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cinderella 02-06-2012 11:24 AM

Food, food, glorious food!
 
Let's talk food/cooking. Those who like to make it, those who like to eat it - I know you're out there!
This is a place for posting any and all things about food. Share your recipes, food you've made/eaten, etc. Let's keep it light and airy - this is no place for discord or argument - unless it's done in a constructive and friendly manner.

I'll start by telling what I'm planning for the day. I am making a pasta sauce from scratch - a big ol' pot full. I am making lasagna from scratch, but want to freeze some too for when I want to make a quick pasta dish, but don't want to go thru the trouble of making the sauce from scratch - which takes hours. Well, at least ANY decent home-made sauce should take hours - lol.

Any fans of The Food Channel out there? Who's your favorite chef, and why? Favorite dishes to make? C'mon, let the chats begin! :)

Oh, and a special p.s. - ethnic foods & their recipes are especially welcome!



aishah 02-06-2012 11:57 AM

i love food and cooking! i love making south asian food especially, when i have the time. and also recipes i learned growing up in the rural south - which are not always the best or healthiest because we didn't have access to a lot of stuff but are still so comforting to me, especially homemade mac n cheese and chocolate eclair cake :) i don't have a lot of time to type right now (hanging out in the airport between flights) but i'm so grateful you started this thread :)

i don't really have a favorite chef - i don't have tv so i catch most of my food network stuff online, but i get bored with it sometimes. i like to follow cooking blogs though. http://www.zaiqa.net is one of my favorites. for american food i like http://www.recipegirl.com and http://www.smittenkitchen.com :) i'll be back to post recipes later.

clay 02-06-2012 11:58 AM

FUN and awesome thread idea....bring on da food...
 
Being southern, loving my southern delicacies, and yes, even our FRIED foods...I am always open to hearing others talk of their food love(s). It's a WIN-WIN!
It will be interesting to subscribe to this post and to follow with drooling anticipation the posts..yummmm.
One of my faves is:
Lowcountry Boil....made with bacon, kilebasa, onions, Old Bay Seasoning, and S & P to taste. Once that is browned in bottom of a pot....add a bottle of beer, diced red potatoes, and a little water...let potatoes cook, then add in corn cobettes, and add more beer/water to cook them. I add a little more Old Bay with each layer..as you want all th eingredients to have the taste. Once all this is done, I have a steamer basket I place shrimp in single layer in, sprinkle with some Old Bay and place inside top of pot and cover. Let shrimp turn a nice cooked pink (NEVER submerge shrimp in liquids!! a big NO NO) Once shrimp cooked, place steamer rack aside and dip out bowl of the veggies, meats, and potatoes and an ear of corn. Add shrimp..ENJOY!!!
Nextttttttttttttt..:)


My FAVE chef is....Paula Deen and Gordon Ramsey!!

cinderella 02-07-2012 11:27 AM

Hey, aishah & Claybaby - thanks for participating and sharing your comments & recipes. Keep 'em coming...

Yesterday, I made my own home-made pasta sauce - it cooked for about 5 hours. Tedious, I know, but I'm retired and have the time. Now I have plenty of sauce to freeze and use later on. I also made a lasagna - it came out yummy despite the fact that I had no ricotta cheese. I substituted with sour cream - who knew?? I'd never done that before, but as they say, necessity is the mother of invention, so I used what I had in hand - came out pretty nice, altho it didn't have the texture of the ricotta.

Today I'm making pork chops & maybe some white rice and black beans a la Cuban style. I admit I do use canned beans (in salted water which I rinse off). I add my own natural herbs & condiments, tomato paste, a small peeled potato for the starch to help thicken the sauce for the beans, cilantro, chopped onion & garlic, 1 T of olive oil, bring to a brief boil, then simmer on low to med heat until the sauce thickens to the consistency I want. Comes out yummy and tastes like home-made every time. Same procedure for red kidney, or any other type of bean - so yummy!

