This week, I learned to use a new button. I decided that the next step in my (not so) daring gastronomic journey would be to try using the rice cooker function on my Instant Pot. Again, this is just a side dish and it is something that I have made countless times before by other means, but I’m still in confidence-building mode.

Here are some important things I learned:

1. The Instant Pot’s ‘Rice’ button is best used for white rice, as it is specifically calibrated to weigh white rice and water and cook the rice accordingly (other types of rice can still be cooked with the pressure function, but require you to manually input cooking times).

2. Rinsing the rice before cooking is a good idea to get rid of starch that can make the rice sticky and to replace the small amount of moisture lost in evaporation during the cooking process.

3. Use the right ratio of water to rice. For most types of rice, this is 1:1.

4. Literally, just push the ‘Rice’ button and let the magic machine figure out the rest.

The cook time for this was about 5 minutes. After letting the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes, I opened the lid to find yet another lovely pot of scrumptious sustenance. Two for two!