I will be making a simple dish, such as chana masala (curry chickpeas) in the near future in my pressure cooker. I plan on using a simple recipe I read in a vegetarian cook book. I thought that the simplicity could be made ven more simple by using a pressure cooker.

My question is, do I need to add water, and if so, how much?

The recipe basically consisted of sauteeing in oil/ghee diced onions and garlic, then adding some spices, cooking for a few minutes, then adding tomato paste, then the canned chickpeas, and cooking for about 20 minutes. At the end, add some garam masala.

If I was using a pressure cooker, after I have sauteed the onions and garlic, would I also then have to fry the spices a bit, THEN add everything else and bring to pressure, or should I add a small amount of water along with the other ingredients (other than the garam masala, which I assume can be mixed in after the cooking is done)? I suppose diced tomatoes could be added instead of the tomato paste.

I use a "second generation" pressure cooker (a Fagor brand cooker, that does not expel any steam at all during cooking/pressure), so I would think that this dish should not take any more than 8 minutes vs. the 20 as mentioned in the original recipe cooked in a normal frying pan.

If fresh uncooked chickpeas were used in this recipe (asssuming they had been soaked overnight), how would that affect the cooking time and water added to this recipe? Should the uncooked chickpeas be cooked separately and then added to the other ingredients? (pressure cooking time for chickpeas is about 14 minutes using the natural pressure release method which would add another 6 minutes or so to the full cooking time).

Likewise, if a cook is making a potato or a bean masala from a recipe that is for cooking in a frying pan, but wants to use a pressure cooker for the same ingredients, should the cook begin with the same sauteeing process (frying the onions and garlic and or ginger in oil), add spices to the heated oil, add the other main ingredients, and then add sufficient water to this mixture to provide steam during pressure cooking? Ideally, I would think there should just be enough water to provide a steam environment, and when completed, no water should be left.

As you can tell, I am asking for a very basic technique for conversion.

I can imagine that the wonderful home cooks in Indian homes probably don't think twice about the basic question I am asking - but to me, it seems like a mystery as to how to know intuitively whether to add water to a mixture that may already contain a liquid ingredient such as the tomato paste or canned diced tomatoes that already have a liquid consistency. And how the addition of water might dilute the richness of the fried spice mixture.

When I make anything in the pressure cooker I always add water. If you don't the sauce will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. Once the cooking is done and you're able to open the lid you can turn the heat up high and stir the mixture until most of the water has evaporated. I use the pressure cooker to do many things, in fact I use it on a daily basis for one thing or another. I'd cook it how the book says then just before I brought the pan to pressure I'd add water. How much water depends, some pans come to pressure faster than others. The ones that take longer to come to pressure are the ones where the sauce is more likely to burn.

Although tomatoes do have a high water content I'd still add some water. I had to experiment at first with the pressure cooker, but as a general rule you can't pressure cook without water. How much water you need to add depends on how much sauce there is etc.

Hello felafelboy

There are a lot of questions here, let?s see if I can answer them;

Using dry chickpeas: I soak them overnight and cook for 20 minutes in my old type pressure cooker as well as in the new one. I have been told that the newer pressure cookers take longer (!), but mine takes about the same time. My new Futura pressure cooker (bought in Delhi) book says ?soak overnight in tap water or 2 hours in hot water and cook for 18 minutes under full pressure?.

Chickpea curry freezes very well, so you can use dry chickpeas, make a lot and freeze portions. It makes sense to use uncooked ones price wise too, though canned chickpeas are not expensive.

Using canned chickpeas: If you are using these, you only need to add it to your fried spice mix, add required water, bring it to full pressure and perhaps cook it for 2-3 minutes, just to soften them up, because tinned chickpeas are quite firm.

If you are making a Chickpea curry, you need to add some water, say 1 cup to one 400 gm can of drained chickpeas. If you are making Spicy Chickpeas 2 or Spicy Chickpeas 1 (has incorrect picture), which are often eaten as a snack, they do not have much gravy, just a little clingy gravy. So add less water.

Water:As far as water is concerned, I will put soaked chickpeas in the pressure cooker and then add water about 2 inches above. Adding a pinch of baking powder helps them to cook faster/softer. Don?t ask me the scientific reason behind it. I usually add whole spices here, they give more flavour this way.

If there is a too much water left after you have pressure cooked them, remove some and use it as stock somewhere else. Then add your spices etc. that you have prepared, to the chickpeas and give it a couple of minute pressure or boil briskly for 6-7 minutes, for everything to mingle well.

These days, people often add everything (chopped onion, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, whole and ground spices, salt, a little baking powder, the whole lot) to the uncooked chickpeas and pressure cook them all together. They just give a little ?tarka? with oil, cumin, whole chilli/paprika powder afterwards, no frying of onions etc required! But this method is good only for a curry with gravy. It can be difficult to judge the exact amount of water to ensure clingy gravy of Spicy Chickpeas (Chana masala). I have to say that this ?all in one? method seems to work well and makes the dish very easy to prepare. I have tried it with kidney beans quite a few times.

There can not be a ?common? water guide. Some dishes (and some people) require more gravy than others. Indians home recipes tend to have more ?gravy/water? in a dish than the dishes made for restaurants, which have to be all served on a single plate, without mingling/running into each other.This is also true for when you cook for a buffet. So, the amount of water added depends on how you like a particular dish and how you are going to serve it. A recipe can only be a rough guide. For us, addition of water does not dilute the ?richness of the fried spice mixture?, it is necessary to the correct consistency of that particular dish. If you are adding a watery ingredient, say tinned tomatoes, you have to adjust the amount of additional liquid or cook the spices and tomatoes until the ?mix? thickens. This is impossible to say in a recipe, because it is such a variable factor.

Beans: I am not sure which beans you are asking about, times to cook vary with different beans.

Other recipe times: When using pressure cooker for recipes that are given for cooking in a pan, check the cooking time for the main ingredient of your recipe in your pressure cooker book and use that as a guide, it is difficult to generalise how to cook in a pressure cooker. Say for potatoes, you can either boil the potatoes in pressure cooker and then make the dish, or cook the spice mix as given in the recipe, add potatoes and then cook for the time it takes to cook potatoes.

Like Ken, I also use pressure cooker(s) on a daily basis and do most things instinctively, varying water/time etc. to suit on what I am cooking.

I hope I have answered some of your questions. If you have any more about an individual dish, please feel free to ask.

Mamta