Instant Pot. Multi-function cooker (Part 5)

[JAZ]

6 hours ago, Beebs said:

Is there any seafood dish worth doing in the IP (other than seafood stock)? Octopus maybe?

 

Sounds like by the time anything even gets up to pressure, it'll be beyond dead already.

 

While I think fish and shellfish aren't the greatest candidates for pressure cooking, you can make them work with some thought as to timing. When I was working on my pressure cooker books, my editor really wanted me to include some fish recipes, and I was able to come up with several solid recipes. I think the best recipes pair seafood with other ingredients -- for instance, I just tested a recipe for pasta with cherry tomatoes, fennel and salmon, which worked out pretty well. The salmon was a center cut piece about 8 ounces, which I placed on a trivet above the pasta and vegetables. It was a little more done than I would consider ideal, but on the plus side, it cooked in the same time as the pasta and veg, so in about 15 minutes, we had dinner on the table. I count that as a win.

[weedy]

It's a great tool for making cat food...

 

otherwise, I'd rather my seafood not be steam cremated

[Tropicalsenior]

18 hours ago, JAZ said:

The salmon was a center cut piece about 8 ounces, which I placed on a trivet above the pasta

Was the salmon fresh or frozen? And if it was fresh do you think it would have done better frozen?

[JAZ]

15 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Was the salmon fresh or frozen? And if it was fresh do you think it would have done better frozen?

 

It was fresh. I would guess that frozen would work better; the fresh salmon was just a touch overdone by the time the pasta was ready. I broke up the salmon with a fork and stirred it back in with the pasta, so if a frozen chunk wasn't quite done, it could finish cooking then.

[Tropicalsenior]

8 minutes ago, JAZ said:

 

It was fresh. I would guess that frozen would work better; the fresh salmon was just a touch overdone by the time the pasta was ready. I broke up the salmon with a fork and stirred it back in with the pasta, so if a frozen chunk wasn't quite done, it could finish cooking then.

BTY, my grandson has your cookbook in hand and will bring it to me in the spring. I'm very much looking forward to it!

[Kerry Beal]

 

You may remember I got this lovely smoked turkey drumstick from Brandt Meats when I was at the Restaurant Show. 

 

 

Stripped the meat off, made stock with the bone and skin. Some fabulous Rancho Gordo Royal Corona beans for 25 minutes, then 3 minutes with the meat, carrots and onion. 

 

 

Added some cooked rice to hubbies bowl.

 

 

Bit of instant mash for the rug rat so her table tray wouldn't wear all the liquid. 

 

 

As intended for myself. 

[Anna N]

I am in mourning.  My mini is non compos mentis. 

 

 I was showing my daughter how the Instant Pot works since she wants to start making soups and stews. I had just put a new gasket into the mini. When it reached pressure it started expelling steam at the same rate as you would expect if you were doing a quick release. I thought perhaps I had gasket in wrong in some way.  I checked and the gasket seemed properly seated and so I tried again. The same thing happened. It began expelling steam immediately it reached pressure. So I thought perhaps there was something wrong with the replacement gasket and since the other gasket was still perfectly good I put it back in to see if that might be the problem. No. Exactly the same thing happened. I have contacted the company and I have been given a support ticket number by email and will now wait and see what transpires. I will report back but I am devastated. I had planned on using it tonight for the pork chop which I have posted about in the dinner thread. I had to do it using the stove and the oven. 

 

 Even worse I lent my 6 quart Instant Pot to my daughter so now I am without any working Instant Pots.  How on earth will I cope with only three ovens, three sous vide units, a microwave, two stovetop pressure cookers.....  The horror!

 

[kayb]

Damn, roughing it is difficult.

 

[lindag]

Did you have the valve in the right position for PC?

Don't laugh, that happened to me.

[Anna N]

36 minutes ago, lindag said:

Did you have the valve in the right position for PC?

Don't laugh, that happened to me.

Yes I did!   As I said I was teaching my daughter so it was imperative that I walk her through all the proper steps. 

[Smithy]

My best friend and I just spent 3 days putting the Instant Pot Mini through its paces.  She was trying to decide whether she wanted one.  We cooked rice. We cooked pork chops.  We cooked an enchilada casserole.  We pressure-cooked.  We sauteed.  We slow cooked.  We made one-pot meals for the two of us, and ended up with leftovers every time.  One evening's leftover rice became the basis for a lovely lunch rice dish with shaved red cabbage, diced chicken breast, parsley, sunflower seeds and Indian (Mexican) lime pickle. That rice dish was beautiful, and I wish I'd snapped a photo.  For some reason I only snapped one food photo during our visit.  This is of the first night's dinner, a coconut-lemon chicken bowl, based on @ElsieD's adaptation of a dish from the Cooking Light Diet.  We had to make a few adjustments for missing ingredients - lemon rather than lemongrass, for instance - but it was very good. 

 

 

My friend is pretty sure she's going to buy an IP, but she still needs to decide on size - the Mini or the next size up - and version (Lux, Duo, Ultra).  Unlike me she loathes clutter and is appropriately disciplined about getting rid of 1 or 2 things when she adds something new. She won't be owning more than one!

