Melissa Clark - Comfort in an Instant: 75 Comfort Food Recipes for Your Pressure Cooker, Multicooker, and Instant Pot(r) a Cookbook

Copyright 2018 by Melissa Clark

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

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CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Clark, Melissa, author.

Title: Comfort in an instant: 75 comfort food recipes for your pressure cooker, multicooker, and Instant Pot / Melissa Clark.

Description: First edition. | New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2018.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018019955 (print) | LCCN 2018021152 (ebook) | ISBN 9780525576167 (ebook) | ISBN 9780525576150

Subjects: LCSH: Comfort food. | Pressure cooking. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.

Classification: LCC TX714 (ebook) | LCC TX714 .C5533 2018 (print) | DDC 641.5/87dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018019955

ISBN9780525576150

Ebook ISBN9780525576167

Cover design by Marysarah Quinn

Photographs by Christopher Testani

v5.3.2

prh

TO DAHLIA AND DANIEL,

WHO ARE A COMFORT TO ME EVERY SINGLE DAY

CONTENTS

COMFORTING MORNINGS

FAST WEEKNIGHT COMFORT: PASTAS, GRAINS + LENTILS

FAST WEEKNIGHT COMFORT: CHICKEN, MEAT + SEAFOOD

COZY COOKING FOR THE WEEKENDS

SOUPS WILL ALWAYS COMFORT YOU

COMFORTING SIDES

SWEET COMFORTS

INTRODUCTION

A few years ago I was given the assignment from the New York Times Food section to explore why legions of passionate home cooks were falling hard for their electric pressure cookers. Was this gadget a mere fad? Or would it weave its way into the fabric of our kitchen and our lives?

The answer of course is the latter. Electric pressure cookers (also called multipots) are on the culinary upswing. Once you get the hang of it (and see the section beginning on for a little help), they make getting dinner on the table a snap.

Theyve certainly made my life easier. After using mine regularly for the past few years, there are some thingsbeans, braised meats, artichokes, bone broth, and brown ricethat Id be absolutely bitter about having to go back to cooking in a pot on the stove. But with two multipots at the ready, I doubt I ever will.

Here, I include only recipes that show off what the machines excel atnot so much what they can do, but what they can do as well or better than traditional methods, be it faster, more flavorfully, or more conveniently. The key to pressure-cooker success is choosing recipes in which softness and succulence is the goal, and which traditionally take hours to get there. An electric pressure cooker cant cook a whole chicken very well, and it doesnt do crisp or crunchy. So if you dont ask it to do what it cant, you wont be disappointed.

Instead, use it to make comforting dishes like turkey meatloaf spiked with Sriracha and served on a mound of buttered potatoes (), a Korean dish of marinated pork shoulder; I pressure cook it until spoonably tender, and then broil it until its a glisteningly caramelized vision.

There is, however, one thing to bear in mind with all multipots: Although the pioneering brand in the category is called the Instant Pot, you shouldnt expect instantaneous meals. Faster, more convenient, and tasty meals, yes. But be prepared for the lag time it takes for the machine to reach and release pressure10 to 30 minutesas well as the usual prep time of cooking. That is why, for example, the luscious Lemon Chicken with Garlic and Olives on calls for a pressure-cook time of only 15 minutes, but the total time is closer to 45 minutes. Its still much faster than using a traditional oven, but by no means instant. Read the title of this book with a knowing wink.

That said, in putting together this collection, I did make sure to include over fifty of my favorite recipes that could be put together in under an hour: 50 under 60, as it were. Even better, most of that time is hands off. Throw everything in the machine and go for a run. Or have a glass of wine and help your kids with their homework. Dinner will be ready when you are.

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR

ELECTRIC PRESSURE COOKER

If youre an old hand at cooking with pressure cookers, you can skip this section. And, if youve read my first electric pressure cooker book, Dinner in an Instant, you can also skip this section, as the information is the same. Many new electric pressure cooker brands and models have hit the market since that books publication, but the fundamentals are unchanged. Novices, however, should read on for some crucial information that will help you avoid the pitfalls and get comfortable with all the functions of your device.

Most electric pressure cookers are also multipurpose cookers, or multipots, meaning they can do many things beyond just cooking under pressure. Most models can steam, saut, slow-cook, pressure-cook, and even make yogurt.

The pressure function is one of the handiest because cooking foods at a lower temperature but higher pressure allows for a faster cooking time than you would need on the stove or in the oven. It lets you achieve certain shortcuts, like cooking dried beans without soaking them first or cooking polenta without stirring. And it is amazing for braising meats, which never dry out and always cook up tender and luscious.

Because Im always in a rush, and assume you usually are too, Ive written most of these recipes to use the pressure cooker function whenever possible. But whenever the results are equally good using the slow cooker function, I have included directions for that as well (see Cook It Slow at the end of some of the recipes). This gives you options. Because sometimes you do need to slow things down to make them fit most easily into your schedule.

These recipes will work in any electric pressure cooker on the market. In terms of developing the recipes, I tested them using three popular brands: Instant Pot, Breville, and Fagor, and found them all more or less the same in terms of functionality. They all cooked the ingredients pretty similarly. The differences were in their designs. Some models were more intuitive for me to use than others. This, however, is entirely subjective.

WHAT SIZE PRESSURE COOKER SHOULD I BUY?

This is one of my more frequently asked questions. I currently own two electric pressure cookers: a 6-quart that I use for most of my daily cooking, and an 8-quart Ill pull out when I make my biweekly batch of bone broth or other stocks or large batches of soup or stew.

I generally recommend the 6-quart model as the best size for most families, though if youre often feeding a crowd, the 8-quart might be better for you. And if space is tight, you can make many of the recipes in this book in the 3-quart model, as long as you are careful never to fill the basin higher than the maximum fill line indicates (see for more information).