Instant Pot – Ham & Potato Casserole -Failure 1

Inspired by the potato 3 ways video by Tasty Japan, and the very bad job Google Translate does with the recipe instructions. The recipe itself came thru as Ham & Potato Lasagne, I personally can’t call it a lasagna because of the potato no-pasta.

 

And it totally failed, I used a baking dish that I found that miraculously fits in the pot, for all those recipes that say finish in the oven(of which I have never managed to do to any great success). The intention was to finish it off in the oven to crisp the cheese.

In order to use a baking dish, you typically use a trivet or something to rise it off the bottom of the pot and put enough water in the bottom to use a steam factor (and my paranoia that without it I’d burn the pot). This, from what I can figure out, changed the cooking times entirely.

It came out looking great, but the egg/milk setting liquid never set and the potatoes came out half raw, and the deli ham I used proved impossible to cut to get a proper slice out.

I ended up emptying out the pot(trivet & water), and dumping the entire thing out of the baking dish into the I-Pot and turning it back on for another 7-minutes to hopefully actually cook things, but also to thicken up the egg/milk mix.

Next time I try this, im just going to do it straight in the pot so I could use thicker potato slices and up the time to 15 minutes, but also let it manually release – because it seems to froth up the cheese.
I also wasn’t happy with the cheese slices, I used processed because I can’t afford deli/hard slices of cheese (they go for 6$ a pack of like, 6 slices here), so next time I’ll try a thin layer of shredded cheese. The slices seems to have simply melted away to nothing( and burnt slightly on the bottom on the re-cook, but it was still edible).

I’m actually glad I didn’t go with the optional bacon. I used a very cheap deli-cut pack from the grocery store that was labeled simply as “Baked ham & bacon loaf”, on finally tasting it, it tastes like mild bacon, no real hint of ham at all. As someone who normally doesn’t care for ham, this is going to be my new favourite sandwich meat. There was 5 slices about the same size as a slice of bread in this little pack.

Recipe as I followed it –

• 4-6 Potatoes, sliced in mandolin thick slabs.
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• A little oil
• Deli Ham slices
• Cheese Slices (processed or deli cheese per budget – Used processed mozza slices)
• 1-2 cups shredded cheese
• 1/2 cup cream/milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp ground dry mustard(powder)
• 3-5 slices bacon (chopped or 1/2 cup real bacon bits) (optional)
• 2 tbsp Parsley (chopped) (optional)

How to make

1. Peel potatoes and slice width wise, you can go as thick as steak fry or just use a mandolin. Salt & Pepper your potato slices.
2. Oil the bottom of the baking dish, then apply a layer of potato slices, a layer of ham slices, a layer of cheese slices. Repeat for at least two layers, or until you nearly run out of space.(I managed to get 3 layers of ham in my dish)
3. Place a final layer of potato slices(this took 4 medium sized potatoes), top with the bacon bits(optional – I didn’t have/use any in this example), sprinkle Mozzarella cheese over top, and sprinkle with parsley(optional – I didn’t because it personally does nothing for me).
4. Scramble eggs & cream/milk I used tin milk), and pour over entire dish – careful not to overflow your dish, with the size of my baking dish, I only used a 1/2 cup of tin milk.
5. Arrange in your I-Pot, I put a cup of water at the bottom and used a steamer-trivet-thing that I have to rise your dish off the bottom. Set the Pressure Lock, Turn On Manual for 7 Minutes. This is probably overkill for the size of the potatoes that I used, but I wanted to make sure the egg & milk set, and that the cheese melted. I let the pressure release manually for a couple of minutes before releasing the lock, less chance of splatter.
6. Carefully remove your dish from the I-Pot, I found a canning jar tool works best. And then move it to your oven under the broiler/oven just long enough to crisp your cheese.