I treated myself this week. It's something I've wanted since I saw them come out in America a few years ago. And even more now it has a canning function for pressure canning!
I purchased the instant pot pro plus. In the hope I'll be able to do more small batch preserving and get a bit smarter about timing tea and cooking times - I slow cook a lot of stuff but I think using a pressure cooker might reduce our power usage.
I was so excited to get it I decided to do a first look video and film me pressure cooking some water as a test run (exciting stuff I'm sure you'll agree).
I'm looking forward to having a play with it in the coming weeks and seeing what I can make. I'm hoping I'll be able to double cook some meals and can the extra for days where I'm short on time. It pressurises to 15psi and with the canning function does all the valve stuff for me.
Do you use an Instant Pot?
I do use one, and love it. You need to be careful about finding good recipes, and a great source is Pressure Luck. Jeffrey (Pressure Luck) also has a great tutorial for new owners. One of my favorite things to make in the Instant Pot is cold start yogurt. It is really easy and comes out as thick as Greek yogurt without any straining. I like mine lightly sweetened so I add one can of condensed sweetened milk at the beginning of the process.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great tip on where to find some recipes. So far I've been using the app that they recommended I download. The ribs I cooked the other night were incredible as well, struggled to keep the meat on the bone. I got given some yoghurt starter the other day so maybe I should try some with it!
DeleteTo make cold start yogurt, all you need is two ingredients. Ultrapasturized milk (I use Fairlife) and yogurt starter. Whisk them together until well mixed, select the yogurt function and set the time for at least 8 hours. Cover (you can use a plate or lid since no pressure is needed) and let culture. It is safe to culture for up to 24 hours and the longer you culture, the more probiotics. I usually culture overnight and let it go about 12 hours. Once done culturing, refrigerate without stirring until chilled. If you stir while warm it will tend to separate, but if it does, just mix it back up.
DeleteThanks! I;m going to have to give that a go I think. Mum always used to make yoghurt.
DeleteWhen my wife bought an Instant Pot I thought for sure it would be yard sale material in a few months. WAS.I.EVER.WRONG!!! We use it ALL THE TIME, mostly for its pressure cooker function. Living in the U.S. southwest and having a Mexican-born wife, pinto and black beans figure into our meals quite often, as does rice. The Instant Pot cooks these up in a FRACTION of the time it takes to prepare them in a pot on the stove!!! Less energy used, less heat in the kitchen! Also, being that our larder goes REALLY deep on these staples, the beans invariably get old. Old beans are almost IMPOSSIBLE to cook up on the stove. Put them in the Instant Pot and they're as good as new. They may take a few more minutes to prep, but only a FEW more minutes.
ReplyDelete...You're gonna LOVE that thing!
Only one piece of advice; put the pot near or under your stoves exhaust hood. That way, when you let off the steam, it goes up the stack instead of into the kitchen.
That's a good tip, it does throw out some steam. I like the sound of doing some mexican food in it, not sure I ever do it justice when I try, normally just old-el-pasco kits (a real shame I know), do you have a recipe you could point me to?
DeleteHow exciting, I love a kitchen gadget! I don't have an instant pot, just a stove top ordinary pressure cooker so I'm using that for doing small batch preserving. What I love about the pressure cooker is that you can do potatoes and veg all at the same time and it literally only takes 2 minutes or thereabouts. I use mine every day. I'm sure you'll have great fun with your instant pot, I shall look forward to seeing your recipes.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's really interesting to use new things. Both my mum and my wife's mum used to pressure cookers lots when we were younger. Mum would do breast of lamb in it apparently (I can't remember).
DeleteWe don't have one yet, mostly because our kitchen, pantry and even a shelf in our basement are already full of kitchen gadgets. When we have small quantities of leftovers, my go to is usually the deep freeze or water canning since I have a variety of pots to adjust for batch size. I always worry about kitchen gadgets with a lot of touch screen, push button menus to work it. They never seem to last as long as say my mom's canner with no such screens or menus that it probably going on it's fourth decade of use. Maybe someday I'll get one after I read your one year review on the matter!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I worry about the electronic of things giving out on stuff like this. I always think of tractors. Now theres a real premium on tractors about 40 years old before they went too modern, ones you could fix without a computer. I think things will go that way a bit.
DeleteI use my Instant Pot almost daily. Yes, definitely make your own yogurt. I like mine extra thick, so I often add some dry powdered mild to it after the scalding cycle. TIP: Use the 'pot-in-pot' technique. ie. add water to the pot, put your rice in a bowl, then set the rice bowl down into the water in the pot. Save a ton on cleanup and sticking. You'll love it!
ReplyDeletethat's a great idea - when I did brown rice the other day the pan did take a bit of cleaning!
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