Chickpea and Potato Curry. Brought to you by the words "pressure" and "cooker"...

It's been a while, huh? My sincere apologies. It was my birthday last week and the celebrations lasted a week and a half. In order for this to happen, I was basically working one night on, one night off and then it was a fair whack of four nights in a row. Now, I've had two nights off. I'm deejaying tonight at the Wakefield which will be fun. Massive and fun. 

One of the nights when I was at work I was talking to a colleague of mine who also loves to cook. She was talking about how much she loves her pressure cooker and I mentioned to her that I didn't have one. She offered to sell me one of hers. 

Night shift makes me buy things. I have bought the most random things from EBay at four in the morning, let me tell you. Just bizarre. However, this purchase I am happy about. I just looked up the recommended retail price and I must admit, I got this sucker for a bargain. The first thing I made was obviously this curry. I do like a good curry. They are easy, simple and effective. Of course you can cook this in a normal saucepan. It will take longer and possibly have a different texture. Cooked in the pressure cooker, it simply melts in your mouth. Crazy stuff. 

Time: 10 minutes prep, 20 minutes to cook in a pressure cooker. About 45 minutes to cook in a saucepan. 

Serves: 4-6. 

Ingredients:

• One onion, sliced.
• One tablespoon of oil.
• Two cloves of garlic, minced.
• Half a teaspoon of mustard seeds.
• Half a teaspoon of fennel seeds.
• A teaspoon of cumin seeds.
• One teaspoon of ground coriander.
• Three cardamom pods.
• One stick of cinnamon.
• One star anise.
• 4 Kaffir lime leaves.
• Four potatoes, cut into cubes.  
• Three cups of pre-soaked chick peas.
• Three tablespoons of tomato paste.
• Four cups of water.

Method:

Place in oil in the saucepan or pressure cooker over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, seeds and spices. Allow to cook until the seeds start to pop.

Add the other ingredients and stir well.

Place the lid on if using a pressure cooker and bring to pressure. After 20 minutes, take off the heat and slowly reduce pressure.  Leave the lid off if using a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for about 45 minutes or until the chickpeas are cooked and the sauce has simmered down.

Serve with rice and a salad. 

I'd love to hear what your favourite pressure cooker recipes are. Let me know! :) xx