Happy Call Pan (Pressure Pan) - and yes, I'm still alive!

Yep, haven't fallen off the face of the earth yet. Still very much alive and kicking and having so much fun with my hubby.

I'm a tad late climbing on the Happy Call Pan bandwagon but hey, better late than never.

Bought it off one of those group buying websites at a price way lower than what a retail store would sell at. I figured the chances of it being a fake when buying off one of those sites would be less than say buying it  from one of the fly-by-night online importers or a portable-speaker touting uncle in a HDB estate (although so very tempting....). The only reason I'd worry about it being fake is that the material used might be hazardous to one's health.

After a month or so of usage, I think it definitely has more pros than cons. But as someone who enjoys the process of tossing texture and colours in a regular frying pan, I'd say the Happy Call Pan isn't something I'd use with every dish.

I dislike an oily kitchen floor so I'd definitely use the Happy Call Pan to cook fish. I don't say fry fish because really, none of the fish I 'fried' turned out 'fried'. They came out more steamed than fried.

See the above fish? I'd already pressure cooked it by closing the pan for a few minutes (more about the required length of time later). It is cooked but it doesn't look fried. It tasted succulent and every part of the fish was cooked except for the center bone which I found to be a little pink (maybe because I'd put it on a really low fire last night). I really don't mind that it's not technically been deep fried. I used only a drizzle of cooking oil. Very, very little (that's a really good thing, don't you think?). I don't care what other blogs say about it being better to use this or that type of cooking oil. If it's a good frying pan, it should be able to take my regular cooking oil, period.

Time taken to cook. Hmm....let's just say when you use this pan to cook with the lid shut, you don't want to be leaving it unattended. It took me under 2 minutes to cook my pork chops so you get what I'm saying. However, when I cooked this fish last night, I wanted to wash up the cutting board and other utensils in the sink while it cooked (which is what I usually do with while my food cooks on a regular frying pan) so I put it on a very low fire. That way, it gave me some time to do my washing without worrying that the fish would get burnt.

That whole red tilapia was for me alone I might add. I suddenly found myself all alone last night! Husband and kids all out! So went to the supermarket and got myself this fish for S$2.80. No rice (yes, I'm still trying to watch my food intake). Had some chillies I had purchased on our recent trip to a Batam wet market (was hoping the Indonesian chilli would be super spicy). Rubbed it down with salt, drizzled some soya sauce, cut up some ginger, garlic and cilli and stuffed them into the fish. Yuuuuummmmmmyyyyyy.......eating and licking up all the meat from the bones (very carefully). Such bliss.

I had difficulty removing the fish from the pan because it was so soft after cooking.

It basically just broke into bits, especially near the tummy area. Generally, I find scooping out gravy from the Happy Call Pan (mine is the type where the 2 pans cannot be dislodged from each other) a pain. I usually pour out the gravy. But what happens is there's like a 'reservoir' to catch steam or liquids at the back of the pan and when I pour my gravy by tilting the pan, the residue in that 'reservoir' is poured out as well.

Also, washing it in my sink isn't very easy (I don't mean the actually removal of food from the pan). As the pan has two covers and is sort of L-shaped when you keep it open to wash, I find it difficult to navigate it when trying to keep them open and turning them over to wash etc. Maybe it's cos my sink is those triple section type. Two larger sinks with a small one in the middle. So the 'larger' ones aren't really that big at all. It may be simpler to turn the pan over in a single compartment sink. The magnets on the handles are so strong that the lids have shut on me before. Ouch!

Anyhow, the actual washing is a breeze. Just run the tap over the it and the food slides right off. Yep. You don't even require soap but of course I do (yucks if you don't)!

So there. It's not like I've been sooooo busy just because of my new toy. But I just wanted to share this with you to let you know that I'm still around and blogging and holidaying and cooking and eating and eating and eating and not really exercising. Life's great! : )