Using the Instant Pot

[audreyh1]

I never thought I'd make oxtail stew. But DH went crazy over it in Andalusia (Rabo de Toro). So I found a Spanish recipe and adapted it to the instant pot, figuring the pot would do a good job of cooking all that gelatinous tissue around to bone. Sure enough - it came out great. DH was really pleased.

[AnneG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFDubb Wish I could find a way to like the IP. I bought one after reading people constantly praise them on sites similar to this one. After a year or so, my thoughts are meh. A couple of things I've made were decently good, but most have been lackluster at best. Tried making baby back ribs once and they just came out like a weird lump of rib meat (think mcdonalds rib sandwich). I'm no slouch in the kitchen by any stretch, but this thing has gotten the better of me. It's about to become a soup only making machine.

It definitely takes some adjustment - I had more fails than successes at first, but after a fair amount of experimentation, I've figured out what works and what doesn't. The ones that work come out far better than my other cooking methods. One of my favorite things to do is cook a russet potato for about 10-15 minutes (depending on size) and then put it in the fridge overnight. The next morning, I take it out, peel it and grate it on a big box grater and it makes diner-worthy hash browns. Making hash browns from raw potatoes is messy and difficult, but these turn out amazing!

[audreyh1]

It’s interesting that people have had difficulty finding recipes that work in their instant pot. I pretty much just went for recipes that I knew would benefit from long cooking or pressure and used them. I’ve rarely been disappointed and at most had to adjust some times. I do tend to research a recipe fairly heavily online to minimize timing screwups.

I also found a few sites that gave great tutorials like hippressurecooking.com. These gave me good ideas of which recipes and techniques to favor.

[caninelover]

I don't have an instant pot as I don't want another countertop appliance, but I do have a small (2.5 qt?) stove top pressure cooker that I use on weeknights for salmon, chicken, brown rice. I am cooking for 2, so the small size is perfect, and it gets to pressure quickly. Salmon and chicken breast is done in about 5 min (including the time to get to pressure), brown rice in about 20 min. Love it.

[Fedup]

I think instant pot might be a good thing when I’m getting older. In fact, I often cook with a crockpot for that reason. I often worry we accidentally leave the stove on. Fire avoidance.

[AnneG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 It’s interesting that people have had difficulty finding recipes that work in their instant pot. I pretty much just went for recipes that I knew would benefit from long cooking or pressure and used them. I’ve rarely been disappointed and at most had to adjust some times. I do tend to research a recipe fairly heavily online to minimize timing screwups. I also found a few sites that gave great tutorials like hippressurecooking.com. These gave me good ideas of which recipes and techniques to favor.

I agree. There are tons of recipes out there and several Facebook groups too. I do a lot of research too and am finally getting to where I don’t have to look up things I have cooked multiple times. However it’s frustrating when you do need to cook something you're not familiar with and you get so many different times! I usually cook rice on top of the stove because we only cook 1/2 cup at a time, but today I needed to cook a cup and a half for a recipe my husband was making and times were all over the place! I went with 4 minutes with a 10 minute release and thankfully it was just fine but some recipes called for 10 minutes - way too long!

[Pellice]

I just attempted a multi-step recipe tonight rather than a one ingredient steam - but again I had mixed feelings. The recipe was chicken breasts with mushrooms, and it involved browning the chicken breasts, removing them, then sauteeing onions, garlic, etc., adding back the chicken breasts, sprinkling mushrooms on top, and pressure cooking. It was ok, but not as extraordinary as the recipe claimed - and the mushrooms would have been better had they been sauteed at the beginning rather than sprinkled over the chicken at the end as the recipe instructed. The chicken was probably overcooked, but it's in a sauce over rice, so not that noticeable.

Nor did I think it saved time or effort, as part of the recipe called for stirring the onions during the saute part. And it took just as long.

BUT, it saved cleanup time for sure. I just put the pot into the dishwasher.

I am determined to learn to love the Instant Pot. I will keep trying for the best use. It may simply be one ingredient items like cauliflower.

[YVRRocketSurgery]

We're using it less than hoped but we do use our IP a few times month. It's likely due to us needing to find the right meals we want to cook in it and practicing/experimenting to identify what works best to our liking.

We probably should have gone for an 8 quart too instead of the 6 quart because we're used to our dutch oven size and make leftovers for the week.

[W2R]

I must guiltily admit that I used my 3 quart Instant Pot to defrost a very hard frozen ribeye last night. I had forgotten to set it out to defrost. Anyway, the Instant Pot just seemed easier for that than the microwave. Easier than the microwave? I must be insane to say that. But it was.

Knowing nothing, and being too lazy to Google it, I put the ribeye on steam for 7 minutes. That is probably utterly wrong for 57 reasons but despite that it worked beautifully.

After defrosting it in the Instant Pot, I grilled it on my countertop electric grill so that it had pretty brown grill marks on it and was thoroughly cooked. Oh, was it ever good..... give someone on a weight loss diet a freshly grilled ribeye and watch it vanish faster than lightning....

