Pot in Pot cooking in the Instant Pot- Shrimp curry and Basmati rice with mixed veggies cooked together and ready to be served at the same time; this is what I call effortless cooking!
This is my first ever Pot in Pot cooking attempt in the Instant Pot and I’m truly blown away by this method and I’m madly deeply in love with the Instant Pot.
What is PIP (Pot-in Pot) cooking: In PIP cooking, another stainless or heat resistant glass bowl is placed inside the stainless steel liner Pot and food is cooked in that. So, we keep a pot inside the pot. Pretty cool, right?
Why do we need to do PIP cooking:
- To reheat food by pressure steaming or simply steaming.
- To cook foods that don’t require direct heat, acts as a water bath: steaming veggies/cook rice, casseroles, certain desserts like cheesecake, pies etc etc.
- To cook desserts like cake, custard, cheesecakes, pies etc etc.
- My most favorite: To cook multiple dishes simultaneously that have the similar or at least close cooking time. For instance: for cooking chicken and rice, shrimp and rice, rice and veggies/eggs.
Equipments required for PIP Cooking
- IP Stainless Steel Pot
- Trivet- that came with the IP or you can use different kinds of trivet- click here.
- Heat resistant glass bowl or stainless bowl or stackable stainless steel insert pans: click here.
- Aluminum foil.
- Cake pans for making desserts.
- Springform pans for making cheesecake
Important: At least 1/2 to 1 cup of liquid must be added to the IP stainless steel liner pot- for steam cooking. While cooking multiple dishes, add the gravy based dish as the bottom layer in the stainless steel liner pot.
While cooking multiple dishes in PIP method, how will we determine the cooking time???
Cooking time is based on the time required to cook the dish that is placed on the trivet. For eg, if you are cooking chicken/shrimp or lentil placed on the bottom of the stainless liner pot and rice/water in a separate bowl on the trivet- cooking time should be the time required to cook the rice.
Hence, we can cook dishes with similar cooking time together in PIP method. Dishes with totally different cooking times cannot be made in PIP, eg, rice and chick peas- chick peas need 25 t0 30 minutes and rice only requires 7 to 12 minutes based on the kind of rice you are using.
That’s it, now you know everything about PIP, get ready to cook dishes in PIP way and enjoy.
I’ve cooked shrimp curry and Basmati Rice in PIP method. Shrimp doesn’t need a lot of time to cook, hence it worked well with the basmati rice. Cooked at high pressure in 7 minutes and Quick steam release after 10 minutes of NPR. The rice was cooked perfectly- soft and fluffy and the shrimp curry tasted delish. There was good amount of gravy so after PIP cooking, I cooked the shrimp curry in saute mode for 5 minutes to thicken the gravy.
Two dishes ready at the same time, what more do we need??? Cooking has become more efficient and effortless with the Instant pot, love live IP!
Stay tuned for more PIP recipes…
More yummy Instant Pot recipes, click here
Cooking Video
- Shrimp, deveined- 15 to 20
- Chili powder- ½ tsp
- Turmeric powder- ⅛ tsp
- Garam Masala- ¼ tsp
- Salt- ½ tsp
- Oil- 1 tbsp
- Dried bay leaves- 2
- Cumin seeds- ¾ tsp
- Onion, chopped- 2
- Salt- ¼ tsp
- Ginger- Garlic paste- 1 tsp
- Tomatoes, chopped- 2
- Chili powder- ¾ to 1 tsp (based on your spice level)
- Turmeric powder- ⅛ tsp
- Garam Masala- ¼ tsp
- Coriander powder- 2 tsp
- Salt- ¼ tsp
- Cilantro, chopped- 2 handfuls
- Water- ¾ cup
- Basmati Rice, rinsed- 1 cup
- Mixed veggies- ¾ cup, cut very small
- Salt- ½ tsp
- Garam Masala- ¼ tsp
- Turmeric powder- ⅛ tsp
- Water- 1¼ cups
- Ghee- 1 tsp
- Into a bowl, add all the above mentioned ingredients to marinate the shrimp and let marinate for 5 minutes.
- Turn on the IP.
- Click Saute- Normal Temperature.
- Let the display change to HOT.
- Add oil, dried bay leaves, cumin seeds saute for a few seconds.
- Add onion, season with ¼ tsp salt. Cook for a minute.
- Add ginger-garlic paste, saute for 2 minutes.
- Add tomatoes, saute for a minute.
- Add marinated shrimp, chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, coriander powder and salt to taste. Combine well.
- Add cilantro and water. Combine well.
- Place the trivet over the shrimp.
- In a medium sized heat resistant glass or stainless steel bowl, combine all the ingredients for making rice. I didn't soak the rice.
- Place the rice/water bowl on the trivet.
- Close the pot with its lid.
- Turn the vent to sealing position.
- Cancel Saute mode.
- Click on Manual- high pressure. Click Adjust- set time to 7 minutes.
- After the pressure cooking has completed. Let steam release naturally for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, do a quick steam release.
- Open up the lid, aren't you guys excited???
- You will get to see the perfectly cooked basmati rice.
- Take the rice bowl and trivet out of the pot.
- To thicken the Shrimp curry, click on saute mode and cook for 5 minutes till the gravy thickens.
- Serve the shrimp curry and rice on a plate, enjoy!
1 cup basmati rice serves 2 people.
