Banana-Pecan Brûlée Oatmeal For Two (Pressure Cooker Style)

I finally did it! I bought a second pressure cooker on Amazon Black Friday. I bought the Instant Pot IP-DUO60 6Qt 7-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker.  I'm not new to pressure cooking, as I discovered this method about 15 years ago.  I've since  discovered the joy of braised meals in 2/3's less the time it takes to use the Dutch oven method-- though, don't get me wrong, I love my LeCreuset products and I'm a big fan of slow-braising.

 

There are so many advantages of owning an electric pressure cooker.  I doesn't take up stove space.  You don't have to worry about adjusting your stove heat to set the pressure level (love this).  There are a lot of pre-set cooking levels (such as stews, soups, rice etc.)  It's easy! I promise.

Must importantly-- there is absolutely no reason to fear today's pressure cookers!  They don't blow up! 

I've been working on adapting many of my recipes, such as my Classic Beef Stew and Braised Short Ribs to this Instant Pot, and so far so good great!

My husband loves Irish oatmeal (steel-cut oats). He loves the chewy texture.  I don't make it, often, because it takes a long time to cook on the stove.  I've seen methods where you can cook them overnight, refrigerate the pot, and then heat it up in the morning.  But, I don't think of things when I'm sleepy and want to go to bed.

So, Mr. Pressure Cooker to the rescue.  I added 1/2 cup of steel cut oats, 1 3/4 cups water, a pinch of salt and some oil.  Why oil, I wondered...  from what I read, it helps to reduce the foaming in the oats.


I closed the lid, and locked it into place. I used the manual setting for High Pressure and 10 minutes.  Once the pressure cooker beeped, I allowed a natural pressure release (otherwise called NPR).  All that means is you let the pressure cooker release the steam naturally. I was pleased to see that the Instant Pot beeped alert me that it's safe to open the lid (the lid won't until it's safe).

There was a lot of liquid left, so I turned on the pressure cooker to the sauté cycle, on high and cooked, continuously, until the liquid was absorbed.  Total waiting time: about 18 minutes.

Add a splash of milk...

...a splash of pure vanilla

Spoon the oatmeal into oven-proof ramekins, and add sliced banana and sprinkle on some brown sugar. Set a rack on the top level and turn the broiler on. Set the ramekins on a baking sheet.

Broil for about one minute, until bubbly and caramelized. Watch closely!  (Mine took about 1 minute and 25 seconds.)

TASTING NOTES:  I am now, officially, a big fan of steel-cut oats.  I love Bananas Foster for dessert, so this had similar notes (minutes the butter, rum and vanilla ice cream).  I made this twice, so we could have more.  You can certainly double or triple the amounts to feed more hungry mouths.

I suspect that there are many Instant Pot Pressure Cookers all wrapped up and under the Christmas tree.  I've been lurking in the Facebook Instant Pot Community where there are friendly cooks from beginner to advanced levels who are sharing recipes and answering questions on how to use their pressure cooker.

It's really not complicated, and I plan to share more recipes with my readers.  I'll share with you my little tip-- if I have a recipe that requires 3 hours of oven-braising, I simply reduce it to one hour. There are a few other things to learn-- like using at least one cup of liquid, and not overfilling the pressure cooker.  It is so fool-proof, that you can't cause an explosion.  I can't say it enough. I love my pressure cookers!

Here's the printable recipe. NOTE:  I've been using Key Ingredient to store all of my recipe cards and embedding them on my blog.  I'm not thrilled that Key Ingredient has recently  reverted back to requiring an account to view recipes.  It's a FREE service (unless you upgrade to PRIME which I have)--and I really do like having my recipes stored in digital format. They have a free software and you can use your own tablet, if you want.  If you can't view the recipe, please email me at foodiewife@gmail.com.  I've whined complained to Key Ingredient and strongly demanded asked them to revert back to not requiring a free account. We shall see..