Instant Pot. Multi-function cooker (Part 1)

[Anna N]

Thank you for your thoughtful answers, ladies! I appreciate that. Still on the fence about actually buying one, but also still interested! 

 

 

Maybe you need to 'tart your tomatoes up' more often, Anna!  

 

 

The Lazy Susan really is a good idea!

Brilliant in fact. I have a beautiful glass turntable which I picked up for a song in a thrift store that should serve the purpose admirably. I have never found a use for it but never wanted to give it up.

[Anna N]

Ah - sorry.  I forgot to mention that I used my big poultry shears and cut the backbone out of the duck and "bent" it in a arc. 

My pressure cooker may be a bit larger than the instant pot.

Ah so! But my mind said, "Andie probably has a pressure cooker into which she could fit a whole cow!" Giving you credit for being the Queen of Kitchen Toys.

[palo]

It is alkaline water that produces the blue or gray color.

adding a tablespoon of vinegar for each pint of liquid will keep it the nice red color - which is why so many dishes include vinegar.  Cooking with apples also lessens the color change.

If you don't like the idea of using vinegar, ascorbic acid or citric acid powder  -  about 1/2 teaspoon per quart of water. 

 

I had a friend who used to add a bottle of 7-Up to her cabbage - both green and red - because she swore it lessened the "gas" effect and her red cabbage dishes were alway very red.

 

As usual, Andie is correct, not that she needs validation from me.    Here is a website that explains the science behind the phenomenon:

 

http://chemistry.about.com/od/acidsbase1/a/red-cabbage-ph-indicator.htm

 

The video is neat.

 

p

[Anna N]

Do try this at home with or without the green onions.

No photos but both me and my teenage granddaughter have now consumed more calories than is good for either one of us. AND SO DAMNED EASY.

Many adventures today. But need to walk off those potatoes first. Stay tuned.

[andiesenji]

Ah so! But my mind said, "Andie probably has a pressure cooker into which she could fit a whole cow!" Giving you credit for being the Queen of Kitchen Toys.

My electric PC is a 6-quart.  I have been able to stuff a lot of things into it - as long as it doesn't touch the lid or won't touch during cooking, I'm good.  I am very careful to keep the liquid well below the max mark.

 

 

I do have a huge pressure canner but I can no longer lift it even when empty so it lives on the floor in a back corner of my pantry.  It's the biggest one All American made and holds 19 quart jars or 32 pints at full capacity.  I used it on the deck on a propane burner on a short stand (cast iron) that was originally made for a turkey fryer.

 

And I have a couple of regular stove top PCs  8-qt and a 4-qt pressure "skillet" - which I think I used once.  I should give them to the thrift shop but hauling that heavy stuff around is difficult.

Edited September 15, 2015 by andiesenji (log)

[Anna N]

My electric PC is a 6-quart.  I have been able to stuff a lot of things into it - as long as it doesn't touch the lid or won't touch during cooking, I'm good.  I am very careful to keep the liquid well below the max mark.

It just never occurred to me to bend a duck! Pressed duck I have heard of but bent duck....

[Mmmpomps]

Do try this at home with or without the green onions.

No photos but both me and my teenage granddaughter have now consumed more calories than is good for either one of us. AND SO DAMNED EASY.

Many adventures today. But need to walk off those potatoes first. Stay tuned.

 

Anna I was so close to making these to go with the stew I've got on right now! No green onions so this is on my agenda! I'll update later on how my Beef Neck Stew turned out  

Those spuds sound fantastic!

[andiesenji]

It just never occurred to me to bend a duck! Pressed duck I have heard of but bent duck....

I have done a whole turkey breast - just deboned it and divided it into two segments and reversed one so the wide end/broad ends were side by side.

I often debone ducks just for roasting.  I then "stuff" the carcass from the back with whole potatoes and onions and position it on a bed of carrots so it still looks intact.  It always surprises people when I serve it and of course the juices do wonderful things to the vegetables.  So it was second nature to do a partial debone when it needed to be "adjusted."

 

I have always been in the "if it doesn't fit, rearrange the item so it will"  sometimes brute force but usually just some judicial cutting, pounding or? 

I deboned a 7-bone roast that wouldn't fit so I pounded the hell out of it with my batticarne, rolled and tied it and cut the roll in half and put the two pieces side by side in the bottom of the pot. 

