Instant Pot - Buyers Remorse

[LadyFlumpalot]

I've been lusting after an Instant a Pot for months now, just had a look on Amazon and as they are on sale I caved and bought one. It's still A Lot Of Money for something though and now I'm worried I'll never use it and it'll be one of those things that gathers dust in the corner of my kitchen.

Please can all you lovely people regale me with reassuring tales of Instagram/Pinterest worthy kitchens and cooking now that an Instant Pot has arrived in your lives to help persuade DH me that I've not just spaced away £100?

Thanks!

I do have DC but am still not quite getting it for anything except risotto, even then it doesn’t seem to be a massive time saver. The instant pot recipe I found was to sauté the veg (same as in a pan), add the wine and cook (same as in the pan) then put on for 6 minutes which including the pressure build up is more like 15 minutes. That’s about the same as my risotto took to cook. OK it wouldn’t have to be stirred but that’s doing half a puzzle with DC, stir, 2nd half stir, lay table, stir, get drinks, stir, handwashing, stir. - I guess I don’t stand over it. The curry that was mentioned, surely once you’ve chopped and sautéd all the veg etc, put in the sauce ingredients, bring it up to the boil then turn down to simmer and can walk away the same when it’s on the hob? Pasta dishes seem to be even longer as you do all the veg sautéing first, then add the pasta and wet ingredients then cook rather than doing the pasta alongside in a separate pan. I guess it avoids pasta boiling over on a hob and it’s safer, no hot hob for DC to accidentally touch but unless it’s much tastier I’m still not sure I get it. My final problem is that I can’t stand the texture of things thickened bybcornflour, which seems to be used a lot to make up for sauces not reducing on the stove. I want to convince myself - I’d love a life changing kitchen gadget but I feel like I need to use one for a week to decide if it’s really useful for me (not doubting that it is for others). Maybe someone needs to set up a kitchen gadgets library like a sling library, I’d like to road test an air fryer too!

Well, I can't leave a curry simmering on the hob without coming back every five minutes to stir it and make sure it's not sticking. Whereas with the IP I can and frequently do put it on and go out, eg taking DC to swimming lessons, knowing that when I get back there will be a hot, perfectly cooked curry waiting for us. That includes the rice in a separate bowl on top of the curry. No splatters, no smells, no worries about the DCs touching a hot pan when your back is turned if they are younger. I agree its not much quicker but its definitely easier. Where it really speeds things up is cooking joints of meat, eg gammon joint or whole chicken cooked in under an hour, making them feasible for weeknights not just weekends. I don't like risotto so never tried that in it, and I rarely use it for pasta but its great for proving dough and making yogurt, so it is very versatile.

Oh and I've never had to use cornflour to thicken anything from it, I can't bearvthe gloopiness either. Take the lid off, pop it on saute again for 5 mins at the end while you lay the table and everything thickens up nicely.

Thanks Meet being able to go out is definitely a consideration - not that I do that much around dinner time (or at all!) witha 2 year old and 3 month old. My DH doesn’t eat meat which is why I’m questioning if it would be worth it for us, the veggie recipes I’ve found are mainly risotto, pasta and curries, the veggie versions of these mainly are mainly more time consuming to prep than cook.
Very good to know you don’t need to use cornflour though - gloopy is exactly the right word!

I've found that I make more from scratch after work now with the IP. Since I've been getting home later, I was getting into the habit of shoving something from the freezer in the oven while I sorted out washing/did some ironing etc.

I do that much less now, if at all. We love casseroles but I normally cook them long and low so takes some time, or a gammon joint will take a couple of hours. Tonight I'll do a beef casserole - will prepare the veg in a minute and stick them in the fridge for later and when I get home it'll go on for 25 mins. Tomorrow will do a gammon joint for 45 instead of 2 hours and the texture is lovely. Works for me.

My DCs are young teens, so our evening routine tends to consist of getting home from work (4.30ish), going out again by maybe 5 (swimming, pickup from school homework club - no public transport), eat, head off out again to football, dance class, whatever. So it suits us really well. Might be different if you are SAHP or have more cooking time. I've never done much veggie stuff in mine but is great for soups, again its the ability to leave it and walk away, no stirring, no splatters, no smells. The keep hot function means you can go out for far longer than just a school pickup too, eg stick something on at lunchtime at the weekend and go out for the afternoon.

