Instant pot help please!

[backinaminute]

New shiny instant pot arrived yesterday. I've wanted one for ages and basically nagged my DP into agreeing. He has been very sceptical about the whole thing and is generally quite 'eye rolly' about kitchen gadgets but I assured him that it wouldn't be like the others............

Well please help me save some face. Yesterday I did the water test and boiled some eggs - they were overdone and it took ages to get up to pressure. Have to say that even I was struggling to argue the merits of eggs done this way over a pan of water.

So this morning I thought I would make a delicious pot of porridge for us all - how lovely and super mum smug I would be.

Well I've spent the best part of an hour trying to translate American porridge speak; oatmeal, spilt oats, steel cut oats into my ASDA value bag of porridge oats in the cupboard. Failed at that and thought what the worst that could happen?.....

So put two cups of my oats in with 4 cups of milk and one cup of water and pressed the porridge setting. Well the whole house now smells of burnt milk. I got a 'burn' error before it even got to pressure. I did a quick release and blasted milk all over the bastard kitchen.

Porridge is now in the bin and the pot is soaking. No idea how I will unweld the fucking burnt milk

DP will get up any time (his turn for a lie in, he's not a total wanker) and will be so smug it will be unbearable.

What have I done wrong?

I've got loads of recipes lined up but right now would like to throw the bloody thing in the garden.

Does anyone have any fail safe recipes that will make me feel like the £95 I have just spent was not a massive waste of time?

Get yourself on the facebook group.. they'll sort you out. Never saw the point of using it with eggs...i can poach perfectly far quicker. Ditto porridge. There are instant pot nutters who even cook cakes etc... it's quite sad as its all a bit too try hard for me. Certain jobs the oven is superior.
Now soup,risotto and stews are where it makes it's money for me.
I never buy chicken breasts now... every week I pop a while chicken in,add a cup of water and an oxo cube. Pressure cook for 35 mins and leave it until it opens naturally. So don't ever use the valve to release steam... let it go down naturally.
I think strip the carcass and divide it up into portions for curry etc. The stock is amazing.

I can't help with eggs or porridge (I've had my IP two years and completely fail to see the pont in using it for eggs and I don't est porridge). My best "wow" things in it are joints of meat. Chuck in a couple of carrots and onions, a cup of water sit a whole chicken on the trivet (essential for ease of lifting out), 45 mins high pressure with natural release and it's done, falling off the bones. Same with a gammon joint. Or chilli using frozen mince, saute some onions in it, add tinned tomatoes plus a can of water, kidney beans, spices, a block of mince (can be still frozen), press the chilli button, low pressure release, stir on saute setting for a few minutes at the end to thicken. The ability to just lob everything in and walk away is a real selling point for me, no cooking smells, no splattered hob.

Cook a risotto. They always come out so well. 6 mins instant release then a good stir to make it creamy. You'll never look back!

Thank you!!! I've scraped the burn off and I'm back to square one. I have asked to join the Facebook group but I think they might be overwhelmed with people just like me so haven't been accepted yet.

I'm going to try what you suggest. I'm excited about risotto too.

I'm going back to work full time in the new year and this was going to make life easier.

When you let it do 'natural release' do you literally just leave it? Does it take ages?

Also, is it normal to take a while to get to pressure?

So eg risotto, will it actually be significantly longer than 6 mins? And the chicken, longer than 35 mins?

Sorry for stupid questions, your help is very much appreciated. Thank you

Yes, getting up to pressure can take a good few minutes, depending on the amount of liquid in the pot and the temperature of the ingredients. Natural pressure release takes about 10 mins and is important for keeping meat tender and stopping things like portidge gunking up the valve. I use fast release if I have steamed veg or potatoes in it but it is quite noisy and steamy.

I make mashed potatoes in mine. 10 mins on manual then quick release. I also did rice pudding which came out well. I mainly do soups and stews though.

The FB group is great but does get very busy. Once you are in read the pinned posts, they have masses of info there. It is a bit trial and error, I try and keep notes. A couple of other things it is great for are making yogurt and proving dough on the yogurt setting.

The IP makes fabulous porridge, I do it in there most days - but you have to do it 'pot in pot'. Measure your porridge, water/milk and a bit of salt in to a good sized bowl (allow for quite a lot of expansion!), then put the metal trivet in, put water in to just at trivet level, then put the other pot in, lid on and cook that way.

