All products featured on Epicurious are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
I've beenpantry cooking—haven't you? While grocery stores near my apartment in Brooklyn are open—albeit packed—I've been trying to do infrequent shops with a focus on beans, grains, hearty vegetables like carrots, celery, and cabbage, and only animal products I know will last in the fridge for a while, like eggs and yogurt.
My efforts toward social distancing have put me in totally new territory, cooking-wise. Gone are my near daily market trips for fresh produce and fish...not to mention the much needed cookingbreaks, in the form of my favorite restaurants.
That's where Chris Kimball'sMilk Street Fast and Slow: Instant Pot Cookingcomes in. As someone who reads a wild amount of cookbooks (70 plus for ourspring cookbook preview alone), I've seen my fair share ofInstant Potcookbooks. This one, which comes out on April 7, stands out. It makes even simple ingredients like acan of coconut milkand a bag of beans into something far greater than the sum of its parts.
There's no arguing that an Instant Pot is the fastest and easiest way tobatch cook beans, grains, stock, and proteins like chicken thighs or even eggs. But what to do with all those batched ingredients is another story, and it's something I've already begun to struggle with a bit. The dishes inMilk Street Fast and Slow严重依赖开始解决这个问题pantry staples, while adding in a good dose of spices and luscious ingredients like coconut milk or full-fat Greek yogurt to add depth, warmth, and creaminess to each meal.
This week, I found tomato paste and spices like cardamon, paprika, and cinnamon in my cupboard, paired that with a few sturdy onions, garlic cloves, and a nub of ginger I had on hand, and made the base for a Chicken Rogan Josh. The only refrigerated ingredients I needed were chicken thighs (I usually keep a pack in my freezer), some Greek yogurt (which stays fresh in the fridge for weeks), and a handful of cilantro, which luckily was languishing in the back of my crisper.
The whole thing took about 40 minutes to prepare, and hummed away in my Instant Pot while I worked from home—but if you aren't working from home, this is an easy dish to cook in bulk on the weekend and reheat throughout the week. If I made it again without any herbs in the house, I could easily stir frozen spinach into the finished dish. Leftovers can be distributed into pitas, poured over bowls of rice, or nestled next to steamed vegetables.
The Chicken Rogan Josh called my name because I crave warming, spicy food when I need comfort. But the creamy one-pot pastas and silky blended soups in the book are next on my list, as well as a recipe for Spicy Collard Greens with Tomatoes and Greens that uses all pantry staples, provided I sub in frozen collards and canned tomatoes instead of fresh.
Yes, this book isn't out for a few weeks. But it seems pantry cooking is our new normal. And come early April, when pre-ordered copies ship, you might just be ready for a little dose of something new to eat at home.
