Instant Pot: Topics = slow cookers, crockpots, pressure cookers, and electric pressure cookers
This post is about the Instant Pot (IP), which is an EPC (electric pressure cooker). But first, some background. Crockpots (slow cookers) have been around for ages & are an easy way to make great-tasting food. They are also super cheap (I've seen them as low as $10). They typically have a low & high temperature setting & are designed to sit there & cook food automatically all day long. They come in various sizes & have various features; some of the newer ones have timers, keep-warm functions, temperature problems, and even remote control from your smartphone. Dump food in, wait a long time, yummy food comes out.
In parallel, there are also pressure cookers. These work by raising the boiling point of water using pressure & cooking the food faster. Same concept as a crockpot - just a fast cooker instead of a slow cooker. Another bonus is that because they're sealed, no steam is released so you get a little bit of a better flavor too. The problem with pressure cookers is that you have to babysit them & they have a history of blowing the lid off if you're not careful.
They now sell electric pressure cookers (EPC's), which operate at a lower pressure (11.6 PSI vs. say 15 PSI), but have more safety features built-in & don't require babysitting. Many of them also double as a slowcooker, so if you don't need your food in 20 minutes & would rather have it sit there & stew all day long, you can do that. My favorite EPC is the Instant Pot, specifically the latest 7-in-1 model: (goes on sale for $120 on a regular basis)
https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-IP-DUO60-Multi-Functional-Pressure/dp/B00FLYWNYQ/
That's a 6-quart model; they also have a newer 8-quart model available, as well as a "smart" model with Bluetooth & some other sizes & models with different features. I rave about this device & if I could only pick one kitchen appliance to keep, this would be it because of it's versatility. I've had mine for a couple years & I'm
still discovering new things to do with it!
For starters, the Instant Pot is what they call a third-gen EPC. The first-gen models were electric, had a locking lid, and a mechanical timer - pretty basic, but a nice upgrade from having to watch a pressure cooker on your stove (especially if you have a gas cooktop!). The second-gen models added some additional safety features, as well as a digital controller, so you could do a timer countdown, delayed cooking, etc. The third-gen models add a microchip with programming, which is where the 7-in-1 features come from.
So that lets you do things like soaking grains before cooking them or do a yogurt cycle with no manual intervention. With the Bluetooth model, you can actually custom-program your own cycles (note: I have the BT model & honestly don't really use that feature all that much, fwiw). With an EPC, you can basically control four things: (1) heating intensity, (2) temperature, (3) pressure, and (4) cooking duration, which allows you to cook a lot of different things in one machine. On a tangent, EPC's make excellent rice cookers...pressure-cooking can even make brown rice come out pretty good! I'll address rice cookers in another post (despite my IP doing a great job with rice, I usually use it for meat or veggies & have the rice cooking in my fuzzy-logic rice cooker).
One thing to keep in mind is that PC-cooking times are misleading. A recipe may say 20 minutes but it may be closer to 40 or 60 minutes. Basically, you have 3 cooking phases: (1) pressurization, (2) cooking, (3) pressure-release. When you start a recipe, it starts building up pressure, which can take up to 20 minutes depending on the quantity of food & liquid in the pot. Then it does the pressure cooking, and once it's done, you need to do a pressure release.
There are two types of pressure releases: quick & natural. The quick way is just to twist the valve on top of the lid & release the steam like a choo-choo train, but this can end up making certain things like meat dishes far less tender. Natural pressure release is basically just letting the machine come down to room pressure over time, say 20 minutes. The IP goes into a keep-warm mode after cooking anyway, so it will automatically do this if you ignore it. Lots of things can be quick-released, however, so it's good to know both methods!
As far as cleaning goes, here's a good guide:
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-clean-an-instant-pot-pressure-cooker-229334
What are some good accessories?
You can pick & choose as desired; all of these in total adds up to about $165. I have & use all of these items and they are well worth the investment.
1.
Cooking spoon: ($25) Wooden spoons are cheap. Spatulas are nice. If you have a budget, this hybrid spoon (combination spoon-spatula) is the best thing since sliced bread. It's stupid expensive, but it's one of my go-to cooking utensils for scooping, stirring, scraping, etc. It's made of stiff nylon (temperature-proof up to 482F), but has a slightly-flexible silicone tip, which is what makes it unique.
2.
Spare silicone ring: ($11) There is a silicone sealing ring that clips inside the lid. It absorbs smells. I would recommend getting one for pungent foods (like if you cook Indian food) & keeping a second for regular foods.
3.
Glass lid: ($17) The IP has a keep-warm function, as well as a crockpot function (if you're in no rush to make the food), and this lid works great for both. When I finish cooking, sometimes I'll just bring the IP out as a food warmer with the lid on top so people can serve themselves.
4.
Oven gloves: ($20 a pair) Same idea as oven mitts or pads, but with better finger control, which is useful for working with the lid (like releasing the pressure valve & picking up a hot lid) & for working with a hot pot (the inner pot can be removed if needed).
