A miss and a hit

The pressure cooker is not without its dangers. On Saturday Martin adapted a recipe from The Herald for lamb casserole with vegetables and black pudding. He used about 400g mutton, a couple of organic carrots cut into large chunks, some whole, peeled shallots, a large potato and a couple of slices of Stornoway black pudding. He browned the mutton in olive oil and gave it ten minutes at high pressure with about a quarter pint of stock, added the carrots and shallots (which had been coloured in a frying pan first) for a further ten, then put in the sliced spud and the pudding for a final ten at low pressure on a very low heat.

It sounds promising, don't you think? But inexplicably (to M), there was enough liquid to constitute soup, and both the black pudding and the potato had disappeared into the broth, while the carrots were as soft as baby food. (The meat and the shallots were excellent, though, and the whole thing tasted much better than it looked, to be fair.)

A more successful application occurred on Thursday, when M used the p.c. to prepare black-eyed peas in about fifteen minutes. There was no soaking, no skimming away froth, no changing the water and no boiling dry. What’s more, the peas retained a nice firm texture while being entirely cooked and fully digestible.

Of course as a cat, I wouldn’t thank you for black-eyed peas. I didn't even like Where is the Love.