It’s the Secret Instapot for the Win! Stove Zero, Instapot One, Game and Match!

Pressurized steam is quicker and better

Anthony Lawrence

Our neglected Instapot — photo by author

My poor wife has fallen and hurt herself again. There have been so many falls that we have both lost track; we think this might be the sixteenth in the past five years.

This all started with a car accident ten years ago. She was a passenger in a neighbors car when..

Yes, yes, I’m getting to the Instapot! Sheesh, keep your pants on, will ya?

Oh, never mind. Y’all are so impatient — instant gratification, right?

So, TL;DR: many falls since the accident, broken bones, bruises, pain, incapacitated from time to time. This most recent fall didn’t break anything, but she hurt her right arm, wrist, and fingers badly, and yes, of course she is right handed. To add to the misery, her left hand still has residual pain from a wrist bone break on the previous fall. She’s unable to do much.

But I’m retired, so I can take care of things for her. The only issue we have is that one of us is a really good cook and the other wouldn’t last a day in a greasy diner kitchen.

Guess who the bad cook is?

Yes, that’s me, although I protest that I’m not a “bad” cook. If you were moderately hungry, you’d eat my food: you just wouldn’t rave about it. Things might be slightly under or over done, the seasoning isn’t always perfect, sometimes I misjudge the timing and something gets colder than it should be when the rest is ready to serve. You know, a kitchen klutz.

Okay, okay! The Instapot!

My wife won’t touch the Instapot. It’s beneath her, a pointless tool at her level of experience. And, she admits to having some fear of pressure cookers even though I have explained the multiple levels of safety these pots employ. Never mind, it is not for her.

I bought it to make yogurt. It turned out that it makes more yogurt than I can eat without dietary problems, so the Instapot has been banished to a corner of the room where it has only exercise equipment and hot water bottles for company.

Poor thing.

Anyway, my broken wife has been reasonably gracious about my kitchen missteps, but she did oh so mildly complain about my zucchini steaming skills. Zucchini is a favorite for both of us and I had to admit that she was right: I was not getting it cooked as we like it.

I had a brainstorm: the Instapot. I felt that if I could find out the perfect timing for Instapot zucchini, I could produce perfect results time after time. Happy wife, happy life!

I knew better than to divulge my plan to her. I did some research, but the 
Internet gave me too many different ideas on time. 1 minute, 2 minutes, who knows?

I took a chance. While she sat watching a Nova documentary in the living room, I prepared dinner. I cut up the zucchini and put it in a pot strainer with a cup of more than coolish water. That was a hint one website had mentioned. Throwing caution to the winds, I set the Instapot to low pressure Broccoli. Some sites had insisted on high pressure, but we like al dente, so I punted. The pot said it would steam for one minute.

And a few minutes later and a quick steam release and it was done. I knew I was going to have a problem getting the folding metal steamer out without spilling but I managed. I ordered a more suitable basket from Amazon for next time. A little oil, some salt and pepper, and I was ready to serve.

Perfect! That was the queen’s judgment. I tasted it myself and agreed: it was just as she would have cooked it.

So I told her that I had used the Instapot.

She thought about it for a few seconds and then gave her blessing. While she herself would still not deign to touch that thing, I had permission to cook zucchini and possibly other vegetables in the Instapot.

Score one for modern kitchen tech!

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