Ok, come share some more of your recipes, stories, tips/advise, questions, etc. Also, what are your fav kitchen gadgets that you have, or on your wish list. Crockpots, pressure cookers, cast-iron dutch ovens? This curious kitty wants to know! :)

1QuirkyKiwi 02-07-2012 11:59 AM

This morning I’ve made a selection for people to choose from; Italian Sun-dried Tomato, Olive and Char-grilled Artichoke pasties; Vegan Cheese and Onion pasties; Veggie mince and Onion pasties and Kumara and Veggie pasties.

Serving with; Potato and Leek Au Gratin and a Parsnip, Leek and vegan Blue Cheese Au Gratin, sautéed Carrots and Green Beans lightly dressed with a Balsamic Vinegar Dressing.

Dessert is; a homemade Lavender Ice Cream with homemade Dark Chocolate Ginger pieces.

I love cooking from Scratch; over the years I’ve experimented with veganising some recipes; some have been very successful, others not so much (more like a school science project gone badly wrong, lol!). I make my own vegan cream and Cottage Cheeses; Mayonnaise and Pates.

I cook anything from Italian; French; Chinese; Indonesian; Thai; South African; Maori; Mexican; Cajun and Creole, etc.

I don’t bake a lot of cakes and biscuits as I’m not mad keen on them. I use Gram flour as an egg replacer where needed (I’ve tried the other suggestions and they don’t seem to work as well, either that or I’m doing something wrong! LOL!).

Last night I made Lentil and Veggie soup with croutons. This morning I’ve made a selection for people to choose from; Italian Sun-dried Tomato, Olive and Char-grilled Artichoke pasties; Vegan Cheese and Onion pasties; Veggie mince and Onion pasties and Kumara and Veggie pasties.

Serving with; Potato and Leek Au Gratin and a Parsnip, Leek and vegan Blue Cheese Au Gratin, sautéed Carrots and Green Beans lightly dressed with a Balsamic Vinegar Dressing.

Dessert is; a homemade Lavender Ice Cream with homemade Dark Chocolate Ginger pieces.

Tomorrow night I’m making Pissaladiere with a green salad. Thursday night is homemade Cannelloni (not sure what the filling will be yet). Friday is vegan sausage and apple casserole with brown rice. Saturday I’m out to dinner and Sunday I’m making Roasted Mediterranean Veggie Pasta.

I plan a weeks menu and make up some things in advance if I can.


cinderella 02-08-2012 10:29 AM

Hey, Kiwi girl! :)
 
Thanks for stopping by, posting, and sharing your menus - I'm sure all the vegans, and non-vegans, out there will appreciate them. I for one am a carnevoir (sp?), and couldn't live without my meat. I am esp fond of pork & bacon, lol.

I love lentil soup, and often make it - from scratch of course. However, I do put in chorizo or some sort of savory sausage. The flavor it imparts to the lentils is phenomenal.

I have heard of lavender-flavored deserts - esp ice cream. I love the scent of lavender, but have never used it or tasted it in cooking. It sounds very romantic and lovely - I would love to try it some day.

Again, thanks for sharing. I hope you will share more of your menus and cooking tips with us.

genghisfawn 02-08-2012 10:43 AM

I absolutely cook for myself and others, not only because I love to cook, but because I have to stick to a gluten-free diet or be chronically ill.

GF is not boring... I can make a lot of what I used to make, but use different ingredients in different proportions.

The other day I made a shepherd's pie... it was such a snap. I don't do recipes, but here are the instructions:

Make mashed potatoes. If you can't, I can't help you. ;)

Heat the oven to 375F (150ish C, gas mark 6).

So take a large onion, chop it fine and soften them in some oil. Throw in a pack of medium-sized pack of ground meat (usually pork or beef) and brown it nicely.

When you drain the beef, save the drippings.

