Pressure cooker: that's an idea. Never used one before, are they idiot-proof?

Yep. Make sure you buy a somewhat decent one though. I don't know if the cheaper ones blow up but it's not worth the risk.

I have two! I use them side-by-side sometimes. One of them is really really old now but it still works ok. Hubby really likes mushy kichdi which is a quick job with the pressure cooker. Also making mung bean curry, cook the mung beans in the pressure cooker very quickly and add to the curry sauce. I have cooked potato curry (super fast). My mother-in-law uses it for all sorts of things!

I think you can use pressure-cookers to cook really tough bits of meat too.

H, I've seen some on the Argos website and I think I'll get one this weekend. Can you give me an idea of how long stuff takes? Mainly chana daal, green daal, black beans: that's the stuff I cook most often.

Around 15mins for most lentils and beans. It's never much more than that.

I just had a quick look on the Argos website. Both of mine are Prestige which is the best brand I reckon. You measure the cooking time in "whistles". So if I was cooking chana daal, I would soak daal for an hour, put daal plus water into the pressure cooker (about 2 times volume of water to daal) and then turn on cooker to medium to high heat. Once the steam has released (whistled) 3 or 4 times (15 mins). I would take off the heat and leave the pressure cooker alone for a bit to allow the pressure to level. To check you can open the pressure cooker, slightly lift the whistle at the top, if no steam comes out, take off the lid. If you want to cook the daal more, put lid back on and cook for a further 1 or 2 whistles.

If you over cook, your daal can become mushy and lose the shape but it's still edible (and definitely easier to digest).

You can get non-stick ones too (more expensive) including ones where the non-stick surface doesn't come off and therefore you can use metal utensils. My big one is like this but I bought it back with me from India, was definitely worth it.

15 minutes? That would be brilliant, it's around 45 minutes without one. I'll pick one up and let you know how I get on

H, I got a pressure cooker! It's a 3L Prestige one. I cooked rice last night and it was ready in about 6 minutes! And was much better than the rice I cook in a normal pan.

I'm going to try cooking chicken legs in it tonight.

Yay! I was wondering how you got on!

It's a great idea: I think more people should get them esp. with electric/gas bills the way they are.