I don't really sauté or brown anything in mine, I tend to just chuck it in and press go. Some things aren't quicker but I love turning it on and going out/ not have to think about it.

I love doing boiled eggs in it as the shells just slide off it.
Yesterday I put a whole butternut squash in it, skin left on. 25minutes later it was cooked and the skin just fell off instead of having to hack away at it.

I saw that butternut squash tip on the FB group yesterday, I've always found them very easy to peel raw with a potato peeler, but they are quite hard to cut up so it looks useful.

I enjoyed being able to serve up a chicken casserole, from scratch, in 30 minutes (including 20 minute pressure release time).

My issue is I never know what time DH will be home and he isn't allowed his phone at work so I was always stuck making something blah for me and the kids or making something that can keep warm in a pan.

Now I envisage that I can make something proper for us all whether he trots in at 3pm or 6pm!

@LadyFlumpalot my DH runs a couple nights a week straight after work so I now cook for all of us, take out mine and DS's and leave in the pot on keep warm and it's ready to go for when he appears

I have a different brand one (Cosori - cheaper than IP but essentially the same) and use it almost every day. I do my porridge in it on the slow cooker setting using a silicone bowl inside the pot so easier to clean, put it on the evening and in the morning OH gets his bowl of porridge first, bit later I get mine, and it keeps warm for baby's breakfast a couple of hours after that.

Also use it to make baby's lunches - I make a curry or a stew or something, nice and quick, then I can portion the rest up in the freezer for him on other days.

And then dinners of course, my new favourite recipe is www.wholesomerecipebox.com/instant-pot-sour-cream-pork-chops/

The squash thing is just so fast. Same with sweet potato for mash. Basically, no prep. No chopping board, no knife, no peelings... well, only at the end, and biggish pieces not little strips.

I must admit we don't cook squashes much (none of us are keen on sweet veg, we don't eat sweet potatoes at all) but I might try it with a swede, I've had mixed results microwaving them whole.

Does the Instant Pot do something that other brands of pressure cooker don’t do?

It's an automatic pressure cooker, so you can set timers, delay, keep warm facility etc. I chose this one because of the stainless steel inner. It was the only one I could find, and I've gone through several rice cooker pots so it was non negotiable.

I adore my Pressure King Pro. I actually keep it out on a granite board on my stove top it's used so much - I'd rather lose a gas burner than pit my PKP away! I use it almost every day for both pressure and slow cooking. It is a dream to use.

Have any of these ever blown up? I'm a worrier (too many episodes of 999 as a kid. I have Michael Buerk narrating much of my life in my head in a sombre, impending disaster sort of way)

I've never heard of one blowing up. I didn't really look at any other brarnds before buying the IP, I had read a lot about them on MN and then someone posted that they were on sale for Black Friday a couple of years ago at £69.99 so I threw caution to the wind and just bought it. I've heard other people say the non-stick pans in other pressure cookers don't last, the IP inner is very easy to clean, I haven't often burned anything on but when I have it comes up shiny and new with minimal scrubbing and soaking. I'm also not sure if any ot the others have the yogurt setting - I make yogurt every week and also use it for proving dough.

Instant Pot fail tonight went to make a Spaghetti Bolognese and it just burned on the bottom and wouldn't come up to pressure. Ended up having to turf it into a saucepan, fish through for the half cooked pasta pieces and chuck on some new pasta to boil.

Sod.

@LadyFlumpalot did you have tomatoes in your Bolognese? The trick with adding tinned tomatoes is to add them last in the list of ingredients, DO NOT stir them in, so they sit on the top of the other ingredients. Cook the sauce, then after you've taken the lid off, stir them in then. It seems weird the first time, but it all tastes the same and it means the tomatoes don't cause the burn error message.

Ah yes, ok, I'll try that next time. I wondered if it might be because I'd stirred all the ingredients together.

Or, the other reason for getting a burn message, is that the bottom of the pot was not thoroughly deglazed after sauteing.

@Keeoe that's genius! I have a granite square, and several spare burners! Excellent. Thank you!

Just made yogurt for the first time. Amazing. Incredibly easy, no mess.

I don't really like yogurt, but this is so mild and creamy. Mmm.

Can I ask, is the Mongolian Beef recipe very sweet? I’ve wanted to try it for ages, but I’m a bit put off by the amount of sugar. 1 cup seems a lot - I don’t like overly sweet main courses.