Pressure cooking

I got an Instant Pot when it was a deal on Amazon and it is awesome! I made curried chicken and shredded beef for tacos for the week this afternoon. Anybody else use one? Have any great recipe ideas?

Beans, oh god it makes cooking dried beans, chickpeas etc so much easier.  Find any falafel, chili, refried beans recipe and substitute canned legumes for pressurecooked dried ones and you'll be amazed at the difference.

j_r, 

I just glanced at the control panel on your Instant Pot.  Does it also function as a slow cooker and a rice cooker?  It would be great to have just one device do all three things.

It performs all three functions: pressure cooker, rice cooker and slow cooker. It also has a sauté function that lets you brown meat or caramelize vegetables in the same pot you cook in. The stainless liner is very easy to clean and has a triple-clad bottom, which I think is more reliable for heat distribution than a ceramic insert. And it's programmable to keep food warm for hours. There's a whole world online of people who obsess about this thing, and lots of recipes. 

I went kind of crazy with it yesterday and also made a half-dozen hardboiled eggs (excellent) and a batch of basmati rice (gooey). I will report back when I master the ricemaking function. The reviews online are great, but my effort was not a success.

Oooooh.  My spiralizer is about to arrive and now I have a new kitchen gadget in my sights!

I got one during the Amazon promotion and told my daughter about it and she got one also.  I haven't done much with mine yet (hard to get inspired to cook in the heat, even with a good tool for it.)  But she has already done all kinds of great things with her and raves about it.  It replaces several appliances, so especially good for her small college student apartment.

looks amazing! I want one!!

Mmm, red lentil and spinach dal, over brown rice from the regular rice cooker (for now).

j_r said:
I went kind of crazy with it yesterday and also made a half-dozen hardboiled eggs (excellent) and a batch of basmati rice (gooey). I will report back when I master the ricemaking function. The reviews online are great, but my effort was not a success.

I'm a pretty good cook, but I have never been successful with rice, especially basmati. I buy the good stuff from Indian or middle-eastern markets, but I can't get the texture right.

4 mins on manual (vent closed) for rice does it for regular, sushi and basmati - brown took longer - but not by much.

sounds amazing!! What's the promotion? 

It was $70 (instead of $100) on Prime Day and again as a Deal of the Day earlier this month.

Thanks for the rice advice, @joy -- I cooked it much too long.

I want one too, but I read this review and am worried. What do you all think about this woman's complaint and concern?

This review is from: Instant Pot IP-LUX60 6-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker, 6-Quart 1000-Watt (Kitchen)
Pardon me for my long review but at least it is honest and hope it helps other consumers out there.

I purchased the product in June 2013 and used it for slow cooking. It had provided satisfactory service until 4 days ago, when I experienced a malfunctioning in the "slow cook" function: the content was cold in the morning when we were ready for breakfast. I tried a second night, still the same thing. I emailed their help desk, opened a ticket. The same night, I decided to see if other function still worked and followed instruction with "congee" and used black rice and whole grain oats in the pot. The cooking was done with 2:10 hours' delay and 60 min of pressure cooking. I decided to go to bed and noticed the "keep warm" button was lit up with "L01:20" on the display (number was increasing, which I assumed it was counting up the time for keeping warm). At 4:30am, I was awaken by a loud "POP" sound followed by constant beeping. I went downstairs and found the grains and mixture was everywhere (on the floor, on the counter and even on the ceiling). All the lights on the display were flashing. It took me two and half hours to clean up the mess! It was scary but fortunately no one was around or could be seriously hurt/burned!

I opened up another ticket with the help desk. The representative Mr. X told me to run a series of test to see if the cooker can hold pressure with water and if there is proper vapor release but I told him I did not think the cooker was malfunctioning when it was in the cooking stage because everything looked OK until it went into the "keep warm" stage so his diagnostic test may not tell anything, besides I was concerned about my safety given what had happened the night before.

I told him that " I think the problem with the pot was the "fail safe" portion of the design loop. What I saw in the inner pot was burned residue of the grains due to uncontrolled heating. If the temperature was rising high enough due to poor heat conduction of the "crust" (burned residue), the "fail safe" should kick in and shut off the power supply. The fact that it didn't do, and instead, kept heating on and eventually sent portion of the content up in the air, indicated the flaw.