5.
Steamer basket: ($14) Useful for steaming veggies as well as doing stuff hardboiled eggs & dulce de leche. This is the standard flower petal-style steamer basket. Silicone works fine too, if you want to do that.
6.
Meat Claws: ($13) If you like to shred meat, these are awesome. I do a lot of pulled pork & shredded chicken and while you can do it with a fork (yay carpal tunnel!) or a mixer (hand or stand mixer), I like the results I get using the meat claws the most. Also, these are useful for picking up unwieldy stuff like alternator-sized beef because you can stab it like Wolverine & lift it out without touching the hot food :awe:
7.
Immersion (stick) blender: ($42) Basically a blender on a stick; I'd recommend getting one that comes with a kit that has extras like a whisk attachment. The blender portion is really useful if you do soups; for example, you can cook up some sweet potatoes, slide the skins off, add some chicken broth, stick the immersion blender in there, and turn it into a bisque without ever leaving the original pot (one-pot cooking!). I use a Maillegro 9090 500-watt model, but it's not sold anymore. Epica has a 350-watt model that has good reviews.
8.
7" springform pan: ($22) Useful for a few things, but primarily for making cheesecakes. The springform design lets the sides pop apart, super feature.
9.
Long metal tongs: Particularly useful when searing meat.
10.
Spare Pot: (optional) Useful if you do stuff that uses the pot after cooking, like certain methods of yogurt-making.
What are some good recipes to try?
The list is endless.
Kalua Pig is always my first recommendation. If you just want a basic pulled pork, try
this recipe.
Pork carnitas are great. Here's
another carnitas recipe; this is my go-to recipe, but requires some oddball stuff (i.e. lard & bacon fat) - it's amaaaaaazing. To convert to the Instant Pot, basically just saute the pork chunks in the pot itself, then turn off saute mode & add the lard to let it liquify as it cools down. From there, pressure cook using the Meat/Stew setting for 40 minutes & do a 20-minute natural pressure release, then lay out the meat on a pan & broil in the oven on high for a few minutes per side until it's as crispy as you like. Here's a
couple recipes for ribs (make them fall-off-the-bone soft in the IP & then broil in the oven with sauce on top).
If you like Chinese beef & broccoli, then you'll love this recipe for
Mongolian beef. Check out
bone broth sometime too. The cool thing for noodle dishes like
spaghetti is that you can cook the noodles right along with the sauce, meat, and veggies! I like one-pot meals because it reduces cleanup & just makes life easier; here's a
beef & macaroni recipe to that effect. You can do a ton of sauces with the IP as well; here's one for
spaghetti sauce.
Note: pressure cookers are NOT pressure canners. However, you can do basic water-bath canning in an Instant Pot. Read
more here on the differences. Beans are also amazing in the IP because you don't have to pre-soak them overnight. That means you can do stuff like
chili with dry beans, no joke! I'm a huge fan of chickpeas & buy them dry in bulk. Here's my recipe for
garlic-lime hummus. Also regarding steam, you can pressure-steam veggies mega-fast (steaming is a function of the IP), but also considering
simply pressure-cooking them for more flavor.
Moving onto veggies & sides,
corn on the cob only takes a couple minutes.
Spaghetti squash is super easy.
Hardboiled eggs are cake. I use the steam basket accessory linked above when I do
hardboiled eggs. So many other things you can do...chicken, fish, noodles, macaroni & cheese, alfredo, rice, you name it.
You can do a LOT of stuff with yogurt - regular yogurt, Greek yogurt, non-dairy yogurts, fruit-on-the-bottom yogurts, etc. You can make yogurt in
mason jars. Or just use the
whole entire pot for a giant batch (note: #1, vanilla bean yogurt! #2, they use a nut milk bag to strain into Greek yogurt if you like it thicker & higher in protein). Here's a technique using
dry milk powder. There's a good trick using a
salad spinner for doing Greek Yogurt.
Oh yeah, and desserts! You can get fancy & do stuff like
fruit extracts for homemade soda (sparkling/tonic/seltzer water or with an iSi whipper or a SodaStream).
Cheesecakes come out awesome. Lots of variations, such as
Oreo cheesecake. Or
chocolate fondue with no fondue pot needed!
Lemon creme pot custard.
Dulce de leche (I mix mine with a second can of sweetened condensed milk to make it more creamy & pourable), which can also be done in a
mason jar.
Plus super-fast compotes for pancakes & waffles, rice pudding, bread pudding, tapioca pudding, applesauce (highly recommend the immersion blender, makes it crazy easy!), etc. Anyway, that's just a small sliver of what the Instant Pot can do. I use mine for making meals fast (quick dinners) & also for doing meal prep (cooking in bulk for make-ahead meals). Pinterest has a huge number of recipes (search for pressure cooker, Instant Pot, electric pressure cooker as key terms). There are a bunch of Facebook groups as well, plus a couple sub-reddits over on Reddit.
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