Instant Pot. Multi-function cooker (Part 4)

[Okanagancook]

When I cook wild rice I soak it for one hour before cooking.  If one did this before mixing with the other types of rice the amount of water and cooking time could be reduced.

[Anna N]

46 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

When I cook wild rice I soak it for one hour before cooking.  If one did this before mixing with the other types of rice the amount of water and cooking time could be reduced.

But that would mean pulling out all the wild rice grains even before they had on their life vests! Do you know how long that might take!  This was Lundberg wild rice blend. 

[Okanagancook]

Oh, a premixed blend.  Sorry, then my idea sucks. 

[Mmmpomps]

9 hours ago, Shelby said:

Well, you did far better than I did on the rice.  LMAO re the life vests.  

 

I thought I recognized that chicken

 

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

Oh, a premixed blend.  Sorry, then my idea sucks. 

No worries.  I was quite amused by the idea of trying to pick out just the wild rice and put it aside.  I've done sillier things. 

[chromedome]

I've actually done that.

 

The wild rice in the Lundberg blend I've used was unusually thin, and I suspect it was culled from their regular wild-rice product specifically because it was undersized and would therefore cook decently in the same time as brown or red rice. Other blends I've purchased used normal-sized wild rice, which was still crunchy when the rest was done. It actually doesn't take very long to sort out the wild rice from the mixture; then I just started the wild rice 15 minutes ahead of the rest. It worked out. 

 

Eventually I realized that the blends were quite pricey relative to the cost of the respective ingredients, so I started making my own. I still start the wild rice first. 

[blue_dolphin]

On 9/18/2016 at 11:12 AM, Anna N said:

 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!

I finally got around to trying this pot-in-pot method and made a baby batch in a 1 qt pyrex bowl.  1/2 cup coarse corn grits + 2 cups of water + 1/4 t salt + ~ 1t butter.  15 min manual, high pressure, slow release.  

Perfect - no need to soak or scrape the pot!  Thank you, @Anna N!

 

[kayb]

Made my first IP risotto tonight, from the Hip Pressure Cooking recipe. I sauteed onions, toasted rice, added more wine than called for (somewhere between a third and a half a cup), and then went 2:1 liquid:rice. 5 minutes at high pressure, about 5 minutes regular release then quick release for the remainder. Stirred in the parmesan and added a couple tablespoons of butter, because, well, butter.

 

Perfect doneness on the rice -- just the tiniest bit al dente. Not quite as creamy as stovetop risotto, but I didn't stand there stirring it for 45 minutes, either.

 

On another IP topic -- when I make yogurt, I always have a thin layer of milk solids stuck to the bottom of the pot. I can get rid of it by soaking and then scraping/scrubbing....but I've learned I can also get rid of it by filling the pot about 1/3 full with water, adding a squirt of automatic dishwasher detergent, and setting it to the saute function until the auto timer runs out. The pot just rinses out.

 

[rotuts]

on Oct 14 I posted making a simple turkey ragu w ground turkey , some bacon some cream w the meat so it ( might not ) get tough and a jar of your

 

favorite marina    the IP the lot for 20 HP , NR 

 

I froze the ragu into blocks and vacpacked them

 

I thawed one out and made this :

 

 

 

it was very easy and much tastier than TJ's  Fz Turkey Ragu.

 

[kayb]

 

Maiden voyage at using the IP to make chicken noodle soup.

 

 

In a flash of serendipity, I discovered that the small colander that came with my recent set of mixing bowls fits perfectly in the IP. And it has little handles so it can be lifted out. I put it in the pot, filled with about half a roast chicken still on the bone, added water, and cooked it at low pressure for 20 minutes. Lifted the colander, with chicken carcass, out; added carrots and onion to the stock and let that cook for 10 minutes medium pressure while I pulled meat off the chicken bones.

 

Seasoned the broth and veggies with some cumin, coriander and cinnamon; added the cut-up chicken and eight ounces of egg noodles. Cooked on the "soup" setting for four minutes. Noodles were perfect doneness; alas, the seasoning profile lacked something. Quite a bit, actually. I doctored it with hot sauce and some salt, which helped, but I would have been better served to have stayed with plain old salt and pepper.

 

Live and learn.

 

[rotuts]

HB Eggs   18 , PushPin whole in the air sac , from the refrigerator , supermarket generics :

 

 

3 min LP , IR      basket into cold tap water  basket moved up and down for a bit

 

which resulted in one egg cracking as its air-sac was on the side    you can see the R side of this egg is flat,  thats where the air sac was.

 

so I chopped it in half.   it did not get time to get to cold refrig temp  which probably aids peeling

 

I like this sort of yolk.

Edited November 19, 2016 by rotuts (log)

[ElsieD]

Last night's dinner was cooked entirely in the Instant Pot.  We had lamb shanks, polenta and beets.  A bit of a yellow looking plate.  Usually I like a green vegetable with this but we didn't have any at hand so beets it was.  I cooked the polenta using the pot-in-pot method advocated by @Anna N and @blue_dolphin.   The polenta cooked up nicely,  without sticking although next time I will decrease the stock a but as we like it thicker. 

[rotuts]

the 3 min LP , IR eggs are a bit more difficult to peel the next day than 4 min LP eggs.

