How a poor result in one alternate cooking method gave me the idea to use a second alternate cooking method!
The Instant Pot. The new wonder cooking device. I'll admit, I resisted getting one of these for a long time, simply because I didn't really understand it. Once I researched it and found out that basically its just an electric pressure cooker, I was a bit more willing to give it a try.
Kim bought me an Instant Pot for Christmas. I still was not 100% on board. I decided to try a pre-made jar of "any pot" sauces from Fry's to make a pot roast. It was some time in February and I figured a nice hearty meal would be good. I love pot roast and figured the Instant Pot would be good for this as it would cut down the cooking time considerably. I should probably say that the reason I was hesitant to use an Instant Pot was the shortened cooking time. I'm a classically trained chef! Long cooking times are what I love best about braised dishes! They use lesser cuts of meat and the long cooking time makes them tender and the long cook time helps develop the flavors. Could something cooked in an Instant Pot in a third of the time still taste good? Well, as it turns out, yes! I bought some chuck roast, browned it, threw in some carrots, celery and onions and the jar of sauce and let the Instant Pot do its thing for about an hour. The meat was tender and juicy and the veggies were soft and yummy like you would like for a pot roast.
It's hot in Arizona during the summer. And this summer has been extra hot! July 2020 was the hottest July on record. We live in an older home that uses room air conditioners instead of central air. So my kitchen gets HOT! Too hot to turn on the oven. Too hot to cook on the gas stove for a long period of time. So I've been using alternate cooking methods almost exclusively. While my electric wok gets some use, the Instant Pot has become the King in my kitchen. Just below that is my air fryer, which I resisted for a long time as well!
Besides tougher cuts of beef and pork, I love cooking chicken, especially thighs, in my Instant Pot. In about 20 minutes you have juicy and delicious, bone-in chicken. The downside is the skin is not going to be crispy. But I'm o.k. with that. I guess I'm one of those weird people that are o.k. with soft chicken skin. And in dishes like Hainan Chicken Rice, it works perfectly!
One morning I woke up to a text from Kim saying she was craving coconut curry. I can make that happen. The caveat was that neither she, nor I, wanted to heat up the house anymore than necessary. I figured I'd give the Instant Pot a try for this. I went to my local Asian supermarket and bought a pouch of Indonesian Rendang Curry Paste, coconut cream, coconut milk, some carrots, cauliflower and a red and green bell pepper. I set the Instant Pot to High Saute and browned the chicken and then stir fried the paste. Then went in the veggies, the chicken and the coconut milk and cream. Set to 20 minutes and walked away. Once it was done I did a manual release and pulled the chicken thighs and breast out with some tongs. I tried to pull out the veggies with the tongs and immediately saw the issue. Mush. Total mush. Problem #1. Only the chunks of carrots were distinguishable. O.k. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little. The larger pieces of cauliflower were distinguishable, as well as the peppers. I then used a little of the coconut milk I had left with some corn starch to thicken the sauce. I could have reduced it by boiling it down, but hey! We were hungry!
The chicken thighs were juicy and delicious. The breast was about half good, half overcooked and dry. Problem # 2. But we ate it on a bed of steamed wild and brown rice. The taste was amazing! All the complexity and flavor development as there would've been if I had simmered it on the stove for an hour. The vegetables were mushy, but good flavor. Except for the green bell peppers. They were extremely bitter. Problem #3. I have been researching to find out if this is a problem with cooking the peppers at high heat or high pressure (I'll post more on that if I find out a definitive answer).
While the flavors were on point, the texture of the vegetables left a lot to be desired. I generally don't mind well-cooked carrots. They may be soft and mushy, but the flavor is always good. I can't say the same for the cauliflower and peppers. So I started thinking how can I correct these issues?
As one of my favorite television personalities, Adam Savage of Mythbusters, likes to say: "Failure is Always an Option!" I think failure is an important part of learning. If everything turns out perfect the first time, which is just not realistic anyway, how can you learn? How can you develop new ideas or methods? We need failure to keep our egos in check, as well!
So I have three issues:
Overcooked chicken breast
Mushy vegetables
Super bitter green peppers
What can I do to correct them? Overcooked chicken breast is an easy one. I'll just cook it a slightly shorter time. I can brown the thighs a bit longer so they will still all be done at the same time. No problem.
Now the mushy veggies are where I think a second alternate cooking method can come into play. Enter the Air Fryer. While I hate the name, as its not "frying" anything. It's essentially a small convection oven. The next time I make something like this, I'll cook the meat and sauce in the Instant Pot and cook the vegetables in the Air Fryer. They should roast nicely and then I'll add them to the chicken and sauce after they are out of the Instant Pot.
The bitter green peppers continues to confuse me. I haven't found a definitive answer as to weather this was caused by the high heat or high pressure, or if I just happened to get a bitter or under-ripe pepper. Time will tell.
Remember: It's o.k. to fail at something. The key is to learn from it and not let it get you down. Thanks, Adam Savage, for reminding me of this!
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