open this cooker while still pressurized, making it a very safe cooker, in addition, as the lid doesn't twist on, like almost all other pressure cooker designs, the gasket isn't subjected to wear and it lasts a lot longer.
The bottom of the pot is a sandwich of stainless steel surrounding a thick aluminium insert for even heat distribution, a must if you're going to be frying before cooking under pressure. Oh yes, and this is one of the famous Indian whistling cookers. Once you get the measure of your cooktop and where to turn the heat down to after full pressure is built, the regular whistle steam release makes a very useful timer. You'll find many recipes from India using this timing method. A very fine cooker indeed, I highly recommend...
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