Instant Pot. Multi-function cooker (Part 5)

[ElsieD]

Me three on the beets in the IP.  

[Tropicalsenior]

Last night I made bean soup in the instant pot. I was able to get some nice fresh beans from my little Chinese market and a nice big chunk of smoked pork from their butcher shop. To that I added every little bit of ham, chicharrones and sausage that I had lurking in the freezer, seasoned it with lots of celery, oregano, cumin, smoked paprika and a little bit of chili powder. I missed being able to add onions and garlic but in my house that's strictly a no no. The whole the whole thing cooked in 7 minutes. Since I can get just about every kind of fresh being here, I've pretty much stopped using dried beans. Fresh beans don't split as much and the texture is always creamy.

Beans in the pot.

 Ready for the table.

Served with corn muffins and fresh pineapple.

[Smithy]

That looks delicious, @Tropicalsenior, and very festive!  I've never thought of adding avocado to a bean soup.  it looks like a nice touch.

[chileheadmike]

Chile Colorado.  I tried to steam the chiles on the rack, but that didn't work. I put them in the water and put the rack on top to keep them submerged.  Diced country style pork ribs and roasted the bones. Made stock. Next day I browned the meat in saute, and added onion garlic and a little diced celery.  Then the Chile pasta and stock. 

[Tropicalsenior]

 Thanks, @chileheadmikeThat looks absolutely delicious. Were the Chile's ancho's? Just a small tip, my daughter-in-law's mother is Mexican and she puts them in a blender with boiling water and then weighs them down with a glass of hot water. When when they cool down, she purees them.

Edited February 16, 2018 by Tropicalsenior
addition (log)

[weedy]

Yep. That’s the Mex Chile trick. 

Not just with Anchos. 

Usually I toast them on a hot comal first. 

Then press them under hot water (usually I throw a plate on them in a bowl of hot water). Then purée. Sometimes you don’t want to use any of the soaking water ,if it’s bitter, and usually you don’t want all of it. 

[chileheadmike]

1 hour ago, Tropicalsenior said:

 Thanks, @chileheadmikeThat looks absolutely delicious. Were the Chile's ancho's? Just a small tip, my daughter-in-law's mother is Mexican and she puts them in a blender with boiling water and then weighs them down with a glass of hot water. When when they cool down, she purees them.

 

Thanks. I was a kitchen manager for a Mexican restaurant for several years. We used Anchos and soaked them over night and then ran them through a sausage grinder. Worked well for the volume we needed.

 

I used anchos, guajillos, and a home grown and smoked chipotle.  I think I did 5 minutes in the Instant Pot and then blended with some of the water, then strained. 

[Tropicalsenior]

Has anyone else tried to make a cake in their IP? Was it successful and what recipe did you use? Here is my pathetic first attempt from yesterday. I looked through tens of recipes trying to find one that I thought would work to use up some apples that I had and I obviously picked the wrong one.  It didn't seem to have enough baking powder, but the author of The Blog had several others on her site and none of them seem to have much leavening. I thought maybe that might be because it's the way the pressure cooker works.

The top half has something resembling a crumb but the bottom half can only be described as a type of sludge. Fortunately the flavor was good and with the help of some good caramel sauce and whipped cream it was edible. If anyone has had some success please let me know.

[Dave the Cook]

@Tropicalsenior, have you seen this cake @Anna N made?

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, Dave the Cook said:

@Tropicalsenior, have you seen this cake @Anna N made?

Thank you, Dave. I went to the site and the cake is beautiful. She mentioned that it was from a Kindle cookbook from one of our members and unfortunately I don't have a Kindle and the Kindle app cannot be downloaded in Costa Rica. No reason, they just won't do it. I know it's unethical for her to give out recipe from a private cookbook but perhaps if I send her a PM she can give me some basic instructions.

[Tropicalsenior]

On 2/16/2018 at 2:49 PM, Smithy said:

That looks delicious, @Tropicalsenior, and very festive!  I've never thought of adding avocado to a bean soup.  it looks like a nice touch.

Thank you, I have a friend whose avocado tree is still producing. It's very late for that here and we're taking advantage of it by putting avocado in everything we can think of.

