Raise your hands high if you’ve been in your RV for some time, whether it be two days or two months, it seems we have never enough kitchen/galley storage. Wouldn’t it be nice to have all the kitchen amenities and tools in our RV’s that we have/had in our S&B kitchens?
Black Friday last year, that came to light as I was reading a Facebook group page when a member posted this exciting Black Friday special on Amazon for this thing called an ‘Instant Pot’ aka ‘InstaPot’.
As one who loves to chef it up in the kitchen/galley but hates the cleanup of tons of pots, pans and utensils (who has room for them all in an RV anyways??) as well as the splatter mess all over, this was my savior! Immediately upon seeing the post mentioned above, I looked up the specs and info, then…BAM! All I can say is ‘thank God for Amazon Prime!!’. Three days later and only a hit of $80 to our credit card, our Instant Pot arrived. Excitedly, I unpacked it and decided right then, ‘lets make something’! And I did…spaghetti sauce.
I admit, I’m terrible about pulling out the directions and reading through them first. Good thing, because the buttons were self explanatory. I simply plugged that sucker in, put a little oil in the bottom, threw in my ground beef, chopped onion, chopped fresh herbs, spices and pushed ‘Saute’. All of a sudden, I hear sizzling (the good kind!) and start smelling it cooking. Only 15 minutes later, my meat mixture was finished. With the meat mixture still in the stainless steel pot insert, I then I threw in my canned tomatoes, sauce, pushed ‘slow cook’ and put the lid on it. Because the pot insert is deep, there was minimal splatter mess outside the appliance. We then ran out to go do something, forgetting I had our spaghetti sauce slow cooking and four hours later, arrived back to our RV smelling like we were in an Italian restaurant. After I released the moisture/steam pressure mechanism, I opened the lid and holy moly, it was ready; looking and smelling all delicious!! All I had to do was boil the boxed pasta in a separate pot on our induction cooktop.
So, we’ve had our InstantPot for almost three months and it, by far, is my favorite kitchen gadget. I’ve made everything from shrimp scampi, soups, sauces, sweated onions and green peppers, cooked sausages, etc.
Cleanup is easy peasy! Simply removed the stainless steel liner pot and wash/dry. Also, the lid is easy to clean as well.
The InstantPot is a ‘7 in 1′; it’s a multi-function cooker combining the benefits of a Pressure Cooker, Saute’, Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Steamer, Yogurt Maker and Food Warmer. Its 14 micro-processor controlled intelligent programs make your everyday cooking as easy as pressing a button.
It brings your green thinking right into the kitchen by saving up to 70% of energy compared with conventional cooking. In most cases, the Instant Pot reduces the cooking time by 70% and preserves more vitamins and minerals in the natural ingredients. It also has a timer that you can set for your cooking time (start and stop). For busy RV’ers like ourselves, this is a Godsend. Who wants to be tied up in the kitchen/galley when there are campfires to tend, places to go and people to see! Our Instant Pot replaced our one-function Crock Pot.
Just an FYI, we ordered the brand-name ‘Instant Pot’, however there are competitors on the market so I can’t speak on experience of those, but I’m guessing they are very similar in their operations. We found, also on Amazon and through the Instant Pot company, you can order replacement parts (ie. lid, seals, pot inserts). Oh and yes, it comes with a very good instruction booklet and recipe book. Notably, there are even Facebook groups that are for Instant Pot users (recipes, etc.)
So, if you’re looking for a ‘one does it all’ appliance for kitchen/galley, here ya go!
Submitted by: Lisa Brown