dairy ⁽¹⁷⁾

Once, many years ago, I heard a rumor that it was possible to make caramelized onions using a slow cooker. I dutifully followed the directions and ... no. I got soft, sautéed onions, but not caramelized like I wanted.

Then came a long series of Reddit rabbit holes which ended up with me checking out The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook from the library (How much do we love our libraries?) and reading the recipe for Caramelized Onion Jam (page 61). Wait a minute, caramelized onions? Hmmm. Can Instant Pot do what the slow cooker couldn't?

When The Mister and I were courting, we weren't well off enough to afford restaurant dates. So, we would have "Fancy Dinner" which is where we cooked something we would otherwise purchase at a restaurant, but for below-restaurant prices at home. This macaroni and cheese recipe qualifies. It is more expensive to make than a sub-$1 box of store brand, however every extra penny is worth it in the taste department.

Today is Pi Day! While I much prefer to buy my pies and let some food processing robotic line somewhere handle pie crust and keeping the edges unburnt while getting the middle cooked through, when someone has dietary restrictions that don't allow for robot pie baking lines to labor for me, it means I have to cook it myself. Ughhhhhhh.

Here's a recipe that never lets me down. Crumble topping so I don't have to deal with that most finicky of pie crust edge burning annoyances.

See the notes section at the end of this recipe for the simple substitutions one needs to make this vegan.

Have you had Golden Curry? It is the tongue-satisfying corporeal embodiment of the flavor: umami. It is stew, cooked in a fraction of the time it takes to cook stew. And it can be cooked entirely in the Instant Pot.

I know there are other Instant Pot Japanese Golden Curry recipes, but they all contain meat and use pressure. This one is just the sauté feature and is vegetarian, making it a dish that can be cooked anywhere there is a power outlet.

Golden curry is WORK though. Nothing minimal effort here. Lots of stirring and cutting on the front end. On the back end is a lot of waiting. This is probably why people in Japan only have this dish a few times a month.

I was craving Eggplant Parmesan (aka Eggplant Parmigiano), but I really, really hate making it myself. There's the slicing of the eggplant, the salting of the eggplant, the dabbing away of eggplant moisture, the breading of the eggplant, and I could go on forever.

So I usually buy this one. All the better to let someone else do the labors and me enjoy the flavors. My favorite Eggplant Parm dealer, Alfredo's Pizza Villa, has an option to serve it over pasta.

Could I recreate that at home? In the Instant Pot?

The answer is, "No." But I can come very close.