Cooking with Shadowmoss

I’ve been reading cooking threads on the message boards I’m on.  One was extolling the virtues of pressure cookers, in particular the new InstaPot.  I have a high-dollar pressure cooker that I bought maybe 10 years ago and used once.  It is a Magefesa, made in Spain and was quite state of the art at the time.  So, I decided that I couldn’t justify buying a new InstaPot when I have all the other stuff (rice cooker, two slow cookers, and the Magefesa pressure cooker), and I should at least start using what I have. 

Another thread had folks listing their favorite cooking sites, and two really interesting Indian cooking sites were listed.  In another thread about how a bread machine had died and asking for suggestions the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes site was mentioned with a link to the recipe with instructions.  You see where all this is going?

I decided some spicy chickpea patties sounded easy enough on the Indian site.  I had a bag of dried chickpeas and a few already cooked potatoes in the freezer.  And, hey, cooking beans was one of the wonders of the pressure cooker.  The few instructions I can put my hands on for the pressure cooker said I needed to first do a run with only water.  I did that and got an idea of how it works.  I also went online for an instruction manual that is sorta the model of mine.  We are starting to literally be cookin’ with gas!  I mentioned something about the potatoes and Mom again handed me the last of her bag of potatoes.  This happened last time is why I had some in the freezer now.

First run with the cubed potatoes in the pressure cooker was a bit shaky, but they turned out ok.  The next run of potatoes (I figured there was an odds on chance I would end up throwing the first on out, so only did half at time) was pretty smooth.  By the time I did the chickpeas, I was almost to where I know what I”m doing.  I  now have large containers in my fridge of potatoes and chickpeas.

Today I tried the patties.  A few mis-steps along the way, and I used up a box of stale herbed pita chips run through the blender instead of bread crumbs.  The patties are 3/4 mashed cooked chickpeas, about 1/4 mashed potatoes, bread (pita cracker) crumbs, and spices.  I know now why so many spices, as I used what I had and it basically tastes like the pita crackers.  Edible and filling.  Just not exceptional.  I’ll take them to work tomorrow, though.

I bought flour and yeast last night.  This morning in between frying the patties I mixed up the 5 Minute bread dough.  I have a loaf now in the oven.  We’ll see soon if this will work, or if another bread machine is in my future.

I’ve used kitchen stuff I havn’t touched in 5 or more years, used up some ingredients that needed to be used, and will hopefully end up with some food that won’t kill me.  It is a work in progress.

The Indian cooking sites, just because I think they are awesome:

http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/

http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/

http://nishamadhulika.com/en