Now, one change that this contest on MS has brought, in me, is that I have been visiting kitchen more frequently and this time it’s not to steal those hot Pakodas that mom removes from the pan. Ahh! But had it been my sister in my shoes, she would have been happy. But my visits in the kitchen, irritates her! Cause I keep asking her so many questions, that she feels I am better with my computer or books. She would even sacrifice her “Kyonki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi” and make me watch AXN or “English movies” as she calls it, so far as I don’t enter the kitchen.
But one fine day the aroma of chicken pulled me away from the PC straight to the source – kitchen again. And as I entered the kitchen sniffing and sneaking behind mom, when a sudden whistle SSShhhhhhhhhh, startled me and made me jump. Oh! My mom burst out laughing and I gave the god damn cooker such angry looks that it stopped whistling. Hey! Hey! The silence that engulfed was broken by scream – “YESsss! I found it”. Found what? A new household product, to write on – Hawkins Pressure Cooker!
And what do I know about pressure cookers? I am sure nobody want to read about
PV = nRT
where,
P is pressure,
T is temperature.
ok ok. Sorry!
So I asked my mom about it. Oh! And you should have seen her flushed face beaming with such pride as she said, “Oh! Hawkins, it’s a very good cooker. It is working so fine even now”.
“Even now?”
“Yes”, she said with even more pride, as she saw through my question mark face, “I brought that cooker in 1981. You were in 2nd Standard, then”. That remark left my jaw open. 1981 had not made an impact as much as the 2nd standard did. Oh! Shit, I am working for 2 years now, after completing my BE, after a Diploma, after HSC, after SSC…just justifying my open jaw.
She did not stop there. She further added, “And in 21 years, I had to change the gasket just twice. Otherwise it’s no problem at all.” Need I continue with the review. Wouldn’t the above convince the readers?
My (Our) Hawkins Pressure Cooker (HPC..hereon) is a 9 litre cylindrical shaped vessel made of thick metal – Aluminium (I am not sure). The handle is nicely riveted at four points. It has some thermal insulating material that looks like plastic, can’t be – it would melt…hmm Bakelite, yes? The cooker has three big vessels in it. Big, because it’s really big as compared to the ones I usually see nowadays. The vessels come without any cage facility found nowadays that facilitate easy placement/removal. Another disadvantage is it does not have any separators. The lid has a valve, a whistle to let out the steam and a gasket. The lid design is the secret for its longetivity. Unlike most cookers that have the gasket on the underside and fits on top of the cooker, this one has gasket on op and fits from within the cooker. Confused?
The lid is slightly oval and cooker opening circular. So using the smaller side of the lid, it is inserted within the cooker, then turn it to the longer side and pull it up. It gets locked. Neat and easy!
The cooker is being used 90% of the time to cook rice and dal using the pressure within to cook at temperatures 22% higher temperature than boiling point of water. When my mom has to cook mutton, she generally prefers normal cooking in the bigger vessel. But if time is running out and the mutton needs to be cooked properly, she uses the cooker. Occasionally though, she uses it for cooking vegetables, making Pulao and Khicdi.
I love it when she makes the chicken using the cooker. Then opens the cooker midway and removes the liquid and offers it to me as soup. And my friends think it’s beer that is responsible for my belly. But yes, I would agree that Hawkins is the good answer for healthy, hygienic food due to sterilization achieved at the high temperature within and yet retains all vital proteins, vitamins.
As per my mom, the gasket is very reliable and the steam does not leak out from the sides. She never had any blowing off of lid or gasket like my sister had at her place with ELITE cooker. Only once the valve gave way and that too when she absent mindedly forgot to pour water within.
Though I am sure there are some good cookers out there and brands like Prestige, Nirlep, Rajesh, Marlex gaining popularity, I don’t see any reason to switch over – not for another 21 years.