Instant Pot. Multi-function cooker (Part 4)

[Mmmpomps]

Leftover grits for breakfast. This was an interesting experiment I reheated the grits in a small silver bowl , that worked very well. I made poached eggs in my silicone egg cups. 1 egg was cooked perfect the other egg was too runny. Same size eggs....Manual High pressure 3 minutes and quick release.

[Okanagancook]

Eggs are weird.  Sometimes I have hard boiled eggs done 4 min HP that are variable.  One or two with soft yolks and others solid.

[Mmmpomps]

29 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Eggs are weird.  Sometimes I have hard boiled eggs done 4 min HP that are variable.  One or two with soft yolks and others solid.

 

It must be the eggs themselves. The environment was the same inside the pot. But quite a cooking difference between two eggs.

[Mmmpomps]

I'm really intrigued by the fish dinners in parchment paper. BUT I can't seem to get the timing down pat! My concept is there but the cook time isn't right yet. I browned thinly sliced potatoes to start. Laid that uncooked side up , zucchini slices on top of that, cod, salt and pepper, basil, hot sauce, green onion, lime juice and onions and black olives..6 minutes manual high pressure. I'm thinking I should try the steam setting which is the hottest. It was cooked but JUST. The Man loved it, I want to improve it.

[chromedome]

"Cooked but just..." is ideal, no?

[Anna N]

In the last few days I have twice made rice using the "pot in pot" method and find it very suitable for smaller amounts of rice.  Use the steamer basket or supplied trivet, one cup of water in the inner pot, basmati rice in a ratio of 1 part rice to 2 parts liquid in a suitable container, high pressure, manual 3 mins, let pressure drop on its own. I do rinse and soak my rice.

[ElsieD]

5 hours ago, Anna N said:

In the last few days I have twice made rice using the "pot in pot" method and find it very suitable for smaller amounts of rice.  Use the steamer basket or supplied trivet, one cup of water in the inner pot, basmati rice in a ratio of 1 part rice to 2 parts liquid in a suitable container, high pressure, manual 3 mins, let pressure drop on its own. I do rinse and soak my rice.

 

Anna, I usually cook either 1 cup or 3/4 cup of rice.   Would that amount work using your method or are you talking about lesser amounts?  Also, I often rinse my rice but don't soak it.  How long do you soak it for?   

[Anna N]

18 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Anna, I usually cook either 1 cup or 3/4 cup of rice.   Would that amount work using your method or are you talking about lesser amounts?  Also, I often rinse my rice but don't soak it.  How long do you soak it for?   

I did both.  The second wasn't even quite three quarters of a cup of rice.   I used a 6 inch metal round cake tin the first time and the second time a ceramic bowl.  I usually soak anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour. If time is of the essence then I don't soak but I think I notice a difference. 

[blue_dolphin]

I've also had good success with the pot-in-pot method for small amounts of rice.  For a cup of rice, I use a glass pyrex bowl.  Back in this post, I also tried a small volume (~1/4 cup) of TJ's brown rice medley in a small Corningware dish.  Both containers were placed in the pot uncovered and in both cases, I rinsed, but did not soak the rice, and used an equal volume of rice and water (plus 2 cups of water in the pot) and the same cooking times I use for larger volumes (for this brown rice, I use 23 minutes, manual, high pressure.)  

 

Picture from the old post showing the 1/4 cup rice + water ready to go into the IP on the left and the 1 cup volume already cooked in the pyrex bowl on the right.

Edited September 14, 2016 by blue_dolphin
Because I can't tell right from left (log)

[Mmmpomps]

19 hours ago, chromedome said:

"Cooked but just..." is ideal, no?

For fish yes. It was more the potatoes still had a bit of that raw taste. I love how the meal looks and tastes, I just need to tighten it up a bit

[chromedome]

Ah, gotcha. Makes perfect sense. 

[natasha1270]

On 9/9/2016 at 4:07 PM, Kerry Beal said:

I think I'll hold out for stainless. Will see if I can find a store selling them to check quality.

 

 

@Kerry Beal - I was at The Container Store earlier today and saw some Eco Lunchbox stainless steel bentos that could sub for the flanera and fit in the IP.

[Kerry Beal]

52 minutes ago, natasha1270 said:

@Kerry Beal - I was at The Container Store earlier today and saw some Eco Lunchbox stainless steel bentos that could sub for the flanera and fit in the IP.

