A few years ago (long enough that I can't easily find it on any kinds of order searches), I bought a six-quart Insignia knock-off of the Instant Pot pressure cooker. I vaguely recall that the Instant Pots were the Big New Thing of the Moment, but kind of pricey, and that the Insignia was on a
really good sale, probably less than $30, so why not give it a try?
I used it a few times -- I recall making some rice dishes, pasta, and successfully "broasting" a few things -- thought it was pretty cool, then put it away and mostly forgot about it.
Then we moved, occasioning three changes:
- We're having food from "out" less often and doing more cooking at home;
- I'm doing more of the cooking at home, seeing as how I'm here all day working from home, while Tamara's at an office all day; and
- When we moved, the Insignia "Instant Pot" struck me as a thing to use for that. I'm mostly more of an outdoor griller than an indoor chef, so clever devices strike me as handy solutions.
I've whipped up several things in the pressure cooker so far, including attempts at Chinese-style curry chicken (not bad, but I haven't been able to get the spices quite right) and a pretty excellent pot roast.
I like it well enough that I've considered moving up from a six-quart to an eight-quart version, both so that I can do bigger dishes (like, say, a whole ham kind of thing) and because I figure that in the years intervening between my original purchase and now, there are probably new features to do different things with. Also, the actual Instant Pot brand seems to allow the user to choose different pressure levels, while the Insignia doesn't.
But wow, those prices. I usually expect to see electronics and household goods come down in price with wider adoption and brand competition, but it looks to me like this product has gone up across the board, and at a faster rate than inflation would account for. Even the off-brand types are well over $50 for six-quart versions.
So I guess I'll wait. I've seen no signs that the current one is wearing out, and I can always do bigger dishes in the eight-quart slow cooker, or in the oven, or whatever.
If you've got a favorite "Instant Pot" recipe, feel free to share it or link to it in comments.
I also finally tried making something in the new cast-iron Dutch oven -- jalapeño cornbread. I followed the directions to the letter, but it was just awful. Too dense and bland to eat. So I broke it up, threw it out in the yard, and the local crows just loved it. It was gone within half an hour. I may try again, since I don't mind feeding the local crows if it goes wrong again. We've got a standard bird feeder, but I've not seen the crows try it, and I doubt it would work well for them (It's small and their weight would likely cause it to swing wildly on its cable).
