I need some holiday gift ideas (that I will probably gift to myself as well)!

  • MIDItheKID@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Can you share some instant pot meals/ideas? I got one and it barely gets used. Every time I look stuff up or ask peoole it’s the same “crack chicken” recepies.

    Mine is essentially a big power hungry medium boiled egg maker. Really wish it got more use.

    • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 months ago

      Dried beans (includes garbanzo etc). With an automatic pressure cooker like that cooking dried beans goes from an ordeal where you have to soak them overnight and watch a pot for 5 hours and probably get indigestion because they’re undercooked anyway to, spend 2 minutes throwing in the beans and water and pressing the button and then come back sometime between 1-5 hours later to perfectly cooked beans. Save money and space in your pantry getting rid of cans.

    • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Anything sous vide (if yours has a sous vide button). You can use ziplock bags in Leiu of a vac sealer. Chicken or steak sous vide and then quick seared in a hot pan for color is the best.

      Olive Garden style Chicken Gnocchi soup (dozens of copycat recipes online). You can buy pre-packaged gnocchi or make it yourself. Get a loaf of French bread to toast cheap at the grocery store and it’ll blow your mind.

      Basically any Chili recipe can be made 5-10x faster pressure cooked. No need to simmer it for hours.

      Use it as a rice cooker. Pressure cooked white rice tastes like Chinese restaurant sticky rice and take 10 minutes. Get a box of frozen orange chicken from Costco and you’ve got Orange chicken over rice in about 18 minutes. Or cook some refried beans, brown rice, and fried eggs for a quick breakfast. Nothing beats a salt and pepper runny yolk egg soaked into rice.

      Hard boiling eggs you mentioned already, but if you like egg salad it’s a great way to make easy peal boiled eggs for mashing into egg salad in the fridge.

      Those are just a few things I use mine for ranging from moderate to simple.

      • MIDItheKID@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Hah. I think my problem might be that I have gadgets for all of these things already.

        I have a sous vide, so no need to use it for that

        Chili I usually make in my slow cooker because it yields larger amounts (I usually fill the whole thing up and freeze a bunch of it)

        I have a Zojirushi rice cooker, but I’m willing to try the instant pot if it is faster. I will check that out.

        Chicken Gnocchi soup sounds amazing though.

    • Stephen304@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Here’s my favorite recipes, I use it every week:

      Ribs - easy to get super consistent results, pressure cooking helps keep moisture in. (https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/easy-bbq-instant-pot-ribs/)

      Clam chowder - creamy New England style, I add extra seasonings to amp it up. The clams I get in cans and bottled clam juice so the only non-shelf-stable ingredients are onions, carrots, celery, and garlic (https://recipes.instantpot.com/recipe/new-england-clam-chowder-2/) My additions: To make it more hearty and thick I do 3 cans of clams instead of 2, 4ish strips of bacon bits, an extra stalk or 2 of celery, between 1.5 and 2 lbs of potatoes instead of 1, and parsley and paprika in the same amounts as the thyme and oregano.

      Spaghetti carbonara - my new cook book addition. grating the cheese adds more work, but overall still very simple as far as instant pot recipes go - saute the pancetta and reserve, saute onion and garlic, pressure cook pasta in broth, stir in butter, cream, cheese, egg, and pancetta when done (https://pressureluckcooking.com/instant-pot-spaghetti-carbonara/)

      Corn chowder - really similar to the clam chowder but good for if you’re not feeling seafood, like most of the recipes I favorite, the steps mostly amount to dumping all the ingredients in, pressure cooking, and stirring in something extra at the end (in this case cornstarch and half&half to thicken) (https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/instant-pot-corn-chowder/)

      I also use the instant pot some for other recipes but I lean heavily towards 1 pot meals and stuff where I can get away with putting 90% of the ingredients in for the pressure cooking step, that does mean a lot of soups but I’m working on adding more pasta dishes to my repertoire.

      (Edited to add recipe links)

        • Stephen304@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          The ribs are the simplest, at its most basic all you have to do is remove the membrane on the back and then curl it up on a trivet over a cup of water, pressure cook high for 25 minutes and let sit under pressure for 10-25 more minutes after it’s done (depending on how fall-off-the-bone you want, I usually like 25mins), glaze with bbq sauce and broil in the oven until it gets a bit of char.

          You can also salt & pepper it before putting it in, use apple cider vinegar instead of water, and/or add a few drops of liquid smoke in the instant pot. But it turns out great even when I forget to do those things so really all you need is ribs and sauce.

          I got the recipe from here: https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/easy-bbq-instant-pot-ribs/

    • raptorattacks@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Love making risotto in mine. Easy weeknight meal (depending on the recipe).