If you follow me on Instagram ( and I really think you should 😉 ) , you know that I LOVE my Instant Pot, and I use it quite often. So what exactly IS an instant pot ? To put it simply, its an electric pressure cooker. I'm sure you've heard of the stove top type of pressure cookers....you know, like the one gramma used to can her garden goodies back in the day. I use to have one, but it always made me nervous to use it. I had heard stories of those types of cookers, the scary stories of cookers exploding; yet I still used one. WHY ? Well, because a pressure cooker, uses pressurized steam to force liquid into the food, and cook it at a fraction of the time. AND , because the pot is airtight , all of the flavor and liquid is infused into the food. There is no room for escape !
As amazing as all of that sounds, I stopped using the stove top kind because I had to constantly watch it , and make sure every step was JUST. RIGHT. Also, when the time was up, I had to make sure I was around to take it off the stove.
Fast forward a few years, and out comes the INSTANT POT ..... cue the angels singing. This appliance is awesome because it's electric. I never have to worry if I have the temperature just right, ensuring that everything cooks evenly. It takes care of all the steps at the push of a button. It truly is a set it and forget kinda deal.
But this cooker takes the place of lots of appliances. Not only does is serve as a pressure cooker, but it can also brown, saute, cook soup, make rice, and you can even use it as a slow cooker if you want. But I'm going to show you how to use the basic "pressure cooker" settings.
So lets jump right in !
This is what it looks like :)
The easiest way to show how it works, is to cook something. So lets make some RICE !
So to start off you will need a few things:
2 Cups of white rice
1 Chopped onion
2 Heaping TSP. of minced garlic
4 Tsp. of Garlic Salt
4 TBS. of Butter
2.5 Cups of water
I KNOW that the amount of water seems way too low, but trust me, its the perfect amount. My stove top rice takes 4 cups of water. I was skeptical at first, but this is the right amount.
The first thing you need to do is plug that bad boy in, and hit the saute button.
You need to make sure that the temperature is on normal.If that light is either on "low" or "more", hit the adjust button until it looks like the picture below.
Once it starts to warm up, load in the onions, garlic, and butter.
Within a few minutes, your kitchen will start to smell like heaven , and the onions and garlic will look something like this.
Breathe it in. Yep, crazy good smell right there. Now mix in the rice, stir it up, and let it cook for a minute or so .
Now add the garlic salt, and stir .
Finally add the water. Make sure you take a wooden spoon or spatula and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen up any rice or onions that may have got stuck on the bottom.
Now cancel the "Saute'' feature by pushing the "keep warm/ cancel" button.
Put the lid on your pot and slide it to the locking position. You'll hear a cute little digital sound, so you know its on. Then (this is a super important step ! ) turn the nozzle on the top from venting to sealing.
Its REALLY important that you don't forget this step or your pressure cooker will not seal. No seal, no cook.
Now here is the easy squeezy ham and cheesy part. Hit the "Manual" button...
And Adjust the time on the display until it says "3". Mine was already set at "3" but if your's isn't, then press the (+) or (-) button until its set.
After you set the timer to 3 minutes you are DONE ! The instant pot will beep a few times, to let you know that its ready, and the 3 on the display will go away. After a few minutes you may see/ hear some steam escaping as the pressure inside starts to build. Once its sealed , the 3 will appear on the display again, but this time it will start counting DOWN the minutes until its done.
When its completely done , your pot will beep a few times and you will see this on the display:
The "L" stands for "low" , and your instant pot has finished cooking and will now keep your food warmed at a low temperature for up to 15 hours....crazy right ?!?! The timer will now start to count UP, keeping track of how long the food has been kept warm.
Ok, so here is the next step. The release. And there are two types of releases.
1) The quick release - where you switch the nozzle from "sealing" to "Venting", and a LOT of hot steam will quickly release from the vent. Once all the steam is out, you can open the lid and enjoy all the fruits of your "labor" lol
2) The Natural release- Where you do absolutely nothing and let the pressure cooker sit for at least 20 minutes. All the pressure will release on its own.
The Natural release is the one you want to use for the rice. So after it was done cooking, I left it alone and came back about 20 minutes later and the display looked like this:
Now I could easily have set my pressure cooker to start cooking and left to do some errands and that display would have read something like 2:30 ( two hours and 30 minutes) , and that's FINE ! Just as long as it says 20 minutes minimum.
Open up the lid, and fluff that bad boy with a fork !
And there you have it . Delicious rice that you can eat right out of the pot !!!!
You have a TON of rice ( well if you have a small family) , but the good news is that rice freezes really well. You can separate it into individual freezer bags and pull them out whenever a recipe calls for cooked rice.
I have a SUPER easy and yummy recipe that I made with this rice, and I will share it with you tomorrow !
Enjoy,
Sthefanie
Post a Comment