Another thing I’m obsessed with right now - my instant pot! Makes life so much easier.
What is this “instant pot” you speak of?
Oh, gosh, don’t get me started. I want to start a blog to share my recipes, I love this thing so much. It’s an electric pressure cooker - http://instantpot.com
I have read about them. I am curious: what makes them better than a regular pressure cooker?
Stovetop pressure cookers? I can’t speak to that exactly, as I never used a stovetop pressure cooker, but I believe the advantage is ease of use and the fact that it’s programmable - you push buttons and leave it, and that’s it. I think with a regular pressure cooker, you have to stay in the kitchen and do a little more work/tweaking before you’ve got the finished dish. Also, for me, I wanted something that would cook a meal without me having to turn on the stove or oven, because Texas summers are hot enough!
Yeah! The programmable pressure cookers like the instant pot are just a lot simpler than a regular stovetop one. It will maintain particular temperatures for you, so you can even make your own yogurt in it. Some people have even used it for sous vide. There’s a huge fan base for the IP that have posted zillions of recipes. I cook lots of beans, lentils, quinoa in mine along with chicken to shred or pot roast. Eggs are also awesome, I like them a little goopy in the middle, and pressure steaming them for 3 minutes then sticking them in cold water turns out perfect every time and they are easy to peel. It can also pressure steam a killer cheesecake and makes great brownies if you want a fudge-like consistency.
I have a Cuisinart electric pressure cooker, and I use it all the time. It’s basically the predecessor to the InstaPot. And for you Texans or Midwesterns or whomever with heat and humidity, my favorite cooking in the summer trick is a heavy duty extension cord, and the back porch. While the electric pressure cooker creates very little steam while cooking, letting the pressure release manually causes a big burst of steam and heats up my house, so I use it outside. Don’t be like me and release pressure under your cupboards either, it’ll warp the doors eventually.
The benefit over the stovetop models is the safety mechanisms and the heat issue @Pianoplayer7008 mentioned.
My favorite thing to cook in it? Hard boiled eggs - but I do 6 minutes I think. It’s amazing and they peel easier than any other method, and I can cook about 16 or so in there at once! And I do lots of chicken stock too. Oh! And chicken taco meat (boneless chicken+jar of salsa=dinner in 15 minutes)! (Which you can then shred in your KitchenAid stand mixer, totally worth the extra bowl to wash!)
Now I want to try the mugcakes! No microwave here, but I do have the pressure cooker. (And @Pianoplayer7008 nice job on the restraint over the InstaPot! I obviously failed at that!)
I don’t know about restraint…LOL I sent a pic of me with some birthday gifts I’d gotten just yesterday to my sister, which included an extra insert for my IP, and she responded, “You got ANOTHER instant pot?! Soon you’ll have 12 going in your kitchen!”
So what are your typical everyday use cases, @Pianoplayer7008, @TravelingOn, @kenrick? I am really interested.
I love my fancy huge stovetop Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker, btw – but I never use it for small or short recipes.
Oh, now you’re going to see just how bad a diabetic I am. I’d say daily would be things like hardboiled eggs (when I was eating them), rice or pasta, and whatever meal we’re having - fajitas or tacos, burrito or taco rice bowls, chicken n rice (which I’m working on converting to jambalaya), red or black beans and rice, pot roast, pulled pork, “roasted” chicken, etc. I also frequently make squash and zucchini or potato salad as side dishes, and I’m planning to attempt coconut milk yogurt when I get around to it, which would become an every few days thing.
Those are the main things I make right now, but I’ve been limited in my experimenting due to budget and babies, so in future months I’ll be branching out a lot more.
No I thought exactly the same
Michel, we also have a large Kuhn Rikon and I would have a hard time scaling my recipes down. We make large vats of stock, Pho, Chili, etc. and freeze the remainders.
Birds of a feather
Oh, stock! I do that in the IP, too. I’ve tried chili a couple times, but it’s not a regular for us. The size of the IP fits our needs because right now it’s just hubby, my 2 yr old, and me eating. How big is the Kuhn Rikon?
I have my wife, I, a 16 year old and a 14 year old, we eat a bunch. When I say “we” I mean the teenage boys.
8 Liters is the one we use most.
I don’t think we could go much smaller until the boys leave.
Whew, yeah, that’s understandable. Those teenage boys can put food away (I have 3 younger brothers, all teenagers or just getting into their 20s)!
As well as the other reasons people have given, apparently (or so I’ve heard; I don’t have one and I won’t have one) they can sauté or brown meat, which ordinary slow cookers don’t and ordinary pressure cookers can’t.
Why would you do brownies in them? What’s wrong with the oven? Don’t make me cranky!
I trained as a chef and so I admit I’m rather old school. I like to watch “Masterchef Professional” from England, where the judges are always pleased when someone cooks a piece of meat IN A HOT PAN instead of sous-vide or with blowtorches or a rub of magnesium iodide with hay-scented dry ice or some such nonsense.
Then again I also work at home, so I have the luxury of time to devote to slow braises, stocks, breads, and so on, which obviously I couldn’t if I was out of the house all day, in which case I’d likely be a charter member of the Instant Pot Fan Club. But still, please, do your brownies in the oven. And your cheesecake.
Yes, they can! Though I was looking at a comparison of stovetop versus electric, and it said the stovetop was better for browning?
So I guess I shouldn’t mention that I almost made brownies in my IP a few weeks ago, and I got a pan specifically to try making cheesecake in it?
An InstaPot is on my “want” list! I cook everything from scratch since I eat low carb and have food allergies and there are very few processed products I can eat. I’m hoping this would save me a bunch of time, as I also have a very busy schedule most of the time.
I was also panning on getting a microwave, but it sounds like the IP may replace a microwave? I’m planning on getting the mini three quart size since it’s just me, so hopefully this has all the features of the larger sizes.