Add some peas, carrots and whatever other vegetable you have dying in the crisper (or some frozen stuff - same difference.)

Put the drippings in a small saucepan and shake up some cold water with cornstarch in a mason jar. Season the drippings well with salt, pepper, a bit of cayenne and bring them to a simmer. Mix in dribs and drabs of the cornstarch water and whisk until you have gravy. Stir the gravy into the meat mix and keep seasoning to taste.

Let the meat mix cool down. Put it in a 9x13" pan and press it all down. Spread the mashed potato overtop and use the tines of a fork to swirl some pretty patterns in it. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes on the low rack, then broil the top until brown.

Deborah 02-08-2012 10:46 AM

Ooooo I LOVE recipes... reading them, looking at the pictures for them, trying new ones and of course the cooking for my honey <3

cinderella 02-08-2012 08:09 PM

gengisfawn and Deborah - thanks for stopping by and posting. gengis, a special thanks for sharing your Shepherd's Pie recipe - I've been looking for one for a long time now. I will try it soon - and yes, I can make mashed potatoes. ;)

sylvie 02-08-2012 08:18 PM


i sooo wish i got the Food Network, but i don't..=(
i like Curtis Stone, my fave.

Since working through my food addiction & eating disorder, i have grown a love of cooking once again, and it's been years since i've had that.. SO thankful.. Developing a new healthy relationship with food again, one step at a time..

Mr Mtn & i choose a new dish each week to try, after healthying it up first .. We'll both buy the ingredients, and We'll get on Skype, cook together and enjoy the meal together afterwards...♥ It's something i sooo look forward to each week..
We've recently made cabbage rolls, that i just had to make again this week.. froze a bunch, it was my first time trying them..

i've also started a Recipe Collection of Our recipes tried, in a cute lil recipe box with cards - that we'll have in Our home together... & my mother loved the idea so much, that she demanded that We make HER a collection of Our recipes as well.. LOL.

Great thread Carmen.♥ i'll be revisiting!

clay 02-08-2012 08:20 PM

cobblers
 
I LOVE PEACH AND/OR CHERRY cobblers best!
2 cans pie filling..any flavor
1 stick butter , melted
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
Mix flour, sugar, and water together, pour in melted butter. Pour this into a greased 8x8 OR 9x13 pam, greased or sprayed with non stick coating (ie PAM). Add pie filling with a large tablespoon so as to disperse evenly. Cook in a 350 degree oven til top is golden brown and bubbly.

Sassy 02-08-2012 08:26 PM

... "Food Glorious Food" is the name of my favorite restaurant my home town.

Subscribed :)

OK, foodies, here's a puzzle for ya... I've been trying to recreate my Grandma's recipe for scalloped potatoes. She was a southern woman who made the best Sunday dinners of my childhood. What I remember of this dish is warm potatoes cooked until tender in a buttery/creamy sauce. Grandma died when I was 20 so I can't ask her what she used to do to those potatoes. And no one in my family makes the recipe, so aunts and cousins just shrug when I ask if they know what she did. I've looked up a lot of recipes online and tried them. But I think most of them are a little over the top. (C'mon ... "Herb de provence?" ... I know that wasn't in my Grandma's spice rack. LOL) So... anyone out there have a simple scalloped potatoes recipe they'd like to share? ... huh? huh? Do ya? :D

Thanks,
-S

clay 02-08-2012 08:28 PM

MARZETTI
 
Oven 350 for 1 hr.
1 lge. bag Noodles (I use extra large egg yolk noodles)
2 lbs. ground turkey (can use beef or venison)
1 lge. onion chopped up
2 lge. cans crushed tomatoes
2 bags Four Cheese Mexican blend cheeses
1 lge can mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp each: oregano, parsley, and Italian seasoning
Brown seasoned meat, and drain. While meat is browning, add onion and let it get translucent. Just prior to drianing meat, add mushrooms to meat mixture.
Boil noodles in salted water for 2 minutes only. DO NOT overcook as they will finish cooking in the oven.
In a 9x13 pan, greased....
ADD IN LAYERS...
noodles, meat mix, crushed tomatoes, and cheese. Do this til all ingredients are used. TOP layer should be cheeses and I sprinkle with Italian seasoning blend. Place in oven til cheeses are golden brown and bubbling.
This is excellent to be frozen and tastes so good when it is reheated.

