#OPOS_Cookbook

World's Simplest Cookbook Project

300/365 : Flash Cooking
"Ordinary people doing extraordinary things" would sum up this post. We created history with the 250th card, by
cooking up a full feast in a single shot, inventing a brand new technique - MPOS. This changed the way many cook
their meals.
Well, we have done it again in the 300th card with Flash Cooking. Each one of you who have validated is a cocreator and I'm including all your validations in comments. Do add if I have left out anyone. Pat yourself on your
backs - we have created history here. This will enter the cookbooks of tomorrow.
Hundreds will lay claim to this technique now, claiming credit, and they would all be wrong. It never existed till we
created it here! Not a single flash cooked recipe will be found in the millions of cookbooks or blogs before we
created it on Oct 2, 2015.
For the first time, I'm including 2 pictures, none of them mine, in the card. One is from a top chef and a food
chemist, with decades of experience and skill. Another is from Preetha Kumar, who is attempting flash cooking
asparagus for the very first time. The pictures speak for themselves. That is what ordinary people doing
extraordinary things is all about !
Yes, there are other ways to retain colour. Stir frying, blanching, microwaving etc have all been proposed. But all
these require skill and do not tell you when to stop cooking. They are not scalable. They cannot be done by a
newbie. What we have done is to unlock a complicated technique and have made it work for anyone, anywhere,
anytime. In the process, we have not only retained colour, but have actually brightened it up !
I'd been struggling with the colour retention problem for a long time. Chithra Viswanathan had posted way back in
2005, advising to pressure cook vegetables with minimal water, and release pressure after 2 minutes of the whistle.
On February 26, 2014 , I cut out the water and posted the No Water way to cook vegetables.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/UnitedByFood/permalink/829982707017939/. This addresses half the problem,
but still did not do magic. It did not ignite member interest in cooking up a variety of veggies.
We were still struggling with this problem in May when I'd done a comparative study after SN flatly refused to
OPOS coloured veggies
https://www.facebook.com/groups/UnitedByFood/permalink/1112255282124012/
One tiny little piece of the jigsaw was missing. The trick was to cook at the highest possible heat for the lowest
possible time. This meant you cook without water, release pressure immediately and transfer the vegetable to a
cooler vessel to stop cooking. Even a few minutes delay dulls the colour. With this final piece falling into place,
Flash cooking was born with this post.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/UnitedByFood/permalink/1197730263576513/
And now, everything clicked together and magic happened. The floodgates opened with member validations pouring
in. They would never cook vegetables any other way ever again !
Let me summarise the writeups posted earlier:

Flash cooking is an OPOS technique of cooking food at the highest possible heat for the lowest possible time. This
produces dramatic results. It heightens flavours, colour, textures and promises greater nutrition. It is just too good to
be true.
Flash cooking has fast become a core OPOS hack - like layering, no water cooking and controlled caramelisation.
The flash hack evolved in multiple steps.
Step 1 was to eliminate the inner vessel. Flash cooking cannot happen in an in inner vessel. The required
temperatures cannot be produced in the presence of water.
Step 2 was to get comfortable with no water cooking. Flash cooking effectiveness is diminished with the addition of
water.
Step 3 was to get comfortable with pressure cooking at the highest heat.
The PC manufacturers caution against this, but it is perfectly safe to use as it is done for a very brief time. (If your
PC is not in good condition and leaks steam, do not try this technique !)
It all started when I was trying to simulate stir frying in OPOS. Stir frying happens at the highest possible heat for
the lowest possible time. It promises a firm texture, greater colours and flavour, unlike boiling. But stir frying has a
flaw - it requires constant supervision We need to keep stirring to ensure that the top surface also gets heated and the
bottom surface does not get burnt.

To understand how stir frying is simulated in OPOS, you need to understand what happens to food when it is flash
cooked.
Stage 1: Food is cut into small pieces and loaded inside the cooker. The
food has to be cut into thin bits, like we do in stir frying. Thick chunks cannot be flash cooked.
Stage 2: Food is heated at the highest possible heat. Till the time steam builds up, the temperature of the pressure
cooker crosses its safe operating limit - which is not a problem because only the bottom portion is at this heat - the
lid is yet to realise it. Hence the safety valve does not blow. So it is important to stop cooking before the lid realises
it is being overheated - and blows. If your PC leaks steam, the safety valve will blow on prolonged heating.
Adding water hinders with this step. So use as little as possible or avoid it altogether.
Stage 3: This high heat fills up the PC with steam - all produced from the food's own juices. Remember one part of
water becomes 1700 parts of steam. Thus very little water us required to build up pressure. The water from the food
itself is sufficient to build up pressure. As steam fills the cooker, the temperature drops - because the steam is at
around 100 degrees - not as hot as the bottom surface of the cooker.
Stage 4: Prevention of burning
The steam saturates the PC, and prevents the bottom layer from getting burnt.. It also eliminates the need for stirring
- as all regions get heated evenly, unlike stir frying.
Stage 5: Cooking
Steam heats stuff faster than dry heat / water. This hot steam permeates food, cooking it instantly. This is why food
cannot be cut into large chunks - as steam cannot reach the interiors. This ensures most foods get cooked in a couple
of whistles.
Stage 6: Quick release
Even after the heat is turned off, the steam continues to cook food. This results in over cooking. So the pressure is
immediately released. The releasing pressure cools the inside of the PC due to adiabatic expansion.
Stage 7: Shocking
The food still retains a lot of heat. This again causes overcooking and loss of colour/ flavour and nutrition. This heat
needs to be removed by transferring the contents to another vessel.
Like most OPOS recipes, all this is hidden behind this apparently simple recipe in the card.

Multiple hacks come together with a bit of science in producing a classic technique which has quickly become an
OPOS favourite. This is here to stay. And it is just a matter of time before multiple chefs lay claim to have invented
it. But remember - you were among the first few people who used this technique in the long history of cooking. You
are the pioneers !
This technique opens up a million possibilities! Members have flash cooked Starters, soup, rice, pasta, gravies &
desserts
You can use flash cooking to create a huge range of recipes.
1. Cook veggies/ meat into dry curries
2. Cook and blend them into soups
3. Mix in milk/ yogurt/ cream/ OPOS curry bases etc with cooked stuff to make gravies.
4. Layer processed starch ( poha, bulghur, couscous, oats etc) over veggies while flash cooking to make full meals.
Roll them into phulkhas/ idiappam/ parathas to make rolls. Use them as sandwich fillings.
5. Cook spiced potatoes, brussels sprouts, paneer, etc into bite sized appetizers
6. Cook sugar syrup and mix in edibles to make desserts.
It will take you 10 minutes and a bit of courage to learn this technique. Do so and you own it for life. Cooking will
never be the same again !
Congrats UBF - We have created history, yet again ! The credits and accolades will take their own time to come, but
what matters is the member posts - seeing them filled with colour is sheer magic !