Instant Pot?

[Bookaholic73]

I have always wanted an IP and just ordered one from Amazon!
What do you make in yours?

@TimeWastingButFun hopefully you’ll get some good ideas! I heard of people buying them and never using them, so I’m sure you aren’t alone!

Is an instant pot an electric pressure cooker? I do dried peas and beans in mine (black beans for fajitas and peas for ham hock soup).

Also pork ribs. A buy cans of hoisin sauce, add half the can with either beer, cider or just water to loosen the hoisin. Cook, then once done, pour the other half a can of hoisin over the top of the ribs. So tender they fall off the bone.

Beef cheeks also come out very tender.

@Elouera yes, it’s an electric pressure cooker.
How long do the dried peas and beans take? Do you pre-soak them?

I still soak dried beans and chickpeas, they cook faster and t'internet says that the results are better. I really like not doing that fine adjustment with the lid to stop them frothing all over the hob, the one where you spend ages fine tuning the gas and the lid angle only to turn around and find it's all boiled over again. I use it a lot as a rice cooker, if you use it for slow cooking there is a glass lid for it - I like to see in.

As well as risotto being no-stir, lemon curd is too. I like home made lemon curd but not the faff of constant stirring and a bain marie.

If it died I would replace it instantly,

I was a bit intimidated by mine at first, but the best thing I have found so far are:

• dahl - takes just about 15 mins! perfect
• basic tomato sauce for pasta or pizza whatever - great flavour, very quickly
• no knead bread - you can prove bread in it very slowly but it gives it a great crust once oven baked at the end (stick in the oven for 15 mins after proving)
• risotto is pretty good - not exactly the same but good
• dried beans etc for e.g. hummus

The best thing is the lack of having to watch over, and also it doesn't make a huge mess of the kitchen. But it is BIG! takes up a lot of surface space.

@Bookaholic73- regarding how long peas and beans take, if seems to depend on the age of them. If I have time, I try to still soak them overnight. Last time I did black beans from the dried version, despite also soaking overnight, I needed to re-do them in the pressure cooker after already doing them once! I don't know if they were older, drier or what, but they seemed to take ages! NEVER add salt to the water if you are cooking beans and peas too. Apparently this will keep them rock hard!

I used it for the 1st time tonight! I made made lentil Dahl and it was amazing! 20 minutes from scratch!

@Knotaknitter lemon curd sounds divine, I can’t wait to try that.

@magicmallow I agree about the size, but it’s not as big as I’d imagined. I’ll have to clear a space for it though!

Thanks @Elouera for the tips!

@magicmallow sounds great. Do you have a tomato sauce recipe you could share ? Please

@sepsisandAKI - afraid not I'm a bit of a throw together gal. But I usually start by sauteeing sliced onion, then add some garlic (I like lots) minced up, saute a little more, add tinned tomatoes, I also like to add several sundried tomatoes from a jar (if I have them but not necessary), vegetable stock cubes or stock powder, salt, pepper, a half to teaspoon of sugar maybe, then cook manual high pressure for about 10 - 15 minutes, then blend with a stick blender or similar. The flavours are fab. You can improvise as you wish for extra flavour e.g. add herbs or extra garlic, garlic powder works pretty well. Delish.

@magicmallow. Lovely thank you. I love sundried tomatoes. We put them on our pizza but never though to adding to tomato sauce. I have a lovely one with just olive oil, sundried tomatoes and basil for the instant pot if you’d like the recipe.

I did pulled pork in ours last night, shoulder of pork, cup of stock and high pressure for 60 min. Slow release then pull apart and mix sauce.
We do all kinds in ours, even curry out of jar, just add a bit of water if it's too thick. Boiling potatoes in it makes the smoothest mash 🙂

@magicmallow do the Tinned tomatoes not burn if straight on the bottom of the pot? I have had that problem before.
Yes to risotto and rice pudding is amazing

@zigzagbetty oh wow, that sounds delicious! How do you know the timing for joints of meat?
Maybe I need to actually read the instructions!

@magicmallow I’ve never thought of using sundried tomatoes in pasta sauce! I’ll try that.

@sepsis - I've not had them burn with the tinned tomatoes, however my pot is non-stick - is yours a stainless steel? Or maybe you are over cooking it for too long? I guess if there's not enough liquid it might burn. so maybe ensure your tinned tomatoes are enough vs the quantity of sauce / other ingredients.

I just searched online, theres so many recipies out there. Do gammon joints aswell, different times give sliceable ham or more of a shreadable ham.

I don't have a pressure cooker but love my slow cooker. I'm looking to see it is worth getting pressure cooker.
One thing I love making in the slow cooker is bone broth, usually beef bones, bubbled away for 24 hours to draw out the collagen and nutrients into the broth.
Would a pressure cooker do that in, say, 3 hours? Would the collagen and nutrients be drawn out the same way?

I haven't tried it, but I think so Ashryver. You don't lose the moisture in the way that you do in the slow cooker so you might have to adjust the amount of liquid. What bones do you get to make your broth?

I make chicken stock in the instant pot from bones. I used to do it in the slow cooker before that, I can't say that I saw any difference once I switched from slow to pressure. If you are looking at recipes, often they only include the cooking time. It takes time to heat up to pressure and time to cool afterwards so if you are trying to get a feel for start to finish time it can easily be double the cooking time.

@MadauntofA I find beef bones are best. I try to get them from the butcher, they usually give them away for free if they have some spare but Morrison's sells them cheap.
Though any meat with a bone works, chicken carcasses are easy as they only take 12 hours in a slow cooker because they are smaller.

Thanks @Knotaknitter, that's good to know! I might need to get one and do some trial and error!

Chicken stock I do know about - 1lb bones, 2 pints water, 30 minutes cooking time. In normal times when I have the freezer space I save bones from roasts until I have enough for stock and then do a big batch. The butcher in the next village would give me a big bag of wings for nothing if I asked the week before, for a bit more colour I would roast them in the oven when I had the bread in.

I’m attempting to do a red lentil chilli in mine this evening.
Do I need to soak red lentils?

I just looked up a recipe for red lentil chilli, it looks lovely (they did not soak theirs)

@magicmallow made the tomato sauce for dinner tonight. Went down very well with all. I used the non stick pan which worked well.
I see there is a new instant pot coming out in the UK with an air fryer type lid soon!

Thanks @Knotaknitter, I didn’t soak mine. I didn’t really like it, so I think I’ll use a different recipe next time.

@sepsisandAKI oh I didn’t know about a new one, maybe I should have waited! I’ve always wanted an air fryer!

I’m a kitchen accessory junkie! Next in my list is an electric griddle.