I feel like the IP was really a winner and no brainer when I got it on Amazon Prime Day last year for $69. That made eit an easy decision.
The other selling point for the IP is that it allows you to do some of those meals you don’t want to do in the summer because you don’t want to heat up the kitchen. A browned roast, stuffed peppers, etc. - many oven meals can be done without turning the oven on.
What abasket said! I even took my IP outside and cooked on the deck! Ribs made in under an hour? IP first, finished on the grill. Mmmmm… Delicious. It would have taken me a whole tank of propane and much longer to make them on the grill.
I use my IP outside most of the time. My H is a former vegetarian and he has a hard time with the smells of meat cooking in the IP. I am lucky on my veranda to have a plug and a small table.
@basket - as a follow up to my post #448, I’ve just made my first batch of yogurt using whey that I froze from the previous batch as the starter. I’ve got it straining in the frig right now – but it worked-- possibly a little more runny than the last batch, but it’s hard for me to say, because last time around I let it chill for several hours before straining, and this time I went directly from pot to strainer. But just roughly 1.5 TBSP of whey for 1 half gallon of milk.
Thanks @calmom, I am not 100% sure where I read or why I started using a whole cup of (preferred) Stonyfield whole milk plain yogurt - just wondering if the full cup is helping or hurting my end result. 1.5 TBSP is so much less!
Apparently, for reasons I don’t know, less starter is usually better than more, as long as the amount is not too small. Some home yogurt makers more dedicated than me actually conducted an experiment to demonstrate this: http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/family-recipes/reader-question-how-much-starter-do-you-really-need-to-make-yogurt
Wow, that article is so interesting - and exactly what I needed to read - exactly answered my questions! Thank you!
Next round I will use much less starter - I will say that while it thickens as it sets, my yogurt has had a fair amount of whey/liquid around it.
I strain mine to make Greek style so I haven’t been noticing the whey in the yogurt. The first batch I let it set first and then strained, but this time around I am going with the strain-as-it-sets approach to see if that works as well. In the end all the whey ends up in glass jars in the frig.
@abasket - yes, the type of rice matters very much for risotto- use the wrong kind and the texture won’t be creamy. Arborio is usually used in the US - carnaroli is supposed to be even better but is harder to come by, and I have never tried it. I have made the mushroom and asparagus risotto, adapting a recipe from the life’s ambrosia website, adding some dried porcini mushrooms, and using liquid quantity and cooking time from a pressure cooker recipe and it was really good - but even better reheated next day with a fried egg on top for breakfast!
Have not read the article, but maybe too much starter affects pH of the media too much? Oohhh. Something to do this weekend. 
Various web sites say something along these lines: “Using too much starter can crowd the bacteria, causing the bacteria to run out of food before the yogurt completely ferments the milk. The result is often a thinner, sometimes bitter, yogurt.” (from http://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/yogurt/yogurt-starter-frequently-asked-questions-faq/)
But that’s not consistent with the experimental results from the site I linked to above (http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/family-recipes/reader-question-how-much-starter-do-you-really-need-to-make-yogurt) – the yogurt with more starter wasn’t too thin or bitter, it just was lumpier. So you might be more on the mark with your pH theory – or it could be that with more starter, the yogurt is fermenting more rapidly, and maybe the fermentation is creating teeny bubbles that affects the texture of the yogurt. So it may be that the yogurt with more starter is fine, it just doesn’t look as pretty.
I have also read that the whey can be used as an agent to start the curdling process to make paneer or ricotta-like cheese – ordinarily a recipe for paneer would suggest lemon juice or white vinegar, but apparently the yogurt whey is acidic enough to work as well. I haven’t tried that yet but do plan to at some point.
Thank you for the recipe, @abasket. I will get the ingredients. Made ribs tonight. Ridiculously easy, except I let them stay in the pot on the long side and th6 were falling off the bone when I transferred them to the pan for the oven roasting/BBQ sauce.
jym, I just slap some extra BBQ sauce on them - as it bakes, it glues the meat back to the bone. So delicious. Yumm.
I want to make a risotto with asparagus. Any suggestions as to how and when to add the asparagus? Should I roast it first and add at end?
IP was a huge help this past weekend when I made coned beef! Cut down the cooking time to 1/3rd!
So tonight I made the mushroom risotto. The texture came out beautifully! A little too much mushrooms for me.
I did feel like it needed more flavor. Seasonings? I wanted it to be more flavorful. Any suggestions? Or any other risotto for the instapot recipes? I added some salt, pepper and fresh parsley at the end but it was still flat to me. Didn’t want to use too much salt!
I had that problem with the lentil risotto recipe – definitely came out very bland. I thought it was odd as I was preparing it that it didn’t call for adding any seasonings-- I added a little salt & pepper anyway, but it needed a lot more. So you aren’t alone-- next time around I’ll know and I’ll spice it up a bit.
I’m ok with some salt, but I did salt it - and I didn’t want to add more!
I’ve actually never made risotto before - are there other typical spices in it???
I don’t know, I’ve never made it before either. But if I make it again, I’ll spice it to my liking.
Unfortunately I made a fairly large amount to take to a pot luck-- and then forgot to account for the time it would take the IP to come to pressure, so was running late and didn’t have time to let it cool enough so that I could taste and stir in more herbs or spices. It ended up that most of it remained uneaten and I had to throw away most of it after I got home, as I didn’t want to save a rice dish that had been sitting out at room temperature for several hours.
I have some leftover arborio rice and I’ll probably experiment around with a smaller quantity until I get things right.
It’s actually very rare for me to follow recipes – I did it this time because it was a first for me, but usually I’ll read several recipes for a dish and then come up with something on my own. The key from the recipe is to get the right ratio of liquid to rice & cooking time - I figure beyond that I should be able to include whatever ingredients I feel are appropriate.
Rice dish that has been sitting at RT for a few hours is perfectly safe to eat. If you are concerned, nuke it to heat-treat it and then store in the fridge.