cinderella 02-08-2012 08:43 PM

Yummo!! Sounds delish, claybaby. Thanks for sharing. I will try it soon. It's true, these type of dishes always taste better the following day(s) - gives all the flavors time to meld with each other.

Quote:

Originally Posted by claybaby (Post 523217)
Oven 350 for 1 hr.
1 lge. bag Noodles (I use extra large egg yolk noodles)
2 lbs. ground turkey (can use beef or venison)
1 lge. onion chopped up
2 lge. cans crushed tomatoes
2 bags Four Cheese Mexican blend cheeses
1 lge can mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp each: oregano, parsley, and Italian seasoning
Brown seasoned meat, and drain. While meat is browning, add onion and let it get translucent. Just prior to drianing meat, add mushrooms to meat mixture.
Boil noodles in salted water for 2 minutes only. DO NOT overcook as they will finish cooking in the oven.
In a 9x13 pan, greased....
ADD IN LAYERS...
noodles, meat mix, crushed tomatoes, and cheese. Do this til all ingredients are used. TOP layer should be cheeses and I sprinkle with Italian seasoning blend. Place in oven til cheeses are golden brown and bubbling.
This is excellent to be frozen and tastes so good when it is reheated.


girl_dee 02-08-2012 09:05 PM

holy heck! the thread of my dreams!

i love COOKING!!!


Cajun anyone?

Martina 04-24-2012 07:28 PM

Did everbody hear about the brouhaha over Paula Deen's English pea recipe. Apparently, it's melt butter and warm up canned peas. So i gather there are many snarky replies on the site. i only read a few.

i imagine they are good that way. Mushy. But . . .

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/p...ews/index.html

clay 04-24-2012 08:16 PM

just saw this....first time back to thread in a while...YVW. Enjoy!!!
Quote:

Originally Posted by cinderella (Post 523228)
Yummo!! Sounds delish, claybaby. Thanks for sharing. I will try it soon. It's true, these type of dishes always taste better the following day(s) - gives all the flavors time to meld with each other.


Beloved 04-25-2012 04:40 AM

I like to cook and love to bake. Last night I made tamarind lentils. I especially love Indian food. I am vegetarian. A good site for vegetarian Indian food is http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/ Right now I often cook things that I know my daughter will like and not necessarily what I want. She is still in the picky stage and I am hoping she will outgrow it.

LeftWriteFemme 05-29-2012 08:19 PM


aishah 05-29-2012 08:38 PM

i love this website for cheap vegan recipes: http://melomeals.blogspot.com/ :)

food glorious food is one of my favorite restaurants too! hehehehe. there's a restaurant where i live now called ingredient that's really great too...it's more cafe-style (they serve soup, salad, pizza, sandwiches, burgers - but they have the MOST AMAZING salads ever). i've been working on cooking at home more lately though.

i love pendle hill - it's a quaker retreat center outside philly and i've been there twice. i just got home from a weekend retreat there. they have the most amazing food...there's some info about their food philosophy and daily menus on their site, and they post recipes from time to time on their blog. every time i visit i come home energized to cook amazing food :) i also got a bag of their yummy homemade granola this time.
http://pendlehill.org/community/food-and-garden
http://pendlehill.org/blog

*Anya* 12-19-2017 08:51 AM

Do you use Instant Pot? Do you love it? It seems it would work for everyone: vegetarians, vegans, Paleo , etc.
 
