Instant Pot - Recipes

Thanks for sharing...

 

Yummmmmm @Induslady that pic is making me hungry all over again and I just had my dinner
Glad the recipe worked out for you. Reminds me that there are a few recipes I need write up and post. Will do soon!

 

MOST US pressure cookers cook at 15psi to 20 psi. If Tfal is cooking at 13 psi that means most US pressure cooker recipes won't work in it. I've been using pressure cookers here since the 60s. They all used to use weights, one weight for 15 psi and a different weight for 20 psi. Big canning pressure cookers had a dial.

To keep veggies from turning to mush in pressure cooker you have to release steam manually which I used to do by running cold water over the pressure cooker to cool it faster and jiggling the weight to see if it was "safe" yet. Only once did I have an "accident" with the cooker where I got distracted by younger sibling doing something VERY VERY bad and didn't turn the burner down in time, result - weight launched into outer space and I spent the next week cleaning soup off the 9' tall kitchen ceiling. I had to use an umbrella to get into the kitchen and turn the heat off while the soup geyser blew skywards.

 

WHAT??? No it isn't! My son moved from dorm to 3 BR apt with 5 other guys, not one Indian. They all LOVED when it was his turn to cook because - mom's recipes, you know. Particularly good! <smirk smirk preen>

They all took turns cooking and he was the most popular when it was his turn. Whyever would undergrad roommates not like eating something somebody else cooked? Teenage boys are ALWAYS hungry anyway, LOL!

 

Rajma dal is particularly high in phytic acid. Hence I never skip the soaking step for Rajma dal. I do soak whole chana/garbanzos just because they don't cook right unless you do, but really not much of anything else. Black beans, Northern beans or Navy beans when I use them, but no other dals. I don't pressure cook my beans because that was a major no-no when I was growing up and learning to cook, because - foaming. Right out the steam release valve for the weight. Not sure I can ever overcome that early training. Anyway.

I do the hot soaking method for those beans I do soak as follows:

Put 1 c of dried beans in 2 c of water. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour off the liquid. We are “de-gassing” the beans, making them more easily digested and less likely to cause people, errrr, intestinal distress. Cover with 2 c of water, bring to a boil again, remove from heat and let sit for one hour.

After an hour or if you soaked overnight, bring beans to a boil again, then turn down to a low simmer for approximately 1 hour. This time will vary. Check the beans at least every 15 minutes, you may need to add water. Keep them covered with water. When they have softened (pick one out and bite it to check), remove from the heat and set aside.

It is now ready to be added to whatever dish you are cooking. Not exactly one pot, but better than buying salt-laden canned beans that cost way more.

 

So when can we expect that cookbook to be coming out?

 

TL;DNR: How well does the IP ferment dosa batter, and are you using the "normal" or the "low" yogurt setting to do that when you do it?

OK so I have read this ENTIRE THREAD now. And have not seen the one thing I was most looking for - do any of you use the IP for fermenting dosa/idli batter? I have seen it suggested - but how does it actually turn out?

I have not been able to find a good place to ferment dosa batter since I moved several years ago. Used to be I could put it on top of the fridge near the back and it would ferment perfectly every time, no matter the season. But now it just won't ferment at all or it grows pink stringy stuff and ruins it. So no dosa for several years now! In the oven never worked for me, nor setting it in a warmed up microwave.

Today I got around to looking up the temperatures for each setting of my Zojirushi bread machine and come to find out the rise cycles run at about 83F, which ought to be about perfect for dosa batter. My rice cooker gets too hot for this (Zojirushi micom type), slow cookers are too hot, most electric pressure cookers are too hot, bread proofers (I thought) ran a little too cool, and yogurt makers are too hot. But the Zoj rise cycle is right in the zone. So I had about decided NOT to get an IP.

Then I found this thread. At my age and living alone now, being able to one-pot my meals would be a boon.

So I called up the IP guys and shook them down for the straight story on the actual operating temps.

First I found out that you cannot manually set the IP to lower temps for non-pressure cooking, so that was a strike against. REJECT!

Then I found out that the normal temp for yogurt on the "normal" setting is roughly 97F to 109F - which is too low for how I learned to make yogurt, which I've always incubated at between 110F to 115F. REJECT!

Then I read THIS article: The Science of Great Yogurt - Brod and Taylor

Now I have a different attitude on lower-temps for incubating yogurt (and also higher temps for the milk in preparation). So NOT a reason to reject.

People who report using the IP to ferment dosa batter seem to say to use the "normal" yogurt setting, but that (swinging between 97F and 109F) is too hot for what I've always aimed for - around 85F to 90F. REJECT!

But then there is the "low or "fermented rice" setting of the yogurt programme, and that runs on average 91F swinging between a low of around 86F and a high of about 93F. Still seems high-ish to me, but COULD work. So maybe NOT reject.

Only apparently my Zo breadmaker holds pretty steady at roughly 83F (82.4F according to the manual) for up to 23 hours in the Rise 1 mode. At first I thought that, like the bread proofers, was now a little too LOW, but I've found a bunch of places now where people say they ferment dosa batter as low as 80F. So maybe perfect for dosa batter after all - so IP REJECT again.

On the other hand, now that I'm diabetic, no more bread for me! I can have a piece or two here or there, but not a whole loaf and there's only me to eat it in this house - so actually not a lot of use for the breadmaker anymore anyway. Not even for roti - because I can get them pre-cooked at the Indian grocery these days, or frozen and ready to cook. Since I'm only allowed a couple of those per meal anyway, still no use for the bread machine any more even to knead chappati dough. So IP again looks attractive and gets a point back.

And then there's the Zo micom rice cooker, which I bought like 3 weeks before being told I would have to cut way back on my rice consumption. But you can cook a lot of things in the rice cooker too (and I have a good cooking-in-your-rice-cooker cookbook to help that along). So another REJECT point for the IP.

But Indian recipes are in short supply for that device. Plus not as versatile due to no pressure cooking capability. Plus plus, IP cooks rice too, and I can't have that much rice any more anyway to justify a device specially for cooking rice. So the IP gets a point back. Actually 2, one for the plethora of recipes I am finding, and one for the extra versatility.

So at this point to IP or NOT to IP is a zero-sum game.

Everything rest on this:

How well does the IP ferment dosa batter, and are you using the "normal" or the "low" yogurt setting to do that when you do it? Pros? Cons?

 

I have the same instant cooker and love it. I will have to try the chole recipe in it.