Trending
Everyone has been doing more cooking at home due to the pandemic and the coronavirus. And many may not want to go shopping all the time for ingredients. A new cookbook, "The No-Shop Instant Pot" by Meg Dow, gives variations on simple recipes using ingredients from a staple pantry that will provide a good amount of variety to a home cook's lineup.
With 60 base recipes and/or ingredients, Dow gives four variations, which offers 240 recipes to choose from on a daily basis, all of which can be used in the favorite Instant Pot. Want to use up those baked potatoes? Make at Taco Cauliflower Baked Potato or Chicken Curry Baked Potato? Have some chicken thighs on hand? Try them Herb-Crusted with Gravy or with an Orange-Fig Sauce. In the mood for chicken salad but want something a little different? Try Thai Chicken Salad or Curry Chicken Salad.
The idea of staple ingredients used on variations of 60 simple recipes is a great idea, and brings a lot of variety with not a lot of hard-to-find ingredients, which can sometimes be a problem with cookbooks. And the variety isn't too outside of the box, so it should be easy to find something that even picky eaters will enjoy.
Dow, a private chef, caterer and creator of the popular cooking blog More Momma, answered a few questions about her cookbook, inspiration, and how to get over the fear of the Instant Pot:
Q: How did you come up with the idea for the book?
A: I love being able to help people put easy meals on the table with ingredients they already have on hand. I thought of this idea when I was making dinner one night and didn't have an ingredient that I needed to make the recipe. So I thought of a variation with a totally different flavor profile instead. I had all the ingredients for that version and the idea of interchangeable recipe variations was born. If you think about flavor combinations you really love, you can use the flavor profiles in a totally different dish. For example, I love BBQ Chicken Pizza! All the flavors go so well together. The main flavors include chicken, BBQ sauce, cheese, red onion and cilantro. So I can take these flavors and use them for different dishes like my Chicken Parmesan Bake on page 108 in the book. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. With the help of the book, I want people to be able to see how many varieties of the same dish they can make with the ingredients they already have on hand.
Q: What do you say to people who may be scared or too intimidated to use the Instant Pot?
A: I totally understand! To be honest I was even a little overwhelmed using it for the first time. But once you get the hang of it and know the basics, the Instant Pot will transform the way you cook. I have a whole section at the beginning of the book about Instant Pot basics and FAQs to get you started. Plus, I have lots of video tutorials on my Instagram @moremomma if you need more of a visual tutorial.
Q: What is your favorite recipe from the book?
A: I honestly love every recipe in the book! It's so hard to just pick one. While I was testing all of the recipes, I was the most surprised at how much I loved the Pecan Pie Coffee Cake on page 135. It was so moist and delicious. Many people think the Instant Pot is just for savory dishes, but you can make breakfast, desserts, appetizers, casseroles and so much more!
Q: What are some ways people can bring a bit of excitement to their weekday dinners?
A: I love this question because this is what the cookbook does best! It gives you some exciting and different options for everyday favorites. For example, a weekday dinner may look like a pot of pasta shells with tomato sauce. But with the" No-Shop Instant Pot Cookbook", try out the Sausage and Spinach Pasta Shells or my all-time favorite Taco Pasta Shells to mix things up and bring a little excitement to dinner time. You could literally make the same dish for dinner all week but have a totally different meal each time you make it.
A recipe that is a variation on the classic pot pie, Seafood Pot Pie follows below.
"The No-Shop Instant Pot Cookbook" is published by Page Street Publishing.
Contact Amy Phelps at aphelps@newsandsentinel.com.
***
Reprinted with permission from The No-Shop Instant Pot by Meg Dow, Page Street Publishing Co. 2021. Photo credit: Becky Winkler
***
SEAFOOD POT PIE
5 tbsp (70 g) unsalted butter, divided
1 cup (128 g) carrots, peeled and diced
1 cup (160 g) white onion, diced
1 cup (101 g) celery, diced
21/2 tbsp (20 g) all-purpose flour
2 cups (300 g) Russet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch (1.3-cm) cubes
1 cup (240 ml) white wine
2 cups (480 ml) chicken stock
1 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 (16.3-oz [462-g]) can premade biscuits
1/2 lb (226 g) raw frozen shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 lb (226 g) frozen scallops
2 tbsp (16 g) cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp (30 ml) water
Turn the Instant Pot on to saute mode. Add 2 tablespoons (28 g) of the butter and when melted add the carrots, onion and celery and sautÈ for 5 minutes. Add the flour and stir to combine. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the potatoes, wine, stock, salt and pepper and stir to combine.
Place a high trivet in the pot. Place the canned biscuits in a cake pan that fits inside the Instant Pot insert. Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons (42 g) of butter and brush it over the tops of the biscuits. Cover with a paper towel and then with foil and place the pan on top of the trivet. Seal the lid and turn the valve to the sealing position. Turn the Instant Pot on manual, high pressure for 10 minutes. Release the pressure manually by carefully moving the valve to venting.
Remove the cake pan and trivet. Add the shrimp, scallops and cornstarch mixture and turn the Instant Pot on to saute mode for 5 minutes to cook the seafood. Serve the pot pie with the biscuits.