Also I believe what happened was the cycle for "congee" was correctly finished, the accident happened when the content was left in the "keep warm" cycle. Why the equipment still kept sending so much power to a pot that was kept at "keep warm" stage is also suspicious."

Mr. X then said " If there is a problem with one of the sensors, unfortunately this can not be repaired" and offered to send me a new base, while charging me the whole sale price. I replied to him saying that I believe it is a manufacturing defect that could have severe consequences and I would be happy to give their product a second try, but I feel I should not have to pay for it.

Then Mr X replied and started accusing me that " you would not provide a step by step timeline. And to tell you the truth, I don't think you can because you were not there when it happened." "Even if it is a sensor failure,.....Electrical components failing is just a fact of life" and "Your machine worked perfectly for a long time" (Please, give me a break, from June 2013 till today, it is a long time !!??)

I was very upset and replied " Do you really think I would be comfortably sitting in a chair sending emails to you if I was there when it happened !?"

case unresolved...

@lisat, I have not had the best luck with electronic touchpads in my kitchen appliance-buying experience. But glancing at the 3k overwhelmingly positive reviews on Amazon, I don't see any that share similar concerns (or as much, um, detail). 

Let mek now if the promotion pops up again. I want one butI already have two slow cookers and a rice cooker so feeling hesitant...

FWIW, I never cook basmati rice in a pressure cooker or rice cooker. To cook it properly, it needs soaking and once soaked needs much less water than regular rice.  Stovetop is the best way to cook basmati or it's texture is not quite right. 

You can make all kinds of great stuff in a pressure cooker.  I make pot roast, short ribs, beef stew, harira with chickpeas, lentils and lamb, chicken curry, lamb curry etc. 

j_r said:

@lisat, I have not had the best luck with electronic touchpads in my kitchen appliance-buying experience. But glancing at the 3k overwhelmingly positive reviews on Amazon, I don't see any that share similar concerns (or as much, um, detail). 

Thanks. That's what I wanted to hear!

Okay I am going for it. Share your best recipes please!

@deborahg, I heard you might have a couple of recipes to post.

Maybe the OP should turn this thread into a slow cooker/pressure cooker recipe blog.

That would be fun, @sac. OK, here goes.

I just picked up my Purple Dragon box and had just about everything I needed to make ratatouille, so I Googled up this recipe. It's cooking now.

ETA four minutes.

Here is the Chipotle-style shredded beef for tacos. It was great to pack for lunch with corn tortillas (I nuke them with a damp paper towel at work) or brown rice along with scallions, radishes, lettuce, etc.

How did the ratatouille come out? I love that stuff. I made it for my first time (on the stove top) a couple of weeks ago, and it came out great. I used all locally grown ingredients.

Quite well, thanks, although if I make it again I'll add a bit more salt and maybe red pepper flakes or something to zip it up. The recipe I shared doesn't have any seasonings but garlic and a teaspoon of salt. It was good hot, and cold for lunch today.

Shredded salsa chicken, something I do all the time in a crockpot: Skinless, boneless chicken breasts and about a cup of salsa. 

I followed a recipe I found online and pressure-cooked for 20 minutes. With meat, I have been letting the pressure release naturally, which seems to give a juicier result. (Much better than the crockpot version, probably because I tend to leave chicken in there too long.)

I've been putting on the pressure and it's great! Made beets from the garden, caponata, and this delicious meal: http://myheartbeets.com/instant-pot-butter-chicken/

Used 8 ounces of sauce instead of 15, left out the fenugreek and sprinkled with lime juice. Amazing over basmati rice or naan.

"Under Pressure" is such an ear worm!

I love beets and butter chicken and I think I know what this weekend's projects will be. Where do I find fenugreek? (I haven't even thought about it since the nursing years.)

I couldn't find it but it was delicious without. Don't forget the basmati rice!

I often find fenugreek in Asian grocers, with the Indian spices. But I can't find the seeds I want, just the already-ground powder. (Not right for the recipe I need it for, which isn't in this thread)

Savory Spice in Westfield, NJ has it.

deborahg said:

I couldn't find it but it was delicious without. Don't forget the basmati rice!