What the heck is an Instant Pot ?

[smilingcat]

Our crock pot died sometime ago and we've been looking for its replacement. And recently, we came across an electric pressure cooker. So I viewed dozens of youtube video and decided on Instant Pot brand. We bought the 3 qt size since its only two of us and 6 qt is much too big for our needs.

Last night, we made Japanese style curry. Normally we brown the chicken first then saute the onion in the same pot then add chicken stock to make our curry all in one pot. Instant Pot claim to saute but its just too weak with the 3 qt. So we browned meat and saute the onion in skillet then transferred the meat and onion into the instant pot, a stainless steel pot. Added stock carrots, potato and pressure cooked for 15 minutes. Released the pressure than added roux and one apple grated. switched from pressure cook mode to soup and stew and cooked for another 10 minutes.

A little bit of roux burnt on the bottom of the pot, but otherwise, it taste and texture of the meat, falling apart, was just as if it slow cooked for hours.
We are excited about the small 3qt Instant Pot. Now we can come home from the farm, and have real stew in under an hour. hmm onion soup...

Even though we spent an extra $30.00 to go from a descent crock pot to the Instant Pot, I think the extra money was well worth it. I'm chuffed!! Besides our 40 yo pressure cooker no longer holds pressure. we can't get spare gasket but more importantly its aluminum and its not good to cook directly in aluminum pots. So this instant pot replaced our crock pot and our pressure cooker. Our old pressure cooker was never meant for canning anyway.

Gosh we are getting old. I just replaced my kitchen aid mixer as my nearly 30 yo one was on its last legs. Motor isn't too happy and motor cost was about the same as a factory refurbished complete unit. The old one is sitting in storage at my farm for spare parts now.

[emily_in_nc]

Instant Pots are very popular among RVers (which I am). We had never heard of them when we bought our motorhome nearly 2 years ago now. Perhaps they weren't even invented then. We bought a small crockpot instead. If we'd known about Instant Pots, we might have that instead. I need to look into them, as that might fit our needs better.

[smittykitty]

I’m wondering if anyone has tried making brown rice in an Instapot, I suck at stove top brn. rice. I hate to buy as rice cooker, but might consider the Instapot for it's multi uses.