Considering an Instant Pot...

[Thorilicious]

Are they worth it? What kind of recipes can you do in them please?

I keep thinking about one then deciding against us. As a family of vegetarians I’m not sure we’d get enough use out of it to justify an extra gadget. I hate too much stuff..

There are specific recipe books for Vegan/Vegetarian

*Against it

Happy to be convinced otherwise if any fellow veggies can’t live without theirs!

Me me! I’m veggie and I use it - it’s good for when you are making a few things at once or want some soup or stew quickly. I had a soup maker once and that was terrible.

Does it have a reduce setting?

It has a sauté function that I use to reduce a sauce. I'll be honest and say that it does take a bit of research (the cookbook that comes with the pot is crap) and trial and error. The first couple of things I did I wasn't mad on but I carried on making adjustments and now I wouldn't be without it. I use the minimum liquid required to pressure cook.

I have had one for a year now and only made orange chicken and a cheesecake.
I just don’t really get it and I don’t know how it starts.
Can anyone recommend a good cookbook for getting started with it?
Thanks in advance

I have a king pro one of the things I love about it over a slow cooker is the browning function so all those lovely flavours are in the pot. I would use it more if I had a bigger kitchen as it used 50% of the work top space.

I've got one and haven't totally got to grips with it yet.

Does anyone have any links to a couple of great starter recipes for yogurt and risotto/byriani etc? There's just so much on the internet I end up in a rabbit hole and don't know where to start.

@ beatendown01 - mine lives on one of the back rings of my hob. Someone gave me a pizza stone which is about an inch thick and way too heavy to use easily so it makes an ideal stand for it.

I think there is a YouTube channel for pressure king pro. Risotto is very easy and not at all bad for ten minutes or so cooking!

I live mine and use it all the time.

I make curry, meat, jambalaya, chilki, eggs, squash so I don't have to peel it.

I'm tempted to get mealthy crisplid as that turns an instant pot into an air fryer

I have a Sage model with is great. It does have both a saute and reduce function as well as steam which is useful.

I use it to make rice, stocks, cheesecake (great for this), pulses (fantastic), soups, and curry. It is also great for things which I normally do slowly, but is faster in a pressure cooker and I don't have to be around to turn the hob off like lamb shanks, pulled pork, and beef short ribs.

You do need to adapt recipes and for the things which are braised, I first reduce down the liquids by at least a third prior to putting in the pot. There are great adapted recipes particularly in the New York Times and Serious Eats which are a great resource.

I have the crock pot one. I use it most days for daal, soups and curries. Once I got used to how much water to use, it's great.
I haven't used it as a slow cooker yet , only used it as a pressure cooker/ instant pot.

Love my IP - usually only make risotto, macaroni & cheese & Greek yogurt in it. It's enough for that - gammon joints good too & Dahl.

Plan to try something new in it monthly next year.

For any veggies/vegans I recommend 'vegan under pressure'. The timing/water ratio charts alone are worth the money.

I can honestly say this is my most used recipe book, I wholeheartedly recommend it, provided you like Indian food obviously! It’s definitely worthwhile making the suggested spice mixes yourself too. The author also has a fb page and tube videos:
www.amazon.co.uk/Indian-Instant-Pot%C2%AE-Cookbook-Traditional/dp/1939754542/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&crid=1RY1ZRAIH4V1M&keywords=urvashi+pitre&sprefix=Urva%2Caps%2C175&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1577616340&sr=1-4

I have 2 and use them all the time, makes life so much easier and the food is incredible.

I also like the recipe book Jacquel links to - great biryani recipes as well as the famous butter chicken/paneer. The big benefit for veggies is the fact that you can do pulses quickly.

For risotto I wouldn't recommend having it on keep warm as it can get stodgy - the quickest way to have risotto on the table after you get home is to prepare everything in the pot, leave in the fridge, then take out and pop in ready to go in the evening - generally about 30 minutes total cooking time including coming up to pressure.

The mealthy crisplid invalidates the IP's guarantee, but I understand that they're planning on bringing out an IP with its own crisper which does sound promising!

By far the easiest way to do yoghurt is to put some UHT milk into a pudding basin or other container, stir in some starter live yoghurt (about 1tbsp per litre of milk), rest on the trivet in the pot (I put some water in the bottom though apparently this isn't needed) and put on yoghurt mode for 10-11 hours. If you like thicker yoghurt, you can strain it and keep the whey for bread making/pizza bases etc.

I’m pondering making macaroni cheese in my pot. Has anyone tried this?

My advice is not to waste your money. It really doesn't save much time. Chucked mine out.

Each to their own I suppose.

I am a gadget monster and this is the one I keep out all the time and use several times a week. I have persuaded a few relatives to get one too and they are happy with it too.

I love mine! We make loads of curries, risottos etc (all veggie). Tastes delicious. Cooking times aren't quite as short as advertised but it's the fact that I can put it all in and leave it that's heaven.

Macaroni cheese was the first thing I made in my pot, following Coco Morante's recipe. Dead easy. I don't have the quantities to hand but basically you cook pasta in chicken stock for 7 mins at pressure (allow time for coming up to pressure), release pressure, stir in sour cream, cheeses and a touch of mustard or other flavouring, then either leave to thicken and eat as is, or pop in a dish and grill the top.

Sometimes people just quote the time at pressure and give a misleading impression that it's the total cooking time, which leads people to feel that the key benefit is saving time and then feel somewhat cheated. In practice the recipe above takes about 25 mins because you need to allow time for the pot to come up to pressure. But the difference is a) the taste is really good and meat and pulses get very tender and b) that's time you can use to do other things because there's no stirring (which is a godsend for risotto).

Do it! I love mine, i use it pretty much every day, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day, from porridge to soups, to risottos, bolognaise sauce, stews, whole chicken, gammon, steamed potatoes, rice. It's my favourite gadget (after my coffee machine). Once you've started using it, you need to get brave and reduce the amount of liquid you add, otherwise things can turn out watery, especially if you add extra veg to the dish as they release water themselves and of course, there is no evaporation going on during the cooking process.

If you like meat stews and pulses that normally would require more than an hour to an hour and a half of cooking to reach their peak, you'll love the IP.

T@Lordfrontpaw the salty marshmallow has a fab recipe-macaroni, stock, hot sauce, milk & cheeses. It's amazing. I add garlic powder, onion powder, some Cajun spice & turmeric too. Dc love it too