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?

Normal British porridge oats are all wrong. The point of the instant pot is to quickly cook sturdier oats like pinhead oats or those hearty Scottish ones. Definitely do in a separate bowl on the trivet.

The instant pot is great for quickly making slow cooked items like casseroles and joints of meat.

Oh, and a word of warning: tomato based sauces can easily lead to the burn warning as well. I have had this sometimes when making Bolognese while other times it has been fine. Not sure what made the difference there, though I have read that adding water can help.

I've never had the burn warning but tomato based sauces can catch and burn on the pan. I try and put the tomatoes on top of all the other ingredients, with water below. I have found that the pan cleans very easily even when the sauce has burnt on a bit.

Ps this is one of my favourite recipes I have made so far in my instant pot: www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/01/30-minute-pressure-cooker-pho-ga-recipe.html

It has a lot of wow factor though obviously involves gathering a number of unusual ingredients.

@TheCbeebiesYellowBlobs it’s this one pinched from here. Admittedly needed more seasoning and some garlic added but consistency right.

i always use mine for risotto now, saves me standing and stirring for 20 minutes!

Other than that, i tend to use it for soups, stews, curries, chilli, that kind of liquidy meal. I also cook dried soaked pulses in it, for veggie dishes that won't work in the IP (veggie "meatloaf" for example). The sheer joy of chickpeas not taking hours and not having to watch it for boiling dry make up for the room it takes up in my tiny kitchen. I love it, but have yet to fully conquer it. And no, I can't see myself ever boiling eggs in the darn thing. That''s way too much faff...

Just tried risotto - amazing! Way better than anything I have managed through stove top stirring before. Just a manky old leek and mushrooms, cup of rice and wine, then turkey stock. So good.

I think the porridge setting is actually for congee, so rice porridge not oats.
If you use a lot of beans or chickpeas, it's brilliant for that - no need to soak. I do a big pot and freeze in portions once cooked.
Big joints of meat, 3Kg gammon was 40 mins and 30 mins natural release.
Beef short ribs in black bean sauce 20 mins and 30 mins release.
I wouldn't bother for eggs, just use a pan

Does 6 minute instant release mean not to leave it on the warm setting.

No it just means release the pressure. You can then leave it on keep warm until you're ready to eat

Oh. That's helpful. Thank you.

YouTube has been my friend with my IP journey. I do use it to boil eggs (so easy to do a dozen at a time)
Tonight it's a pulled beef for taco bowls. I use it for a chicken and vegetable soup almost every week - my kids love it for breakfast and lunch. We had short ribs for Christmas which were amazing.

I've not tried making eggs or porridge in mine so can't help with that but I would thoroughly recommend a book called the modern multicooker cook book. I've tried lots of the recipes in it and they airways come out perfectly.

www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-Multi-cooker-Cookbook-Recipes-Instant/dp/1849759731/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546400922&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=jenny+tschiesche&dpPl=1&dpID=51qhJar92jL&ref=plSrch

This is all so helpful. Do you think I could do soup with dry pulses?

Yes, but I would probably pre-cook some varieties first. Lentils you could obviously throw in with other ingredients since they cook quickly, but you would probably want to get a head start on chickpeas before adding many other soup ingredients.

To speed up the "coming up to pressure" bit, boil your water first in a kettle.

The first thing I cooked was a cheap cut of beef, carrots and spuds...I followed the video I included. I have only used it a few times, the beef twice, ribs once. The all turned out nicely. From what I hear, they are popular for cooking tough joints of meat into tenderness. I think it takes about 15 minutes for the pot to pressurize.

Apologies for the high jack !

How does an ip compare to a slow cooker? Dies anyone have the king pro vs ip?

I never used a regular pressure cooker, would feel afraid of it. It took me months to get up the nerve try my ip. However I feel comfortable with using it now.

Hi, I got my new IP for Christmas. Tried the paprika chicken, from the recipe cards on their FB page, which came out ok. Has anyone had luck with low or no salt recipes for their IP? All the recipes seem to involve stock cubes, gravy granules or soy sauce!

Hi Tutu, The recipe book that comes with the IP is not great. The facebook group for UK Instant Pot is fantastic and has some great recipe resources as does the food blogger Every Nook and Cranny. I've had mine since October and only had a couple of fails. I'm now comfortable enough to adapt my own tried and trusted recipes to pressure cooking

HRTFT, but this porridge recipe works. I cook it pot in pot in a glass dish, not directly in the Instant Pot bowl. All measurements per person.
1/3 of a cup rolled oats
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup water
Pinch of salt
Dried fruit if required.
1/2 cup water in pan, then trivet, glass dish on trivet.
7 mins high pressure, quick release.
Porridge foams a lot so the glass dish needs high sides.
Whole process takes about 30 mins, but once you've pressed the button it needs no further attention, and it is delicious and creamy.

Look on Amazon for Pyrex Cook and Go 1.6 litre "rectangular" dish; but don't worry, it's round! Incredibly useful.

Thanks, grannycake. I've just discovered very low salt stock cubes and made the paprika chicken again with those last night. Really nice! I used caraway seeds, and really properly diced the pepper instead of just slicing it as well this time and I think that makes a difference. And I tried the chilli mince recipe at the start of the thread. Great with rice. Even nicer the second day with added "cobblers " and chucked in the (real) oven. Kids actually ate some. Trying a whole chicken with carrots and onions and a cup of water chucked in on high pressure for 45 mins. Hope it turns out ok!

I just cooked a risotto and it was awesome!! Thank you for all the tips