So a couple of months ago my rice cooker died on me. Can’t really complain – I got it for free as part of an employee reward program from my previous employer and I’ve had it for 6 years. A few months ago one of my cats managed to knock it off the shelf and it incurred a big dent in the side. It was still operating just fine, but apparently there was some undiscovered damage to the lid hinge and it eventually fell apart. My BFF and heart-sister Lindsay and I had been talking about Instant Pots; she has one, and enjoys it. So I figured rather than just get a single-use item like a rice cooker, I’d get an IP I could also cook rice in. I’d been hesitant because it’s fundamentally a pressure cooker, I’d never used one, and my husband often spoke with a notable lack of fondness about his father’s pressure-cooked chicken but I also trust Lindsay’s opinion particularly when it comes to food. I got the Duo Evo 6-quart model.
Folks. These things are amazing.
I’m not a fan of long-winded meandering essays you have to scroll through to get to a recipe because fuuuuuck that, but I want to just say this: My methodology for cooking anything is to exactly follow the recipe the first time and then experiment once I know what I’m working with, and that’s what I’ve done here. I found a recipe for Instant Pot stroganoff and have adapted it to my own personal tastes. So without further ado:
Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground meat (I’ve used beef and bison, I’d imagine turkey works too)
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thinly
16 oz baby portobella mushrooms, sliced (or whatever kind of mushrooms you prefer)
1 TB butter
1/2 TP salt (or to taste)
1/3 TP pepper (or to taste)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 TB all purpose flour
3 1/2 cups beef broth*
1/2 cup red wine (if you don’t wish to use wine, just use another half-cup of broth)
2 TB Worcestershire sauce
1 TB Dijon mustard
8 oz sour cream
12 oz bag of curly egg noodles
*A note on the beef broth – I prefer to make the broth using Better than Bouillon roast beef flavor and it rarely ends up needing salt added. If you use a salty broth, be judicious when adding extra salt as you may not need it.
Instructions:
1. Brown the ground meat in the Instant Pot on saute mode, breaking it up with the spoon as you do. If you need to drain it you can use a ladle to remove some of the fat.
2. Add the butter, onion, and mushrooms to the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have softened. This generally just takes about 5-8 minutes.
3. Stir in the garlic, salt, pepper and flour and continue to cook while stirring for about half a minute or so. Turn off the Instant Pot (push the Cancel button).
4. Add a cup of the broth to the pot and stir well, making sure to deglaze the pot. Deglazing it – loosening up any bits that might have stuck to the bottom or sides of the pot – will prevent that dreaded BURN error. Just stir it until you don’t feel any roughness on the bottom.
5. Add in the remaining broth, red wine, Dijon and Worcestershire and stir, making sure everything is well blended.
6. Add in the noodles and stir lightly. They don’t need to be thoroughly mixed in. Press them down a bit and make sure they’re evenly layered. It’s okay if the liquid doesn’t totally cover them.
7. Close the Instant Pot lid, make sure the valve is set to the sealed position. Use the Pressure Cook or Manual setting, set it to high, for 3 minutes, and start it. It takes a few for the pressure to come up, and once it does the pot will count down the three minute cook time.
8. Allow it to release naturally for about 5 minutes, then open the release valve and let it quick release any remaining pressure.
9. Once the pressure has released, lift the lid and stir in the 8 oz of sour cream, mixing thoroughly.
10. CHOW. DOWN.