Here are 10 things that I now only make with my instant pot not because it takes less time (which it usually does) but the end product is delicious, and I don't have to babysit a boiling pot during the cooking process.
1. Hard/Soft Boiled Eggs
For hard or soft "boiled" eggs, place the eggs on the trivet, pour a cup of water into the pot, close and seal the lid and then press MANUAL. Adjust the time to 2 minutes. If you want hard boiled eggs, just do a natural release and let the eggs cool. If you want soft boiled eggs, natural release for 3 minutes, and then release the valve to to a quick release. Water bath the eggs and you'll have a soft, semi runny yolk. Yum! Oh, and these eggs will be so easy to peel!
In the picture below, I let allowed a 5 minute natural release so that the yolks are cooked a bit more, but not fully hard.
I've had tremendous success cooking regular boxed pasta with McSteamy. The guideline to follow is 1 cup of water for every 4 oz of dry pasta. Add a splash of cooking oil to prevent foaming, generous pinch of salt for flavor. Manual cook for 4 minutes on high pressure. When the timer is up, I usually let it sit for a few minutes before quick release. I once released it immediately after the timer went off, but there was liquid spewing out of the steam release everywhere. The texture of the pasta was unaffected, but I just had more clean up to do.
You may see a bit of water when you first open the pot, but in a few minutes, the liquid gets absorbed by the pasta and you have perfectly cooked al dente pasta. From here on out, you can actually make a very simple and yummy mac and cheese with evaporated milk, mustard and shredded cheese. No need to make a roux, everything just melts together so nicely.
3. Make Yogurt
My kids went through yogurt like it was going out of style. I started making my own yogurt with a traditional yogurt incubator, but since McSteamy came into my life, you never go back.
The great thing about McSteamy is that he will boil your milk for you. Gone are the days of me standing over a pot of milk, waiting for it to boil, stirring and watching to prevent scorching or bubbling over. The rest of the process is the same as any yogurt maker. This is what I do...
I use half gallon of Kirkland Organic Whole Milk. Cover with a glass lid, press YOGURT, ADJUST until the screen reads boIL. Wait for the beep and then turn the machine off. I usually put a lid over the pot and let it cool for 2 hours before I come back for the next step.
Then I add about a heaping Tablespoon of my yogurt starter to the pot and I whisk it until I don't see anymore lumps. I start with White Mountain Bulgarian Yogurt, which is more tart than your standard yogurt, but the good thing about it is that they use an heirloom strand of bacteria, so you can continue to use the previous batch as a starter. The longest I've gone was 6 months. If you use a regular store brand like Dannon, you may be able to make yogurt 2-3 times before you have to buy new starter.
I then pour the yogurt mixture into glass jars, clean the pot, and put the jars back into the pot, put the glass cover over it and press YOGURT again. Adjust the time to your desired incubation period (I usually go 18 hours) and when the time is up, put a lid on the jars and place the jars in the fridge for 3 hours before you eat it. You can also strain the yogurt to make a thicker greek yogurt, but my kids are not a big fan of the thick greek yogurt, probably because they are used to the stuff that we make at home.
As for the containers, I like to use mason jars, old applesauce jars, and little baby food jars. You can also incubate the yogurt directly in the pot, but I like having little jars around to enjoy in batches.
Set the corn on a trivet, pour 1 cup of water into the pot. Press STEAM adjust the time to 3 minutes, and then quick release. Perfectly cooked corn. If you want to grill the corn a bit, I would do 2 minutes and then grill. No waiting for water to boil, easy peasy. I find that I can cook about 4-5 ears of corn at a time, depending on whether or not I snap the corn in half.
Some bloggers have recommended cooking the corn in butter and milk, and swear by it, but corn has been so yummy recently, I just like them plain, with a little bit of seasoned salt.
Take whatever recipe that you would use for a roast and cook it as directed. I like to sear the meat directly in McSteamy and then cook it using the MEAT/STEW function at half the time the recipe calls for. It is super important to let the steam naturally release at the end of the cooking cycle, otherwise you end up with meat that is a bit on the dry side.
I usually chill the meat and then slice it cold. Then I heat it back up in the jus that it cooked in.
Gone are the days of standing over a pot of rice and stirring every 5 minutes for 30 minutes. I'm not going to post a recipe here, but so far all the risotto recipes that I've tried have been pretty amazing. You'll get a pretty good idea of the liquid to rice ratio and you'll be able to tweak the recipe so you can use up whatever ingredients you have sitting around. The key here is to add the salt and cheese after the rice cooks.
Skeptics beware, this will be good. I read a post written by a chef who said that this no mix risotto stands up to a traditionally made one. That was what urged me to try it out. Never going back to the stove for risotto again.
I love making Taiwanese beef noodle soup. The tricky part is always cooking the beef shank so that the collagen is nice and jelly like, but the meat tender, but not falling apart.
For 1 beef shank (2-3 pounds), I blanch the shank first to remove any impurities, dump the water out and then cook it in a soy sauce, tomatoes, 1/2 onion, rice wine, 5 spice and a bit of water to cover the meat. MEAT/STEW for 30 minutes on high pressure and then natural release (of course). Perfect every time.
I will not post a recipe here again, but McSteamy made the most perfect cheesecake that has ever come out of my kitchen. No cracks, smooth, and just plain yummy.
The key to a smooth top is to cover the pan in foil. I used a 7" springform pan, on a trivet, over a cup of water. For the crust, I blind baked it in the oven while I was mixing up the cheese filling.
McSteamy even made the blueberry compote that I used to top the cheesecake. (2 minutes+ natural release) so quick and easy.
10. Cook Perfect Beans
I don't have a picture for the beans because they are just...beans. But I've had success cooking red kidney beans, black beans, japanese azuki red beans, mung beans and the beans are the most fluffiest that I've tasted. A real money saver.
I just use the standard BEAN button on the default time. The key is to not salt the beans and let the pressure naturally release, otherwise you will get a foamy mess.
Once you get the beans cooked up, you can use them in place of canned beans in recipes that call for them: Chile, refried beans, black bean salsa, red bean dessert filling...oh the possibilities.
Did I mention that you don't need to soak the beans?
Well, there you have it. If you have a new Instant Pot and you are completely overwhelmed on where to start, here are my recommendations. In no time, you'll be navigating the seas of the pressure cooker world.