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 11th 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. 

Comments

meemalee said…
I'd like to win a pressure cooker because I'm about to have a baby, so anything that can save me time has got to be good!

Thank you :)

meemalee at hotmail dot com
Anonymous said…
I'd love to win a pressure cooker because I'm totally impatient, and woefully bad at planning in advance. Plus it's time to break that phobia about them exploding on me .... ;-)
Anonymous said…
oh and my email address is the.chaotic.cook AT gmail DOT com
NickyB said…
Picture it: Christmas dinner 1983 when I failed to turn down the heat on a borrowed pressure cooker, resulting in an all-pervasive stench and flavour of festive burnt potatoes. I've feared the beast ever since. This is my chance to tame the monster AND conquer my residual phobia! 30 years later, surely I can learn to love the pressure cooker?

nicky.bramley at gmail dot com
emma foster said…
I'd love to win a pressure cooker as growing up my Mum used to swear by hers and I always remember delicious stews she'd rustle up in no time. I'd love to have one of my own and see what I've been missing all this time!
emma foster said…
Sorry my email: fosteredcomms@gmail.com

Thanks!
Karin said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Karin said…
I'd love to win a pressure cooker because I'm still not quite sure how they work. My mum used to regularly cook with a pressure cooker and to me it always seemed like magic...


Sorry, forgot my email...

karin at sauerkrauttosushi dot com
Unknown said…
Would love to win the book as i got a 20 year old pressure cooker still in box from a friend regifting her wedding gift. Shame the comp is only open to uk residents tho! Lorraine Ireland!
Niamh said…
Neil, I need one. I just do. Would single Vanilla Ice as I cook and am just super under pressure :)
Red Tin Dave said…
I remember both my gran and my mum using a pressure cooker often - soup with pearl barley and steamed sponge puddings were my childhood pressure cooker favourites. I used one a lot in my dim and distant student days - making cheap stews on a baby belling. Somewhere along the line they seemed to go out of fashion, superseded by the slow cooker and then the microwave. Mine went missing during a house move ages ago and was never replaced. I'd love to re-acquaint myself with the pressure cooker and re-create some of those nostalgic favourites and try some new stuff.
Awa said…
I want a pressure cooker because it'd be cool. very cool. oh, and to cook with. I want a pressure cooker to cook with.
Unknown said…
For christmas, my favourite presents are always tools or utensils, something i can actually be creative and productive with. This christmas a pressure cooker and a set of knives were top of my list but didn't land in my stocking - and who doesn't love late christmas presents ;)!

athene.knufer.2010@live.rhul.ac.uk
Bev said…
Because I still have *some* space left in my kitchen and this is a gadget I don't have yet!
Anonymous said…
My Dad's new lover from Pakistan made an amazing 15 minute pressure cooker curry over Christmas from a method of his sister's. You only have to give me the pressure cooker and I'll spill the beans. And the dahl too.
tbtmunro@yahoo.co.uk
Paul_Elder said…
I'd like to win a pressure cooker as my brother has had one a couple of weeks and it is all he is banging on about. If I win one I will be able to see what all the fuss is about, if I don't I'm going to have to stop speaking to him.

paulelder_83@hotmail.com
Maninas said…
I cook a lot of curries and pulses and would love a pressure cooker to speed things up! :)
I'd love to win one as we love eating beans and pulses, but I have a terrible memory so am forever forgetting to soak them. Pressure cooker would get them done in a flash. kitchen.princess@gmail.com
Kavey said…
All Indians seem to love pressure cookers, except for me. My mum has not one, not two but three different pressure cookers of different sizes and styles.
Even though I've grown up seeing her use them, I've always felt a little bit scared of them... all that pressure trying to get out of the pan... it's potentially explosive isn't it?
But in the recent year, thanks mostly to Catherine and other pressure cooker advocates, I've kind of come round to the idea that perhaps I should give them a go.
Doubly so now that I've discovered they're a good way of preserving, or "canning", as the Americans call it, where I need to boil the filled jars to complete the process.
I think I need to find my inner Indian and embrace the pressure cooker!
Kavey said…
Oops, and my email is kaveyf at hotmail.com

Thanks
Simon S said…
Pressure cookers were a formative part of my life yet I've never used one. I remember the loud steamy hiss & the equally loud shouted instructions not to touch since it was scaldingly hot. Maybe I'm now, (in my second half century), old enough to be trusted with one of my own.

daubenton AT btconnect DOT com
Fiona Maclean said…
I'd like to win a pressure cooker because I've TRIED cooking some heston recipes and they need one...and I'm too mean to buy one;)

fifimac (at) hotmail (dot) com
Tina Gellie said…
I would love to win a pressure cooker and the lovely cookbook because I would really love to recreate the sidesplitting laughs my sister and I had as a child when my mother managed to get an entire pot of beef stew all over the ceiling (walls, curtains, dog...) in our kitchen. All appliances should be such fun. I would probably cook with it too.
tinagellie at ekit dot com
Unknown said…
My mum only ever cooked macaroni in her pressure cooker. It was delicious but if I won, I'd enjoy discovering new dishes to cook and hopefully inspire my mum to try something new as well.
claudiaharrietlouise (at)hotmail (dot)co.uk
Anonymous said…
Yeah cooking under pressure is very good because it's healthy. I use that method to cook beet and make salad. :)

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