Edited September 15, 2015 by andiesenji (log)

[Mmmpomps]

She passed the beef stew test. I had gorgeous beef necks browned along with onions. Pressure cook on high for 10 minutes, waited 10 minutes then release. Added veg carrots, celery, turnip and thin sliced potatoes Herbs and salt. 12 minutes on High 10 minutes then release. Added peas and lightly thickened with coconut flour.

 

Happy, happy, happy:

 

[Anna N]

Mmmmpomps,

Your beef stew looks wonderful. It really is in my opinion something that the Instant Pot should excel at. After I binned all the beef from my Beef Bourguignon, I handed over the gravy and all the lovely vegetables to my adult daughter and she made a feast of them. More and more I am convinced it was the quality of the beef that ruined the dish.

Yesterday, having been defeated by my duck which would not fit into the Instant Pot as per Andie, I jointed it, made duck stock and then sauteed the legs in the IP in some rendered duck fat, added 1/2 cup stock and pressure cooked the legs for 25 minutes. I added nothing else because I wanted to feed my teenage granddaughter and though she likes duck she is still leery of flavors that are even slightly unfamiliar. I made gravy with the defatted liquid, made a great pile of the potatoes I referenced earlier and she was in heaven.

I had come across a reference to using the IP for sous viding duck breasts. Despite an embarrassment of ANOVAs, I briefly flirted with the idea of testing it out. ( I will return and post a link to the specific instructions.) It was apparent, however, after putting water into the IP up to the 7 cup mark and waiting the required 20 minutes or so that there was no way it was going to maintain anything close to 65°C. It was much closer to 70°C which would've ruined any duck breast. Even 65°C is too hot in my opinion. But by studying the instructions carefully I realized the writer was trying to overcome this by chilling the duck breast for two hours and by using a very large breast. It just might work under these very, very limited conditions but it would be a stretch.

So the breasts went into my sous vide bath controlled by one of my Anovas.

Not sure how much time I will have today or tomorrow to play. It doesn't take long for a tiny house to descend into chaos and I would like to keep that at bay for a while!

Edited to add link.

Edited September 15, 2015 by Anna N (log)

[blue_dolphin]

... so I pounded the hell out of it with my batticarne...

 

OK.  I have now increased my vocabulary and I am laughing at myself as well.  Batticarne?  What's this? Some sort of culinary battering ram? 

With all the talk of stew and champ, my mind was in the British Isles and I had visions of andiesenji whaling away at the meat with a big old shillelagh or fierce Scottish war club!  

 

No.  Batticarne = meat pounder.  Just as it says.  If I'd only gone to the romance languages first  .   

[rotuts]

time for mashed potatoes in the IP :

 

cut-up russets.  I like the 5 lb bag of smaller ones as I think the skin adds a lot of flavor.

 

smaller = >skin to potato ratio.

 

 

no mater the size of the initial potato, these are more or less the same size.

 

I use pressure-steam, i.e. the potatoes are above the water.  Im not after potato soup.

 

my mother made superb MP's  I still have her Sunbeam standing mixer in the basement.  very very heavy.

 

in High School I discovered the mixer itself came off the base and became a 10 lbs hand mixer.

 

N.B.:

 

 

this has nothing to do w my mothers mixer.  but its the same color scheme.  I got it because an earlier model that

 

served me very well for 20 years burnt out about 10 years ago.  I got this one not only for the nostalgia, but note the

 

blades :  they are not 'whisk' type blades, which was current then if not now.  those do not do as good a job as these

 

older style blades.

 

a long time ago I used to cut the potatoes smaller and smaller when I boiled them in water until I finally realized much of the

 

potato flavor was going into the water, not the mash.  Heston Blumenthal stuffs his peel in the water for 'extra flavor'

 

I started doing them whole.  takes a bit of time.  so cut-up in the IP on pressure- steam its going to be.

 

these were a fair amount of potatoes.  I noted while working on the TML it takes longer to get to pressure, as there is more

 

mass to heat up.  cooking time at pressure is not that different if there are nooks and crannies for the steam to circulate

 

around.

 

I took the potatoes out, dumped the water, put the potatoes back in the bowl on warm.  I usually try to dry out the potatoes

 

in a hot pan first, then add the room temp butter, mix, then the hot milk.

 

Ill have to look into the sauté fx for the drying out phase next time.  the switch to warm after the mix-up.

 

with a 'tea-towel' to cover and avoid water drips on the waiting mash.  one nice thing about the IP :

 

no gas fire under the pot which Im told can result in a tea-towel fire.

