Instant Pot!

[whispercricket]

My parents visited in the middle of January (I am not going into that now), and one of the things they left with was our old tiny rice cooker. My dad offered to get me a replacement, and I requested *drumroll* an Instant Pot.

For those like me who were unaware of the glories of Instant Pot, it is an electric pressure cooker / slow cooker / rice cooker / saute-er (I know, not a word) / yogurt maker / create household peace device with a stainless steel pot and the magic to make me able to cook food I like.

I got it to cook rice. Over the past month, these are the other items we've made, in order of awesomeness:

* Chicken Pho - plus star anise and with the greens on the side; I had to fight for the leftovers
* Beef stew - modified to add cloves and cinnamon and replace potatoes with Gilfeather turnips
* Risotto (used short grain Haiga rice: mushroom; chicken-fig) - still refining; has a tendency to end up a little sweet, but the consistency is great
* Crispy potatoes; French Fries - steams the potato before pan-frying or roasting, so they're double cooked
* Saag - no dairy and awesome
* mashed turnips
* Sushi rice (Haiga again) and Basmati rice
* Steamed Sweet Potatoes (and regular potatoes)
* Applesauce / Apple butter, to use in:
* BBQ Pulled Chicken (AIP)

Not sure I'd make again without modification:
* Goat/lamb boned curry - I had some issues with the bones (should have pulled them out / returned the meat to the dish); sauce flavors were awesome though
* Chicken Stew - good, but not as good as others
* Winter Vegetable Soup - very tasty, but my body isn't liking coconut milk based soups for some reason; I'd recommend trying with actual cream added post-pressure cooking for people who aren't dairy-intolerant


We have not yet done tried making hard-boiled eggs (I was not eating them during January) or stock. I also have a list of recipes to test out, unless I decide to make pho every week... Anyone want to swap recipes and tips? :)

Comments

[keshwyn]

We are definitely looking at getting our hands on one, so thank you for posting that list. I'll likely get the 8 qt, since that whole "don't fill it more than 2/3 full" limitation means that as the family gets bigger (and appetites increase) we will need the 8qt.

It's possible this will result in the removal of the crockpot. (Or possibly, I'll just crockpot the basement, at least until I get used to using the Instant Pot as a slowcooker.)

The fact that the crockpot cooks all day is, sometimes, a benefit - we'll have to see if it can do dinner in half an hour, as part of the reason I crockpot is because I can turn it on, leave the house, and come home to a ready-dinner.

I look forward to the experimentation!

[whispercricket]

We're almost certainly getting an 8 quart at some point (keeping the 6 for side dishes / rice / etc.), so I say go for it. :)

In case it's helpful, here are my notes on the 6 vs. 8:
— 6 quart: 3 liters / 12 cups half full and 4 liters / 16 cups 2/3 full; 15 3/4 cups soup/stock, 4 cups dry rice (American cups), 2 1/4 cups dry beans
— 8 quart: 4 liters / 16 cups half full and 5.33 / 21 cups 2/3 full; 21 cups soup/stock, 5.25 cups dry rice (American cups), 3 1/8 cups dry beans

- 8 quart is bigger than the 6 quart in every direction by a couple of inches (2 cm wider and 4 cm taller); not noticeably heavier; 8 quart takes a standard 10” glass lid
- 8 quart is 1200 watts versus 1000 and has a max programmed cook time of 4 hours versus 2
- 8 quart probably takes a bit longer to come up to full pressure and a bit longer for natural pressure release (some people have not noticed much difference)

With regards to slow cooking, I have not tried the actual slow cooker feature on the Instant Pot yet, but it should work the same way (you'd use a non-sealing lid instead - we were given the actual Instant Pot glass lid, but I've read that you can use a regular pot lid or even a 10" plate - not sure if you'd need a vent hole).

Let me know if you have anything you want tried by proxy before you get it, and I'll see if we can test it out for you. :)