"Sooo... These Instant Pot things... Are they really as good as everyone says they are? Do they really cook things much more quickly than 'normal' cooking does, and are they safe?"
If the words above sum up how you're feeling at the moment and you're reading review after review from Instant Pot owners (mostly) saying that they're the bees knees and have revolutionised their kitchen, but still need some convincing - come along with me and I'll lead you skipping and grinning down the path to Instant Pot ownership. Well, ok, you don't have to skip or grin - I'm not gonna pressure you.
I only just became the proud new owner of an Instant Pot on Monday and cooked my first meal in it yesterday, which has been an absolute revelation - and I'll tell you why; it's all about the motherflippin' LENTILS, baby! You know how it can take an absolute age for lentils to get soft when they're boiled in a conventional pot-on-hob situation? Well, I was looking through recipes to try in my Instant Pot and discovered that it was apparently possible to make a lentil dhal in just 20 minutes in one of them - so that was me utterly convinced that I needed to give it a shot.
Now, before I go any further, I should explain that until yesterday I'd never once cooked anything in a pressure cooker so I was totally in uncharted territory. I'd always read that pressure cookers were noisy, dangerous and terrifying things, so it was not without a little trepidation that I followed the instructions to do the first pressure test to make sure my IP was working as it should. This simply involved popping some water into the inner pot, closing the pressure valve and turning the gadget on for a few minutes. As the pressure built inside the pot, it obviously started to make some noise - there's a valve on the lid that closes once enough pressure has built up, and until it does that there's some hissing noise (which I found mildly unsettling initially), but once it closes, all you can hear is a gentle bubbling noise from inside the pot. Now, the most unsettling thing to a noob pressure cooker user is that in order to get to the culinary delights cooking inside the Instant Pot, you need to release the pressure via the valve on the top of its lid. This causes a fair bit of noise and clouds of super-hot steam to erupt from the valve so you need to be careful - thankfully, you get a couple of utensils (a small spoon/ladle and a rice paddle) with the IP that have holes in their handles that can be used to open the valve safely.
Back to those lentils, I set about following that recipe to make the dhal, and used the IP's handy saute function to fry up the onions and garlic, and it was then a simple case of adding the lentils, spices and seasoning to the pot with some water to make the steam, and to then turn it on at high pressure for ten minutes. In some recipes it will ask you to do a NPR (natural pressure release) for a length of time, and in this case, I left it for ten minutes before opening the valve. What I ended up with was the most delicious home-made dhal I've ever had - waaay better than any I've attempted in the past - and cooked far more quickly than I would ever have thought possible.
I attempted another recipe for a Brocolli pasta concoction last night which went a wee bit squiffy - which was my own fault for deviating from the recipe instructions, leaving me with a pot full of mostly uncooked pasta. A quick blast in the microwave fixed that, but the pasta sauce was delicious. The interesting thing about cooking with the IP is that the food from it seems to be far more intensely flavoured than usual - and this has a lot to do with the fact that cooking via pressure causes the flavours to permeate right through everything. Another good plus is that food retains far more of its nutritious value as it doesn't escape via the steam as per conventional cooking.
The only downside I'm probably going to find - as with any new cooking gadget - is that there may be a few culinary disasters before I crack the techniques of cooking under pressure, but that's to be expected and won't be any fault of the pot itself.
Summing up, I'd say that I'm completely bowled away by the Instant Pot. The high praise for it is not unwarranted, and I'm desperately excited about trying out more stuff in it - you can cook cheesecakes, dried beans and pulses cook ridiculously quickly (no more soaking for hours, yay!) and it seemingly makes cooking these days with our busy lives far more convenient as you can use one pot to do everything. Of course, it doesn't completely replace the oven and hob - you can't bake, fry or grill in it - but there are a heap of accessories for it that will make making soups, stews and all sorts of other things in it quick, simple and mess-free.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.
>>>UPDATE
I've had a few more bashes at cooking recipes in my IP and the results have been mostly good, but I've hit a few problems; but these are all part of the learning process. The problem I've had is getting the food to water balance right; if there's not enough water or the consistency of the liquid in the pot is too thick, it will display 'BURN' once it has come to pressure as the temperature sensors on the bottom of the pot detect that it's became too hot. This effectively cancels the cooking process, so I've had to release the pressure, add more water and then try again. I have however managed to cook a saag aloo, a beautiful butternut squash pasta recipe and last night I cooked an amazingly tasty lentil chilli. Two out of those three ended up displaying the 'Burn' message at some point.
This exemplifies the learning curve with the Instant Pot, but don't let that put you off - when things go right it utterly outstanding!
>>>ANOTHER UPDATE
I've now had my Instant Pot for nearly a year now and it's probably fair to say that I'm definitely getting the hang of it. One of the most useful aspects of the Instant Pot is that it makes cooking large batches of food really simple a quick. Every Sunday now, I end up cooking a huge amount of butternut squash and cauliflower curry to have for lunch for the whole week, and I've absolutely cracked the process now. I cook up a big batch of brown rice first, which cooks in 22 minutes, put it to one side and then cook the curry before dumping the rice into it. It seriously makes food prep simple as I can chop up all of the ingredients for the curry while the rice is cooking - so it feels super-efficient.
| Brand | Instant Pot |
|---|---|
| Model Number | IP-DUO60-220 |
| Colour | Brushed Stainless Steel |
| Diameter | 22 Centimetres |
| Capacity | 5.7 litres |
| Volume Capacity | 6 litres |
| Power / Wattage | 1000 watts |
| Voltage | 220 |
| Material | Stainless steel |
| Auto Shutoff | No |
| Special Features | Keep Warm Setting, Programmable |
| Item Weight | 5 kg |
