Under Pressure

If there’s been a theme of the blog of late – yes, other than “intermittent posting” – it’s probably been “slow”. There’s the joys of the sous vide and dishes that take 30 hours plus. There’s the low and slow stuff as I get ready – gulp – for Grillstock 2013.

There’s a lot of truth in the notion that “all good things come to those that wait”. Hopefully that includes this post which as far as I can remember is – fanfare please – the first competition I’ve ever run on the blog. And ironically, the prize is something that can knock 70 per cent off your cooking times. It’s not , as you might suspect, a microwave. It’s a pressure cooker. Well, two to be exact.

Since getting the allotment and being “forced” to make preserves and chutneys, the benefits of the pressure cooker have popped up in several recipes. Having also finally caught up with Catherine Phipps’ excellent and justifiably acclaimed The Pressure Cooker Cookbook (Ebury Press, £18.99), we decided to break ours out of long term hibernation and it’s been a revelation. A pressure cooker is not just for Christmas (puds). It’s for life…

So, when offered the chance by Argos to give away something from their range, the decision wasn’t exactly tricky. It’s a pretty good range, to be fair: you can get cookers from Argos and pretty much everything else you need in the kitchen, right down to the cutlery. But in this instance it was hard to see beyond the life changing joys of the pressure cooker. Going that route had one other bonus as well: it meant I could give away TWO pressure cookers.

The pressure cooker in question is this one, the shiny Prestige Six Litre High Dome Pressure Cooker worth £44.99.

Also, thanks to the generous Catherine Phipps and Ebury Press, each winner will also receive a copy of Catherine's acclaimed The Pressure Cooker Cookbook to help you get the most out of your prize.

So, how to enter? I could ask “who sang Under Pressure?” or some such but that’s a bit blooming easy, so I think the easiest way is to add a comment to this post on why you’d like to win a pressure cooker – making sure, of course, that you leave an e mail address or some way of contacting you.

I probably need a few legal-y bits here, right? Shall we say a closing date of January 11^th 2013? The judge’s decision is final and yes, that does mean me. Winners will be notified the week after…

Here are some T&Cs from Argos…

•             Delivery will be within 28 days of Argos receiving the winner’s address, and the competition prize may vary at the discretion of Argos

•             The prize as described will be supplied direct from Argos, and there is no cash alternative

•             This competition is open to UK residents only.

Good luck - and Happy New Year.