A Batch Cooking Extravaganza

(and why everyone needs a pressure cooker)

This is my umpteenth attempt at writing this particular newsletter. When I sat down two days ago to try yet again to complete and post, I was feeling a bit (a lot) despondent. Illness, bereavement, issues with children to sort out and here I was again, awake at 2am, unable to get back to sleep or focus on anything.

I’m feeling a lot better now having managed to sort out some stuff and having had a mega batch cook in the kitchen (more on this in a mo), but I am still in a bit of a tailspin.

This is because this week I’m going into hospital for a major operation which has a fairly long recovery time and so is scuppering Christmas and more importantly the run up to Christmas which is my favourite bit. I have known this for over a month so have had GOALS:

I was going to be the fittest I’ve ever been (ha.)

The house was going to be the cleanest and most comfortable it has ever been. (not even tidy. Remotely. Embarrassed to have friends round messy).

There was going to be LOTS of Christmas baking. (Not even the pudding done).

And I was going to have done ALL of my Christmas Shopping. (Nope. About 3 things. NB - I was reading this out to Shariq to see how it flowed - I usually do this - and Adam was earwigging from the next room and of course this is what he picked up on!).

Including the Christmas stockings which were to have been filled. Which would have meant making all the homemade stuff I put in Adam’s every year (this I will have to do before Wednesday, totally non negotiable, fortunately very easy).

Looming large over the whole is The Christmas Tree. I had a stern talk with myself about this, but realised that getting it done this coming weekend would, for me, be much, much less stressful than leaving the choosing and decorating to my lot. I am not proud of this. It is what it is.

It’s not even that we go all out at Christmas - in fact, we are going through a period when they are pretty pared back affairs (more on this another time). And I found this piece by Elissa Altman (whose newsletter I really rate) summed up a lot of how I feel -

the year of I'm so tired.

I am also so very tired.

But finally in terms of goals, I have over the past few days managed to prioritise what I need more than what I want, so a bit more positively:

Emptying out the freezer of random uncooked stuff I had shoved in because I haven’t had time to cook it before its use by date…. (getting there. Was nowhere close when I started writing this).

Filling the freezer to the brim with regimented lines and piles of tempting things I will want to eat during recovery - portions of soups and stews and casseroles and pastas. (also getting there).

As well as prepped stuff to make life easier for Shariq and Adam. Stocks, sauces, portions of mire poix. Finely chopped coriander stems (I’ve managed that), caramelised onions. Bags of cooked beans and pulses. (getting there too).

I have slowly been able to put things in the freezer, mainly by increasing the number of portions I cook with most of the recent meals. Apart from the oxtail, which is a two day undertaking. So before yesterday I had managed:

8 portions of oxtail soup, Caribbean flavours - my ultimate comfort food (MPC)

8 portions of tomato soup (MPC and EPC)

4 portions of lentil and methi (or spinach) soup (MPC and EPC)

6 portions of keema peas (PCCB)

6 portions braised kale (because it needed using up)

A load of diced pork from a roast (not pressure cooked), plus jus (pressure cooked) and all the fat which I very finely chopped and added to chicken stock - a bit like ramen broth.

And then on Thursday night I emptied the freezer of all the remaining raw meat and bought a bit more besides and so in the last 36 hours I have managed to cook:

Chinese style Ribs (PCCB)

A pork, orange and kimchi stew (MPC)

A split pea soup, Caribbean flavours (whole scotch bonnet, thyme, allspice) PCCB

A ham (cooked with the split pea soup) (EPC)

A triple batch of bolognese (MPC)

A triple batch of chilli con carne (MPC)

Jerusalem artichoke and mushroom soup (EPC)

Mutton Saag (EPC)

Lentil and sausage casserole (MPC)

A huge pile of meatballs (the only things not pressure cooked)

Loads of chicken broth (not stock, but flavoured, seasoned broth)

And a lot of cooked chicken too

Tomato sauce (PCCB/MPC/EPC)

Kidney beans, left over from the chilli

Black beans, half loose, the rest in a spiced coconut gravy with vegetables

I think that’s it. I haven’t finished but I am now starting to run out of space. It is all quite meat heavy, I know, but there are a lot of pulses in there too they will be served with lots of fresh vegetables. Plus of course the freezer has frozen peas, sweetcorn, spinach, broad beans, cauliflower (I am converted by Rosie Sykes) and methi. And curry leaves, makrut lime leaves, coriander.

Can you imagine how time consuming, not to mention expensive, this would all be without a pressure cooker? I had 2-4 going at any one time and I probably spent between 3-4 hours each day in the kitchen. I deliberately chose relatively low prep straightforward meals, that my lot all love, following the recipes all in my books so I didn’t really have to think much about it and could just listen to nice audio books, knowing that I could change the flavour of a fair few of them when they are reheated if I wanted to.

One friend asked me why I was bothering, could I not just rely on ready meals etc. during the recovery period? And yes, of course I could, but I’ve always thought that it is so contrary that the time we need really good nutrition - food cooked from scratch with multiple plant foods (these might be meat heavy dishes, but there are numerous herbs, spices, vegetables etc in all of them) - is a time when we can’t necessarily cook it for ourselves. So if possible prepare ahead. I have lists of things I make ahead of the cold/flu season too. I once tried to get a book published about this, and couldn’t get it out there, but I might just try again.