[Anna N]

I did manage to get my 6 quart back from my daughter before she went off on a girly weekend. I made the chicken korma from the Indian Instant Pot Cookbook by Urvashi Pitre.  I do a lot of Indian cooking so I had all the spices and I make my own garam masala. The ingredient list looks very long really it’s just a bunch of spices. The recipe comes together very quickly. You make the sauce in the blender, pour it into the Instant Pot, top it with a pound of boneless skinless chicken and cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. Before finishing you add some coconut milk, some tomato paste and some more garam masala.  Really it was one of the speedier Indian recipes that I have ever made and I still came up with a very tasty result.  No photo because it went directly into a container to go over to my daughter's house when she gets back from her weekend. 

[lindag]

21 minutes ago, Anna N said:

I did manage to get my 6 quart back from my daughter before she went off on a girly weekend. I made the chicken korma from the Indian Instant Pot Cookbook by Urvashi Pitre.  I do a lot of Indian cooking so I had all the spices and I make my own garam masala. The ingredient list looks very long really it’s just a bunch of spices. The recipe comes together very quickly. You make the sauce in the blender, pour it into the Instant Pot, top it with a pound of boneless skinless chicken and cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. Before finishing you add some coconut milk, some tomato paste and some more garam masala.  Really it was one of the speedier Indian recipes that I have ever made and I still came up with a very tasty result.  No photo because it went directly into a container to go over to my daughter's house when she gets back from her weekend. 

Any word from the mfr. about the mini pot problem?

Edited March 3, 2018 by lindag (log)

[Anna N]

29 minutes ago, lindag said:

Any word from the mfr. about the mini pot problem?

 Not yet and I’m getting antsy. 

[rotuts]

they have a very responsive 800 ##  ( USA ? ) and were very helpful and polite when I called them early on

 

now that they've sold a Bazillion Zillion 

 

 

and its the week-end.

 

try Mon. if no result.

[lindag]

I have this weird issue with my mini, the little plastic drip cup doesn't fit its mount and won't stay on.

Not a big deal because there hasn't been any output to it yet.  Nothing to get worked up about.

[FauxPas]

1 hour ago, lindag said:

I have this weird issue with my mini, the little plastic drip cup doesn't fit its mount and won't stay on.

Not a big deal because there hasn't been any output to it yet.  Nothing to get worked up about.

 

I had a heck of a time getting mine on, too! And then I saw something in the instructions somewhere that showed a diagram of bending it a certain way. Wait, here's a photo from p 12 of the manual, which suggested to me that I had to pinch the top of the cup together before pushing it into place. Even so, it was awkward. But I got it on there. 

 

Did anyone else have this problem? 

 

[lindag]

2 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

 

I had a heck of a time getting mine on, too! And then I saw something in the instructions somewhere that showed a diagram of bending it a certain way. Wait, here's a photo from p 12 of the manual, which suggested to me that I had to pinch the top of the cup together before pushing it into place. Even so, it was awkward. But I got it on there. 

 

Did anyone else have this problem? 

 

 

So I needed to read the manual?  Go figure.  

[FauxPas]

1 minute ago, lindag said:

So I needed to read the manual?  Go figure.  

 

But first let us know if that even makes any difference, because I still had a hard time!   

[Smithy]

My friend who's deciding on which IP to get has a question.  Would someone who has the DUO 5-quart please take the lid off and measure the height of the pot alone and report it here?  I'd appreciate it if someone who has the DUO 6-quart did the same thing, mostly because the 5-quart and 6-quart seem to be the same height and the 5-quart seems fairly rare. The issue is whether the 5-quart will fit in the designated shelf space.  My mini did, but the lid had to come off.

 

Oh, and once you're measured it, please report the number here. 

[Anna N]

15 minutes ago, Smithy said:

h, and once you're measured it, please report the number here. 

For the 6 qt I get 9 1/4”. 

[FauxPas]

36 minutes ago, Smithy said:

My friend who's deciding on which IP to get has a question.  Would someone who has the DUO 5-quart please take the lid off and measure the height of the pot alone and report it here?  I'd appreciate it if someone who has the DUO 6-quart did the same thing, mostly because the 5-quart and 6-quart seem to be the same height and the 5-quart seems fairly rare. The issue is whether the 5-quart will fit in the designated shelf space.  My mini did, but the lid had to come off.

 

Oh, and once you're measured it, please report the number here. 

 

With the inner (cooking pot) in or not? The cooking (liner) pot extends higher than the outer pot alone. It's close to 9 3/4 inches for my 6 quart DUO with the liner pot inside. 

[Smithy]

24 minutes ago, Anna N said:

For the 6 qt I get 9 1/4”. 

 

2 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

 

With the inner (cooking pot) in or not? The cooking (liner) pot extends higher than the outer pot alone. It's close to 9 3/4 inches for my 6 quart DUO with the liner pot inside. 

 

Thanks for the quick responses! I'm pretty sure she wants to be able to leave the inner pot in place and just put the lid somewhere else.  Anna, is that 9 1/4" with or without the inner pot? If with, then we'll have an idea of the variability.

[Anna N]

1 minute ago, Smithy said:

Anna, is that 9 1/4" with or without the inner pot? If with, then we

 That is without the inner pot which is in the dishwasher at the moment. 

[lindag]

1 hour ago, FauxPas said:

 

But first let us know if that even makes any difference, because I still had a hard time!   

 

Wentto try it but now Incan't find the darned thing!  Did I throw it away?  It's possible.