Calling All Indians

[Daydream]

Please help me.....In lots of Indian recipes, we are instructed to pressure cook for 'one whistle' or 'two whistles'. I have never heard of this. How long is a whistle??

[Susie in Texas]

I'm not positive about what that means, but I use a pressure cooker alot so I'm thinking it means this:

When the correct pressure is reached, your pressure control will begin to "jiggle". This may take anywhere from 5 minutes all the way to 60 minutes depending on the size cooker you are using and how full it is. If your control jiggles/whistles more than 4 times a minute, you will be losing too much moisture from the contents. When you first hear the control jiggle, start counting or watch your clock. You want to reduce the heat so that the control only jiggles 1 - 2 times a minute. It's pretty tricky on an electric range but usually you would reduce the heat to "low" when using a normal size cooker.

I'm thinking what they call a whistle is what I call a "jiggle" but the noise the pressure control makes allowing steam to release from the cooker. You want it to make a short or quick jiggle only 1 or 2 times a minute.

Hope this helps!

[Girl from India]

Hey! Daydream, Suzie has given you a good explanation but this is not exactly what I experience. I do not time my whistles at all and I wonder if the type of cooker you guys use needs a different technique. If so please ignore me.

I use the Pressure cooker almost everyday. But it is a manual one which is put on the stove top. My cooker is stainless steel and makes a huge hissing sound when it reaches full pressure (i.e. when the steam build up is too much with the cooking on a high flame) and then it has to vent (Good stress mechanism:D ) One whistle is when it goes off for the first time and lasts for a few seconds(5-10) just so that some of the steam build up is let out and then I let it go on high once more and the build up happens once more and has to be let out once more and that is the second whistle which also lasts for around 5-10 secs. Then if you have to cook some more you have to reduce the flame to low and let it simmer for however long the recipe states.

When I was working the Pressure cooker was my most trusted aid as I would make my entire meal in the matter of 15 minutes. Dal and Rice in one cooker (2 separate pans in a huge 7 ltr capacity cooker with a glass of water at the bottom of the main vessel) where you let the steam build up happen 5 times as a result it 'whistles' 5 times and the meal is done.

Fay

[Girl from India]

Please also read this as Pressure cookers are tricky. Take getting used to and then using them is really simple.

http://busycooks.about.com/cs/appliances/a/pressurecooker.htm

Fay

[Stella Mae]

Fay, I've posted in the Indian thread. I so enjoyed my trip to India, and I loved the people and the food!

[Daydream]

Hi Susie in Texas and Fay.

Thank you both very much for your replies.

I have a pressure cooker which I have never used. I find the whole concept of huge amounts of pressure rather intimidating, and have memories of my mother's split pea soup all over the ceiling I now feel inspired to get it out, read the instruction manual, conquer my fear and give it a go. Especially as I now understand what a 'whistle' means in relation to the cooking time, as opposed to a jiggle, which I think more relates to the temperature - ie the more jiggles per minute means more heat means more pressure. I may be wrong but I suspect that Indian pressure cookers work on a different basis from Australian (/American ?English?) ones, as I have only seen the reference to whistles in Indian recipes. The article All About Pressure Cookers is very useful too, Fay
Wish me luck!

[Susie in Texas]

I love this place!!! Good luck DayDream!!

[Girl from India]

Yes Daydream Good Luck

((((((((((((((HUGS))))))))))))))))

Fay

[Charishma_Ramchandani]

I do exactly what Fay does and it works like a charm!

The pressure cooker really helps and now is my favourite tool in the kitchen.

Char