Category: Instant Pot

Feel free to add cooked noodles to this dish before serving; no earlier though because the noodles will absorb all the broth.

Ingredients:
4 cups chicken broth
1 14-ounce coconut milk
1/4 cup soy sauce
a jigger of fish sauce
2 tbsps honey
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup Thai red curry paste
2 pieces of boneless and skinless chicken breasts
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
1 clove garlic, minced or grated
juice of 1 lime
a handful fresh baby spinach
a handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
chopped peanuts
toasted sesame oil

1. Combine the chicken broth, coconut milk, soy sauce, fish sauce, honey, peanut butter, and curry paste in the Instant Pot. Add the chicken, cremini mushrooms, red peppers, ginger, and garlic.
2. Cover and lock the lid properly. Select the Pressure Cook function for 15 minutes. When it’s done, do a quick release after venting and letting the steam out.
3. Remove the chicken and shred meat with a fork. Add shredded chicken back in and set the Instant Pot to sauté. Stir in the lime juice, spinach, and cilantro until warm.
4. Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with peanuts and toasted sesame oil.

Don’t think I haven’t been using my Instant Pot–I have–but I haven’t found a cool new toy that could write this post for me while I’m actually going through the recipe. So recipes are being tested, but I haven’t made the time to sit and write and edit them down.

Here’s one though, a remake of an old Taiwanese favorite for the Instant Pot. I cut the recipe for you in half so it’s perfect for 2-4 people. At the very last minute, I ended up adding a can of water chestnuts for crunch because you can imagine how the pork belly pieces were super giving (they were saaaaawft) after pressurizing them.

Do me a favor: the next time you eat a tangerine, keep the peel and air-dry it, and then store it in an air-tight container for the next time you cook this recipe again. I know you will.

Ingredients:
1 lb skin-on pork belly, cut into 1″ pieces
3 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
6 cloves
3 bay leaves
2 pieces tangerine peel
2 slices fresh ginger
1 tbsp sugar
1 medium onion, finely chopped
6 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in 1/4 cup hot water until soft, saving the water
1/4 cup Shaoxing wine
3 tbsps light soy sauce
2 tbsps dark soy sauce
3 hardboiled eggs, peeled

1. Using the sauté function of your Instant Pot, add the pork. First in one layer all smooshed in. Make them sweat. They will render fat right away. Mix them a couple of times to avoid stickiness and then you can add the rest of the pork belly and do the same for the other batch, with the already heated pieces on top. Continue to mix them to keep rendering fat and to avoid them from sticking to the bottom.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the eggs. Include the mushroom water. Stir a little to incorporate everything together. The pork will render more water when you pressurize, so no need to worry about any burns.
3. Cover and lock the lid properly. Select the Pressure Cook function for 20 minutes. When it’s done, do a quick release after venting and letting the steam out.
4. Switch back to the sauté function and stir everything just to make sure flavors have melded. Season with salt if necessary. Serve with steamed white rice and top with the eggs cut in half.

What do you do when you have a whole fresh pineapple leftover from a party? This is a great mix of sweet and sour. Waiting to add the red bell pepper for last leaves them tender and with more bite than if you include them in the pressure cooking. Same for the pineapple: they will cook just enough to produce more juice, but not so much that your stew is syrupy. This is even better the next day when all flavors have melded.

Ingredients:
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 white onion, chopped
1 lb pork shoulder, cut into chunks
a small knob of ginger, sliced into matchsticks
1/4 cup soy sauce
oregano
half of a whole pineapple, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded, chopped
oil, salt, pepper

1. Using the sauté function of your Instant Pot, heat some oil. Sauté the garlic until golden brown, and then the onions until translucent. Add the pork and brown them on all sides.
2. Stir in the ginger and the soy sauce, and season with oregano, salt, and pepper. Add about 1/4 cup of water. Cover and lock the lid properly. Select the Pressure Cook function for 15 minutes. When it’s done, do a quick release after venting and letting the steam out.
3. Switch back to the sauté function. Add the pineapple and red bell pepper and cook until the bell pepper is tender. Season until you get a nice combination of sweet and sour.

Mark Wilson of Co.Design is more or less a vegetarian now, and so when I wanted yet another curry-inspired recipe for the Instant Pot I turned to him. The original one uses amchoor, a dried unripe mango powder used in Punjabi cooking to provide sourness. I didn’t want to buy yet another spice to add to my pantry, so I found the greenest mango I could find and cut off two generous cheeks from it and finely chopped it. The key is sourness, not bitterness, so make sure there is no peel involved.

If you don’t have time to soak chickpeas overnight, you may use chickpeas in a can; just make sure you rinse and drain them well.

Ingredients:
2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, drained, rinsed
vegetable oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
2 tsps garlic, minced
2 tsps ginger, minced
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 green mango slices, chopped
2 tsps coriander, grounded
2 tsps, cumin, grounded
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cayenne
1 black cardamom
a handful of cilantro leaves
salt, pepper

1. Using the sauté function of your Instant Pot, heat some oil. Add the onion and bay leaf and stir-fry for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger, stir, then add the chopped tomatoes and mango and cook until the tomatoes break down. Add the spices and stir.
2. Add the chickpeas and about 2 cups of water. Cover and lock the lid properly. Select the Pressure Cook function for 35 minutes. When it’s done, do a quick release after venting and letting the steam out.
3. Discard the cardamom and the bay leaves. Serve in a bowl and garnish with chopped cilantro.

Related post/s:
This is the same model as my Instant Pot

Is an Instant Pot necessary to make this recipe? Absolutely not, especially because I used ground rib eye rather than big pieces of it. But I wanted to be able to cook the pasta in the 15 minutes it took to cook the meat. Everything was basically ready at the same time and I was eating my single dinner in half the time. If it was the weekend, I would try browning a couple of pounds of chuck roast and then shredding them to pieces before thickening the sauce again, but who wants to spend their weekend cooking ragu?

Ingredients:
a chunk of bacon, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 carrots, peeled, chopped
1.5 lb ground rib eye
1 28-oz can whole stewed tomatoes
2 thyme sprigs
2 bay leaves
2 tsp allspice
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup beef stock
salt, pepper

1. Using the sauté function of your Instant Pot, heat some olive oil. Sauté garlic until golden brown and onions until translucent. Stir in the carrots and celery and cook until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Move everything to the side and add the ground beef to brown.
2. Gently add the stewed tomatoes while crushing them with your hands. Mix well. Cover and lock the lid properly. Select the Pressure Cook function for 15 minutes. When it’s done, do a quick release after venting and letting the steam out.
3. Turn back to the maximum setting of the sauté function to reduce and thicken the sauce. Discard the thyme stems, the bay leaves, and the cinnamon stick before serving on top of your favorite pasta.

Related post/s:
This is a similar model to my Instant Pot