For the Pot-curious who have held off out of uncertainty or confusion, we’re here to help. Be sure to share your own tips in the comments.
Twenty-five years ago, I was living the quasi-Alice Waters dream: With an office around the corner from Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto, I’d get my morning coffee from Peet’s, buy a slice of corn and feta pizza from the Cheeseboard Collective for lunch, and use my occasional walk through the Berkeley Hills to collect wild fennel fronds — I kid you not — to scatter over a king salmon filet cooked on an antique two-burner enamel stove.
Welcome to 2024. This morning I microwaved a bowl of oatmeal and walked the 10 feet from the kitchen to work in my pajamas. Somewhere inside me is still a person who wants to collect wild fennel to scatter over a salmon filet, but for this season of life — the hunker-down season of kids and teenagers, four cats, a temporary dog, and elderly parents to care for — she can’t be trusted to get dinner on the table with any kind of reliability. For now, my best friend is the Instant Pot.
Everyone knows the Instant Pot — or at least, they know what it is, though a surprising number of people I canvassed informally own but don’t know how to use theirs. And no wonder: The super-duper electronic pressure-cooker/slow cooker/rice cooker looks like Darth Vader, with an imposing number of mystifying buttons (”Yogurt”) and the potential to explode; and reading the user’s manual at the end of a long day feels like too much work for an appliance that is supposed to simplify your life.
But the IP is too good a tool to sit on your shelf and gather dust. If you love beans but are forgetful, you don’t have to cook them for four hours, or stumble into the kitchen in the middle of the night to soak your dried pintos in order to use them for dinner the next night; the Instant Pot will cook dried beans in 30-45 minutes. If you forget to defrost your chicken thighs the night before, don’t worry; you can throw frozen meat into the Pot and still have it turn out tender and evenly cooked. Boiled eggs of all kinds turn out perfectly in the Instant Pot, with no egg whites stuck to the shell and in half the time. The lid locks once you start the cooking time, so there is no danger of explosion; it’s great in the summer because all the heat is contained.
My father has an Instant Pot he likes for the air fryer function, and I like because he’s 82 and frequently neglects to turn off ovens and burners; indeed, the automated cook time feature is one of the Pot’s greatest gifts, because something is always happening at dinner time that precludes my full attention: work emails, child drop off or pickup, homework help, barfing cat.
And even if you’re not busy, sometimes you just want to read a book or do the crossword without sacrificing the prospect of a good meal. For the Pot-curious who have held off out of uncertainty or confusion, here are some quick start tips — and please share yours in the comments!
1. You only need two functions
Saute and Manual. (Really you only need Manual, but if using Saute will help your inner fennel-gatherer feel better, do it.) Are you making soup? Plug in your pot and press Saute. The insert will heat up ridiculously fast. If you want to brown some meat, add a little oil, then throw it in. Add your chopped aromatics and spices. Add whatever liquid and/or vegetables you want without filling the insert beyond the Max line. Press “Cancel” to turn off Saute. Put on the lid, turning it counterclockwise to lock it, and make sure the steam valve is pointing to “Sealing.” Press “Manual,” then “Pressure” to set the pressure at high or low. (I have had my pot for 10 years and never used anything but high pressure.) Use the + and - buttons to add or subtract minutes until you have your desired cook time. Then step away and go back to reading your book.
2. Natural pressure release vs. quick release
When time is up and the pot beeps, you have two choices: Wait for the steam pressure in the pot to dissipate naturally before you open the lid (you’ll hear a little click as the metal pin in the lid drops) or release the pressure by turning the valve to “Venting.” If you’re cooking soup or anything with a lot of liquid, natural release is safer — soup has a tendency to spurt out of the vent if you open the valve while the contents are still under heavy pressure — but if you’re in a hurry, you can also throw a dish towel over the steam valve and use a long-handled spoon to turn it to “Venting.” I use the long-handled spoon for quick release regardless of what I’m cooking, because it’s never a good time for a scalding. Quick release is best for vegetables or anything you don’t want to get mushy.
3. Add 15-20 minutes.
One caveat of the Instant Pot is that it actually requires a bit of time to come up to pressure, especially recipes with a lot of water or broth. Whatever recipe you’re using, add 15 minutes to the cook time. I don’t think of this as a bad thing, because that 15 minutes is hands-off time for reading the paper or walking the dog, but it’s something to consider when planning.
4. Wash the gasket, and consider buying extra ones.
The Instant Pot lid has a rubber gasket around the rim to seal in pressure. When it comes time to clean up, take the gasket out and wash it well, then let it dry thoroughly to avoid mold development. And if you find you love your IP and want to use it for multiple types of dishes (”Yogurt”), consider buying an extra gasket or two so you can switch them out, because nobody wants beef barbacoa-flavored cheesecake.
5. Use the internet.
The basic rule for cooking anything in your Instant Pot is to add at least a cup of liquid to create steam and prevent the pot from shutting off if it detects that it’s getting too hot. Beyond that, the road is less defined, which can be daunting. Fortunately the internet is full of people who have done the work of figuring things out for you, from comprehensive cheat sheets to easy beginner recipes to cheesecake and post-Thanksgiving turkey pho.
Tonight I’m making chicken adobo in the Instant Pot along with rice in my Zojirushi rice cooker — my favorite dinner, lovingly prepared by machines. Sure, it’s not hand-gathered fennel and wild salmon, but for this embattled season of life, it feels like home.
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