My New Kitchen Gadget Obsessions

It took me a while to write this post because I wanted to spend a little time with my new appliances and get a real feel for them. I also wanted to gather as much information as I could. This post is probably going to be a long one. Don't be surprised if I edit/add to this post throughout the course of time.

The past couple of months have been hectic with school and life in general. So, I went on a 22 day juice detox and it was absolutely wonderful; my energy was up and I was able to focus properly. It was exactly what I needed for the last couple of months of school. But when I got done with the detox I wanted to make sure that I stayed on a healthy path. 

While hanging out at Walmart I came across an appliance called an air fryer. I decided to go ahead and purchase one. Interestingly enough I grabbed the last one that was on the shelf; now I know why. An air fryer is a healthy way to fry your foods quickly with little to no oil; it cooks by circulating hot air around the food. A mechanical fan circulates the hot air around the food at high speed, cooking the food and producing a crispy layer.

My first dish was my avocado fries. They were so much better than when I make them in the oven. Later on that evening I decided to make Ko some air fryer Fried Chicken wings and he absolutely loved them. After that I decided to make some almond crusted tilapia and it was so crunchy on the outside and absolutely juicy on the inside. Next thing you know my family wanted to cook everything in the air fryer. Since then we have made everything from homemade pizza, baked potatoes, sliced potatoes, burgers, beef ribs, snapper, salmon, Whiting, eggplant and so much more. 

With an air fryer, you prepare your food like you normally would; however, instead of dropping them into oil or putting them in the oven, you would simply spritz them with oil and put them in the air fryer. Now, spritzing them is not required; however, it does give you a crunchier outside.

For some reason I cannot remember how exactly I came across the information about the Instant Pot. I know it was on Facebook and I believe it had something to do with one of the air fryer groups I am in. However, on Black Friday I saw that Amazon had the 6qt Instant Pot Lux on sale for $65; so I decided to order one. The following Monday was Cyber Monday and Amazon had the 6qt Instant Pot Duo Plus on sale for $70. Even though I had just purchased the Lux, the Duo Plus had features that I would be able to use like the yogurt making function, so I ordered that too. My initial thought was to return the Lux but then I decided that I would keep it and give it to my mom for Christmas. I was already giving her an air fryer but I figured she would love both of them and with her being so busy I knew they would both benefit her. My job is to convince her as much; but that's a blog post for another time.

I received both pots at the exact same time. I wanted to immediately open mine up but I couldn't because it was Ko's birthday and we had plans; so I waited until the next day. That day I had class so I had to wait until class was over before I could actually experiment with the pot. I decided to do the water test first after that was a success I decided to make the cabbage and smoked turkey that I had. After that I decided to make my own yogurt. From that point forward I was pretty much hooked on the Instant Pot and I joined as many groups as I could so that I can learn as much information about it as possible. Recently, Amazon had a sale on the 3qt Duo Mini, so I ordered that one for $50. Then I found out that Target will price match Amazon and they give you a $20 gift card when you buy the Mini. So I decided to pick up the Mini and grabbed the last one on the self after driving to two stores. I decided to do like I did with the Lux and give away the extra 3qt for Christmas. 

The instant pot is more complex than the air fryer. There's so much more that you need to know in order to use it properly. I have not had my pot that long and there are so many more people out there that have way more knowledge than I do. However, as I learn I am documenting my experience so that I can share it with my blog readers and my YouTube followers. 

So to give you a little history on the pot, let me first tell you "Instant Pot" is just the brand name. When I say instant pot I am actually talking about an electric pressure cooker and there are many different brands of them out there. However, the makers of the Instant Pot also make a multi cooker which is something like a slow cooker and a roaster in one; it is called the Gem and like their cooker has other features as well. The original name of the Instant Pot was the iPot however the lawyers for the creators of the Instant Pot informed them that Apple would probably try to sue; so the original creator decided to change the name to Instant Pot.

The main function of the pot is pressure cooking and depending on which model you have they can also make yogurt, sterilize, steam, sous vide, slow cook and more. With that being said, I have heard that the slow cook function is not very great and I will continue to use my crock pots for that purpose.
Pressure cookers have been around for years and they operated on the stove. I remember my grandma used to have a pressure cooker and when it was on the stove it sounded like a damn choo choo train. Stovetop pressure cookers were known to blow up in people's kitchen which is why a lot of people did not use them. However, the electric pressure cooker has safety features to prevent that from happening.  I'm not going to get too technical because if you are interested in buying one for yourself you should really do your own homework. So let me get into my experience with pot. 

I have made vegetable dishes like collard greens and cabbage and I have made, pastas, soups and meats. Everything that I have made in the instant pot was not only less time-consuming than usual it was also extremely flavorful. One thing that I have noticed about the Instant Pot is that when you pressurize your food it has a tendency to infuse all of your flavors, making them more flavorful than if you were to cook them on the stove. A lot of times when you cook something it has more flavor the next day because it has had time for the flavors to infuse throughout the night. Well the Instant Pot does that automatically.

One of the biggest misconceptions about electric pressure cookers is that all of your food is extremely fast. While the food does cook fast you still have to give it time to pressurize which can take anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes before your cook time begins and depending on what you cook there may be additional minutes needed to allow your pressure cooker to release pressure on its own. A lot of the recipes that I cook I do a quick release on the pressure instead of letting it to depressurize naturally.

Honestly, I could go on and on about the Instant Pot; so I am going to stop this post here and I will create a post dedicated to it at a later time. However, if this was enough to peak your interest in an electric Pressure cooker, but you do not want to pay the price of an Instant Pot, Farberware makes one that is less expensive with the same features. All of them have a learning curve but once you get the hang of it you will enjoy it.

And...It Is What Is!