The reason I'm not buying one is that I actually like the long, slow cooking process some dishes need. If I'm in a hurry to put a meal on the table, I don't cook oxtails; instead, I'll make a stir-fry or a steak. But on Sundays, when I have as much time as I need to prepare a meal, I like to make braised dishes: there's something relaxing and peaceful about taking a break from writing, going into the kitchen, lifting the lid and stirring the contents of the pot, watching as the ingredients change over time.

The meat and vegetables become tender, the sauce reduces and darkens. I can taste the sauce and decide if it needs more salt or pepper, or if it would be better with a good glug of fish sauce or a spoonful of tomato paste. With a pressure cooker, you can't improvise that much because the food cooks quickly and you can't see and taste how it develops.

When I'm taking several hours to make a braised dish, I might also cook soup stock. I don't make it in the conventional way, because, as I said before, simmering it in a pot means the aromas and flavours dissipate. Instead, I put the bones, with water, in a large glass jar (the kind with a hinged lid and removable rubber seals), close it tightly and then put it in a tall pot with a folded kitchen towel inside (this prevents the jar from coming in contact with the base of the pot, lessening the chance of the glass cracking). I fill the pot with hot water and slowly bring it to a simmer. This way of cooking stock is the opposite of pressure cooking (which cooks it at a higher temperature than boiling point), because the ingredients in the jar don't get hot enough to even simmer. It takes more time than the conventional way of making stock, but because the ingredients are tightly sealed in the jar, the flavour is concentrated.

Truc (tryk): noun, masculine, trick, gimmick, device. A French word for a chef's secret.