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.

salted I have found it helps to estimate how much water is in the food itself, aside from any liquid you have added. For instance onions or peppers are almost all water so I reduce the liquid. Meat curries etc. on the stew function don't need any extra liquid at all once you have added a tin of tomatoes and the vegetables.

Thanks Freda. For a root veg soup cooked on Manual (not on Soup) would I reduce the stock a lot from the original (non pressure cooker) recipe?

Yes, definitely add veg towards the end if you're doing a stew.

The water content is key - as Freda says, take into account the liquid in the food itself and adjust accordingly. You'll soon be just sloshing in some water and thinking 'that'll do...'. It just takes practice.

I'm about to poach 4 chicken breasts - how much water and how long do you reckon i need?

Thanks lougle. 20 minutes is kinda terrifying as far as chilli is concerned, especially as I'll be working with fresh and dried chillies. But I shall give it a go, when I'm feeling slightly less trepidatious.

I made bolognese sauce today in it, using Laura Pazzaglia's timings but not quite her recipe - far too much liquid for my liking, it needs to be thick and unctuous. Plus, I like 500g beef mince not 300, herbs, whole garlic cloves and a can of tomatoes dumped on top to cook in mine heretic.

So good. Really. Normally it takes me at least 1 hours slow cooking to achieve a bolognese sauce like that, not to mention all of the faffing . Two quick 10 minute cooks + QPR, splash of water in between to stop it sticking, lovely spag bol from start to finish in less than an hour. Probably about 50 mins, because I had frozen soffrito so no need to even chop. Her estimations of the time it takes to brown mince were a bit off, I honestly had browned mine to dry and a bit crispy in 15 mins, 30 mins would have been burnt to a cinder!

Another one who bought an instant pot as a result of this thread!

I made the honey sesame chicken recipe linked above last night. It was bloody lovely. I only used about a quarter a cup of honey though as I think a whole cup would have been rank. Served it with rice and prawn crackers and it went down a treat.

I've also done various make it up as I go along stews which have been great but need to learn to put less liquid in! I've not had any problems with tomatoes though?

Did a wonderful savoury rice to go with roast chicken (oven) tonight. I followed the 3 mins HP, 10 mins natural release method here www.hippressurecooking.com/easy-pressure-cooker-steamed-rice. Beforehand I sauteed some red onion, garlic, celery, and leek and added the rice to that when they were soft. I also cooked it in chicken stock instead of water.

i did a chicken in it yesterday...had some soup veg from aldi, sautéed that in the bottom, sat the chicken on top, hurled in two cups of water and then 25 minutes

I let it npr, and then stripped the chicken, I did intend to make soup, but decided to go for a pie, so scooped out some veg, layered over the meat, a small scoop of stock and then I did some mash for the top

today I started yogurt in big jars, also did a version of Mongolian Beef and I cooked the rice in it.

I think next time for the rice I would use more water...it says 1:1 for the rice:water, but I just felt it could have been a bit free-er

And 2 cups of rice was LOADS for us

And now the yog is back in for overnight. :o

I did bolognese tonight as well, there was far to much liquid in it, but it was very nice.
I also did coconut rice pudding, which was lovely, but I messed it up a bit by putting it back on pressure for a further 3 mins, not thinking that it was far too thick and sticky by that point, and it burnt to the bottom.

Coconut rice pudding sounds gorgeous Ziggy! How did you make it?

Tondelay, I use 1:1.5 cups rice to water ratio.

Its on the instant pot site, called mango and coconut rice. We used pineapple though. Also it says light coconut milk but I used regular.
It was really really good, the kids loved it.

I did a second batch of yoghurt this morning, using the last 3 tbsps of the last batch. So easy. I found that putting the IP on the yoghurt setting brings 4 pints of milk up to the right temperature within 20 minutes.

This afternoon I did my pasta bolognese with frozen mince -it was still raw in the middle after 15 minutes, but a further 10 sorted it. In hind sight, I'd do 5 minutes QPR, break the mince up, then 10 minutes QPR. It took so long because the mince was like a slab of meat!

It's here it's here it's here!!! I'm so excited. Trying to decide where I want it to go, then I'll start assembling the beast

Another new recruit from this thread! Have had a dispatch notice so eagerly awaiting delivery :-)

The sesame honey chicken is gorgeous (I followed pp in cutting amount of honey) and so quick! Fab. I really love this pot.

I love the yoghurt! I strained mine and it's very thick, but it was quite sturdy before that

Can you really use whey as a starter?

Used it to slow cook a kg of hough today...sautéed the onion, caroot, celery, used the chicken stock I had from the chicken on Monday and it was six hours on normal and it's beautiful

Am going to fridge it overnight to get the worst of the fat off and then make a vat of chilli ....I have beans to do and everyfink!

Dh was aghast to have gammon egg and chips for supper tonight ...he wanted to know what else there might be as the IP was on!

A kg of what? I must try the yoghurt! Sounds great.

hough ....aka shin of beef to those south of the border!

I was desperate to check out the slow cook function, cos my Tesco one was one of the faulty ones they are just recalling, so I had to take that back to Tesco yesterday
...so I shall not need to replace it!

Never heard that before! I haven't tried my slow cooker function either. Do you think it turns out better than cooking meat under pressure?

MrsJorahMormont Great news! How has it gone?

TheGoodEnoughWife welcome! It's insanely addictive so be prepared.

Tondelaya yes, you absolutely can use whey as starter. In fact, this post from the Instant Pot community sums up the fabulousness of making in the IP:
"Let me see if I got this right. I can buy a gallon of milk. Make Greek yogurt using my ip. Then I could take that Greek yogurt and make it into cream cheese. And if that isn't enough; I can then turn my cream cheese into a cheesecake?????? I think my brain is about to burst."

naice ..my experimental rationale was

slow cook in the IP to see if it is as nice as a normal slowooker
and next time
pressure cook the hough to see if that is as nice as slow cooked

soooooo we are only half way through the experiment at this juncture!

and lougle ....cream cheese.....is that just straining it even longer

or is there more faffing like for ricotta? Cos I did see talk of ricotta and made my own cheesecake connections :o

I messed up again and got the overheat warning! I cooked some dry beans and lentils for a while, then added chicken and vegetables and stuff....but I should have realised that the lentils/beans were too thick by then to be on the bottom. So of course they burned to the base and the pot beeped a lot.

I rescued it, tipping everything out, scrubbing the pot and then putting it all back on with extra water in first. In took quite a long time altogether though!

It takes some messing with to get the feeling for it, I suppose. Or maybe I should stick to recipes and stop trying to make stuff up for now.

Tondelaya, there are a few differences:
Yoghurt - milk with starter culture.
Greek yoghurt - Strained yoghurt
Labneh - cheese made from adding salt to the Greek yoghurt and double straining it.
Cream cheese - cheese made from adding rennet and buttermilk/starter culture to a mixture of cream and milk.
Ricotta - cheese made from milk or whey with lemon juice or white vinegar added.

I've managed to concoct a hanging straining bag from a tea towel and some string. I'm hoping my yoghurt will be lovely and thick. I think I might try making Labneh, too.

Now it's stopped dripping, I've raised the stakes....I can almost understand how blogging works!