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purplepenning 's review for:
Like half of America, I recently got an Instant Pot pressure cooker and am ready and willing to fall in love with it. So far, I'm in moderate like, not love, but this cookbook may push me over into a solid infatuation. The subtitle seems to promise too much — "Easy Recipes for Fast and Healthy Meals" — but, so far, it seems to be delivering.
I like the balance of recipes, which are organized into breakfast; vegetables; beans and grains; soups, stews, and chilies; seafood and poultry; beef, lamb, and pork; dessert; and stocks and sauces. The variety within each category is pretty good, too, covering traditional American fare (chili, pot roast, cheese grits, apple dumplings, etc.) as well as several ethnic dishes (lamb curry, tabbouleh, fried rice, Thai-style corn chowder, pho, matzo ball soup, etc.).
Two things I really appreciate: 1) Each recipe gives prep time, time under pressure, and TOTAL time, plus nutrition info per serving. 2) The end matter includes general pressure-cooking time charts, general cooking conversion tables, the list of the "dirty dozen" and the "clean fifteen," and a resources list that actually gives other helpful resources (www.InstantPot.com, www.HipPressureCooking.com, www.PressureCookingToday.com, etc.) and isn't just a place to promote other books or sites by the author.
Two things I'm not a fan of: 1) Stock photos instead of shots of the actual dishes. 2) The number of recipes that require a small (6- or 7-inch diameter, or whatever fits in your cooker) baking dish used inside the pressure cooker. Unless you really don't want to heat up your oven, the very small amount of total time saved doesn't seem worth the hassle. Plus, many of them are relatively easy breakfast dishes (strata, frittata, french toast bake, etc.) that suddenly seem too complicated for this not-a-morning person once the pressure cooker is involved. I can maybe see an occasion for making individual desserts in ramekins in the pressure cooker, but I don't anticipate ever making a medium-size baked dessert or casserole-style dish or breakfast bake in it.
Those beans, grains, soups, stews, roasts, and stocks, however — I'm ready to fall in love with those.
I like the balance of recipes, which are organized into breakfast; vegetables; beans and grains; soups, stews, and chilies; seafood and poultry; beef, lamb, and pork; dessert; and stocks and sauces. The variety within each category is pretty good, too, covering traditional American fare (chili, pot roast, cheese grits, apple dumplings, etc.) as well as several ethnic dishes (lamb curry, tabbouleh, fried rice, Thai-style corn chowder, pho, matzo ball soup, etc.).
Two things I really appreciate: 1) Each recipe gives prep time, time under pressure, and TOTAL time, plus nutrition info per serving. 2) The end matter includes general pressure-cooking time charts, general cooking conversion tables, the list of the "dirty dozen" and the "clean fifteen," and a resources list that actually gives other helpful resources (www.InstantPot.com, www.HipPressureCooking.com, www.PressureCookingToday.com, etc.) and isn't just a place to promote other books or sites by the author.
Two things I'm not a fan of: 1) Stock photos instead of shots of the actual dishes. 2) The number of recipes that require a small (6- or 7-inch diameter, or whatever fits in your cooker) baking dish used inside the pressure cooker. Unless you really don't want to heat up your oven, the very small amount of total time saved doesn't seem worth the hassle. Plus, many of them are relatively easy breakfast dishes (strata, frittata, french toast bake, etc.) that suddenly seem too complicated for this not-a-morning person once the pressure cooker is involved. I can maybe see an occasion for making individual desserts in ramekins in the pressure cooker, but I don't anticipate ever making a medium-size baked dessert or casserole-style dish or breakfast bake in it.
Those beans, grains, soups, stews, roasts, and stocks, however — I'm ready to fall in love with those.