Watso - I never cook lentils in my PC, as they're fairly quick cooking if soaked. The reds, as you'd know, take very little cooking from dry. Whereas the greens and browns can do with a little soaking. The old trick is to add a bit of bicarb soda to reduce the toughness of the skins if you're desperate - that's more common for beans when there's no pc available.
I use the PC for doing chickpeas - soaked from the morning, I pressurise them for about 6 mins and then turn off the heat to let to pressure to self ease. The Indians usually say 6-10 whistles and then turn off the heat.
If you like curry, then use your pc to make a curry gravy sauce, which you then freeze in containers and use as you wish for your curry base - it's amazing! You use it to cook as if you were using a paste or a simmer sauce, and then can add some masala powder of your choice when the cooking's finished.
This is my version: 800 grams to one kilo of onions, two tins of tomatoes (for a 1 to 1 ratio with the onions), 2 tbspoons of ginger/garlic paste (buy in jar at Indian store that has locally grown) 1 tbspoon of turmeric, 1 tbspoon of cumin powder, 3 tbspoon of coriander powder, 1 tbspoon of chilli powder (Kashmiri is good), methi leaves (fenugreek) that give the curry smell, and some oil.
Add coarsely chopped onions to the hot oil - cook as you wish and then add your ginger/garlic paste and stir. Add tomatoes and all the other ingredients. No water is needed.
Pressurise for 6 whistles and turn off heat - allow it to slowly cool down for a long natural cooking time.
Once cooled off, blend with your stick mixer and then put into containers. Trust me, I've been trying to make curries for 2 decades now - this is the closest you'll get to the real deal as it's similar to what the eateries do. They use this base for most of their curries and then add one of the many different masala powders at the end for correct flavours.
We are vegetarians 6 nights of the week. One quick meal is to use the sauce with peas and chopped up potatoes. My partner doesn't like anything hot, so I add the masala powder to my plate when serving.
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