Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes

This recipe comes from the Kitchen Girl. I have not tried it, it's on my list to get to. My freind said it's great. Ingredients Ingredients for an 8 cup yield ▢ 3 lbs Russet Potatoes or Yukon Golds, about 6 medium potatoes ▢ 1 cup Water, or broth ▢ 1 cup Heavy Cream, also called whipping cream ▢ 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter ▢ 1 tsp Sea Salt ▢ 1/2 tsp Black Pepper ▢ 1/4 cup Fresh Parsley, for garnish ▢ 6 quart Instant Pot ▢ trivet ▢ Potato masher (or electric mixer for whipped potatoes) ▢ oven mitts Instructions: Scrub POTATOES and stack them (trivet optional) inside the cooker. If you don't want skin on, you can peel it before or after pressure cooking them. *Note: If using an 8 or 10 quart Instant Pot with more potatoes, use 2 cups of water or broth instead of 1 cup. Add WATER (or BROTH). Close and lock the lid, turn pressure valve knob to the “Sealing” position. Select MANUAL or PRESSURE COOK for 10 minutes on HIGH pressure (or 4 minutes for diced potatoes). When cook cycle completes, allow the cooker to sit undisturbed for a 10-minute natural pressure release (NPR). Carefully release any remaining steam. Open the lid and insert a sharp knife into a few potatoes to test for doneness. If they give resistance, repeat pressure cook cycle for 2 minutes with natural or quick release. Once cooked, remove the trivet from under the potatoes. No draining required, unless it's preferred. Add BUTTER, HEAVY CREAM, SALT, and PEPPER. Mash ingredients into the potatoes to the desired consistency. Bbe careful to not overwork them because they can lose their fluffy texture and become gluey. You can use a vegetable masher, hand mixer, or stand mixer for this process. Serve warm garnished with PARSLEY and my 10-minute gravy! Note: You can keep mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot on "keep warm" mode. Storage and Reheat Instructions Allow potatoes to cool completely and refrigerate in an airtight container up to 5 days. To reheat, add a splash of liquid (water, broth, or dairy). Heat on med-high stove heat until warmed through, stirring as needed. Or microwave them on a 50% power setting in two-minute intervals until they’re warmed through, stirring as needed. Traci's Notes Recipe tips for pressure cooker mashed potatoes The 6-quart Instant Pot fits approximately 5 lbs. whole potatoes and up to 7 lbs. diced. Reduce the pressure cook time to 5 minutes for diced potatoes. If they need any longer, just add 1 minute pressure cook intervals as needed. If you don't want mashed potatoes with skin on, you can peel first, or pressure cook and peel after. A trivet isn't required, but keeps the potatoes above the liquid, so they're steaming instead of boiling. Cook time is the same for any size Instant Pot No draining is needed, but you can drain if you prefer to. Plan to serve 1/3 to 1/2 lb. mashed potatoes per person (about 1 cup).

Pasta Salad

My friend Sher just shared this recipe she made up on Facebook. If I don't post it here, I'll never make it. But it looks delicious.


1 box rotini pasta (she prefers Rainbow)

Cook pasta, rinse in cool water until cooled.

Add:
1 can whole olives
1 container grape tomatoes
1 sliced cucumber
1 cut up red onion, add desired amount
1 container feta cheese

Mix together with enough Italian salad dressing to coat everything.

Also suggested, mozzarella cheese and cut up pepperoni.

Grandma's Potato Salad

This recipe came from my Grandma. This is my favorite recipe and it's so much easier when I make this with an Instant Pot.

Original Recipe:
10-12 potatoes
1 dozen eggs (I usually do 18)
1/2 red onion

--Boil potatoes whole until fork-tender. Hard boil eggs. Peel potatoes while still warm. Dice potatoes and out in large bowl. Peel eggs and cut up and put in bowl. Add onions. Make sauce and add potato mixture. Salt and pepper to taste.

Sauce: 1 quart mayonnaise, 2-3 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar. Mix and add to potatoes.