Cooking, and Reporting, in the Thrall of the Instant Pot

By KEVIN ROOSE DEC. 18, 2017

KANATA, Ontario — Truth be told, the headquarters of Instant Pot don’t look much like a church.

But inside this sterile, gray office building on the outskirts of Ottawa, behind a door marked only by a small metal sign, a new religion has been born. Its deity is the Instant Pot, a line of electric multicookers that has become an internet phenomenon and inspired a legion of passionate foodies and home cooks.

These devotees — they call themselves “Potheads” — use their Instant Pots for virtually every kitchen task imaginable: sautéing, pressure-cooking, steaming, even making yogurt and cheesecakes. Then, they evangelize on the internet, using social media to sing the gadget’s praises to the unconverted.

“Oh my goodness!” reads a fairly typical Amazon rave, one of more than 25,000 reviews on the site for the Instant Pot. “This is the best kitchen gadget to ever exist in the history of ever.”

An enthusiast in the Instant Pot Facebook group, which has more than 850,000 members, wrote “Using my Instant Pot has totally changed my life.” (Wirecutter, a New York Times Company, also recommended it as the best pressure cooker they’ve tested.)

The Instant Pot is hardly the fanciest appliance on the market; several models sell for under $100. But it has upended the home-cooking industry. During this year’s Black Friday sales, the Instant Pot was among the Top 5 items sold by Amazon and Target, and among the Top 3 best-sellers at Kohl’s. The company, which is privately held, doesn’t release sales data, but said it was “very happy” with Instant Pot’s sales, which have been more than doubling every year since 2011. Sales of electric multicookers have risen 79 percent in the past year to more than $300 million, according to NPD Group, a market research firm.
I went to Kanata to get a peek behind the scenes of the Instant Pot phenomenon and meet its creator: Robert Wang, who invented the device and serves as chief executive of Double Insight, its parent company.

What I found was a remarkable example of a new breed of 21st-century start-up — a homegrown hardware business with only around 50 employees that raised no venture capital funding, spent almost nothing on advertising, and achieved enormous size primarily through online word-of-mouth. It is also a testament to the enormous power of Amazon, and its ability to turn small businesses into major empires nearly overnight.

Mr. Wang, 53, did not set out to be a kitchen mogul. An engineering whiz who grew up in Harbin, China, as the son of two professors, he earned a Ph.D. in computer science and intended to develop artificial intelligence systems for a living. After a series of telecom and tech jobs, he was laid off from his dot-com position in 2008, just as the global financial crisis hit.

After a brief and unsuccessful attempt to start his own tech company, Mr. Wang turned his attention to kitchen appliances, a market that hadn’t yet been visited by the tech industry’s disruption fairies.

A lapsed home cook whose busy schedule rarely allowed him to make healthy meals for his wife and two children, Mr. Wang recruited two other engineers and spent 18 months and $350,000 of his savings developing a high-tech device that would combine pressure-cooking, slow-cooking, sautéing and other common cooking functions in a single appliance. In a news release announcing his invention in 2013, he called it the “iPot” — an Apple homage that his trademark lawyer soon nixed.

In person, Mr. Wang is soft-spoken and earnest, with a nerd’s enthusiasm for the technology that powers the Instant Pot. (That enthusiasm extends to his other creations as well: At various points during our interview, he read me excerpts from his doctoral dissertation on logic programming languages, and showed me the hand-built website he made to host photos of his family.)

In 2010, after several months of sluggish sales in and around Ontario, Mr. Wang listed the Instant Pot on Amazon, where a community of food writers eventually took notice. Vegetarians and paleo dieters, in particular, were drawn to the device’s pressure-cooking function, which shaved hours off the time needed to cook pots of beans or large cuts of meat. "Sensing viral potential, Instant Pot sent test units to about 200 influential chefs, cooking instructors and food bloggers. Reviews and recipes appeared online, and sales began to climb.

