Ohsawa Pot help, please!

[damon]

Hi,
I just received my small Ohsawa Pot yesterday and am somewhat confused by the instructions. I'm trying to perfect rice before moving onto anything more involved, so I'm starting with just half a cup of organic brown rice.

If I'm reading this correctly, I'm supposed to put water inside both the Ohsawa Pot and the pressure cooker. Is that correct? If so, is the amount of water I put in the pressure cooker itself significant?

Thanks!!
Damon

[Bruce Paine]

Damon,

My guess is that you are either talking about a half cup of rice or a half Ohsawa Pot (OP) of rice.

I recommend that you start out with a full cup of rice because it is easier to do the math..

With the OP, for cooking brown rice it is recommended that one uses a cup and a quarter (1.25 cup) of water mixed with each cup of rice!

In future pots of rice, you might want to soak the rice between one hour and eight (overnight), add a small knob of ginger, a small piece of kombu, along with the ever present pinch of sea salt used with each cup of brown rice.

I like to add a fraction of some other cereal grain or lotus seeds to give me variety, and of course there is millet and other grains that you can cook in the OP, as well.

in the pressure cooker (PC), you will want to add up to 2 cups of spring, well or purified water, and then after tying the lid to the OP, you can either turn on the heat or put the PC cover on securely with rocker properly attached and turn the flame on high and keep an eye on the pot until the pressure gets to be so much that the rockers is jiggling violently and if you wish, put the pressure cooker atop a flame tamer that is preheated and have the flame on low so the pot can cook 50 minutes or longer.

You can keep the op cooked food out in a cool pantry with a sushi mat on top for a day or two or refrigerated with the rope secure on the lid for several days.

You might want to invest in a soft plastic scrubber to wash the pot after you've finished with it's contents.

Read: "What about Ohsawa Pots!" for more information.

Enjoy the use of your OP!

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine

Originally Posted by damon

Hi,
I just received my small Ohsawa Pot yesterday and am somewhat confused by the instructions. I'm trying to perfect rice before moving onto anything more involved, so I'm starting with just 1/2 of organic brown rice.

If I'm reading this correctly, I'm supposed to put water inside both the Ohsawa Pot and the pressure cooker. Is that correct? If so, is the amount of water I put in the pressure cooker itself significant?

Thanks!!
Damon

[damon]

Hi Bruce!

Opps, sorry for missing that. I meant a half cup of rice.

Anyway, thanks for the detailed response! My first attempt at using the OP involved a gross misunderstanding and my cooking half a cup of dry rice without any water. Needless to say, that didn't work very well

How do you tie the lid to the OP? The rope on mine isn't long enough to loop around the lid's knob. I can pull the two ends of the rope, making the rope lie across the top of the lid; however, this doesn't really secure it much more.

Also, what is this "rocker" you mentioned? Is that part of the pressure cooker or some other piece of kitchenware?

One last question: after the water in the PC reaches a boil, the OP starts to jiggle side-to-side and is quite loud. Is this normal or should I be placing the OP inside some sort of suspended tray?

As always, I greatly appreciate everyone's insight here!!

Damon

[Bruce Paine]

Damon,

From my experience with OPs, there are three kinds of lids:

One lid with a mushroom-like knob,

A lid topped with a split circle,

and a completely smooth top lid

My guess is that you are working with the knob topped lid and so what you do is wind the rope around it once and that will hold the lid securely.

With the split circle lid, you lay the rope across the split and then turn the lid until the rope tightens or is taut.

The smooth top lid was designed for a tiny 2.5 Liter pressure cooker that is no longer manufactured by Kuhn Rikon.


The "rocker" is my description for the "jiggler valve" or "jiggler top" type weight that rocks back and forth when excess steam is released through the vent valve that it sets on first generation pressure cookers.

When pressure cooking food such as brown rice, we place the pot (with the lid secure and the jiggler weight secure on the vent valve) of uncooked rice on the stove, and then turn the flame on high and wait for a pressure valve to pop up and the jiggler weight to violently rock back and forth and on a second burner in which we have place a flame tamer and have the flame turned to very low, we place the violently jiggling pressure cooker on the flame tamer (making sure to simultaneously turn the flame off of the first burner) and then set the timer for 50 or more minutes.

When the timer rings, we turn off the flame and wait for the pressure valve plug to drop before we open the pressure cooker (also called natural release).

On second generation pressure cookers there are no jiggler weights to set on top of the lid but instead an elaborate spring valve which allows either natural release or quick release by the twist of a dial.


If your pressure cooker inside is made of stainless steel, you don't have to put a trivet in the bottom of the pot to protect the inside pot bottom from the OP's violent movement.

After the flame is turner down, the OP will settle down.

If for some strange reason you have an aluminum pressure cooker and you cant get a stainless steel or enamel lined pressure cooker, then use a smooth surfaced trivet on the bottom to keep the OP from scratching the inside bottom of the pressure cooker (and still make sure that you have up to 2 cups of spring, well, or purified water in the pressure cooker outside of the OP!).

The enamel lined pressure cookers like the Silit Sicomatic, are such an excellent non-reactive surface, that one doesn't usually wish or need to use a OP in it but I imagine that one can use an OP in it but be sure to inspect the inside bottom after each cooking to see if there are any surface scratches and if there are, discontinue the OP use in that pot, or if you are making something like amasake, then use a smooth surfaced trivet with it as well.

Enough insight, yet?

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine

Originally Posted by damon

Hi Bruce!

Opps, sorry for missing that. I meant a half cup of rice.

Anyway, thanks for the detailed response! My first attempt at using the OP involved a gross misunderstanding and my cooking half a cup of dry rice without any water. Needless to say, that didn't work very well

How do you tie the lid to the OP? The rope on mine isn't long enough to loop around the lid's knob. I can pull the two ends of the rope, making the rope lie across the top of the lid; however, this doesn't really secure it much more.

Also, what is this "rocker" you mentioned? Is that part of the pressure cooker or some other piece of kitchenware?

One last question: after the water in the PC reaches a boil, the OP starts to jiggle side-to-side and is quite loud. Is this normal or should I be placing the OP inside some sort of suspended tray?

As always, I greatly appreciate everyone's insight here!!

Damon