It’s great on sheetpans, too

Made an 8-quart pot o' this tonight:





Chicken Gnocchi Soup

Pretty good comfort food, super-thick and tasty. Next time I'd add more black pepper, or maybe some red pepper flakes during the saute phase, but it's pretty damned good.

A few deviations from the recipe:

- I used a 12-ounce package of bacon
- I chopped up a little over three pounds of chicken breast before cooking, then just left the cooked pieces in the pot. Nice and tender.
- I used an 8-ounce package of cream cheese rather than the Boursin.
- I didn't have any wine, so I threw in 1/4 cup of rice wine and 1/4 cup of mirin. No, I'm not recommending that because I don't know WTF I'm doing, but the end result still tastes good.
- I used about 34 ounces of packaged gnocchi from the dry pasta area of the supermarket.

Good shit. Would recommend.

That looks really good.
I wish I could eat like that again but one bowl of that would send my glucose through the roof.

and ceramics

All right, I'll concede up front that this isn't as visually appealing as a nice pot of curry or a smoked brisket . . . but this is one of my go-to recipes.



Mango yogurt. It's hard to judge size from the picture, but that's a 2.5-quart bowl, so there's 2+ quarts of yogurt there.

1) Pour one gallon of milk into the IP.
2) Add a few heaping spoonfuls of yogurt (the starter), and whisk together.
3) Add a large handful of chopped-up dried mangoes. I use the ones from Costco, they're nice and cheap.
4) Set the IP to nine hours on the "Yogurt" and "Normal" settings. Go to bed, go to work, go to the range, whatever.
5) After the IP is done, the yogurt will be rather thin. Ladle some out into a container to use as a starter for the next batch. (I actually do a few small containers, and freeze them so I don't need to worry about getting caught short, or the starter going bad before the next batch. Thaw a few hours before you're ready to start the next batch.)
6) Set a large colander atop a large bowl. Put a filtering material into the colander, then ladle or pour the yogurt in. Put it in the fridge, let it drain for at least half a day. (I bought these giant coffee filters, they are just about right for this: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00125T4QI/. You can also use cheesecloth or some other fine material.)
7) Check the yogurt periodically, pour out the whey (clear liquid) that is collecting in the bowl if necessary, to make sure that it doesn't rise up to the level of the colander.
8) And, you're done. Transfer the finished, very thick Greek yogurt to a container to store it.

I really like this stuff. It's not what I'd call "sweet," but there's just enough sweetness from the mangoes (and the sugar on them...) that it makes the yogurt really tasty. It's a good hearty start to the day, or even a snack in the evening.

Some other things I've tried:

- Fairlife ultra-filtered milk will make a VERY thick yogurt, right out of the pot -- stand-up-a-spoon thick. It's quite impressive. However, I still felt like I wanted to strain it to get it a little thicker, and the Fairlife milk is really, really expensive. I tried it, I'm glad I tried it, but I went back to regular whole milk.
- Adding the fruit after the yogurt is made. This works, and it depends on what kind of fruit you're using. Fresh fruit, yeah, add it later. The dried mangoes don't seem to interfere with the yogurt production, and the time they spend in there when I add them at the beginning plumps them up a little, which is nice.
- The recipe above is a "cold start" recipe. Some folks will tell you that in order to do cold start yogurt, you need to use ultra-pasteurized or ultra-filtered milk. I've never had an issue with this method using normal method, so I'm keepin' on. I've also tried hot start yogurt, where you use the "Yogurt" and "Boil" setting first, and heat the milk. Meh, it's more work and I don't feel like it helps me.

Nice. I used to have an old school yogurt maker. I have not tried IP. It is temp and starter dependent - but does the finished product have a yogurt tang?

Refried Beans:

I have done several batches of refries in the IP. World-o-difference from canned. Even though most dry bean recipes say just huck the beans in, I always soak overnight.

I soak dried black beans (or pinto) overnight, rinse a couple times. Into the pressure cooker (InstantPot) for 25 minutes (no salt yet), with just a couple light herbs (half bay leaf, just a very little Mexican oregano, tiny tiny pinch of thyme), then mash (Potato masher!!) and saute with (generous to taste) salt, a little lard, canola oil (you can add other spices, bacon, taco seasoning thin with broth if they get too dryat this point if you like) until right consistency. Flacking awesome - just so much better than canned I'm telling you.

Grate some smoked cheese on them. Wow!

Mmmmm, the refried beans sound fantastic . . . .



I have a Cuisinart yogurt maker, which is what I used to use. Pro: It refrigerates the yogurt after it's done, so you can have it finish even if you're away from the house, and it won't spoil. Con: It "only" has a 50-ounce capacity, whereas I can do up to two gallons in my IP.

The longer you let the yogurt run, the tangier it gets (so I'm told). I think it also depends on the yogurt culture that you use. The stuff that I'm making has very light "tang," but that may be affected by the mangoes too.

Sweet thanks.

The refries are near fart free. Something about rinsing multiple times and using completely new fresh water in the IP. Canned just water and beans and salt and lard and heat and pressure. Bakes the farts into them!

I tried something new today, just because I saw a pic and they looked good: Charro beans. Recipe here: https://www.lemonblossoms.com/blog/charro-beans/

And since I hate to cook twice, I made a double batch . . . which perfectly filled the 8-quart Instant Pot:



On the recipe page, the pics of the sliced jalapenos on top of the beans did nothing for me, so I didn't buy jalapenos . . . not realizing that they were also cooked into the beans. No biggie, I threw some cayenne pepper (plenty of it, in hindsight...) in there instead. I also went heavy (doubled?) on the spices, which is what I've been doing a lot of lately.

This is good stuff, very flavorful. Not "just beans."



I'm not sure what the hell I'm going to do with 7.75 quarts of them, though. No word yet on whether I need to get into WaGuns-style prepping.

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but we have had a Ninja Foodi now for about a week. Instant pot aint got nuffing on dis! Thing is badass! Did ribs last night just to see. Air fry, pressure cook, so far anything we do it works great.

That came on the market about a week after I got my regular instant pot. But I do have an air fryer 360 which is also awesome.

We had a Ninja airfryer that was a gift a couple years back. Used it constantly. Loved it. Wife wanted an Insta Pot. Now I went to public school, but that's 2 appliances now on the counter. She told me about the Foodi. Since then we put off the Insta-Pot until we could afford the Foodi. Able to sell the airfryer, and now just 1 appliance that does the work of 2. So far could not be happier. Got the big dog mack daddy one too. Thing is huge!

So that's the main thing, it's 2 in 1? (That's NOT a small thing, my wife goes nuts with more gadgets on the counter) I am truly ignorant - what is a Foodi? This: https://www.amazon.com/Ninja-1400-Watt- ... B07FDFP79J

Yeah . . . that's why I went with the IP. I was considering the Foodi.

But, I've never had an air fryer, so maybe I just don't know what I'm missing.

IP now has an air fryer lid for their 6-quart models, too.

Yes. Except we have the 8qt one. By huge, its a good sized appliance, but 8qt capacity is a lot of room. Does yogurt, dehydrate, all the cool stuff.
Steve, if you've never used an aifryer, you are absolutely missing out! I can't even right now with you. What kind of kitchen are you running over there?