You wouldn’t know it from his small, bare-walled office, but Mr. Wang, who cooks steamed sweet potatoes and soft-boiled eggs in his three Instant Pots at home, has built a profitable empire. Exact figures are elusive because the company is private and has never raised money from outside investors, but there is no doubt that as the company’s largest shareholder, Mr. Wang has done very well.
“They’re expanding as fast as they can produce the appliances,” said Coco Morante, a food writer and author of “The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook.” “They’ve built this word-of-mouth advertising and community around their appliance that’s pretty fervent.”

But why, and why now? After all, pressure cookers aren’t new, and most of the Instant Pot’s functions are replicated by other common kitchen appliances. Mr. Wang credits the device’s technological advances — most notably, a group of sensors that keep the cooker from overheating or exploding under pressure.
Instant Pot’s internet fandom also gives it a leg up.

The food bloggers behind popular recipe sites like Nom Nom Paleo were early converts to electric pressure-cooking, and cookbook authors took note of the device’s cult appeal. Mr. Wang says that more than 1,500 Instant Pot cookbooks have been written, including several of Amazon’s current best-sellers.

Amazon has played a particularly large role in Instant Pot’s rise. Early on, Instant Pot joined the “Fulfillment by Amazon” program, in which Amazon handles the packing and shipping of a seller’s products in exchange for a cut of each item sold. Eventually, Instant Pot sent Amazon wholesale shipments directly from factories in China, and Amazon began promoting the machines in its major annual sales. At one point, more than 90 percent of Instant Pot’s sales came through Amazon. “Without Amazon, we wouldn’t be here,” Mr. Wang said.

Kitchen appliance fads tend to come and go (R.I.P., George Foreman grill). And major appliance makers like Cuisinart and Breville have taken note of Instant Pot’s success and introduced electric multicookers of their own. But Mr. Wang said he believed that the Instant Pot’s passionate online following will protect it from being crushed by a larger rival. He showed me videos in which fans sang the Instant Pot’s praises, and a blog post about a woman who credited her Instant Pot with helping her lose 83 pounds.

He also revealed a secret: in every official photograph of an Instant Pot, the unit’s timer is set to 5:20 — a series of numbers that, when spoken aloud, sounds like “I love you” in his native Mandarin. “It’s a subliminal message,” he said. “It shows how much we care about our customers.”

Mr. Wang declined to comment when I asked about Instant Pot’s plans for future products. He said the company wanted to modernize other “legacy appliances” in the kitchen by adding sensors and microprocessors, and eventually using Wi-Fi to connect them to the cloud.

Not that Instant Pot needs to branch out just yet. According to the NPD Group, only 11.5 percent of American households own electric multicookers. Which means that there are still millions more potential Potheads out there, still making their vegetarian curries and chili con carne the hard way.

Mr. Wang wants to convert these poor souls, and bring them into his flock. “We know we really make a difference in people’s lives,” he said. “It’s really gratifying.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/i...t-testing.html

homoe 12-19-2017 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Anya* (Post 1187677)
Cooking, and Reporting, in the Thrall of the Instant Pot

By KEVIN ROOSE DEC. 18, 2017

KANATA, Ontario — Truth be told, the headquarters of Instant Pot don’t look much like a church.

But inside this sterile, gray office building on the outskirts of Ottawa, behind a door marked only by a small metal sign, a new religion has been born. Its deity is the Instant Pot, a line of electric multicookers that has become an internet phenomenon and inspired a legion of passionate foodies and home cooks.

These devotees — they call themselves “Potheads” — use their Instant Pots for virtually every kitchen task imaginable: sautéing, pressure-cooking, steaming, even making yogurt and cheesecakes. Then, they evangelize on the internet, using social media to sing the gadget’s praises to the unconverted.

“Oh my goodness!” reads a fairly typical Amazon rave, one of more than 25,000 reviews on the site for the Instant Pot. “This is the best kitchen gadget to ever exist in the history of ever.”

