We’ve ordered an Instant Pot

[CruCru]

Do you have one? What do you like to make in it?

I used to have a slow cooker, which was great for making stock and mulling wine.

chuggle I am also slightly sadly excited about spending my Friday evening making yogurt!

I'm going to try Yoghurt, Porridge and Cheesecake this week I think

Today I've been to the doctor and he wanted me to go to the hospital for an Abdo x-ray. DD3 has youth group later, which DH will need to leave to take her for by 6.30pm and he doesn't arrive home until 6.15pm. I needed to take the girls with me for the X-ray, but they don't get in from school until 3.45 pm, the hospital is 30 minutes away and the X-ray department closes at 4.30pm. So my window for cooking is just tiny. Normally that would make tonight a pizza night.

Instead, I got a couple of onions and cut them in half. 5 large carrots, peeled and chopped. A whole frozen chicken. Half a bag of baby potatoes, halved. 2 cups of boiling water and 2 Knorr stock cubes. Manual pressure for 40 minutes. Could have been less time, tbh, but that's what I did. That's a dinner. I might put some peas on to go with.

The liquid will thicken nicely to make a gravy.

Sounds delicious Lougle. Hope X-ray goes ok

Based on this thread, I am making rice pudding with this recipe

I have a very old 6in1 instant pot. Love it though and am evangelical about it to people. Would love to justify getting a 12 in 1 pot, but mine is just so great.
I am going to get some kit, trivets etc so I can steam and make a greater variety of dishes. I just love the fact it is so fast and once the food is in, you can just walk away.

Haven’t RTWT - how much are Instant Pots? I haven’t had risotto for years as I got so put off by how time consuming it was.

Would anyone recommend a particular brand for inserts / steamer basket etc?

After nearly a year of thinking about it I have ordered an IP

No, you don't need anything fancy, as long as it fits. I have something like This and similar to this but it wasn't as expensive.

You can also use a cake tin with some foil over the top, then some foil doubled over and put underneath the tin as a sling to pull the tin out of the IP after cooking. That's a great way to make lots of things including lasagna.

I am happy to report yogurt turned out well. I left it overnight, then popped into the fridge staring in my nut bag for about 3 hours, and it is now perfect Greek yogurt !
Can anyone recommend something I could use the whey for? Seems a shame to waste it.

straining, not staring!

Did you just chuck fresh milk from the fridge and a bit of yogurt in as a starter and press the yoghurt button? Or something more complicated?

Thank you Lougle.

I do. 4 pts of milk and 2tsp yoghurt. Now I don't even warm the milk before I put it in.

The whey can be used to make ricotta cheese. Warm the whey to 90c so just below boiling - don't let it boil. Stir in either white vinegar. White vinegar should be used 1 tablespoon for every pint.

The whey can be used to flavour bread dough and give a sourdough flavour.

If you do cold start yoghurt you have to use UHT milk (it doesn't taste like you used UHT when it's yoghurt) or Ultra filtered like Cravendale or supermarket own version. It doesn't work with pasteurised milk.

Use the whey for bread making - warm it in the microwave and add the yeast to it, etc. Use it in scones in place of milk/sour cream, etc. You can use it in soup. There is a Facebook group where you can get loads of ideas and tips.

tigercub50 Ours (5.5) was £115 on Amazon.

I do cold start yoghurt with pasteurised milk, wowfudge.

I used uht for the yogurt, but I am also going to try with ordinary pasturised as lougle does at some point. I decided Id do UHT for my first attempt. I am far too lazy to faff about with the whole boiling and checking temps bit though!!
I have made some scones with half the whey. Will use the rest in bread. Thanks for ideas.
Now have a cheesecake in as ds1 is home for a few days ( an occasion which obviously demands cheesecake LOL )
Will do risotto for dinner with the gammon left from Thursday and leeks and peas.

@lougle - so you just press the yoghurt button? How long do you have it on for?

I'm asking because all the FB groups say you need UHT for cold start.

I've only done it once with cold start, but I literally poured 4 pints of whole milk into the pot, stirred in 2 tsps of yoghurt, then pressed the yoghurt button and left it for the 8 hours.

Okay - so it's worked once for you. I'm happy using UHT tbh as I just keep cartons in the pantry and make it when I feel like it. We have fresh for drinks, cereal, etc.

that's great. I'm not a fan of UHT, but my in-laws love it. I've been making yoghurt 3 years and so far all I've found is that no matter what I do, the IP will turn out quality yoghurt!

2 years 9 months