 

if you take the time to get under the shells inner membrane at the start , you will be fine

 

best HB egg Ive had.  yolk is not nearly as dry , but still loves a Glop of Mayp

[Shelby]

22 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Last night's dinner was cooked entirely in the Instant Pot.  We had lamb shanks, polenta and beets.  A bit of a yellow looking plate.  Usually I like a green vegetable with this but we didn't have any at hand so beets it was.  I cooked the polenta using the pot-in-pot method advocated by @Anna N and @blue_dolphin.   The polenta cooked up nicely,  without sticking although next time I will decrease the stock a but as we like it thicker. 

This is beautiful, Elsie.  Looks just like a magazine picture!

1 minute ago, rotuts said:

the 3 min LP , IR eggs are a bit more difficult to peel the next day than 4 min LP eggs.

 

if you take the time to get under the shells inner membrane at the start , you will be fine

 

best HB egg Ive had.  yolk is not nearly as dry , but still loves a Glop of Mayp

I just did a whole bunch of eggs, too.  Peeled one while it was still warm.  The middle wasn't quite set.  Sooooo good.  

 

I'm making a lot of HB eggs these days for my dog.  They are nice and soft for her mouth.

[blue_dolphin]

I posted a polenta-crusted quiche over in the breakfast thread but I thought I'd mention the crust here since the IP made it super easy.  You do need a fresh batch of polenta since it has to be shaped before it sets up.  Pre-IP, I would never bother stirring a batch of polenta on the stove just for this.

I cooked half a cup of polenta with 1.75 cups of water + 1/2 t salt + ~1 t butter in the IP with the @Anna N pot-in-pot method, 15 min high pressure, slow release.  

I poured the polenta into a greased 9.5 inch pyrex pie pan and used a silicone spatula to spread it across the bottom and up the sides.  Once it cooled, I used lightly oiled fingertips to even things out.  Here's the crust, pre-bake:

 

I baked it at 400 deg F in a convection until the rim just started to brown lightly.  I forgot to note the exact time but it was in the 20 - 30 min range.

I took 2 steps to avoid a leaky crust.  Not sure if they were necessary.  First, I gave the baked crust an egg wash and put it back in the oven for 1-2 min to set the egg.  Then I sprinkled the bottom with about 2 T of grated parmesan cheese and returned it to the oven for a couple more min,  until it melted and started to brown.  Then I followed my usual quiche protocol with grated cheese, filling and custard.

 

The outer top rim turned out crisp (needed a sharp knife to cut), the bottom and sides were crisp before I filled it but after baking it softened up. It still holds together well enough to slice and serve without falling apart.  That little layer of parm might be helping stabilize the bottom. 

You can see that thin layer of browned cheese just above the bottom crust in the photo above.

 

[Anna N]

You must have read my mind. I was very curious how you made it. So thanks for sharing. 

[ElsieD]

Just bought a second Instant Pot on Amazon.Com for $49.00 U.S. 

[Mmmpomps]

Instant pot duo 7 in 1 is on sale in Canada right now :https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00FLYWNYQ  84.99. I heard Amazon.com is putting it on sale at 3 am EST. 

[blue_dolphin]

3 hours ago, Mmmpomps said:

Instant pot duo 7 in 1 is on sale in Canada right now :https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00FLYWNYQ  84.99. I heard Amazon.com is putting it on sale at 3 am EST. 

 

Yep.  It's $68.95 a Black Friday deal of the day, on now.

Edited November 25, 2016 by blue_dolphin (log)

[ElsieD]

I ended up cancelling the IP from Amazon.com and got the one from Amazon.ca instead.  Only cost me a few bucks more plus it is the same size as the one I already have so all the extras fit both pots.

[chefmd]

Chickpeash pre soaked, 20 minutes high pressure.

 

[jmolinari]

Just got my IP, is it me, or is it pretty dumb that the electronic display doesn't show if the pot is under pressure after the cook cycle is completed? Clearly the sensor is there, it could just display "Hi" rather than me having to walk over to see if the metal weight dropped.

am i missing something?

[rotuts]

its easy enough to get used to.  I can hear the sensor drop or there are a combination of sounds at the time the sensor drops.

[blue_dolphin]

15 minutes ago, jmolinari said:

Just got my IP, is it me, or is it pretty dumb that the electronic display doesn't show if the pot is under pressure after the cook cycle is completed? Clearly the sensor is there, it could just display "Hi" rather than me having to walk over to see if the metal weight dropped.

am i missing something?

I see your point, though it's never bothered me.

Over on Serious Eats, Kenji gives the nod to the Breville model that displays the info you want, along with additional info.  With my nearsighted eyes, I'd need to get closer to read the display than to see the IP sensor has dropped  .   And it's more than twice the price but if it's important to you, it may be the way to go.

[Anna N]

25 minutes ago, jmolinari said:

Just got my IP, is it me, or is it pretty dumb that the electronic display doesn't show if the pot is under pressure after the cook cycle is completed? Clearly the sensor is there, it could just display "Hi" rather than me having to walk over to see if the metal weight dropped.

am i missing something?

Never occured to me. I either do a quick release as soon as the time is up or a slow release after 10 mins in which case I may have to vent any remaining steam.