During the conversation with Nik Sharma, author, chef and food blogger behind ‘A Brown Table’, he brought up the fact that when he first moved to the states as a student, his parents gave him a stove top pressure cooker so that he could use it to cook his meals. If you missed his conversation, check out episode 2 of the podcast.

That conversation brought back such fond memories of my own experiences with the Indian stove top pressure cooker from my college days as well!

The pressure cooker of the Indian household is quite the gadget.

You hear it before you see it.

That loud whistle and accompany steam is enough to scare a grown person, especially one who has never seen it up close and personal.

My mom was terrified of the pressure cooker. As the story goes, my mom moved to Bombay after my parents got married and my dad gifted my mom a pressure cooker with his first paycheck. My parents lived in an apartment complex that was provided by my dad’s place of work. There were multiple flats on each floor and when the men went to work, the wives all gathered together and quickly became good friends. One day my mom decided to use the pressure cooker and make dinner before my dad got home. She turned on the cooker and with the loud first whistle, complete freaked out. She thought the cooker was about to explode and ran out of the house, barging into our neighbors house, screaming in terror. Her friend quickly calmed her down and explained that the cooker was just doing what it was supposed to do. The pressure was being built up and the whistle was releasing all the built up pressure and cooking the food inside. You see, my dad somehow missed that part. He had told my mom how to use it without explaining what it did. My mom, who had never used or seen a pressure cooker before that, was oblivious to how it was supposed to work!

The Indian pressure cooker is an Indian home cook’s priced possession. Almost like a dowry item, the pressure cooker is, in fact, one of the things that a bride gets as a gift at her wedding.

My dad bought my mom her first pressure cooker.

My father-in-law bought my mother-in-law her first pressure cooker.

My mom bought me a new pressure cooker when I left India to come to the US.

My pressure cooker has traveled on many road trips. It has even gone camping! – thats a story for another day! But the versatility of this seemingly insignificant kitchen gadget is quite special. I was initially very naive in thinking that the only thing I could use it for was to make rice and cook a batch of lentils. This was the easiest thing to do and hence I did not venture into anything else with it. You see, I am not a very good cook, a fact that most of my family has come to accept by now.

Fast forward a few years later and my mother-in-law came to visit. My kitchen did not look too different from that of my college days. Sure, more pots and pans were added on and my pressure cooker sat on the top shelf, just as unused as before. Seeing the lack of my culinary skills, she took it upon herself to teach me how to cook and more specifically, how to cook dishes her son loved when he was back home.

Among all that my mother-in-law has taught me, the caramel flan is my favorite. The fact that with just the pressure cooker and a simple stove, I can make a dessert that is ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ in some of the top kitchens in the world gave me quite a sense of culinary accomplishment.

Today’s Indian pressure cookers have become quite sophisticated. Some are electric. Some have a pressure gauge that can be programed and some even come with a glass top. However, mine is simple yet efficient. The stove top pressure cooker that my mom sent me so many years ago has taken me far in my culinary journey!

Here is my recipe for caramel flan using a stove top pressure cooker.

Ingredients:

For the caramel

Heat 3 tsps of sugar in the mold that you will make the custard. Keep stirring until the sugar is caramelized. Keep aside.

For the custard

Heat 3 cups of milk. Add 8 tablespoons of sugar and boil the milk, occasionally stirring so that the sugar melts. Cool the milk either in a cold water bath or in an ice bath with ice cubes. While the milk is boiling, beat 3 eggs until light and fluffy. Mix the eggs with the cold milk (make sure the milk is completely cold or else you will just cook the eggs…trust me, I know how that looks). Add vanilla or almond essence. Pour into the mold with the caramel. Steam the mixture in a stovetop pressure cooker for at least 40-45 minutes until a fork/toothpick does not stick. Once the custard cools down, flip over into a serving dish and enjoy cold.

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