2018 weekly - Week 34

19/08/2018

Having lots of fun with pressure cooker today. The first trial was a bit disaster as I managed to burn the pot. It turned out that I forgot to turn the black valve to the "cooking position" which locks in the steam! I was wondering why the cooker didn't build up the pressure the whole time. Well, I refreshed my manual and learned to clean the burned pot with baking soda and hot water. And the food did cook through and completely edible. Not too bad overall.

Then I pressure braised chicken drum sticks with soy sauce. 5 minutes under full pressure and meat fell off the bone. Magic.

Finally I pressure braised beef brisket. 40 minutes under full pressure and the beef is fork tender.

Looks like this is going to be my favorite piece of equipment for a while.

20/08/2018

I've been doing Body Pump for a few months. It's weight lifting to strengthen key areas of muscles. I just love it. It's less cardio but more resistance training which complements my whole routine well. But I also like the tone and pace of the class. It's much less quick quick as fast as you can but really take your time to make sure you work on specific muscle areas properly.

However, recently I noticed my knees got particularly sore or even painful after my much loved Pump class. Not sure whether it's because of the new routine (they change the class routine quarterly), or I am still rather new to the class (just a few months), or just wrong posture. After talking to my instructor, she suggested me to really pay attention to my squats, making sure that my knees are really aligned with the third/fourth toe (i.e. a bit outward). Frequently, doing squats with weights on the shoulder can put stress on the knees if they cave in or are only aligned with the first/second toe (with feet angled outward 5-20 degrees). And that was exactly how I did my squats, even with her saying every time to push the knees out. I just didn't realize how far out my knees should go. The caved-in knees and the pushed out ones can differ just by 5 degrees! I noticed that I have to tighten up my thigh muscles further to position the knees correctly. I guess that's the whole point of strengthening the muscles.

I am happy to report that since I really paid attention to my knee position, I no longer have painful knees after the class. So glad that I can continue my Pump class again.

22/08/2018

I probably had 2 kilos of sweet potato this week. No particular reason, because 1) I like them and 2) the other half is away for work. I have tried to cook them two ways, one by pressure cooker and one by microwave. The pressure cooker method via steaming is quick (5 minutes at high pressure) and the result is good, albeit a bit watery. The sweet potatoes I get in the UK tend to be more watery than the regular potatoes here or sweet potatoes from Asia. So steaming by pressure cooker, although fast, is not going to improve much on the watery texture. Next I tried microwave. The timing varies with sweet potato size and microwave power but generally 3-5 minutes one side, turn the sweet potatoes over, and another 3-5 minutes. Microwave seems to be the way to go for cooking convenience and texture, as it produces drier texture. Although longer than the pressure cooker, still much faster than the conventional methods with stove-top or oven. I think I will stick with microwave for sweet potatoes in the future.