Instant Pot Adaptation:
I bought two Instant Pots just to make this recipe.

Cook eggs using the 6-6-6 method. Put the desired amount of eggs on trivet and a cup of water in Instant Pot. Start on manual for 6 minutes, NR 6 minutes, then put in ice bath for 6 minutes.

Put potatoes in other instant pot with trivet for 15 minutes, with one cup water, QR.

Barbara's Baked Beans

After messing around with this recipe, I've concluded that this is the best combo of ingredients to get the best taste.

Need:
2 Cans Bush's Baked Beans
1 Bottle Bull's Eye BBQ sauce
Liquid Smoke

--In a bowl combine the 2 cans of beans. Then add the Bull's Eye and Liquid Smoke to taste. It is better to use at least half the Bull's Eye and only a little bit of the liquid smoke. Use no more than a tablespoon of liquid smoke. Using too much will cause the beans to be runny. Mix together and bake in oven @ 325 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours in the oven.

Mexican Fried Rice

From Elsa.

You should keep in mind the following guidelines:
1 clove garlic for every cup of rice
2 cups water for every cup of rice
1 Tbsp oil for every cup of rice
1 Tbsp chicken bouillon for every cup of rice
2 tsp salt for every cup of rice



The following recipe if for two cups of rice:

2 cloves garlic
1/2 white onion chopped
3 large chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup water

Place in blender and blend.

In pan cook on medium heat:
2 Tbsp oil and two cups of Jasmine rice. Stir constantly until rice reaches a nice golden brown color. About 15-20 minutes.

Then add:
4 cups of water
Blended Tomatoes
2 Tbsp. chicken Bouillon
2 tsp. salt
Bring to a boil, then cook the rice for ten minutes or until rice is mostly soft. (This took longer than ten minutes in the demonstration. More like 20.)

Refried Beans

This is a recipe from Elsa.

In a pressure cooker place:
1 clove garlic
1 cup beans
3 cups water
1 Tbsp Salt

--Cook in pressure cooker on high for one hour.

In a pan heat 5 Tbsp of Lard (can use olive oil)
If you would like peppers, tomatoes or onions to your beans, you should cook them in the lard now.

Add cooked beans to pan with lard. Doesn't have to be all the cooked beans. Cook and mash. The longer you let it cook on medium heat, the better it will taste.  Add bean water if you need wetter beans.

Salsa

This is Elsa's salsa recipe.

7 tomatoes (big round ones like beef steak, cooked in a skillet lined with tin foil until skin starts blackening.)
1 Arbol dried chili (more if you want more heat)
Scant 1 Tbsp. salt
Scant 1/4 cup water

-- Place in blender and blend.  Add diced cilantro and onion to taste when salsa is cooled.

Macaroni Salad

This recipe is from Jeanette Clark. I wanted an authentic Hawaiian Macaroni Salad and this is the fabulous recipe she gave me:

1 bag elbow macaroni
6 eggs
1 pkg. imitation crab
1 bunch green onions
salt and pepper
2 tsp. sugar
Best Foods Mayonaise

--Boil macaroni (you want it soft, but not mushy.) Drain and sit in the colander for at least an hour.  Boil and grate eggs, shred crab, chop green onions. Mix all together with BEST FOODS MAYONAISE. Then season.

Perfect Fingerling Potatoes

This is seriously my favorite potato right now.  It is so good, but is so bad for you.  So we don't do it very much.  I just made this with grilled Telapia, with fresh tomatoes and corn.  The kids, or rather the older two kids, LOVED it.  And so did I.  Please make these at least once.

The recipe is one of Alton Brown's excellent recipes.  One of the reasons I wish I had food network!

Ingredients
1 1/4 pounds kosher or rock salt
2 quarts water
2 pounds small fingerling potatoes, cleaned
4 tablespoons butter, optional
Freshly ground black pepper, optional
1 tablespoon freshly chopped chives, optional
Directions
In a large pot, combine the salt, water, and potatoes and bring to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are fork-tender, approximately 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the pot to a cooling rack and let stand for 5 to 7 minutes. Serve as is or with butter, pepper, or chives.

