TheBanyanTree: Instant Pot

[anita at redpepper.net.au]

I have an electric pressure cooker and I love it! I bought it so we could
cook decent meals for ourselves (mainly me and hubby) from scratch despite
our long days - I was getting a bit sick of reheating food, or eating at
10pm.  It can't do everything but it does a lot of great food quickly. My
husband was sceptical at first but now loves it and wants to get one for our
place at Mt Hotham so he can cook quick one-pot meals during winter.

It does excellent chicken, risottos (the best I've ever made) and I have
even made fantastic steamed fish with it. I now only cook meatballs in the
pressure cooker as they stay so soft and consistent (if you like a bit more
crunch on the outside of the meatballs, you'd have to brown them first).
It's just a matter of finding good recipes.

Things to keep in mind - 
-- fluid doesn't reduce, so you need to get those proportions correct or
reduce later on the stove. Too little fluid will cut short the cooking time
as it won't be able to maintain the pressure. Recipes and trial and error
will sort it out.
-- you can't cook from frozen, ingredients need to be thawed, to ensure the
cooking times will result in fully cooked meat.
-- you need to be careful with, or avoid, cooking foods that 'foam' because
the foam (which carries food particles) can block the pressure release valve
- info here:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/pressure-cooker-foods-to-avoid/ . I have
seen articles online about methods for cooking these things taking into
account the foaming. We've used small amounts of pearl barley with brown
rice with no issues. 

It's just like any other cooking tool, it can't do everything but some
things it can do really well. 

Anita



> This is what I fear will happen, in a nutshell.  I know the basics of 
> cooking.  For things that take longer, I simply cook them on the 
> weekends, and rather enjoy the process.  For weeknights, I can 
> generally crank out some kind of decent meal in half an hour.  It's 
> not gourmet, but I'm also not the worst cook.  I've started looking at 
> Instant Pot recipes and, well, I'm very unsure about this thing.  It 
> seems to require learning a new way to cook, and I don't know if I 
> need that complication right now.  I'm not a fan of chicken to begin with,
and rubberized chicken is loathsome.
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