Funny - I have one of those - bought for my freeze drier for freeze drying butter - I punched a bunch of slits in the lid so the butter doesn't come flying out. I'll go looking for another one where I found the first one.

[rotuts]

 

0ne doz. Large supermarket eggs, push-pin whole in air sack ,  in basket above 1 cup tap water

 

4 min LP , IR      no green    nice yolk

[Mmmpomps]

Last nights Instant Pot's fail, tonights success! I attempted to make chicken with chow mien noodles (I've never used these before I found them in the refridgerator section. A firm but fresh noodle. Directions said to cook 4 to 5 minutes. So I figured 2 minutes in the IP would do the trick after cooking some chicken thighs , carrots and onions....Well it didn't they were still too hard and I didn't feel like doing any more so we picked up the yummier morsels , had a Caesar (the drink not the salad  ) 
I couldn't toss it out. I thought about making a soup out of it tonight but then decided I'd just fix this up...made some green onion omelet to add, steamed broccoli, sauteed mushrooms and went for another 2 minutes on the noodles. Success   

[Kerry Beal]

On September 13, 2016 at 10:04 PM, Kerry Beal said:

Funny - I have one of those - bought for my freeze drier for freeze drying butter - I punched a bunch of slits in the lid so the butter doesn't come flying out. I'll go looking for another one where I found the first one.

Eco lunch box used as flanara

 

 

 

[rotuts]

Sooo   where do I get one of these ?

[blue_dolphin]

36 minutes ago, rotuts said:

Sooo   where do I get one of these ?

 

You want the pan or the flan? 

[rotuts]

flan.    extra sauce.

[Anna N]

 So I am not totally afraid of using a little elbow grease to clean a pan if needed but on the other hand I'd rather not. I found a lovely stainless steel, deep bowl in a thrift store. It will comfortably hold 6 cups of liquid and still fit inside the instant pot with room to spare.  Armed with this I attempted to make polenta using the bowl in bowl technique.  4 cups of stock, 1 cup of coarse cornmeal into the newly acquired pot, a cup of water into the instant pot to provide the steam and then 15 minutes (HP) with slow release did the trick. No sticking!

[blue_dolphin]

@Anna N, this sounds great!  Scrubbing out the pot wasn't all that bad but I'd rather not do it either.  Plus, it's a waste of whatever sticks.  The IP polenta recipe I used called for bringing the stock to a boil using the sauté function before adding the cornmeal.  What temp was your stock when you added the cornmeal?

Edited September 18, 2016 by blue_dolphin
to add link to recipe (log)

[Anna N]

54 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

@Anna N, this sounds great!  Scrubbing out the pot wasn't all that bad but I'd rather not do it either.  Plus, it's a waste of whatever sticks.  The IP polenta recipe I used called for bringing the stock to a boil using the sauté function before adding the cornmeal.  What temp was your stock when you added the cornmeal?

 

Close to room temp. It might have been a wee bit warmer as I was trying to dissolve a stock cube but it certainly wasn't anywhere close to boiling. 

[GlorifiedRice]

 

^^^Cascade Deep Fryer Boil Out Powder. On Saute for 2 hours and then soaking in Lime Out limescale remover

TADA!

 

 

[Tere]

Cool! Did you figure out what the issue was?

[Mmmpomps]

Its cold, its rainy...Instant Pot beef and mushroom stew really hit the spot...and lunches for tomorrow

I made this last year and pretty much did it the same:

Beef and Mushroom Stew
Stewing beef and short beef ribs with meat and fat
Saute on High in IP and olive oil and remove
Quarter 2 cups of mushrooms in more olive oil and a good handful of dried shitake mushrooms
add 3 cloves chopped garlic
and 1 diced carrot
Note the bottom got very brown so I added some beef stock and scraped up all that goodness
Add 3/4 can of beer
add a celery stalk broke in half you can remove it later
1 tbs thyme
1/3 cup fresh parsely
bay leaf
1 TBS dijon mustard
1 TBS molasses
1/4 cup worstershire sauce
1 TBS tomato paste
Veggie or beef stock to just cover meat
High Pressure for 20 minutes
Quick Release and add three large cubed potatoes and 3 chunked carrots
High Pressure 6 minutes
NR for ten minutes
Turn to high saute and thicken gravy with a flour slurry or leave and just dip crusty bread in the thin broth.