Also solo, with an eye toward leftovers for a few meals. My "virgin" effort may be chicken in tomato - peanut sauce.

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Instant Pot warning issued after reports of cookers overheating, melting

Video: Instant Pot warning issued after reports of cookers overheating, melting | Food and cooking | stltoday.com

I ordered a Mealthy unit the other day, which arrived broken. Company immediately arranged to send a replacement as well as emailing a prepaid label for me to return my pot, which I did yesterday.

Pasta, frozen meatballs and a jar of sauce sounds like something easy for a beginner.

I always had visions of dangerous exploding kitchen appliances until I started using one. I am cooking unsoaked dry chickpeas as I type this. The issue I have, I almost always forget to check the valve is in closed position. Pressure won't cook if it's seeping out the top, right? [bangs head on wall]

I was hoping to find a users thread here on tips, tricks, and recipes, but I guess there isn't a need or want for one? :(

FYI, future readers, the affected products are the rectangular 8-in-1 cookers, not the popular round Instant Pots.

According to the post from Instant Pot, "We have received a small number of reports of the Gem 65 8-in-1 Multicooker overheating, resulting in localized melting damage to the underside of the product." Owners are asked to look on the silver label on the underside of the cooker; if the batch code is 1728, 1730, 1731, 1734, and 1746, Instant Pot wants you "to immediately stop use of the product." Everyone take a deep breath. Your Instant Pot pressure cooker has not been recalled. | Food and cooking | stltoday.com

We've had one for 6 months now and love it. Were able to get rid of 3-4 other kitchen electronics because of it.

My lovely wife made a mistake using a pressure cooker years ago while making a pot full of black beans. It was like a bomb went off in the kitchen.......beans were everywhere.

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Here's a free e-book at Amazon. https://www.dealsplus.com/freebies/p...t-pot-cookbook

I'm also doing the same process. I think it's a lot tastier that way.

Thanks for this link

Well, my effort at chicken tagine wasn't the greatest, but I find the pot terrific as a rice cooker. A more successful outcome was Thai red curry chicken.

I bought one of these over a year ago and its been sitting in the original box until last weekend. I had grilled some fajitas, but they were as tough as shoe leather, so I unpacked it, read the instructions, threw in a 1/2 cup of beef broth, and turned on the pressure cooker function. About 45 minutes later, they were tender, but I probably could have use the more function to take them to perfection.

I'm a fan. Using and cleaning this thing is a breeze, so I'm going to expand my use of it - even though it will probably never see a grain of rice. lol

I received a 3-qt Instant Pot as a gift. Here's a tip for anyone else who gets a 3-qt IP rather than a 6-qt IP: cut your recipe quantities in half but keep the cooking times and instructions the same. If I really get into using the IP a lot I may trade up to a 6-qt model. I find the 3-qt inner pot a bit small for convenient sauteeing and a bit small for some other things. I'm still learning how to use the IP and haven't cooked many things in it yet, but I'm already impressed that it makes the best (most tender) corn on the cob and best (perfectly cooked and easiest to peel) hard-boiled eggs I've ever had. Oh, and great corned beef in about a fifth of the time as a slow cooker. I found online recipes for pressure-cooked corned beef with a wide range of cook times and finally went with, and have had good success with, a Wolfgang Puck recipe: 90 minutes of pressure cooking, natural release to prevent meat fibers from contracting, and a liquid of beer + beef broth.

I decimated 3 batches (2 cups ea) of dry cannellini beans this week.

The first batch I didn't soak and the second and third soaked with a few pinches of baking soda overnight+. Maybe half in each batch had broken their skins, broken into pieces, were a mess. The second batch was so mushy, as soon as they cooled, I took an immersion blender to them and made a bean dip with olive oil and a packet of taco seasoning. The third batch I drastically reduced the cooking time by half because I thought maybe I added too much baking soda in a too long soak. The remaining beans went into a vegetable minestrone, the starch from the broken beans thickened the soup to perfection.

Any dry bean gurus out there? I had a really hard time finding answers to my dilemma(s).

I don't have a IP but do have stovetop pressure cookers. I haven't had the mushy thing happen to my beans but I do try to not stir the beans too much when I drain the water out. Also, when i do use baking soda, it's about 1/4 teaspoon maximum per pot regardless of amount of beans. Some beans and pulses are more susceptible to mushiness (red lentils) because of their thinner skins. For timing, I usually refer to the timing charts in . The charts show timing differences for soaked and unsoaked beans. If using baking soda, use the soaked beans chart because the baking soda helps break things down faster. If soaking and using baking soda, further decrease time of the soaked beans chart. Most importantly be very gentle when draining and rinsing when pressure cooking is done. Hope this helps.

Recently bought this kindle book for the wifey from Amazon....

Instant Pot Cookbook: Quick, Easy, Healthy and Delicious Recipes for Beginners by Ted Brown

just started trying it out since it helps us save a bunch of time and the recipes are pretty simple/easy; so far not bad haha