Kyle's Instant Pot Adventures

[akiva]

I like that it's easy to clean--I used it twice last night, first to make beans, then to make arroz con pollo, because I could clean it and reuse it without problem.

[Kyle]

Agreed- the "one pot" aspect of it is great.

[Phoebe]

I haven't worked my way through to Kyle recipes yet but I'm getting there. Made a pasta with tomato sauce and it was a total disaster. Will not be cooking pasta in the instant pot again soon unless someone can vouch for the pre-tested recipe. This is one of those situations where the internet offers too much. Anyway, made the butter chicken and it was good. Four chicken breasts cubed, subbed half and half for the cream and used less butter, and shallots instead of onions. Added ginger paste instead of fresh, and about 2x the spices plus a generous splashing of hot sauce. The recipe as-is has little punch to it so we all wanted a spicier version. Regretfully didn't have an actual hot pepper to sautee in there at the beginning.

Made some version of Dal in similar fashion: pound of dry green lentils, garam masala, garlic, cumin, ginger, hot sauce, tomato sauce base with 32 oz veggie broth and extra water. Thirty min high pressure. Pooped a horrifying green poop after this for two days.

Looking forward to Kyle's vindaloo recipe, and some sort of experiment with garbanzo beans that I dreamt I undertook but I don't think I actually did it!!!

[Kyle]

Made vegan potato curry: https://avirtualvegan.com/vegan-instant ... ato-curry/

This was really good. I normally have a rule that I won't make an indian dish that says to use "curry powder"- I'm one of those snobs that says, buy the spices you want in your curry- not what McCormick's says curry is. But I made an exception for this because: (1) the flood and moving had gotten rid of all my spices; and (2) a friend recommended it to me.

The only substitute I made was taking out the red pepper flakes and instead dicing up two Serrano peppers that I sauteed with the onion. But beware- you need to like hot dishes if you go that route.

The only change I'll make next time is that I'll put together my own curry powder.

[Phoebe]

That looks good. Some pre-made curry spice mixes are pretty darn good - depends what's thrown in there I suppose. I'd like to try that recipe substituting some other root vegetables for the potato, maybe even carrots or something.

[Phoebe]

So I've discovered that the instant pot is really, really good for Indian food and for tough cuts of beef or pork in general. I don't usually want to get it out and mess with it unless it's something that would take too much time to cook on the stovetop or in oven, because I usually want the crusts and roasted textures that form on fish, veggies, chicken, etc and you don't much get that in the instant pot unless you are going way out of your way to make it more complex and difficult, which is contrary to the entire goal.

In general I have found it's better to cut up your meats and use less fluid in the pot than you would think necessary - though there are minimums needed, I seem to be getting better results when I skirt close to the least amount of fluid and chop everything up beforehand so that it rests further into that lower level of fluid.

For Indian food there's a very happy marriage of spices that get briefly sauteed (probably in onion or onion+tomato+pepper) before the pressure cooking, and then a few tangy flavors or fresh herbs sprinkled on afterward (or cream mixed in). Mixing in yogurt or cream after pressure is done seems to produce better texture.

I haven't used the pot long enough to make it financially worth the trouble, but now that I'm better used to it I do think it's a genius kitchen appliance and I am VERY pleased to have it in the arsenal of options.

Next step is trying to figure out what sorts of Italian go well with IP methods.

[Phoebe]

More learning:
The instant pot makes tempering the spices for Indian cuisine much easier. You can do this on saute before you put everything else in to pressure cook. The fresh herbs go on top after you're done. The key was to have certain things like cumin seed and asafoetida, hot pepper, and add in a particular order to oil on saute, prior to setting the instant pot full of the rest of the dish. I am not too fussy about the Indian food having the perfect authentic flavor combination, and I really like my onions sauteed prior to cooking, so I mix it up a little bit and that's fine. Makes it very easy to experiment, and the liquid you want to add is usually some tomato sauce and water. It's like making chili with different spices.

[SumDumTrim]

Kyles Pork Vindaloo us in the pot as I type. It was super easy and smells terrific. Soon we sup!

[akiva]

Does anyone have a good beans and rice recipe? I’d use dried beans and brown rice.

[SumDumTrim]

Review on the pork vindaloo. Deep spicy dish with the perfect creamy potato. Everyone loved it. There were substitutions for some of the crazier spices, but it was delicious!

[SumDumTrim]

[Phoebe]

I cannot get pasta to come out right in the IP, but I really want to try that vindaloo!

[Mike]

[Phoebe]

Does anyone have a good recipe for a potato casserole in the instant pot? Something like scalloped potatoes but with a nice sauce, done in the instant pot? The internet has 5 billion of them but I am looking for one tried and proven.

[Phoebe]

CHICKEN in the instant pot: how do you prevent the fat from separating (also if using broth or oils, butter) and creating disgusting filmy flapules of goop?

I figured out Indian food in the IP, or stews, or some version of shredded meat. It's great for disintegrating meat into a saucy ragu. Anything else I have made lately in IP has sucked. Help! The internet is awash in IP recipes and most I've tried really turn out poorly for me. Not sure why! I hate wasting food - i.e. coming up with three lbs of something ONLY I will choke down to avoid throwing any away.

[Phoebe]

So we ordered takeout pizza, and about $10 worth of ingredients were lost.
Grrrr, instant pot, when it's good it's really really good, but when it's bad it's horrid.

[Kyle]

Have I told y’all about instant pot tofu chili? Y’all. I mean look- I didn’t even know I was a tofu person. But this chili is awesome and tofu makes an amazing meat substitute in it.