No, it's not as quick as making it in a microwave, but I like slow-cooked porridge and it's a) quicker than that and b) you just leave it to it and it will keep it perfectly warm until you are ready to eat it.

It makes fabulous risottos, as someone said above. Great rice pudding too.

Curries very tender and very quick.

I think you've actually tried some of the most tricky stuff first and you should have gone with something easy like Honey Sesame Chicken

It's also really great for defrosting stuff in minutes

Breakfast wise I do Shakshuka in it. That's a piece of piss

I do feel I'm missing out on the full benefits as I can't bear either risotto or rice pudding, it's the texture. I really ought to try porridge - do you put it on the night before?

No, MeetOnTheSledge - the porridge cooks for 5 minutes (plus time to get up to pressure and release). Wouldn't hurt to prep it the night before though.

I wouldn't want to leave milk out overnight (especially not in summer) but it sounds as though it's easy enough if you do it as soon as you get up. When I do make porridge I use a pyrex jug jn the microwave, so I could pop it in the IP instead.

I just pressed the 'porridge' setting but that was set to 20 mins.........

Thank you for this, I love Mumsnet for these sorts of things.

Yep, I use a Pyrex jug if just making for me, bowl if making for husband too. As above though, don't underestimate how much porridge expands, so you do need a good sized one.

If you're pushed for time, just prep it night before and leave it in the fridge. You can then chuck it on, go about your business, and come back to it whenever you're ready, will still be perfect temperature with the 'Keep Warm' facility.

OP, I just put it on normal pressure cook for 5 minutes. Haven't bothered with porridge setting, not sure what that's doing - not pressure cooking it for 20 minutes, I wouldn't think?

The Burn error has got me a couple of times - it relates to not enough liquid in whatever you're cooking.

With risottos, if I'm doing something like chicken, mushroom etc. I saute them and cook them in with the rice. If I'm adding something a bit more delicate (I often do a smoked salmon and pea risotto), I just make the base risotto in IP, then pressure release it, stir the other stuff in, put lid back on and leave it on Keep Warm for a while for the added stuff to warm through.

Would love the shakshuka recipe please, Pawnee.
Agree the FB page is a bit odd - they are all obsessed with cooking everything in it, whereas I can't see the point of boiling an egg in there when it is so easy on the hob.

We use ours for the best macaroni cheese, curries, stock, peanut chicken, taco mince, ribs...I'd never bake a cake in it, I have a perfectly good oven for that!

For me, the best thing about it is that you can cook stuff from frozen. I’m so crap at remembering to defrost stuff, so it’s a lifesaver.

I did my Christmas ham in Coke from frozen this year. It took about an hour and was perfect.

It's out of the official cookbook I'll root it out for you later Tolstoy

When I first joined the FB group they were all raving about a cheesecake recipe, I was dubious but curiosity got the better of ne and I tried it. It was a bit fiddly but one of the tastiest cheesecakes I've ever made.

Had my porridge this morning - it cooked while I had a shower after my run.

40g oats, 220ml milk in a steel bowl sat on trivet, 250ml hot water underneath. Cooked on high pressure for 2 mins then natural pressure release (aka left for 15 mins till i could open lid). Delicious.

Look at website www.everynookandcranny.net/

I use her risotto recipe as a base and change it according to what i have in. The mincemeat recipe was gorgeous thiugh i used brandy not ameretto

I also cook porridge 'pot in pot' ie with a cup of water in the main instant pot bowl and the porridge oats and water (and cinnamon/nutmeg) in a smaller bowl sat on the trivet inside. I set it up the night before and use the porridge setting, but I click the 'adjust' button twice to put it down to 15 minutes. I then let it natural release before eating - with some honey or brown sugar ☺️ I make enough for 3 portions each time then just microwave it the next 2 days.
I also use mine for Bolognese, chilli, pasta and lots of other things. I'm not as diverse as many on the Facebook group but I do love mine!

I second porridge and risotto. Risotto is so quick and tasty. Have made a lovely saag aloo too.

Also pasta and sauce all cooked together.

My husband loves the risotto; he says it was worth buying for that alone. The faux rotisserie chicken is good too.

@sepsisandAKI which recipe are you using for the pasta and sauce? It really appeals as doesn't need watching like a pan of pasta

Stuff like lasagna and macaroni cheese always sounds good but it always seems to need finishing off in an oven which defeats the point surely?

Spag bol, curry, chilli, soup all brilliant. I haven't used any official recipes yet as I find they always want weird things I haven't got. I'm just doing them all as I would on the hob but without having to be there.