To tell you all about my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker?

[lougle]

In ridiculously sad excited. I got given an Instant Pot Duo 60 for Christmas and it is utterly fantastic!

I cooked a cheesecake in 25 minutes. It's delicious. Then I pot roasted a 2kg joint of beef in 45 minutes -beautifully tender and still just ever so slightly rare in the middle.

Naice I used 4 pints of whole milk and 3 tablespoons of yeo valley natural yoghurt. I poured the whey into ice cube bags and have frozen them - they can be used as a starter for the next batch.

Well, its on! I sauted the beef and onions with the garlic, then threw in squash, turnip and potatoes, herbs, paprika and beef stock. I used the auto stew programme.
When it beeps, should I let the pressure out or wait for the release? Does it make any difference other than being quicker?

ZiggyFartdust, I looked at youtube for setup and initial recipes. I prefer seeing someone demonstarte it to reading about it. Might be woth checking youtube out.

I bought some books and they say thee are three methods releasing the pressure and opening the lid. Correct me if I am wrong anyone, please.

1. Quick release. Press Cancel/Keep Warm button and turn vent anticlockwise to venting position. They recommend probably not to use this method if reciped required a lot of liquid since lots of seam etc may come out. Also for meat it is best to use the natural release methods.

1. 10 minute natural release. Press cancel/keep warm button and leave machine for 10 minutes. Food continues to cook and pressure starts to release naturally. After ten minutes try turning lid anticlockwise to open it. If it turns and makes a ringing noise then it is OK to open it.

1. Full natural release. Same as above but leave it for 20 minutes and then try and open it.

'Does it make any difference other than being quicker?'

The extra time in natural release allows it to cook further and keeps meat softer in particular, I think.

In 10 minute natural release, if lid doesn't open, then turn the vent to venting to release the pressure.

I did yoghurt the other day, it was perfect my MIL said and she doesn't give compliments easily.

I am now doing a lasagna. I usually cook mine for hours in the oven and have perfected my recipe but I was working and didn't have time and fancied trying it in the ip. So far, so crap :/ It said to cook for 6 minutes and I've now done that three times and it isn't cooked through. The whole thing looks sloppy. I am hoping it will be edible once it finishes cooking but I won't bother again.

This is the recipe I use for yoghurt.

www.tidbits-cami.com/2015/09/homemade-yogurt.html

I made that salted caramel cheesecake on saturday, for the lunch we hosted yesterday. Oh. Em. Gee.

I wish I'd taken a photo, I really do. It was utterly drool-worthy.

FYI you can buy salted caramel sauce in tesco (and probably other supermarkets) but since I have a sugar thermometer and am a glutton for punishment I made my own.

I'm strangely nervous about this dinner. The urge to open it up and stir it is very strong!

I put on a pork joint earlier. It went in frozen. I gave it 35 minutes, but juices were still pink, so I've given it another 20.

In other news I will never peel a knobbly sweet potato again! I chucked in sweet potatoes, halved width ways, 3 minutes QPR, to parboil for roasting. When I took them out, the skins were like little hats, just ready to lift off!

Both kids seem to love Instant Pot yoghurt, much more so than supermarket yoghurt. It is a lot more creamy and less tart than bought stuff when fresh. I've taken to straining through a sieve to make sure the texture is smooth but apart from that my approach is pretty much in line with those upthread. I bought some catering size coffee filters and it seems to do the job straining it perfectly.

That's a great tip about the sweet potatoes, lougle. What is that pot you're using to cook them in? It looks good, definitely something I would use.

Mine is coming on Wednesday but the recent posts are making me nervous, it all sounds a bit technical!

I was really nervous about using mine but there was no need.

The hardest part is converting recipes, but I just stick to the IP FB group and two groups for recipes, or I ask on FB for someone to convert it for me.

It really is as simple as turning it on and pressing a button or two. Nothing technical about it.

BTW my lasagna tasted good. I didn't love it as much as my own normal one but it actually turned out better than I thought.

It is one thing that hasn't been made better by cooking it in the IP so far.

Just braising a couple of endives in my IP now.

U2 which FB groups do you recommend? There seemed to be loads of them.

Just found a good website through IP FB group - www.pressurecookingtoday.com it has some really nice easy recipes for newbies, including some 'best of' recipes lists. I also downloaded the 'Copy me That' app for storing recipes, as recommended by a kind person on a FB group.

There's a really nice Honey Sesame Chicken I like the sound of so it may be my first recipe!

The international community is the most active and has a lot of members - www.facebook.com/groups/InstantPotCommunity/.

Oh that chicken sounds fab! I think I might try it too.

Has anyone tried adapting regular recipes yet? I've got a few slow-cooked meals that I want to try and am wondering if there's a 'converter' somewhere that could help me judge how long they will need.

For example, Thomasina Miers' chilli con carne takes 3 1/2 hours in a conventional oven. WDYR for IP?

Ah, look here - converter!. You need to be a registered user but that's no hardship.

20 minutes, if that, Smegs. The reason it cooks for so long in the oven is to get the meat tender. The IP will easily manage that in 15-20 minutes.

The meat in yesterdays stew was fantastic and the flavour very good, but the vegetables were terribly overcooked. The potatoes had disintegrated entirely. Next time I'd cook the meat first for a while then add the veg later, and in bigger chunks.
I'm going to try chicken and rice tonight.

Ziggy
I did a stew last week, cooked just the onions and meat for 20 mins and then added the veg and did it all for another 10. It worked really well and the meat and veg were but well cooked (though the veg was also very soft but not disintegrated)

I made soup today but it's too liquid - struggling to get liquid quantities right! Any tips? Thanks!