[JAZ]

41 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Thank you, Dave. I went to the site and the cake is beautiful. She mentioned that it was from a Kindle cookbook from one of our members and unfortunately I don't have a Kindle and the Kindle app cannot be downloaded in Costa Rica. No reason, they just won't do it. I know it's unethical for her to give out recipe from a private cookbook but perhaps if I send her a PM she can give me some basic instructions.

 

That recipe is from my book, and my publisher has said it's fine if I give out the occasional recipe. So here you go. I will add that a couple of people have mentioned that the cake doesn't seem quite done in the time I used, so especially if you use a smaller diameter pan, you might want to add a minute or two to the cooking time. Also, use your manufacturer's recommendation for the amount of water necessary to steam -- some require more than 1 cup.

 

Edited to add that pressure cooked cakes do tend to be pretty dense -- more so than oven baked cakes. But they are very moist, so they keep well.

 

Browned Butter Apple Spice Cake

 

 

6 tablespoons butter

1 egg

1 cup Greek yogurt

⅓ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cardamom

1 medium apple, peeled and diced

¼ cup powdered sugar

1 cup water for steaming

 

1.      Brown the butter. Place the butter in a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Melt the butter and continue to cook until the milk solids begin to brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Measure out 3 tablespoons and set the rest aside.

2.      Prepare the pan. Lightly butter a 6- or 7-inch spring form pan (or cake pan with a removable bottom).

3.      Make the batter. In a medium bowl, stir together 3 tablespoons browned butter, the egg, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and cardamom, and add to the wet ingredients. Stir just until combined. Stir in the diced apple. Pour into the prepared pan.

4.      Pressure cook the cake. Add 1 cup water to the Instant Pot. Place a trivet with handles in the pot and place the pan on top (if your trivet doesn’t have handles, use a foil sling to make removing the bowl easier). Place a piece of aluminum foil over the pan to keep water from leaking in. Lock the lid into place. Select Manual; adjust the pressure to High and the time to 18 minutes. When cooking is complete, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then manually release any remaining pressure. Unlock the lid.

5.      Finish the cake. Remove the pan from the Instant Pot. Remove the foil. Let the cake cool for 5 to 10 minutes, then remove the sides of the pan. Let cool for another 10 minutes. Reheat the remaining browned butter if it’s solidified, and drizzle over the cake. Dust with the powdered sugar.

 

Edited February 19, 2018 by JAZ
Edited to add comment (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

@JAZThank you! That is so kind of you and I do appreciate it. The cake that @Anna Nmade is beautiful. Your recipe makes much more sense to me. The recipe that I used called for 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder to one and a half cups of flour. I should have known better but I tried it anyway. I will be going out to buy some more apples tomorrow and I will let you know how it turns out.

[Tropicalsenior]

 My IP certainly got a workout yesterday. I have a guest coming tomorrow for a weeks visit and I thought I would get some desserts done. I made an orange bread pudding, New York cheesecake and @JAZ's apple cake.

The flavor is amazing and the texture was good. I made it in a 7  1/2 in. springform pan because my 6 inch pan already had a cheesecake in it. Next time that I make it, I will make it in the smaller pan.

And I will make it again, it is good. We ate almost half of it last night. Thank you, Jaz.

It's a good thing that dinner was a light tortilla soup, also from the IP. Made with some cooked chicken breast from the freezer (cooked last week in the IP). It took 30 minutes, start to finish.

Edited February 20, 2018 by Tropicalsenior
addition (log)

[ElsieD]

2 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

 My IP certainly got a workout yesterday. I have a guest coming tomorrow for a weeks visit and I thought I would get some desserts done. I made an orange bread pudding, New York cheesecake and @JAZ's apple cake.

The flavor is amazing and the texture was good. I made it in a 7  1/2 in. springform pan because my 6 inch pan already had a cheesecake in it. Next time that I make it, I will make it in the smaller pan.

And I will make it again, it is good. We ate almost half of it last night. Thank you, Jaz.