[Pellice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnneG I agree. There are tons of recipes out there and several Facebook groups too. I do a lot of research too and am finally getting to where I don’t have to look up things I have cooked multiple times. However it’s frustrating when you do need to cook something you're not familiar with and you get so many different times! I usually cook rice on top of the stove because we only cook 1/2 cup at a time, but today I needed to cook a cup and a half for a recipe my husband was making and times were all over the place! I went with 4 minutes with a 10 minute release and thankfully it was just fine but some recipes called for 10 minutes - way too long!

AnneG, what kind of rice? I use regular white long-grain rice, and it wouldn't even be edible at 4 minutes. I go for 16! Is it some kind of quick-cook rice or short-grain rice?

[Red Badger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bamaman About the only thing we cook in our Cuisinart pressure cooker is chicken and dumplings. We find conventional oven to do just well on meat loaf, and our large crock pot cannot be beat for roasts, chili, vegetable beef soup, etc. We eat a very typical southern diet, and we cook on our gas grill all year round. In Summer, we cook outside just about every day and seldom spend more than 30 minutes cooking any meal. Pressure cookers are nice to have, and maybe I need to pay more attention to online recipes for their use.

+1.
Between the cock pot, grilling, and smoking, I don't much entertain other cookery. DW uses instant pot for rice and beans (of which I avail myself regularly), as well as a few other tasks.

However, when I traveled extensively in Europe, I became a master of cooking with the electric hot water kettles. Desperation makes ingenuity my friend. I just couldn't deal with 3 meals out every day.

[AnneG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pellice AnneG, what kind of rice? I use regular white long-grain rice, and it wouldn't even be edible at 4 minutes. I go for 16! Is it some kind of quick-cook rice or short-grain rice?

That might explain all the different answers I got! The rice I used was a HEB (store brand) long grain Jasmine rice but the instructions for cooking on top of the stove was 20-30 minutes, so like any other long grain I would suppose.

I used the instructions on the InstantPot website where you use a 1:1 water to rice ratio, rinse the rice first (always a good idea because of the arsenic anyway) and do a 10 minute natural release.

[Pellice]

AnneG, that is so strange. In theory, both jasmine and regular long-grain rice would cook roughly the same amount of time. And there are individual preferences which vary on the firmness of the finished product, but to have such a wild variation - my cooking rice 4x longer than you (and I cook at the high setting too) is weird. My rice would be almost completely crunchy at that time. I have a 6qt duo plus Instant Pot.

[audreyh1]

I haven’t done rice in the instant pot even though I know many people do and like it. I have a small rice cooker that works great, and sometimes I am cooking rice while I have a main dish in the instant pot anyway.

[AnneG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pellice AnneG, that is so strange. In theory, both jasmine and regular long-grain rice would cook roughly the same amount of time. And there are individual preferences which vary on the firmness of the finished product, but to have such a wild variation - my cooking rice 4x longer than you (and I cook at the high setting too) is weird. My rice would be almost completely crunchy at that time. I have a 6qt duo plus Instant Pot.

Yes, that's strange alright! I have the same model. I had only attempted rice one time before and decided it wasn't worth the trouble since it took about the same amount of time and I usually cook my rice at the end when I'm in the kitchen anyway. I wonder if the 10 minute release had something to do with it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 I haven’t done rice in the instant pot even though I know many people do and like it. I have a small rice cooker that works great, and sometimes I am cooking rice while I have a main dish in the instant pot anyway.

I've never used a rice cooker. What's the water to rice ratio and how long does it cook?

[Fedup]

I don’t have a rice cooker either, I just do it the old fashion way, stove top. I don’t even measure how many cups either, just eyeballing.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnneG I've never used a rice cooker. What's the water to rice ratio and how long does it cook?

I use 1.5 water to 1 rice ratio regardless of what the rice packet says. I rarely cook more than 1.5 cups of raw rice at a time. It takes barely 20 to 25 mins usually. Once the cooker switches to warm because all the water has been absorbed/evaporated I let it sit and steam for another 5-10 mins before fluffing it.

I have the smallest size cooker, so it doesn’t take much space.

[fosterscik]

For white rice I simply use the "rice" button on the IP. I'm not sure how long it takes - it's set it up and leave it so I don't really care. I know it cooks at low pressure and is less than 20 min and it stays hot on the warm setting for a long time so I don't really care how long it takes (I start it before I start cooking anything else). I use ~ 1:1.75 rice:water.

For brown rice I use high pressure, 20 min + natural release. 1:1.25 rice:liquid (I usually use chicken stock/water mix).

[Fedup]

For newer rice, recently harvested, the water ratio has to be reduced. I know when I had a rice cooker, older rice takes more water. Otherwise it turns out very mushy.

[AnneG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fedup For newer rice, recently harvested, the water ratio has to be reduced. I know when I had a rice cooker, older rice takes more water. Otherwise it turns out very mushy.

That's interesting. I knew that about beans but not rice. Makes sense - the longer it sites, the drier it gets but knowing how old your rice is (or beans) isn’t easy.

The rice button on the IP is for 12 minutes at low pressure and I did 4 minutes on high. I think I'll try the rice button next time and see how it turns out.