The Pressure Cooker!

i had zero idea I was gonna enjoy this thing so much. Glad I bought a good one. I’ve owned it all of two days and I’ve used it to make three things.

Chicken noodle soup
Beans. Vegan version
And steamed artichokes.

20 mins, 10 mins and 10 mins respectively.

It was the best chicken noodle soup I’ve made in my life. And I used a whole raw chicken. Blew me away.

This weekend, I’m making Vietnamese Chicken Pho. I bought a stovetop version. The instant-pot thing seemed so....electronic. I can at least use mine as a regular stock pot if needed.

My grandma used one. It skipped a generation with my mom. Now..me. I’m a fan.

Anyone else?

 

looks good, need a pinch or two of red pepper flakes and some lemon and it will be great !

 

I have an instant pot I just have yet to use it. I need to try it out.

I keep trying to look up recipes to use it... but they end up being more laborous than how I cook most of those meals in a dutch oven so I just end up doing it my normal way on the stovetop or oven.

I plan on trying some recipies this winter. I just need to find simple ones.

 

It's really good for soups. To be honest most anything you can do in the dutch oven you can do the same way in the instant pot.

 

Thats what I’m finding. I cannot make quality beef stew to save my life, it comes out tough. I think I need to give that a whirl in the pressure cooker.

 

Comes out SUPER tender. I did one last month and it was really good. Only thing is watch the veggies they may get too soft. I think next time I will add the green beans and the peas right at the end.

 

^ That's how to do it. Same with plain old pot roast. Add spuds & carrots at the end so they don't get mushy

 

i'm gonna do an Indian Goat Curry tonight. i'll leave out the veggies..maybe put them in at the very end and cook them with the lid off.

 

Where are you buying goat?

 

Ya where did you get goat. Sounds really good.

 

Fuck. My house smells like Indian food! It’s wild. I’m slow cooking it in the oven.

I got the goat at Lola’s market. The one on pleasant hill road. It’s the best version of that chain store. Clean and modern. $5 per lb.

 

The wife and I got one for a wedding present, we love it. That and my black stone griddle I got are amazing.

 

I’ll have to grab some. I love birria de chivo!

 

I love curry...

And goat.

 

I just used my Instant Pot for the first time.

And I will be honest, it's probably also the last time I will use it.

First of all, all of the recipes I find are way too complicated and have multiple steps. I thought the purpose of having one of these things was to throw a bunch of stuff in, walk away and come back to a completed meal.

The device takes 10 minutes to pressurize. I cooked chicken breasts in it today and my recipe said to put on high pressure for 8 minutes. Took 10 minutes to warm up, 8 minutes to cook, then it took a minute or two to depressurize. The chicken was completely raw on the inside. So another 10 whole minutes to pressurize and 5 more minutes to cook. Breasts came out very dry.
The rest of the recipe called for making a cream sauce in the machine on saute... well that wasn't going to happen. I made the sauce in a sauce pan in half the time it said it would take.

It ended up taking me over an hour to make a dinner I could have made in 20 minutes if I did it my normal way and my chicken breasts wouldn't have dried out.

I don't use crock pots because I'm not home long enough during the week to use one. I'm gone from the house 12 hours a day. So I kind of liked the idea of using a pressure cooker to basically make slow cooked stews and one pot meals in about an hour once I got home from work. But obviously it isn't intended for that. So I'm not sure it really has a place or purpose for me. I'm not looking for a new way to cook I'm looking for a way to reduce cooking time and complications.

I probably need to try it a couple more times to get used to it but lets see if I ever have the patience for it again. I'm also a little too worried I'll try a pot roast in it and it will ruin an expensive piece of meat.

It's kind of hard to try making things in a different way than a way you already have perfected making that thing. If that makes sense.

 

It’s different to get used to. Most of the multi step is browning the meat or veggies. As for cool times i think recipes need to tell you about the time it takes to pressurize and they don’t. As for pot roast I don’t really like it but the beef stew I made in an hour was really good. Something that used to take me multiple hours in the slow cooker or on the stove. Meat was super tender and juicy.

 

Thats what gets it for me, its like learning how to cook all over again. It took me 10 years to perfect my pot roast, you can’t make me go back lol

With the stew, Did you put all your meat and veggies in at the same time or did you let the meat cook and add veggies later?

 

I agree that some things are more of a PITA than others. I stage my stews/pot roasts adding spuds & carrots near the end. If they're all the same size just 5 minutes back under pressure (doesn't take long to get back up with hot meat/broth) usually finishes the spuds & carrots. Saute' mode takes maybe another 1/2 hour or switch to crockpot mode and let it go an hour or two.

I have used it as a pot before. Pressure cook the frozen chicken/pork for 30-60 minutes then in saute' mode finish like I would on a stove top. Saves a pot is all really but I can't cook a frozen pork butt to shreddable in an hour without using a microwave.

I haven't done that in a long time and if I recall it was a small pork butt. I have slept since then so I'm not putting any real money on the exact time

Dried pintos to chili doesn't take that long either. I usually start beans the night before if I'm using the crockpot. Seems like about 30 minutes under pressure then add the meat is how I did it last time.

I probably use mine more for hard boiled eggs than most things. 5 minutes under pressure, quick release then dump in ice. I have never had one not peel super easy and I get my eggs from a local guy. They aren't sitting on a shelf for weeks

 

A roast in the crock pot for 12 hours would be fantastic....you could just throw that in a crock pot have the carrots, potatos pre-chopped and sitting in water, then when you get home put the diced carrots and potato's in a pot and cook them. Since they are diced they shouldnt take very long to cook. but if you have your way and its working for you do it that way...

 

Time it takes to pressurize? How? All our stoves are different. I have a pretty robust burner. It takes 8 minutes. On my outside wok burner - four. I note the tine when it gets to high oresdure and start the timer then. All the receipts I’ve encountered tell you the time- and that starts at high-pressure. There is no way for a recipe writer to anticipate the power of out stoves.