Sunday, December 24, 2017
Monday, December 4, 2017
My Instant Pot life
It's not all been fun and games with the Instant Pot, but we're learning.
Bad: When the Mister made oatmeal using Instant Pot's recipe for steel cut oats, entitled, Three-Minute Steel Cut Oats. Can you say salt lick? I don't know what happened. He said he didn't stir up the oats after adding the salt. You'd think it would just absorb and spread throughout. Apparently not. And apparently I'm the one who got the salty bowl. Shudder. But it wasn't bad only because it was salty, I am not a fan of bloated raisins or vanilla in anything but dessert. So, I recommend you pass on this recipe. Unless you like big old mushy raisins, then go for it.
Bad: Chick Peas. To be fair, the instructions did say if you pre-soak the beans they turn out better. But, I thought the whole point of getting an Instant Pot was so you don't have to pre-soak. I should have pre-soaked. After 40 minutes they were still basically raw and couldn't go in my recipe.
Good to Amazing, depending on who you talk to: Coconut Mango Sticky Rice. Everyone in the family, including the daughter who claims to hate rice, enjoyed this! The Mister declared it his favorite dessert, ever. It's not too sweet and the mango, well, who doesn't love a mango, added the perfect sweet and sour touch. I didn't have the pandan leaf that was called for. And used slightly less coconut milk, but dang, it was good.
Good: That time I made the steel cut oats for 3 minutes without any additives and stirred in the salt. Although, I did find my oats to be a bit toothsome for my liking.
Almost Great: This morning's oats. I assembled 3 C. water, 1 C. steel cut oats, and a pinch of salt last night before bed. Gave everything a stir for good measure, and set it to begin cooking at 6:45 am. Settings: Pressure cook, high pressure, natural release, for 5 minutes of actual cooking time.
Oats get foamy so you don't want to use the quick pressure release valve to speed things along, otherwise the oat foam can gunk up the works. But, the reason it's not all the way great, it wasn't de-pressurized until nearly 7:30 am. I don't know, did I get the slow de-pressurizer. I read so many recipes saying it takes 12 minutes to depressurize. No, mine takes 30. Aside from that, the oats were creamy and a hit.
Random thoughts on the Instant Pot: The strange thing is, I've yet to use any of the individual settings. Not beans, rice, or steam, even though I've done all that in the pot. Only pressure cook. That's fine, but it has me thinking, are all the other settings a gimmick?
I am going to try yogurt next week, so, we'll see.
Maybe I just need Instant Pot lessons. Give me all your good tips and recipes.
Bad: When the Mister made oatmeal using Instant Pot's recipe for steel cut oats, entitled, Three-Minute Steel Cut Oats. Can you say salt lick? I don't know what happened. He said he didn't stir up the oats after adding the salt. You'd think it would just absorb and spread throughout. Apparently not. And apparently I'm the one who got the salty bowl. Shudder. But it wasn't bad only because it was salty, I am not a fan of bloated raisins or vanilla in anything but dessert. So, I recommend you pass on this recipe. Unless you like big old mushy raisins, then go for it.
Bad: Chick Peas. To be fair, the instructions did say if you pre-soak the beans they turn out better. But, I thought the whole point of getting an Instant Pot was so you don't have to pre-soak. I should have pre-soaked. After 40 minutes they were still basically raw and couldn't go in my recipe.
Good to Amazing, depending on who you talk to: Coconut Mango Sticky Rice. Everyone in the family, including the daughter who claims to hate rice, enjoyed this! The Mister declared it his favorite dessert, ever. It's not too sweet and the mango, well, who doesn't love a mango, added the perfect sweet and sour touch. I didn't have the pandan leaf that was called for. And used slightly less coconut milk, but dang, it was good.
Good: That time I made the steel cut oats for 3 minutes without any additives and stirred in the salt. Although, I did find my oats to be a bit toothsome for my liking.
Oats get foamy so you don't want to use the quick pressure release valve to speed things along, otherwise the oat foam can gunk up the works. But, the reason it's not all the way great, it wasn't de-pressurized until nearly 7:30 am. I don't know, did I get the slow de-pressurizer. I read so many recipes saying it takes 12 minutes to depressurize. No, mine takes 30. Aside from that, the oats were creamy and a hit.
Random thoughts on the Instant Pot: The strange thing is, I've yet to use any of the individual settings. Not beans, rice, or steam, even though I've done all that in the pot. Only pressure cook. That's fine, but it has me thinking, are all the other settings a gimmick?
I am going to try yogurt next week, so, we'll see.
Maybe I just need Instant Pot lessons. Give me all your good tips and recipes.
Follow me on Instagram.
Also,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