Anyway, back to the practicalities. Shariq, Adam and Lilly can of course cook a bit (Adam and Lilly make a really good shakshuka in the pressure cooker). I will be relying on them for anything to do with eggs, things on toast, toasted sandwiches, the odd tray bake. But Shariq in particular (and he freely acknowledges this) does not love prep and is not as meticulous as I am, so I find it quite stressful relying on him. And importantly, I have taught them how they can really quickly reheat things in the pressure cooker:

How To Reheat Frozen Food in the Pressure Cooker

SO EASY. Just put a slick of water in the base, add the frozen block of whatever it is (minus it’s packaging of course, I have had to rely mainly on plastic bags which isn’t ideal), close the lid, bring it up to pressure and fast release. It will always be piping hot throughout. The odd thing about it is that apart from very liquid things like soup, the food stays in its block, but collapses as soon as you give it a quick stir and you would never know.

The other thing you can do when reheating is add a carb element as you do so. This is SO USEFUL. Say you had a casserole left or some of the ribs, pulled off the bone in their liquor, or a few cubes/a portion of keema peas, tomato sauce or bolognese. Add a bit of oil in the base of your pressure cooker, add the carb element (rice, pasta, potatoes, whatever), and the right amount of water for the carb, then add the frozen element on top. Then bring up to pressure and cook for the right amount of time for the carb - so three minutes for basmati rice, 5 minutes for pasta….the food will have perfectly defrosted and you can just stir it into the carb when you remove the lid. This has saved me SO MUCH TIME you cannot believe.

And it is simple enough that my two can do it for their thermos flasks for the rest of term.

If this isn’t all a good advertisement for pressure cooking, I don’t know what is. Which brings me to this. Quite a few nice people have suggested in their newsletters and across social media that a pressure cooker would make an excellent Christmas present, along with one of my books and/or a subscription to this newsletter. And obviously I agree with them.

Pressure Cookers are for Everybody, Everyday!

I am asked a lot which of my pressure cooker books work best for novices and it is quite tricky to answer, as there is a lot more information in Modern Pressure Cooking, but the recipes in Everyday Pressure Cooking tend to be a bit simpler. I think if I was buying for anyone who had a family of omnivores to feed or who liked really comforting food, I would go for EPC and suggest a subscription to this newsletter too. And not necessarily a paid subscription. I said right from the start that all the posts which are more generally about pressure cooking and methodology will always be open access and that won’t ever change. A subscription also means that there is ongoing support from me which a fair few of you utilise and appreciate.

If you are thinking about buying a pressure cooker for someone (and I do know some of you are, because you are in my DMs), this is probably a good week to make the purchase, those deals are still out there. This is something I should probably have checked out. There will definitely be Instant Pot and Ninja deals to be had and there are always good discounts on the Kuhn Rikon site. And I think you can usually get a Tower discounted for around the £30 mark. Which is a good starter pressure cooker for anyone on a tight budget. If you want more info on how to choose a pressure cooker, I suggest you go back to here. It might help:

I honestly, truly believe it is an excellent present for anyone, not just people having to endlessly churn out meals for their families. I find that a lot of people cooking just for themselves go from “Oh it’s not worth it, it’s just me” to realising how much a pressure cooker increases their options and cuts their fuel bills. Not everyone living alone wants to batch cook lots of portions of things (because, for example, freezer/fridge space might be an issue) - so having a pressure cooker to cook smaller or single portions of meals which traditionally take longer to cook doesn’t feel quite so wasteful as regards fuel consumption. My friend and neighbour, opposite, who is in her mid 80s, doesn’t have a pressure cooker because she hates cooking, but several of her friends around her age (I can think of at least four) have bought them on her recommendation and it really has made a big difference to them.

Then they’re good for anyone very eco conscious and/or on a budget. I am hearing more about students taking Instant Pots to university with them. Pressure cookers are excellent of course, for cooking many of the traditional student meals using really cheap ingredients like beans and pulses as well as vats of all in one rice and pasta meals. And soup. And potatoes. And dumplings. And noodles! They can’t deep fry Frey Bentos pies (which a friend used to do - if he couldn’t cook it in his deep fat fryer, he didn’t eat it), but a multicooker can probably air fry them!

One final point on this - if you are ever thinking of buying a really good quality saucepan or casserole for someone, it is worth thinking about getting a pressure cooker for them instead. The price is actually very similar and you can do just about anything in a pressure cooker that you can do in a saucepan and a lot more besides. And of course the base of a stove top pressure cooker can also be used as saucepan. Some even come with conventional lids too.

So, that is it for me for today, I shall be back in a couple of days before I disappear for a little while. I have things written up for you so there will be some content, but I may not be as available for follow ups and messaging for a week or so. Which reminds me - there have been a handful of messages I remember seeing but which I have not refound to respond to. So if you are awaiting a response to a comment or message, please do get in touch again to jog my memory - I know some got lost. Very sorry!

Thank you for reading. This is a free post so please do share it with anyone who might enjoy it. And please, if you have 2 seconds, consider clicking on the heart. I am told repeatedly it helps with visibility.