I've made pot roast in the IP before and it's good, but not as good as this recipe that Sharon made last night.

Instant pot Grandma's Sunday roast

I'm not sure what makes it so much better as the ingredients are pretty standard and the preparation is simple. She used a chuck roast from a real butcher shop instead of a grocery store so maybe that's it. The flavor of the gravy comes out tasting "French", if that makes any sense.

Off to make beef stock - my first attempt - and the reason we were in the butcher shop in the first place.

From the same website. I clicked because I could not figure out why anyone would want an egg loaf.

Very clever.

Two more winning IP recipes:

Very good, very fast:

Seattle IP Salmon Chowder

No chopping, no soaking. Dried beans to dinner in about an hour. I added carrots:

Black beans and chorizo

Salmon chowder sounds grand!

It’s fast, too.

Cut down on the time even more by heating the broth in the microwave before adding it.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
It’s fast, too.

Cut down on the time even more by heating the broth in the microwave before adding it.

Did you use fresh salmon, or canned? I mean, if it’s going to spend time in a pressure cooker, do you need fresh?

On the other hand, I worked in a salmon cannery for five summers on Kodiak Island, and I haven’t ever eaten canned salmon.

If you do eat canned salmon, choose the red (sockeye), not the pink!

Why? Or is it best just to follow your advice and not know the details...

We used fresh, and actually tried the recipe because it was on sale. I would think canned would work just as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
Why? Or is it best just to follow your advice and not know the details...

It’s just better fish. Oilier, better texture and flavor.

OK, we had salmon chowder tonight. Delicious!

Mods for next time:

Use 1 T butter instead of two for initial saute of vegetables.

Change 2 C of half and half to 1 C whole milk. Make a roux of 1 T butter and 1 T flour, then add the milk. Use this thickened base to pour into chowder after depressurizing. (Guessing on consistency here)

I added an extra potato, because I like them.

What good is a hobby if you can't buy accessories? Bought one of these last week, mostly as a strainer for making stock. It's actually sold as a steamer basket:



I chose this style over the mesh ones because it is supposed to be easier to clean. It cleans up fine in the dishwasher.

The little tongs are convenient as well.

This could be a special for WTG but perhaps the IP discussion should stay in one place.

Today I took an Uber home from a repair shop and struck up a conversation with the driver - a fairly recent Indian immigrant. He told me that the stovetop pressure cooker is a fixture in Indian kitchens and that the IP has revolutionized the way his wife cooks. I think He said the Missis runs three of them at a clip. No wonder everything comes out so well.

I need to learn to make Dal.

This recipe has gone in to standard rotation at our house. Easy to do, ordinary ingredients and very good.

Red beans and rice in the instant pot

At the beginning of the pandemic I scored a big bag of "cranberry beans" and have been using those. Apparently they take longer to cook than the usual kidney beans because I have to cook for 50 minutes rather than the 40 minutes the recipe calls for.

I never remember to buy Cajun seasoning so I make my own. I leave out the salt because I like to control the salt level separately.

quote:

Originally posted by AdagioM:

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
Why? Or is it best just to follow your advice and not know the details...

It’s just better fish. Oilier, better texture and flavor.

Got it. I jumped to a conclusion that, as a veteran canner, you had inside knowledge of things they were doing specifically to pink salmon.

As an aside, I learned the hard way to never poach farmed salmon. I was making a big poached salmon/veggie/nicoise sort of thing for a bunch of people and couldn't afford the real deal. Turns out when you poach farmed salmon all the pink color washes away and you're left with white salmon. Eeeeew.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
This recipe has gone in to standard rotation at our house. Easy to do, ordinary ingredients and very good.

Red beans and rice in the instant pot

At the beginning of the pandemic I scored a big bag of "cranberry beans" and have been using those. Apparently they take longer to cook than the usual kidney beans because I have to cook for 50 minutes rather than the 40 minutes the recipe calls for.

I never remember to buy Cajun seasoning so I make my own. I leave out the salt because I like to control the salt level separately.

I think I'm an Instant Pot failure. Well, not for everything, but for things like red beans and rice.

I've made red beans and rice all my adult life. They're stupid easy to get right if you dump the stuff in the crockpot in the morning and turn it on. If you check it now and then (and I'm talking about checking it at lunch and an hour before dinner), you can deal with issues that crop up.

Sometimes they need a little more water. Sometimes they need a little extra seasoning. Who knows why? Maybe the sausage was underseasoned or less moist. I dunno. But it's easy to fix if you have the opportunity to take off the lid while cooking and check. The Instant Pot won't let me do that. So I've made crunchy beans in the Instant Pot. And I've made Instant Pot beans that were cooked to a paste. Maybe I need to do some trial and error, but why waste all that time and beans when I can just dump them in a crockpot and walk away for most of the day?

Anyway, I'm not trusting my New Year's Day black-eyed peas to an Instant Pot. They're too dang important this year. I'll probably just cook them on the stove, since I'll be in the kitchen working on the greens and such. That way, I'll have complete control of the proceedings.

That said, I'll probably burn them. I never have before, but it's never been 2020 before.