A Hand[i]y Device, Indeed...

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Pictured, the pressure cooker we picked up from a charity shop some time ago - new and unused, by the look of it - and which has languished, unused since purchase, in various locations about Fairview Heights since. Which is just plain weird, as back in our early days here in the parish of Llanllechid, we were avid users of this splendid cooking aid: we used to own a splendid French device that resembled a pressure vessel from some kind of submarine, crafted from aluminium so thick it could have been a deep-sea submersible in its own right. Wonderful piece of kit, which I suspect is currently buried in the Twilight Zone that is our erstwhile garage, down the hill. Must try and rescue and refurbish it some day.

Anyway, we made first use of the more modern version shown the other day, to make a chilli. We'd forgotten how easy these things make doing this kind of nosh: you can even - as we used to back in our food-co-op days of the early eighties - cook dried pulses such as chickpeas and red and black beans, and actually make them edible, and frankly safe, to eat. Anyway, tomorrow I intend to cook Chicken Handi, using a spice mix bought from our local Asian shop, just to see how it turns out. I'll be trying the traditional method of boiling the onions first to create the purée for frying, and will use the pressure cooker for both this and the construction of the whole deal, finishing with the cream and butter ghee components added to the pan left open for the final simmer. Keep you posted on how it turns out...

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