 

very nice MP's  and very easy to do.   would be nicer w a better heavy duty strainer to remove the hot potatoes.

 

the result :

 

 

the final TML dinner is here :

 

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151884-dinner-2015-part-5/page-8

Edited September 15, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[Kerry Beal]

My mother always mashed potatoes with the Mixmaster stand mixer taken off it's base - all 10 lbs of it. Made wonderful mashed spuds!

[rotuts]

that's the one.  it took me longer to realize the mixer came off the stand.

[hummingbirdkiss]

13 pages on the Instant Pot! I wish I could sit and read them all and will!

 

any chance anyone ever fried chicken in this yet? 

 

it was the reason I brought this to the forum …. and I still want to try again  in some form or another 

[Anna N]

13 pages on the Instant Pot! I wish I could sit and read them all and will!

 

any chance anyone ever fried chicken in this yet? 

 

it was the reason I brought this to the forum …. and I still want to try again  in some form or another

Sorry! Lots of things I'm willing to try but using it to deep-fry chicken isn't one of them. I have little doubt that if you were prepared to treat it as you would any deep pan in which you intended to heat oil, it would likely work just fine although regulating the temperature would be challenging. Here I am talking about using it as an open pan (not about putting the lid on and building up a head of steam!). But the limited surface area of the base would tend to discourage me from that idea. It has been decades since I fried chicken but when I did it was either in a very large electric frying pan or in a large cast iron skillet.

[rotuts]

I recall that perhaps

 

 

andiesenji

 

used an electric PC for frying.

 

i dont fry.  no particular reason .

 

but if this could get 1 - 2 " of oil for frying  ..............

[Anna N]

So I finally got around to using the two sweet potatoes that were withering on my counter. I used the Modernist Cuisine @ Home recipe by way of dadcooksdinner.com. Roasted Sweet Potato Puree. It relies on baking soda as a caramelizing catalyst (or does it promote the Maillard reaction?)

The vegetable after 24 minutes at high-pressure.

After being pureed in the Thermomix with some maple syrup and some chipotle chili powder.

My very late lunch.

[rotuts]

Im a very big  fan of the BBC production of Great British Menu.  its now in season 10

 

On the Northern Ireland Week  ( M - Th  three chefs make starter , fish , main, and dessert. one is eliminated so two make the whole meal for the

 

judges on friday )

 

for the Main   i.e. Meats  Chef Danni Berry used pig cheeks but PC'd them as part of her  main dish

 

 

no cheeks my area , but maybe North of the Border ?

 

so AnnaN  : the suet has been dropped !  ( OK sautéed )   Id love to be able to study Cheeks.

Edited September 15, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[Anna N]

Im a very big  fan of the BBC production of Great British Menu.  its now in season 10

 

On the Northern Ireland Week  ( M - Th  three chefs make starter , fish , main, and dessert. one is eliminated so two make the whole meal for the

 

judges on friday )

 

for the Main   i.e. Meats  Chef Danni Berry used pig cheeks but PC'd them as part of her  main dish

 

 

no cheeks my area , but maybe North of the Border ?

 

so AnnaN  : the suet has been dropped !  ( OK sautéed )   Id love to be able to study Cheeks.

I know I have seen them perhaps even as often as I've seen a four-leafed clover in the grass. But I promise to keep my eyes open and if any should appear I will grab them. I am sure there are specialty butchers around who would order them in for me but that would involve bringing in my bank manager and I'm not prepared to do that!

[rotuts]

exactly.  nor am I .

 

maybe be both might find them keeping our eyes peeled.

[Anna N]

exactly.  nor am I .

 

maybe be both might find them keeping our eyes peeled.

Having had a little time to go burrowing into my memory tunnels I recall seeing them in a particular Asian store. In burrowing even further I believe I saw them at Nations in Hamilton. Perhaps when we return from our annual expedition to the farthest reaches next month we might be able to arrange a return visit.

[Kerry Beal]

It was the Korean supermarket - got some in the freezer.

[rotuts]

what's really a surprise to me is that ( some ) meats do very very well in the IP.

 

the BBC only gives you the Rx's of the dishes that win the week.

 

the Pork Wellington had the PC braised cheeks w reductions under the Pork Wellington.

 

that Chef did not win on Friday.

 

but it did look good.

Edited September 15, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[Anna N]

It was the Korean supermarket - got some in the freezer.

I'm speechless.