This is the Instant Pot pressure cooker I’ve had for several years but was too intimidated to try to use because of the complexity. And fear.

It was a gift from my sister, my oldest subscriber and a good gifter. I managed to lose the instructions as well, not at all like me, an old database guy.

So finally I got disgusted with the thing mocking me and collecting dust so I prevailed on her to give me a quick tutorial yesterday.

She showed me a few tips and tricks and loaned me a nice cookbook which I’ll use after I master the simple stuff.

She’s an old Instant Pot hand, disregarding the preset routines because she knows how long various foods take to cook. But for my first time I chose the Meat/Stew setting to keep things simple.

The pork was a day past the ‘Use or Freeze’ date but I gave it the sniff test and it was still good. Everything is organic, because why not?

I used my new ceramic knife which doesn’t feel very sharp but actually is as I found out by nicking my thumb the first time I used it.

I’ve never been able to sharpen anything worth a damn so it’s nice to cut with something sharp for a change. That I never need to sharpen.

Sis ran me through the sauté setting yesterday so I used it to brown the pork bits in organic olive oil for 2-3 minutes and the vegetables for two more.

I set it on Meat/Stew with the default 35 minute timing and quickly dumped in two glasses of filtered water because the kitchen was so hot.

I managed to affix the excess water vapor catcher and waited for the countdown timer to start.

After 8 minutes or so I thought I’d left some step out and texted my sister, but then ’35’ showed up on the display instead of ‘ON’ and the digits started decreasing. ‘Disregard previous text’.

The thing really is fast and I just had time to feed the cats before the 35 minutes was up. I was expecting a ding when the cooking was over but I didn’t hear it. Maybe I was downstairs feeding the moggies.

When I checked it it had defaulted to Keep Warm/Cancel but since I was very hungry I turned it off and let it sit as recommended.

I needed to vent the steam so I pushed the vent lever on top, careful to keep fingers well to the side as the steam shot out the top, taking quite some time. Then I could open the lid.

The results were tasty, especially with organic yogurt and organic rice and seed crackers.

So it was pretty simple once I was coached on the basics. Next time I’ll cut the cook time to 30 minutes for a more al dente texture.

Now I’m glad I didn’t manage to sell it last summer in my giant, 3-day, downsizing yard sale. Thanks, sis!

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