Glenda Embree is one of a kind grandmother of three beautiful grandchildren. She maintains a creative blog for busy wives and moms. The blog is full of wonderful and practical tips and recipes. The following is her recent creation of a Potato Bacon Chowder recipe using Instant Pot. The recipe is posted here with permission from Glenda.
Ingredients: 8 servings
- 5 lbs. russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 3 stalks celery, sliced thin
- 1 large onion, small diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 Tablespoon seasoning salt (I used Country Bob’s)
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 lb. bacon, fried crisp and rough chopped
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese and diced green onion for garnish
Instructions
- Place potato chunks into inner pot of pressure cooker.
- Add celery, onion, garlic, seasoning salt, pepper and butter. Stir to combine.
- Add bacon and chicken stock to pot and then stir to combine. (I debated on whether to add the bacon, now, or when the soup was done. Now, meant sinking that smoky flavor deep into the potatoes. Later, meant having that crispier texture element to enjoy in my finished soup. Tonight, I opted for the deep flavor (Totally delish, by the way!), but you could go either way and it would be tasty and perfectly acceptable.) If you decide to wait, you will add the bacon when you stir in the milk and cream.)
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot slow cooker and lock it into place.
- It will start, off to the side, so it drops into the slots in the rim and then you will grip the handle to spin the lid into the locked position. See how the arrows line up when it’s locked?
- Push the Manual mode button and set the timer for 5 minutes. (I started with 10 and then checked half way through. At five minutes, the potatoes were fork tender and perfect. Amazing!)
- Quick-release the steam from the pressure cooker.
- When steam is fully gone, remove the lid of the slow cooker. There should still be liquid in the pot with your veggies.
- Use a potato masher to crush vegetables, resulting in a thick, semi-smooth mash. I left a few bigger chunks of potato, in mine, for texture. That’s totally a preference thing, so adjust for what your family likes.)
- Add cream and whole milk, stirring to incorporate.
- Serve hot and steaming, topped with sour cream, shredded cheddar and sliced green onion.
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Many users started using Instant Pot in very creative ways. We are pleasantly surprised that Instant Pot’s keep-warm function can be used to do sous vide cooking. Sous vide, French for “under vacuum”, is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath for a long time at low temperature (54C~80C) to kill harmful bacterias before applying other cooking techniques such as browning or BBQ. Many have done sous vide in simple home-made devices, for example Chef John’s “Food Wishes”.
Maomao Mom created a sous vide recipe for succulent duck breast. Here’s a repost with permission. She also has other recipes on her blog http://MaomaoMom.com.
Sous vide duck breast
by MaomaoMom
Google “Sous vide” (French for “under vacuum”) and you will find 10 million search results. It involves cooking food in sealed plastic bags in a water bath at lower (50~70C) and constant temperatures for long periods of time. This technique was used by French chefs in the 1960s and 70s. It has become increasingly popular at gourmet restaurants because it yields much higher succulence and avoids overcooking. Even Iron Chefs use this technique on TV shows. There is even an expensive water-oven appliance SousVide Supreme for this purpose.
Since I have an electric pressure cooker with a “keep warm” function which maintains temperature around 65C, I decided to try this technique out. Results are pretty good.
Prepare Time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 38+4minutes
Level: medium
Serves: 2 servings
Ingredients
- 2 large boneless duck breast halves 480g, skin-on;
- 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons freshly minced garlic, ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1/3 teaspoon dry thyme, 1/3 teaspoon peppercorn;
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil;
Apricot sauce (optional):
- 1 large ripe apricot, peeled and cored, mash with 2 tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons sugar.
Directions
- Clean duck breasts then rub on all ingredients 2. Cover and chill in the fridge for 2 hours. Rinse off spices and place duck breasts in a Ziploc bag, remove air and seal it.
- Add water in the InstantPot up to 7-cup mark. Leave the lid open, turn on power and press “Keep warm” button. After 20 minutes, place the Ziploc bag in the water bath for 35~40 minutes.
- Remove the bag from the water and pat dry duck breasts. Sear skin side of duck breasts in a non-stick frying pan with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil at medium-high heat until golden. Turn over and cook for another 20 seconds.
