Instant Pot only as good as the cook
Maximize kitchen tools to make the most of home cooking time The popular Instant Pot has a number of powerful applications in the kitchen.
Remember when there were no food processors? My mom, a “gourmet” cook before “foodies” existed, used just a blender and a hand mixer until the mid-1970s when home cooks started buying this new appliance. All of a sudden, dishes that had been out of reach to the home cook tumbled into daily meals. Pesto, bread and pastry doughs, emulsified sauces, sorbets — everything became easier — once mom learned how to use it.
Recently, another appliance has arrived on the scene to revolutionize home cooking yet again. Though first introduced in 2010, the Instant Pot multicooker was not widely available until 2014. Busy folks (especially those who were not really into cooking) embraced it. Just a few years later, social media feeds are flooded with Instant Pot tips, tricks, recipes and hacks. Now that we all have the latest miracle kitchen appliance, how can we maximize its effectiveness and cook tasty food faster?
In his 1976 classic, New Recipes for the Cuisinart Food Processor, James Beard told cooks to “review your recipes and then figure out how the processor can act as another person in your kitchen.” We suggest a similar approach to the Instant Pot, a powerful tool with equally powerful limitations. The pot is only as good as the cook who uses it — as a wise friend told me, “It’s just a pot; you are the master” — and there are a lot of terrifying recipes floating around. Pay attention to a few guidelines, and your multicooker can become your most beloved sous-chef, as long as you do the chopping. Use your instincts If a recipe doesn’t call for salt or suggests an ingredient you aren’t comfortable with, adjust to your family’s tastes. Recipes from unfamiliar sources can be wild cards and should be seen as guidelines for technique. Stick with the minimum amount of liquid needed — you can always add more. And trust the timing! After much experimenting, I have learned that I am more likely to overcook than undercook when using the pressure cooker. Set reasonable expectations While the electric pressure cooker function can make a truly remarkable biryani or a perfect risotto with little effort and in very little time, you still have to follow the basic rules of good cooking.
If your spices are old and dusty, or you’ve bought the wrong type of rice, your Instant Pot may act more like a garbage can. Enjoy your time off Braising, as my chef friend once said, can be a “sacred ritual.” The Zen of perfectly browning, deglazing and simmering ingredients for a stew can be incredibly therapeutic, and there’s no match for the deep, long-simmered flavours. Use the Instant Pot to buy yourself extra downtime, but don’t throw out your Dutch oven and give away your conventional cookbooks. Kitchen overachievers use the massive amount of hands-off cooking time they win back to make extra treats they don’t usually have time for or to read a new cookbook. Be adventurous Like my mom’s food processor, the Instant Pot brings complicated dishes within reach. I made paneer (fresh Indian cheese) in minutes, perfectly jiggly flan and a meaty Sunday gravy that tasted as if it had bubbled all day in under 30 minutes each. (Pro tip: Let your simmered dishes sit for at least 30 minutes before serving. The multi-cooker will keep them warm, while the flavours blend and meld.)
Resolve to try offbeat vegetables such as beets, artichokes or squash, or tasty (and inexpensive) cuts of meat (on the bone if you dare) that once seemed difficult to conquer but can be easily taken down with a few beeps of an Instant Pot. Try some hacks I may never boil an egg again now that I have learned to cook them in the electric pressure cooker.
The sealed environment allows you to leave them unattended and still be precisely as runny (or not) as you like.
A fun and convenient trick I use frequently is stacking, using trivets and/or steamer baskets to steam multiple types of vegetables and proteins (even frozen!) simultaneously.
Make stock from the bones of that rotisserie chicken you brought home last night, and use it to make a hearty soup or risotto on a weeknight.
Set your oatmeal to be hot and ready when you rise.