UNDER PRESSURE

Midweek cooking can be a balancing act between nutritious and delicious and, well, fast. This is where pressure cooking comes in. The wonder cooking method lets you make meals in minutes, doing away with postwork kitchen slogs. Plus, it’s energy-efficient and food done in a pressure cooker retains more nutrients and flavour. Sold? Let these recipes from Modern Pressure Cooking by Catherine Phipps inspire you…

POT-ROAST CHICKEN WITH FREEKEH

SERVES 4

Here are two variations of the pot-roast, because I wanted to show just how versatile it can be. You can make it in a very simple form – a quick browned chicken, a few aromatics and minimal liquid, then 15 mins high pressure – but it also lends itself very well to being a complete one-pot meal.

FOR THE CHICKEN

• 15g butter
• 1 tbs Baharat spice
• 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• 1 chicken, trussed
• 1 sprig of mint, plus extra to garnish
• 2 garlic cloves, bruised
• Sea salt

FOR THE POT

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped
• 100g cracked freekeh, soaked for 5 mins• • • • •