Jan’s Essential Gadget #1
In our continuing effort to give you a glimpse of great things we have found useful in our lives, I am going to tell you about an essential kitchen gadget that is worthwhile on which to spend your time and money. While some weeks I will be talking about smaller, less expensive gadgets, I decided to highlight one of our most frequently used items.
Just to let you know, I live in a multi-generational household. My husband and I are Grandma and Grandpa. We live in a small apartment connected to the home of our daughter and son-in-law and their three children ( soon to be 8 year old Becca, 13 year old Jim and soon to be 15 year old Evan). We commonly prepare and eat common meals once a day so meals are for seven (unless you double count the teenage boys…which you should!)
Today’s Gadget….(drum roll)…
THE INSTANT POT!
We have two instant pots in the household. A 6 quart Instant Pot that joined the household about four years ago and an 8 quart Instant Pot that came into our lives about three years ago.
We use one or the other size the majority of days of the week. On some days we use both sizes for the same meal! These workhorses make cooking faster and easier. I must say that our family likes soups, stews and braises so these pots are perfect for those needs but there are many other uses!
I make large batches of homemade yogurt for pennies. It takes a bit of time but very little attention to make the yogurt. You can modify the tartness of the yogurt by lowering the amount of time you allow it to process. You can even make that fancy “Noosa” type yogurt.
We ALWAYS cook our rice in the Instant Pot. I comes out perfectly every time….brown or white!
I poach chicken quickly in the Instant Pot. I cook savory meals and even a few desserts. One of our favorite Instant Pot dinners is Instant Pot Salsa Chicken from Joy Filled Eats.com Easy and delicious!
My favorite dessert…even for my birthday…is cheesecake made in the instant pot. You need a small pan that will fit your pot to accomplish this but they are readily available.
And THEN…you can have easy, delicious cheesecake! One of my favorite recipes is lnstant Pot New York Cheesecake from This Old Gal.com. Try it, you will love it!
Carol:
Oh no! Now I need to come clean with my complete inadequacy in the use of the Instant Pot. Oh yes, I do have one. In fact I have had mine since November 25th, 2016 during the Amazon black Friday sale. (I looked it up…shocker!)
I have used it 4 times, all of which were supervised by my daughter. The fifth time the ‘Ole Buckeye and I decided to “go it alone”. We did everything we thought we needed to do. Lights went on, as did the clock. Then we waited and eventually everything shut down. After rereading the directions, we retried, and waited once again, all to no avail. The pot is now housed in the cabinet taking up space, unused.
Before there is a lot of criticism let me simply relay past experience. Both my mother and my father in law had pressure cooker explosions. Although I was not present for those occurrences, the stories have stuck with me. In fact I still have a clear vision of the split pea soup covering my father in law’s entire kitchen. Thus the fear of pressure cooking food. That little sputtery sound sends shivers down my spine.
I guess it’s time to put my big girl panties on, watch some videos and give it another shot. In fact my daughter in law was raving about a lasagna recipe she made this past weekend in 9 minutes. She asked me to share my favorite Instant Pot recipes. I have yet to share my pressure cooker memories with her.
However, I do have a favorite Instant Pot recipe. It is the only one I have made in the pot (under supervision). We double the recipe. Delish!
Sausage Parmesan Cream Cheese Soup
Pat:
I think I fall somewhere between my sisters in Instant Pot use. The 6 quart, is absolutely my go-to for stock, bone broth, broth, meat juice, whatever you want to call it (yes, I know there are distinctions, but not in my world!) I pretty much take any bones (for instance, the bones I had left from a 7-bone roast or a turkey carcass from Thanksgiving – I’ve done a smoked turkey stock that was amazing) along with any remaining meat and seasoning, and transform it into delicious homemade stock/broth for literally pennies. Here’s my Instant Pot Stock recipe:
Ingredients
- 1 bunch Beef, chicken or turkey bones I suggest if the bones aren’t already cooked, brown them off using the saute setting on the Instant Pot for added flavor!
- 1-2 ea Carrots cut up into 3-4 hunks, don’t worry about peeling or trimming ends
- 1-2 stalks celery I love using the leaves off celery for this purposes, cut them off the tops of the stalks and toss them in
- 1-2 ea Bay Leaves
- 1 tsp Salt or to taste
- 1 tblsp whole peppercorns
- 1-2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed, but leave whole
- water to fill the pot
Instructions
- Throw everything in the pot, fill with water. Secure the lid making sure the vent is set to closed. Using the Manual setting, set the timer to 60 minutes at High, and walk away. Have a nice beverage. Kick your feet up. Once the timer sounds, leave everything as is and let the pot cool on its own without releasing the pressure – the longer the stock cooks, the richer it is. Once pressure is gone, carefully ladle or pour stock into containers and freeze, or use within a few days if stored in the fridge.
I keep a variety of sizes of freezer-friendly plastic (don’t hate me) containers on hand for the stock – 1 cup, 2 cup, 4 cup – so whatever the amount of stock/broth is called for, it’s easy to grab a container(s) with just the right amount and either allow them to thaw or defrost them in the microwave.
I also adore the gadgets I have for this gadget, including a rack for boiling eggs (consistently perfect with this recipe), an egg poacher, and a couple of racks for just about everything else. It’s really pretty amazing just how versatile the Instant Pot is!