It's a good thing that dinner was a light tortilla soup, also from the IP. Made with some cooked chicken breast from the freezer (cooked last week in the IP). It took 30 minutes, start to finish.

 

 

For how long did you cook the cake?

[Tropicalsenior]

41 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

how long did you cook the cake?

That's a rather long story. First, I don't have a true IP. Mine is a Chinese knockoff that does everything that the IP does.

I haven't noticed on any of the recipes that I have tried for the IP that there is any difference in the cooking time but I can't guarantee that. I made the cake today, again, this time in a 7 inch pan instead of the 8 that I used yesterday.

Here are my cooking times. The first one I did at 18 minutes and it was still raw in the middle so I put it back in for 2 minutes more and it was perfect. Since the other one today was thicker, I put it in for 20 minutes and it wasn't done in the middle, so, I put it in for 2 minutes more and it was perfect. The difference from the recipe could have been because of my knock-off cooker or it could have been because of altitude. I am at about 4500 ft. I will definitely keep using this recipe. Because, the taste is fantastic and this one seems to be light and airy, (I haven't cut into it yet) and even though my IP is a knockoff off, I wouldn't be without it

Edited February 20, 2018 by Tropicalsenior
Editing correction (log)

[Beebs]

Feeling under the weather the last couple days, so congee was in order. I meant to use 1 cup of rice, but in my cold-induced haze, I threw in 2 cups of rice. Oops. Came out like tar. 

 

Anyway, kabocha pumpkin, store-bought chicken broth & ginger. Used the Porridge setting. Had to add another 4 cups or so of liquid to the tar and simmered it on the Saute for a few extra mins.

[weinoo]

Anyone see this?

 

 

Quote

 

Dear Valued Customers,

We have received a small number of reports of the Gem 65 8-in-1 Multicooker overheating, resulting in localized melting damage to the underside of the product. We believe the problem only affects batchcodes 1728, 1730, 1731, 1734, and 1746. To verify the 4-digit batchcode, locate the silver label on the underside of the product. The batchcode is the 4-digit number located at the bottom right of the label. We want you to know that we take any problem with our products extremely seriously as safety and quality are our primary concern, and we are working cooperatively with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

We anticipate providing updated information and next steps regarding receiving a replacement Gem 65 8-in-1 Multicooker within the next few weeks. In the meantime, we are asking all our customers with a Gem 65 8-in-1 Multicooker from batchcodes 1728, 1730, 1731, 1734, and 1746 to immediately stop use of the product.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Care team at 1.800.828.7280 x2. We are truly sorry for the inconvenience.

 

 

[rotuts]

interesting

 

it looks like a ' slow cooker '

 

I didn't know iP made one.

[ElsieD]

I'd never heard of this until weinoo's post.

[lindag]

I see that Amazon now has the glass lid sized for the IP Mini that I've been waiting for!

Don't know if it's available for shipping to Canada.

[FauxPas]

16 minutes ago, lindag said:

I see that Amazon now has the glass lid sized for the IP Mini that I've been waiting for!

Don't know if it's available for shipping to Canada.

 

I had to wait a bit to get the lid after I bought the pot. I bought the Mini on December 18 and ordered the lid at the same time, but had to wait until early January to receive the lid. I hope you didn't have to wait too long! 

 

[FauxPas]

On 2/23/2018 at 6:58 AM, weinoo said:

Anyone see this?

 

I saw this model on the Instant Pot site when I was looking for glass lids, but lost interest when I saw it doesn't pressure cook. 

 

I like the Washington Post article, Everyone Take a Deep Breath, Your Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Has Not Been Recalled

 

[lindag]

36 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

 

I had to wait a bit to get the lid after I bought the pot. I bought the Mini on December 18 and ordered the lid at the same time, but had to wait until early January to receive the lid. I hope you didn't have to wait too long! 

 

 

Since I’m usually cooking for just one, I use my mini lots more than my 6-qt. IP.  So the lid for the mini will be really useful for all those times I use it to steam and slow cook.  Love the smaller footprint of the mini.

[Anna N]

Mark Bittman has adopted the Instant Pot. Here are his recipes for soup, ribs, shrimp and choucroute garni.