Make-Ahead Basics

In addition to stocking your pantry with a good balance of spices, lentils, rice, and essential oils, there are a few foods that are used in or served with most Indian dishes. A lot of these are not made in an Instant Pot®, but rest assured they will make your Instant Pot® recipes delicious. Essential curry spice blend and pastes and freshly grated ginger and garlic are used in a lot of Indian cooking. I make batches of these at the beginning of the week to save time later. Silicon egg molds (available at online retailers) can hold about half a cup of essential curry pastes and are convenient for storing them. (We have put each of the spice pastes as a heading in the Index in case you’re looking for recipes that use a premade paste.)