An enthusiast in the Instant Pot Facebook group, which has more than 850,000 members, wrote “Using my Instant Pot has totally changed my life.” (Wirecutter, a New York Times Company, also recommended it as the best pressure cooker they’ve tested.)

The Instant Pot is hardly the fanciest appliance on the market; several models sell for under $100. But it has upended the home-cooking industry. During this year’s Black Friday sales, the Instant Pot was among the Top 5 items sold by Amazon and Target, and among the Top 3 best-sellers at Kohl’s. The company, which is privately held, doesn’t release sales data, but said it was “very happy” with Instant Pot’s sales, which have been more than doubling every year since 2011. Sales of electric multicookers have risen 79 percent in the past year to more than $300 million, according to NPD Group, a market research firm.
I went to Kanata to get a peek behind the scenes of the Instant Pot phenomenon and meet its creator: Robert Wang, who invented the device and serves as chief executive of Double Insight, its parent company.

What I found was a remarkable example of a new breed of 21st-century start-up — a homegrown hardware business with only around 50 employees that raised no venture capital funding, spent almost nothing on advertising, and achieved enormous size primarily through online word-of-mouth. It is also a testament to the enormous power of Amazon, and its ability to turn small businesses into major empires nearly overnight.

Mr. Wang, 53, did not set out to be a kitchen mogul. An engineering whiz who grew up in Harbin, China, as the son of two professors, he earned a Ph.D. in computer science and intended to develop artificial intelligence systems for a living. After a series of telecom and tech jobs, he was laid off from his dot-com position in 2008, just as the global financial crisis hit.

After a brief and unsuccessful attempt to start his own tech company, Mr. Wang turned his attention to kitchen appliances, a market that hadn’t yet been visited by the tech industry’s disruption fairies.

A lapsed home cook whose busy schedule rarely allowed him to make healthy meals for his wife and two children, Mr. Wang recruited two other engineers and spent 18 months and $350,000 of his savings developing a high-tech device that would combine pressure-cooking, slow-cooking, sautéing and other common cooking functions in a single appliance. In a news release announcing his invention in 2013, he called it the “iPot” — an Apple homage that his trademark lawyer soon nixed.

In person, Mr. Wang is soft-spoken and earnest, with a nerd’s enthusiasm for the technology that powers the Instant Pot. (That enthusiasm extends to his other creations as well: At various points during our interview, he read me excerpts from his doctoral dissertation on logic programming languages, and showed me the hand-built website he made to host photos of his family.)

In 2010, after several months of sluggish sales in and around Ontario, Mr. Wang listed the Instant Pot on Amazon, where a community of food writers eventually took notice. Vegetarians and paleo dieters, in particular, were drawn to the device’s pressure-cooking function, which shaved hours off the time needed to cook pots of beans or large cuts of meat. "Sensing viral potential, Instant Pot sent test units to about 200 influential chefs, cooking instructors and food bloggers. Reviews and recipes appeared online, and sales began to climb.

You wouldn’t know it from his small, bare-walled office, but Mr. Wang, who cooks steamed sweet potatoes and soft-boiled eggs in his three Instant Pots at home, has built a profitable empire. Exact figures are elusive because the company is private and has never raised money from outside investors, but there is no doubt that as the company’s largest shareholder, Mr. Wang has done very well.
“They’re expanding as fast as they can produce the appliances,” said Coco Morante, a food writer and author of “The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook.” “They’ve built this word-of-mouth advertising and community around their appliance that’s pretty fervent.”

But why, and why now? After all, pressure cookers aren’t new, and most of the Instant Pot’s functions are replicated by other common kitchen appliances. Mr. Wang credits the device’s technological advances — most notably, a group of sensors that keep the cooker from overheating or exploding under pressure.
Instant Pot’s internet fandom also gives it a leg up.