- Slice the cooked duck breasts and serve with apricot sauce.
- Apricot sauce: mix ingredients 4 and 5 in a small pot, bring to boil on high heat then simmer 5 minutes at low heat.
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Eddoe is a small tropical root vegetable, a variety of Taro family originated from China and Japan. They offer an intensely flavorful alternative to potatoes and yams. It’s commonly known that eddoes contain carbohydrate and fiber which are excellent for people with digestive problems. Eddoe flour is used in infant formula and canned baby foods. Other benefits of eddoes may include lowering cholesterol levels, slowing absorption of glucose, reducing insulin requirements and reducing the likelihood of colorectal cancer.
To add eddoes to your daily diet, the following is probably the simplest desert recipe. Cooking eddoes with Instant Pot is easy and fast.
Prepare Time: 2 minutes
Cooking Time: Around 8 minutes with Instant Pot Programmable Pressure cooker
Ingredients: 6 servings
- 2 pounds of eddoes
- White sugar, brown sugar or maple syrup
Cooking:
- Wash the eddoes clean. Don’t need to peel them.
- Add 2 cups of water in the Instant Pot inner pot. Put in the steaming rack that came with Instant Pot.
- Put the eddoes in a ceramic/metal serving bowl. Place the bowl on top of the steaming rack.
- Press the “Steam” key and select 8 minutes.
- The semi-hard shell of eddoes will be very easy to peel off. Cut the peeled eddoes into bite-size and roll them in the sugar of your choice (white sugar, brown sugar or maple syrup
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For 6-8 Servings:
1 pound rack of lamb
1 pound of baby potatoes
2 carrots
1 large onion
2 stalks of celery
2 medium size tomatoes
2 cups of chicken stock
3-4 large cloves of garlic
1-2 teaspoons of salt depending on the salt content of the chicken stock
2 teaspoon of cumin powder
2 teaspoon of Paprika
A pinch of dried rosemary
A pinch of dried oregano leaves
2 table spoons of ketchup
3 table spoons of sherry or red wine
A splash of beer if you have one in hand
Wash all vegetables, and cut potatoes and carrots into 1 inch cubes. Dice the tomatoes, onion and garlic. Cut the rack of lamb to two halves. Put everything, I mean everything, in the cooking pot and mix well. Put the cooking pot in the Instant Pot base. Close the lid to Close position as you see flashes of “- – -“ on the LED display panel. Press the Stew/Meat button, and 35 (minutes cooking time) is shown on the LED. After about 10 seconds, you hear a beep and the LED display shows the running circle indicating the cooking process has started.
All you need to do from this point is to have a drink of your beer, sit back and relax, until you hear 3 beeps indicating the food is cooked. Wait for a few minutes until the Instant Pot cools down and you can safely or comfortably release the remaining pressure by turning the pressure release handle to the “Vent” position. Need to wait for a little longer if there is still jets of steam coming out when you try to turn the pressure release to the “Vent” position. You may open the lid once there is no pressure inside. Serve over rice or multigrain rice.
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Red bean (also known as Azuki bean) soup has been loved by many Japanese, Korean and Chinese for centuries. It is also one of the most common after-diner dessert in Chinese restaurants. If you inquire about how the red bean soup is made, the waitress would give you a list of ingredients, and tell you to soak the beans overnight and boil it for hours and hours. Not anymore with Instant Pot! You could enjoy the mouth-watering red bean soup within an hour, including preparation.
Prepare Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: Around 55 minutes with Instant Pot Programmable Pressure cooker
Ingredients: 6 servings
- 2 cups of red beans
- 1/2 cup of dry lotus seeds, with the sprouts removed
- (Optional) 1/2 cup of dry chestnuts
- (Optional) 2 small pieces of dried mandarin or lemon peel, broken into tiny pieces
- 4 table spoon of sugar (change this amount depending how many sweet teeth you have)
- 8~12 cups of water, depending on whether you prefer thick or thinner soup
Cooking:
- Put all ingredients in the cooking pot
- Press “Bean/Chilli” function key, and press “Adjust” once to extend the cooking time
- When the cooking is done, stir well before serving
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