Jeffrey Eisner - The Step-by-Step Instant Pot Cookbook: 100 Simple Recipes for Spectacular Results

Lets get one thing out of the way. I am NOT a professional chef. Im not fancy, I cook with the most basic ingredients (while standing over the stove in sweatpants and messy hair), and if you told me two years ago Id be writing a cookbook, Id have checked the calendar to make sure it wasnt April 1st.

In fact, Ive had zero professional trainingeverything Ive learned was from my Grandma Lil (with a little help from my mother). Grandma Lil was a remarkable and hilarious woman who could have easily headlined among the likes of Jackie Mason and Don Rickles in the Catskills, but in our family, she was famous for her cooking. My grandma never cooked with a recipeshe did it all by eye, memory, and creativity.

Enter me in 2017. I wasnt happy in my career and needed a way to express my own creativity. Then I discovered the Instant Pot, which was on its way to becoming the must-have kitchen appliance. Like so many others, I was at first intimidated by my new magic pot. The idea of locking my food inside, not being able to taste and adjust it as it cooked, was totally alien to how I learned to cook at my grandmas side. But I took it upon myself to learn the ins and outs of this revolutionary device. Once I had it figured out, I created my first how-to video so that everyone else who felt intimidated by it could see just how easy it is. The next thing I knew, I was developing my own recipes for the Instant Pot and posting personable step-by-step videos for each one on my website, Pressure Luck Cooking. Suddenly I was a full-time recipe creator and blogger. And now youre reading this book I wrote. Surreal!

But remember, I am NOT a professional. Im just a nice Jewish boy from Long Island who loves to make delicious, home-cooked meals. So trust me on this one: If I can cook in an Instant Pot, you can too. If youve never cooked before but desperately want to make a great meal to impress your family (or yourself), this cookbooks for you. If youre a seasoned cook but this is your first foray into pressure cooking, this cookbooks for you. And if youre already an Instant Pot pro and just want to dig into fast, easy recipes ranging from light, vegetable-centric dishes to rich and creamy comfort food, from international to down-home favorites, and everything in between, this cookbooks for you.

I want everyone who reads this book to be able to cook along with me, just like I did beside Grandma Lil. Every recipe in this book has photographs showing you exactly what to do in each step (more than 750 of them). There are no surprises: no fancy or hard-to-find ingredients, no frilly extra steps, nothing even the most reluctant pressure cooker user cant master in moments. With me, what you see is literally what you get. And if you dont like an ingredient, just leave it out! This is cooking, not brain surgerymake what you love, and dont let anyone say you must do otherwise.

Now lets get started!

What I hear most often from people who just bought an Instant Pot is that theyre terrified to use it. Like, to the point of leaving it in the box to gather dust (or become a perch for their cat) because theyd rather stare at it than use it.

And I get it! For some, the thought of pressure cooking is a bit scary. If your last memory of using a pressure cooker is from back in Grandma Lils day, you may remember something that looked like a torture device and was liable to blow its lid off, embedding it in the kitchen ceiling. But with todays modern technology, the Instant Pot has made pressure cooking safeand fun!

And if your Instant Pot is still in its box because youre not sure what to cook with it, heres the scoop. This appliance is a stovetop (with the saut function) and an oven (when it pressure cooks). It sauts, braises, stews, and even makes yogurt, all in record time. Im a New Yorker, so Im always wary when things sound too good to be true (Ive walked through Times Square enough to know the truth behind those free comedy shows), but this is one of the rare exceptions when too good is indeed true.

Still not convinced? Heres a quick summary:

The cookings done all in one pot. This means no sauting veggies or meat in a separate pot, no straining pasta before serving, and no transferring from your stovetop to the oven to bake. Even better? Less cleanup!

Under pressure, your food is done in a fraction of the time of regular cooking. Gone are the days of waiting 68 hours for a fork-tender roast from the oven or feeling nervous about leaving your slow cooker plugged in for a whole day at work. Pressure cuts that cook time down to minutes on the hour.

Unlike ovens, which can vary from home to home, the Instant Pot is all electric and every unit cooks consistentlyso if you follow the directions to a tee, you never have to worry about something being over- or underdone.