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There are many methods of fast or convenience cooking but one method, popular in the 1950s and '60s, is coming back into popularity in New Zealand - pressure cooking.
Pressure cooking has never gone out of popularity in Europe or Australia, according to Lisa Loveday, author of The New Zealand Pressure Cooker Cookbook (Renaissance).
"I was visiting my Italian father's family in summer and they were making risotto. I know they've never embraced the microwave and they have always used the pressure cooker. They cook things fast, the flavours are better and for health reasons they've preferred to use the pressure cooker," she said.
A pressure cooker traps steam and cooks food at about 120degC which is hotter than boiling water, and is faster and more efficient than ordinary stove-top or oven cooking. It's particularly useful for cooking things that otherwise take hours, such as dry beans, chickpeas, beetroot, steamed puddings or tough meats in stews or braises, and can be used to sterilise bottled vegetables and fruits.
They are ecologically friendly as they use less electricity or gas because they cook more quickly.
They are used at high altitudes where water boils at a lower temperature, and they can be useful when camping - although they are heavy and you wouldn't want to carry one far.
Pressure-cooked vegetables are said to retain more nutrients as they cook for a shorter time and in steam rather than water, although they can easily be overcooked - a timer is essential for any pressure cooking.
Loveday says technically you can cook anything in the pressure cooker you cook in the oven that doesn't need a dry heat to make it crisp and crusty.
You can't do pastry or biscuits, but cheesecake, self-crusting quiche and tortilla can be cooked in a bowl in a pressure cooker, and she gives recipes in her book.
"The pressure cooker allowed you to use those slow cuts of meat but do it when you came home.
"They take a third of the cooking time. Instead of waiting an hour and a-half for shoulder chops or gravy beef, it's 30 minutes and the fact you can do lamb shanks after work is quite impressive," she said.
"I had to test a recipe recently cooking chickpeas from scratch without a pressure cooker and now I see why everyone picks up a can of them."
Besides beans and pulses and tough cuts of meat that normally take a long time to cook, she says it's also useful for cooking things that are fast, like mince or salmon.
"The house doesn't smell of fish afterwards. If I'm doing salmon I like it cooked in the oven, but you save all that power in a pressure cooker. I like the fact that the lid is on and you whip the lid off at the end with the fan on above and the smell disappears."
At first she worried about overcooking the fish, but she cooks it on low pressure and says salmon is forgiving if you cook it a little longer as there's enough fat in it to keep it moist.
Mince may cook fast conventionally, but a pressure cooker makes it tender, she says.
She says it's good for rice - cook for five minutes then allow the pressure to reduce gradually.
In summer she uses it for things she doesn't want to heat the oven for, and for cooking things like corn, potatoes or rice quickly so she doesn't have to stand around a hot stove.
She says since embracing the pressure cooker she hasn't used her slow cooker.
As a busy working mother, she found the mornings were not a good time to prepare a meal which would cook all day in a slow cooker and she prefers the spontaneity of preparing and cooking her meal when she got home in the evening.
Interest in pressure cookers re-emerging
Pressure cooking was invented in 1679 by the French mathematician and physicist Denis Papin and his "steam digester" was developed into both a commercial tool for canning (often known as a retort) and a household appliance.
A version of it, known as an autoclave, was used for sterilising equipment in hospitals and laboratories.
The term "pressure cooker" was first used in 1915. After World War 2, inferior pressure cookers were produced in the United States, leading to explosions and a decline in popularity, but in Europe and Asia designs were improved and safety valves added.
Pressure cookers returned to popularity in the 1970s with the revival in interest in whole foods and, it would appear, may be about to have another revival as a way of preparing good food quickly, cheaply and nutritiously, using less fuel than conventional cooking.