The food bloggers behind popular recipe sites like Nom Nom Paleo were early converts to electric pressure-cooking, and cookbook authors took note of the device’s cult appeal. Mr. Wang says that more than 1,500 Instant Pot cookbooks have been written, including several of Amazon’s current best-sellers.

Amazon has played a particularly large role in Instant Pot’s rise. Early on, Instant Pot joined the “Fulfillment by Amazon” program, in which Amazon handles the packing and shipping of a seller’s products in exchange for a cut of each item sold. Eventually, Instant Pot sent Amazon wholesale shipments directly from factories in China, and Amazon began promoting the machines in its major annual sales. At one point, more than 90 percent of Instant Pot’s sales came through Amazon. “Without Amazon, we wouldn’t be here,” Mr. Wang said.

Kitchen appliance fads tend to come and go (R.I.P., George Foreman grill). And major appliance makers like Cuisinart and Breville have taken note of Instant Pot’s success and introduced electric multicookers of their own. But Mr. Wang said he believed that the Instant Pot’s passionate online following will protect it from being crushed by a larger rival. He showed me videos in which fans sang the Instant Pot’s praises, and a blog post about a woman who credited her Instant Pot with helping her lose 83 pounds.

He also revealed a secret: in every official photograph of an Instant Pot, the unit’s timer is set to 5:20 — a series of numbers that, when spoken aloud, sounds like “I love you” in his native Mandarin. “It’s a subliminal message,” he said. “It shows how much we care about our customers.”

Mr. Wang declined to comment when I asked about Instant Pot’s plans for future products. He said the company wanted to modernize other “legacy appliances” in the kitchen by adding sensors and microprocessors, and eventually using Wi-Fi to connect them to the cloud.

Not that Instant Pot needs to branch out just yet. According to the NPD Group, only 11.5 percent of American households own electric multicookers. Which means that there are still millions more potential Potheads out there, still making their vegetarian curries and chili con carne the hard way.

Mr. Wang wants to convert these poor souls, and bring them into his flock. “We know we really make a difference in people’s lives,” he said. “It’s really gratifying.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/i...t-testing.html

Don't have one, but we do have a pressure cooker!

FireSignFemme 12-19-2017 03:04 PM

Okay they are not perfect, sure aren't going to win me any ribbons at the county fair what for their stellar appearance, but I actually succeeded in making the best gluten free cinnamon rolls ever – Thank You Bob's Red Mill.

homoe 04-23-2018 07:36 AM


homoe 05-12-2018 02:55 PM

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...Fxax5rL1u6P9dD

homoe 05-12-2018 02:59 PM

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...y4VkZYaeYDpU0w

homoe 05-12-2018 03:02 PM

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...erltVyX2zgbzAB

Dominique 05-12-2018 04:10 PM

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/02/ea/5a/0...0d5a8f69bb.jpg

Bèsame* 05-12-2018 05:18 PM


Bèsame* 05-12-2018 05:24 PM


Bèsame* 05-12-2018 05:26 PM


girl_dee 05-12-2018 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homoe (Post 1210331)

this is the only steak i like!

homoe 05-12-2018 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bèsame* (Post 1210355)

NOW you're talking!

Bèsame* 05-12-2018 11:23 PM

Dedicated to my oyster shucking buddy.
 

Bèsame* 05-13-2018 08:26 AM


Bèsame* 05-19-2018 10:29 AM


homoe 05-20-2018 04:39 AM

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...Y7kLte4zygUFoD

Gemme 05-20-2018 08:50 AM

I have four words for you that will change your life!

Hot. Pepper. Bacon. Jam.

OMG, it's delicious.

Bèsame* 05-20-2018 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gemme (Post 1211236)
I have four words for you that will change your life!

Hot. Pepper. Bacon. Jam.

OMG, it's delicious.

Why yes it is. Good on many things and in many things.

Bèsame* 05-21-2018 09:01 PM



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