This article was originally published in Boro Magazine in January 2020.
Recently I had friends over for a dinner called “Instant Pot Shabbat” as an excuse to use my new kitchen appliance. They gathered around, wondering not only how it worked, but if it having their own Instant Pot would be the push they needed to start cooking themselves. I’d only made one dish, so I wasn’t sure yet.
But then I met Jeffrey Eisner, who built an online following of nearly 700,000 by posting how-to video recipes for Instant Pot owners under his brand, Pressure Luck Cooking. He said it’s the only appliance anyone needs. Especially in this city.
“People like [the Instant Pot] because it can do things quickly in one pot,” he said. It can sauté, slow cook, pressure cook and more. Once you close the lid, you can safely leave it alone and do other things while it cooks, he said.
“There’s no babysitting,” he said.
Many New Yorkers avoid cooking because kitchen items can take up too much space in a tight apartment, it seems complicated or it’s too time-consuming for a busy lifestyle. Eisner debunks these concerns with his enthusiasm for Instant Pot, his sensible and humorous tips and his accessible approach to cooking. His tagline on his website is “If Jeffrey can do it, you can do it!”
Eisner, who grew up watching his grandmother prepare meals, is self-taught. He has always enjoyed cooking, but said cookbooks and food blogs can be intimidating because of complex instructions or over-styled photos. In his recipes, Eisner gives step-by-step instructions in his easy-going style.
“I talk you through the entire thing,” he said.
I prepared to meet Eisner by making two of his recipes — refried beans and stuffed cabbage — on a weeknight. His style was casual and refreshing as he explained each step and even gave some tips while cooking, making me feel more comfortable with my new appliance. Even though he told me the stuffed cabbage recipe is one of his most involved ones, I found it easy to follow and tasty, and I was able to make both dishes in one night by creating the meat mixture while the beans pressure cooked. Both dishes lasted me throughout the week.
So it felt like I’d already met Eisner when I came to his Astoria apartment on a Saturday afternoon to learn more about how anyone can become a home cook. He even made a quick macaroni and cheese in the middle of our conversation, walking me through each simple step.
Start with the right tools and get comfortable with them
Even though Eisner said you can make almost anything in an Instant Pot, you’ll need a few other tools. He suggests getting mixing spoons to start. If you like to make soup, get an immersion blender, which pulverizes ingredients for a smooth finish. If you like to bake, you can make desserts in an Instant Pot with a springform pan, it fits inside. He also uses partner product Better than Bouillon, a jar of concentrated stock for cooking.
If you have an Instant Pot, it can do things a stove, hot plate, crockpot and oven can do. He recommends the six-quart for most people. (I have the three-quart, which he said is good for sides. I can attest it’s been fine for me and fits in my small apartment.)
When he bought his first Instant Pot three years ago, he thought, “Where do I start?” He admits that it has its own lingo. Once he got the hang of it, he decided to create a recipe for the pressure cooker and put a video online.
“From there, it blew up,” he said. Eisner said to start simple to get a sense for how the Instant Pot works. He compares it to riding a bike, the more you practice, the better you’ll get.
Eisner said the appliance is not exactly “instant,” because it has to pressurize, cook and then let out the steam. Still, “it takes a quarter of the time as a slow cooker,” he said.
Start with the right recipes and get inspired
For those with an Instant Pot, Eisner recommends following a verified recipe. He said many recipes online won’t actually work. For vegetarians, he recommends starting with his ratatouille or minestrone soup. Carnivores can start with beef stroganoff.
Cooking can be creative, Eisner said. With his marketing background, he puts a new spin on classics. The first recipe he put online was French onion chicken. He also has a recipe for chicken marsala pasta and Jewish wedding soup. He said he gets ideas from living in Astoria, his home for 16 years.
“There’s no better neighborhood than Astoria in New York City,” he said. “It has everything. I’m inspired by all the different cuisines within a three-block radius of my apartment.”
Surrounded by Greek restaurants, he has a Greek "fetaccine" recipe and another Greek recipe in his upcoming cookbook. Many of his recipes are adaptable to tastes and restrictions. For example, his recipe for Brussels sprouts calls for bacon, but it’s optional. He writes that his garlic parmesan marinade recipe can be used on anything and has pictures of both chicken and shrimp. In the recipe for refried beans, he shows how to make them thicker or thinner.
For those who like Indian food and ethnic dishes, he recommends Twosleevers, another Instant Pot recipe blog.
Meal prep to have buildable dishes on hand during the week
Eisner said the Instant Pot is great for making food in bulk like beans or grains that you can eat throughout the week. For example, make a batch of quinoa, then add feta or meat for a quick meal. You could make his very easy (I tried it myself!) shredded chicken recipe, then add sauces to make a variety of dishes. Add mayo for chicken salad or buffalo sauce for a wrap.
That keeps it from getting boring, he said.
He also has many soup recipes and said those freeze well. Recipes with cream last for a month and those without it will keep for about six months, he said.
Once you get really comfortable, you can make a few dishes for the week. With his six-quart Instant Pot, Eisner said he can make four full meals in four to six hours and store them in the fridge.
Eisner said choose your recipes before going to the supermarket, and go with an organized list of ingredients that you need. Make sure you have all of them out in front of you before you start cooking so you don’t waste time looking for them. You can even put nonperishable items in the Instant Pot before leaving the house. Come home, push a button, and dinner is cooking. Once the lid is on, you can walk away.
Embrace cooking
Eisner said he has received touching feedback from other people who learned to cook from his blog. One man said his wife passed away and she had done all the cooking. He learned to make his own meals by following Pressure Luck Cooking.
“Cooking gives you a sense of accomplishment because it came from your hands,” he said. “Take the plunge. You might surprise yourself.”
It can also be delicious – when the macaroni and cheese finished cooking, Eisner added cheddar and a hot sauce/dijon mixture and Boursin cheese (the latter were both optional). It was bright, creamy and rich – and it was a little hard to believe it was so easy.
For more recipes, look out for Eisner’s book, which comes out in April. It’s a compilation of 100 recipes all shown with step-by-step with original photography.
Once you get the hang of cooking, he said, “the world is yours to explore.”