For me, cooking is fun. It's a hobby, and there are few things I enjoy more than spending an entire Saturday afternoon assembling an elaborate dish that will wow my dinner guests.
Sadly, this personal passion doesn't jibe with my real life.
In real life, I get home from work and face a hungry family ready to eat NOW. Even worse, many members of that family are severely limited in the types of dishes they'll eat without strenuous objections that I usually don't have the energy or desire to deal with. Two won't touch mushrooms. One hates onions in any form. Two have red sauce aversions. All claim they're sick of the same old recipes _ tacos, burgers, meatloaf, spaghetti _ but they have zero ideas about what they'd like to eat instead.
Ugh.
This very real struggle is what inspired me to join the growing cult of Instant Pot _ an old-fashioned pressure cooker that's been repackaged and re-imagined for the modern cook. These new-fangled versions, though, are relatively easy to use, electric, sit on the countertop and pose virtually no danger of exploding.
But the biggest perk is they cook food fast. They're particularity magical at turning out in minutes grains, beans and meats that normally would require hours of simmering or slow-cooking.
I'd been hearing interesting things about the Instant Pot ever since it was featured as part of a Black Friday deal on Amazon.com. One friend ordered one and said she liked it. Another friend ordered one and said she loved it. Then, just after Christmas, my best friend, Jaime, got her Instant Pot.
It's all she's talked about since.
Jaime's a good cook, but she's not an enthusiastic one. She isn't the type of person who keeps a super-stocked pantry or refrigerator, and she likes to eat healthy. Her husband is a great cook, but his culinary masterpieces often require hours of preparation. She saw the Instant Pot as a way to cook food at home quickly so she could feed her toddler, herself and her husband healthful meals.
First, she cooked a chicken. Then she turned the broth from that chicken into soup. She made pulled pork. Then more pulled pork. Then green chili. Then red chili. Then beef stew. Her husband made corned beef, which he turned into a pre-St. Patrick's Day feast. To hear them tell it, the total time spent on cooking all these feasts was about 15 minutes.
Okay, so that's a bit of an exaggeration, but their enthusiasm for this cooking device is unbridled. (Jaime is deep into planning a "Pot Party" for all the people she's persuaded to purchase this device.)
I was sold, so I ordered one. Back during that Black Friday sale, an Instant Pot could be acquired for about $70. Now, they're $100. But I went for it.
After a couple of demos from Jaime, I was ready to try a few recipes on my own. I helped her make some green chili (delicious). Then I cooked up a pot roast with potatoes and carrots for my picky eaters. (They loved it.) Finally, I made a restaurateur-quality Mongolian beef in less than an hour, and my family declared me amazing.
Here's what I've learned as an Instant Pot owner.
_ It's a time-saver _ to a point: As a seasoned home cook, I appreciate that the Instant Pot in 30 minutes or less can create the kind of tender, flavorful meat that usually takes hours and hours to achieve. It also cooks things like rice and steel cut oats, but in my opinion, by the time you prep the recipe, wait for the pot to "come to pressure" then wait for it to cook and cool down, you could have made these items on the stovetop just as quickly.
_ It's not as hard to use as it seems: The pot has lots of buttons, and the "come to pressure" concept is hard to understand until you try it. (Basically, it takes the pot about 10 minutes to work up the required cooking pressure before the actually cooking time starts.) But once you use the pot a few times, it all becomes clearer.
_ It cuts down on mess: One of the benefits of the Instant Pot is that, unlike regular slow cookers, cooks can brown and saute right in the pot. This seriously cuts down on the number of dishes you'll have to clean when you're done cooking.
_ It performs some cool tricks: The Instant Pot provides shortcuts for many everyday cooking activities, from hard-boiling eggs to baking potatoes.
_ Recipes are readily available: I haven't yet figured out how to turn a regular recipe into an Instant Pot recipe, but the device has become so popular, a quick search of "Instant Pot recipes" will provide you with plenty of options. Though there are other digital pressure cookers on the market, I like to search using the brand name "Instant Pot" because it gives clearer information on which buttons to push.
_ We don't eat enough porridge: There's a "porridge" button on the pot. I'm not sure when any of us might use that, but maybe we should reconsider.
Here are a few Instant Pot recipes Jaime and I have tried and loved.
