Instant Pot! Who's got one?

[Robin Garr]

Okay, for the longest time I resisted the Instant Pot fad, feeling that I like getting my hands on in cooking so much that I don't really want a labor-saving device. But Amazon Prime Day came around, and a lot of my local friends who are very serious foodies insisted that they love theirs and that I'd love mine.

So, I missed the incredible flash sale on the first night, but still combined a 30-percent-off order with about $40 in Amazon Visa awards points and got myself the larger (8-quart) size for about 40 bucks, which seemed fair.

IP-aloo-gobhi.jpg

I've tested it out and used it for "baked" pressure-cooked russet potatoes (creamy and good), a spicy Indian Aloo Gobhi (cauliflower and potato curry) and, last night, a pack of Rancho Gordo Marcella beans. Everything was successful. I think the Indian dish might have been a little more "restaurant quality" if I made it by hand, but the upside was that after I did my chopping and mise, the cooking took care of itself while I went off and read. Worth it for a dish that was still very good.

IP-beans.jpg

The beans pleased me most of all. After a daylong soak (because the packet was a year old), I got them from start to finish in under an hour - about 10 minutes to come up to pressure, 20 minutes to cook, and 15 or 20 minutes to come down to normal pressure as the recipe recommends. They were perfect, creamy yet still retaining their integrity, and tasted amazing even without any salt or pepper. Add a little good olive oil, kosher salt and telicherry pepper and I just about couldn't stop eating them.

So, did anyone else succumb to a new one? Any of you been using one for a while? (Pardon me if this is a frequent topic ... I wrote all this before I thought to do a search. )

The cauliflower and potato dish looks good and I've been thinking about something like that recently. Can we have a recipe? I don't have an instant pot so one that works with a regular pot would be best.

[Robin Garr]

Ken, it is an instant pot recipe, but all the ingredients and initial assembly should be the same. It shouldn't be hard to move the cooking stage to a pan and finish on the stovetop. Might need a little more liquid since you don't have the pressure, but just eyeball it as you go along.

http://ministryofcurry.com/aloo-gobhi-instant-pot/

Thanks very much Robin. I have to admit I never heard of an instant pot before you posted this. The fad much not have hit Florida yet. I'll probably look into them a little and see if this is another one of those things you never knew existed but can't live without.

Aloo gobhi recipe looks good, and easy enough to convert to regular pressure cooker.
I like the fact (unlike the recipe I use) there's not 6-8 different seeds to toast, tempering, etc.
I'm happy with my pressure cooker, but if I didn't have would get instant pot

[Robin Garr]

I'm happy with my pressure cooker, but if I didn't have would get instant pot

Make a lot of sense, Dale. Since we don't have a pressure cooker or a rice cooker - something about unitaskers - it made sense to buy in at bargain level on a product that does both those things and, theoretically, five more.

[Jenise]

And all this from you, Robin, who can't understand why we love our pressure cookers! That's what you got there, a pressure cooker with a timer. Only the pressure must be lower if it took an hour plus on those beans.

[Robin Garr]

Well, it's a highly controllable pressure cooker with a computer brain; rice cooker, sauté pot, yogurt maker, slow cooker with a brain and some other stuff. Seven tools in one, with a mini-computer controlling them.

Also, that bean cooking time was 10 minutes up to full pressure, 20-25 to cook at full pressure, and 15 minutes for the pressure to cool down to normal opening. You could save time by releasing the pressure quickly, but the beans come out better this way.

[Robin Garr]

Actually it wasn't even an hour. Looking at the original post it was 10 + 20 + 15 or 20, so, 45 or 50 minutes, only 20 of which were actual cooking time.

[Jenise]

Actually it wasn't even an hour. Looking at the original post it was 10 + 20 + 15 or 20, so, 45 or 50 minutes, only 20 of which were actual cooking time.

Fair enough. But in a pressure cooker, we're talking 5 to 8, not including cool-down. I've followed the instructions in a book on pressure cooking I have which has a table for beans, and I've found that her timing overcooks them. If she says 7 minutes I go 6.

I'll concede IP combines pressure cooker, slow cooker, and rice maker, but they count 7 functions which is stretching it a little. Let's see a show of hands for those that made yogurt.
And it's not like people are replacing "steamer, sautee, warmer."

Still, as I said if I didn't have stovetop PC that I love and am used to I'd get. Although I often use PC and rice cooker at same time.

One advantage of pressure cooking (whether stovetop, electric PC, or IP) is energy efficiency, especially during heat waves like we're having in East right now. I had a chicken carcass and wanted to make stock . No way I'd simmer on stove for hours with AC. But brought bones (and carrots celery onion) to pressure (probably 5 minutes on high heat) then about 15 on low heat to keep pressure. Took off stove and put outside on iron chair on patio, probably 25-30 minutes for pressure to naturally release. Stove on 20 minutes rather than 120.

[Robin Garr]

Let's see a show of hands for those that made yogurt.

I'm going to try that soon, using local organic (but not raw ) milk and Brown Cow yogurt as a starter.

[Jenise]

Robin, sorry if I seem to keep quibbling, but I need to defend pressure cookers against the charge of being unitaskers. A vertical bacon fryer? Yeah, that's a unitasker. But pressure cookers are no more unitaskers than is a teflon skillet. Yes, each has a specialty, but you can cook many different things in one and for that matter you don't even have to restrict yourself to cooking in it under pressure. Makes a fine soup pot.

[Robin Garr]

Robin, sorry if I seem to keep quibbling, but I need to defend pressure cookers against the charge of being unitaskers. A vertical bacon fryer? Yeah, that's a unitasker. But pressure cookers are no more unitaskers than is a teflon skillet. Yes, each has a specialty, but you can cook many different things in one and for that matter you don't even have to restrict yourself to cooking in it under pressure. Makes a find soup pot.

Sounds good to me. I don't mean to be in the position of bashing pressure cookers. I just felt the impulse to get an instant cooker, where I had resisted the impulse to get a pressure cooker, because it's got a little computer in it.

I got an IP recently and I'm happy with it.
So far, I've only used it for things that I would have normally done with my stove top pressure cooker...searing, then stew-like dishes all in one pot. The results are more or less the same, I think.

Things I like better than my stove top pc (Fagor Duo):
1. It's programmable timing so I can set and forget (does natural pressure release and keeps contents warm after cooking time)
2. It's off the stove so I'm not taking up space if I'm cooking other things
3. I don't have to monitor the hissing level and adjust flame during the cook time

Things I don't like as much as my stove top pc:
1. When searing, if I don't put the IP on my stove, I can't use my vent hood (which partially negates some of 2 above.
2. The silicon o-ring picks up odors and just won't let them go. I never had that problem with the Fagor.