Do You Need an Instant Pot? Yes!!!
New Gadget or Must Have?
I love a new kitchen gadget. I bought one of those things that peels, cores, and spiral slices an apple about twenty years ago. I have used it about five times. It works great, but I just don’t need to peel, core and spiral slice apples all that often. I have some other things that have ended up in the bottom of a drawer, taking up space. Jerry has been trained to question my need of a new gadget because I love them, and then I leave them…in the drawer.
That was probably his first thought when I said I needed an Instant Pot. “You have a crock pot,” he said. “Not the same thing at all,” I replied. So how is it different and what can I do with an Instant Pot that I can’t do with a crock pot?
Mostly, it is a function of time. Jerry doesn’t want me to start something cooking and leave it. This means that our crock pot has never been used to prepare meals overnight or while I was at work. Personally, I think this defeated its purpose, but I didn’t want to push the issue and be responsible for burning down the house.
The Instant Pot, to the best I could explain, would cook food more quickly. I did a Google search for Instant Pot recipes to show him the cooking times. They were impossibly short. There was no way this was every going to work. I could see the doubt in his eyes. Still, we decided to give it a go. Why? In short, we were a bit desperate.
A Case of Self-Preservation
We were about to start working on the renovation of the house. We knew we would be spending hours working. After eight or more house, we would be coming home filthy, tired and hungry. I needed an option that allowed for varied meals to be prepared in record time. He didn’t think it would work, but we knew we needed to at least give it a whirl. I am so glad we did. Here is a link to the Instant Pot we purchased. Instant Pot DUO Plus 60
Our first meal was a recipe I found on the Adventures of a Nurse website. It is a recipe for Asiago Chicken and Mushroom Risotto. Once you get everything into the Instant Pot, it cooks in 10 minutes! Even I could manage that, tired as I was. Seriously, the Adventures of a Nurse has some of the most delicious recipes for comfort food I have seen. Check out her full website here.
A note about the risotto recipe…we also make it with shrimp and it is very tasty. If you do use shrimp, be sure you purchase the larger shrimp so that they don’t overcook. Keep the cook time the same so the risotto is done. The shrimp is actually a prettier dish as they add a nice bit of color to an otherwise bland looking (but not bland tasting!) meal.