’Eat to live’ and not’live to eat’ should guide us. Life is short but make it sweet is my guide as far as eating is concerned.
I am a vegetarian. I cooked Pongal in pressure cooker. Though rice and dal were well baked, the odd flavour of green gram dal remained spoiling the mood.
This made me realise that while pressure cooker should invariably be used to save time and money, for certain items that have strong smell, a little open cooking is essential to relish the taste.
Then there are vegetables like cucumber, carrot etc. that cook fast and when you cook them in pressure cooker, add very minimal quantity of water. I have to cook rice. My guide for quantity is three handfuls per person. As regards water, I bite a few grains of rice to ascertain its hardness. If rice is hard, quantity of water is about 2.5 to 3 times that of rice. If the rice is soft, water should not be more than 2 times the volume of rice.
There are some very hard substances like Rajma, toordal etc. For proper cooking of these, add a pinch of baking soda.
While using pressure cooker, see that the gasket is properly seated and the lid is closed properly. I strongly recommend Hawkins pressure cooker that makes life far easier. Do not put on the weight till steam is built up. After putting on the weight, reduce the flame to slightly more than sim - this will ensure best cooking.
My personal experience started at the age of about 12 years. While cooking dal for sambar, I fry two to three tablespoons of fenugreek(methi) and a spoon of jeera and cook it with dal in cooker. This enhances the taste. I soak tamarind in warm water for about half an hour and then extract the juice.
My experience of cooking’Bisibele Bath’ a Karnataka vegetarian dish with National Rice Cooker(electrical) has also been good. First I cook dal and vegetables in pressure cooker and transfer the contents to National cooker. Then I add rice to it and stir it once in 3 to 4 minutes.
These are only general tips about cooking and I hope that this will help.