Garlic Mashed Red Potatoes

I had my dinner group over for my birthday.  We divyed out the food and I ended up with sides.  So I wanted to make mashed red potatoes but needed a fairly simple recipe.  I found this one from Taste of Home.  They were great!

Ingredients

• 8 medium red potatoes, quartered
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup fat-free milk, warmed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

• Place potatoes and garlic in a large saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are very tender.
• Drain well. Add the butter, milk and salt; mash. Stir in cheese. Yield: 6 servings.

Mexican Mess

The first time I heard of this dish, I was over at a friend house as a kid. I remember trying it and thinking it was tasty. I've been wanting to make this again, just to see if it was as good as I remembered. And I liked it. It tasted like a taco.

I don't love how this recipe is written. It has very generic details so I'm going to tell you what I actually ended up using.

Layer in a 9x13 pan (sprayed with Pam) the following:

1 lg. can refried beans (I used: 2 regular cans)

1 1/2 lbs. hamburger, browned and drained (I used: 1 lb. ground turkey)

1 (7-oz.) can diced green chilies (I bought 2 (4-oz.) cans. I used one can.)

3 cups shredded cheese (I used Colby Jack.)

1 bottle taco sauce (I bought a large bottle and used half of it.)

--Cook above ingredients for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

Garnish with:

chopped green onions (I omitted)

chopped olives (I omitted)

tomatoes

guacamole

sour cream

I added: shredded lettuce

Eat with tortilla chips.

"Sweet" Potatoes

Doesn't it seem that people fall into two categories with sweet potatoes, either they hate them and don't eat them or they love them because they have a pet family recipe. I've had sweet potatoes as french fries, in pancakes, in pie and just a big hunk of it, but this is our family pet recipe. Yum.

4-5 yams, mashed
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs

--Mix together and put in greased 9x13 pan.

Topping:
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour

--Mix with pastry blender. Add 1 cup chopped pecans. Bake @ 350 degrees for 0-30 minutes.

Cafe Rio Black Beans

So I'm actually a huge fan of the pinto beans, but I made this one because everyone else seems to like them so much. My husband tells me these are pretty tasty.

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. ground cumin
3 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/3 c. tomato juice
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro

In a skillet, saute garlic and cumin in the olive oil in medium heat. Add beans, tomato juice and salt. Continually stir until heated through. Just before serving stir in cilantro.

Cafe Rio Lime Rice

3 cups water
4 tsp. chicken bouillon
4 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 can green chilies
1 tsp. lime juice
3/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. butter
3 cups rice (long grain white rice)

Mix together bouillon, garlic, cilantro, green chilies, lime juice, salt and butter in food processor or blender. Put rice, water and blended mixture into rice cooker. Cook in rice cooker until rice is fully softened.

PW Twice Baked Potates

So for some reason Pioneer Woman didn't make and easy so copy and paste recipe for this one. Just step by step directions. So I'm going to give you the link, I've made these and they were so good and rich I gave some away and my friends loved them. They have tons of butter, but that makes it even better.

Twice Baked Potatoes via Pioneer Woman

Orange Jello Salad

I really hate Jello. Truly, honestly hate jello. So it is rare that I will recommend a salad. But I love this salad. It is so tasty. And everyone who has tried it has loved it. I tried it at a pot luck party some friends were giving. I asked everyone who had brought this and then made her give me the recipe right there.

1 small pkg. cook and serve lemon pudding
1 small pkg. orange jello
1 small pkg. instant lemon pudding
1 cup milk
1 small carton cool whip
1 can mandarin oranges

Make cook and serve lemon pudding according to package directions. Make orange Jello according to package directions and mix with the cook and serve lemon pudding. Pour in 9x13 inch pan and chill for 4 hours. After it's set up, pour instant lemon pudding mix into bowl and mix with 1 cup milk and cool whip. Put on top of lemon/orange mixture. Top with mandarin oranges.