Instant Pot Beef Curry Stew

I can't believe that I never posted an Instant Pot recipe or video of me making Japanese Beef Curry Stew. I first started making this when I got my IP two and a half years ago and it's WAY better in the IP.  It only takes 25 minutes IP cooking time and the meat is so tender.  There's no need to let it simmer for hours to get the meat soft. A few years back I previously posted the stove top version of this recipe and I'm happy to say that I now have an IP version.  Ingredients are all the same, just with a few minor adjustments for the IP conversion.

INSTANT POT JAPANESE BEEF CURRY STEW

INGREDIENTS:

2-3 lbs. chuck roast, cut into cubes
2 tbsp. garlic, minced
2 cups baby carrots
1 cup celery, chopped
2 large russet potatoes, cut into large cubes
1/2 onion, diced

4 cups water
1 large or 2 small pkgs. S&B curry sauce 
oil

DIRECTIONS:

Turn IP on to saute and add about 2 tbsp. of oil.  Add stew meat and brown for about 5 minutes. Add onions and celery and stir. Add carrots, potatoes, and water.  Cover with lid. Hit meat/stew button and adjust timer to 25 minutes. Be sure pressure valve is at sealing.  When timer is over, let NPR for 10 minutes and then QR.  If liquid starts to leak out of valve, just slowly release the valve to let the pressure release slowly. Once pressure pin drops, open lid and gently stir the pot. Turn off IP and turn on to saute. Let come to boil and add curry blocks. Gently stir until curry blocks are dissolved. 

Serve over hot rice and enjoy!

Instant Pot Kalua Pig

I keep forgetting to post about this and it's been sitting in my pending posts. Plus I got kinda lazy with blog posting and on the Facebook IP group. I ended up making this last night and figured I get it rolling again 😉. Bonus, I included a little vid with some island flavah 😆. 

Our normal 2 hour oven baked Kalua pig cooked in the IP for 25 minutes. Overall cooking time of prepping, quick sauté, pressurizing, and depressurizing in about 45 minutes. SAY WHAT 😳😃😱😉👍🏼! 

I just did what we normally do for our oven baked version and adjusted the measurements for the seasonings a bit. Just to account for the saltiness. You can always season more after cooking but during the cooking process you're pretty much outta luck. 

We've always cut our pork butt or shoulder into about 1 1/2-inch slices, laid into a 13"x9" baking pan, seasoned it with shoyu, Hawaiian salt, & liquid smoke (I've made this so many times that I don't even measure but will give an approximate), added some water, covered with foil, and baked at 400* for two hours. The slicing of the pork makes it cook faster and makes for easier shredding. 

Now today I converted that method to the IP and it worked like a charm. I kept going over other recipes for Kalua pig but just couldn't shake that it takes just as long in the IP as it does when I cook in the oven. Then my hubby told me why fix something that isn't broke and just do it the same oven way (ingredients wise) but cut the time for the IP. So I did and it went a little something like this...

PS - Thank goodness it worked as a trial run since I just scored 5 pork butts on a price cut for our son's bday party the next weekend. Used one of those for this experiment 😃😉👍🏼.

KALUA PIG

INGREDIENTS:

3 1/2 lb - 4lb boneless port butt or shoulder (if you have bone-in, it's fine. Just slice and cut around bone) sliced into 1 1/2-inch slices. 

Liquid smoke

Hawaiian salt

Shoyu

Water

Coconut oil or preference. 

DIRECTIONS:

Slice pork into about 1 1/2 inch slices.  Hit sauté, add some oil, and brown slices a little on both sides. Cancel sauté. Sprinkle about 1 tbsp. Hawaiian salt.  Drizzle about 1/4 cup shoyu over pork.  Drizzle about 2 tbsp liquid smoke over pork.  Add 1 cup water.  Cover with lid and be sure valve is at sealing. Hit meat and adjust time to 25 minutes. When done let NPR for 10!minutes, then QR.  Remove lid and remove pork pieces from liquid to separate bowl for shedding. Reserve liquid if you want to keep meat less dry or use as broth for Kalua pig and cabbage. 

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Instant Pot Beef Luau Stew

I've had success with slowly converting all the local Hawaii dishes that I cook via stovetop to the Instant Pot. A few weeks ago I conquered a beef luau stew. It's Hawaiian beef stew made with luau leaves (taro leaves) and coconut milk. Normally this takes me a few hours to cook on the stove in order to get the meat tender and to cook the fresh leaves properly. Not cooking down the leaves properly results with you experiencing an itchy throat when eating it. Here's my mock up recipe that I just typed up 😉👍🏼. 

INGREDIENTS:

Luau leaves (taro leaves) stems & fibrous veins removed

8 cups water

Hawaiian salt

3 lb chuck roast 

1/2 onion

2 tbsp minced garlic

4 cups chicken broth 

2 cans coconut milk

Salt & pepper to taste 

DIRECTIONS:

PART I:

Cleaned and cut off stems of luau leaves. Chop leaves and add to pot with 8 cups water. Sprinkle some Hawaiian salt and push leaves into water. Cook on manual for 15 min. Let NPR for 10, then quick release. Drain leaves.  I ended up doing two cooking batches of the leaves since I didn't want to overflow the pot. 

PART 2:

Cut chuck roast into big chunks. Sauté meat with coconut oil. Add sliced onions, garlic, 4 cups chicken broth, and cooked luau leaves. Stir to incorporate. Cancel sauté and cook on Meat/Stew for 25 min. Let NPR for 10 min, then quick release. Cancel keep warm and hit sauté. Add two cans of coconut milk and stir.  Season to taste. Enjoy!

Crock Pot Laulau

One of my favorite things to eat from back home is laulau. It is pork wrapped in luau (taro) leaves and which is then traditionally wrapped in ti leaves and steamed till cooked. I could buy some frozen laulau at the Asian store here but it is expensive for such a small serving and the meat is so dry.

I've always wanted to attempt to make my own but I always worried about properly cleaning the fresh luau leaves correctly. If you don't clean the clean the leaves correctly by removing the stem and fibrous part of the leaves, you'll experience an itchy throat when eating the cooked leaves. 

Well I took the chance recently after much convincing from my hubby to just try it and watching a few YouTube videos   The one idea that seemed the easiest to do without me monitoring it while steaming to cook was the crock pot method. 

I pretty much followed this YouTube video with a few minor changes of my own. 

After this was done cooking with the wonderful smell permeating in the air, this came out a WINNAH!  It turned out a lot better than I thought.  Got the seal of approval from the hubby and my brother in law who was over for dinner too.  If only I had a bigger crock put to make more since I was only able to fit about 9 small ones in there.  So with that said here's what I did along with a few changes of my own but I pretty much followed the video.


CROCK POT LAULAU:

Ingredients:
2 lbs. Luau Leaves (Taro Leaves) with the fibrous parts taken out
2 lbs. Pork Butt or Shoulder cut into big chunks
1/2 lbs. Cod (Butterfish)
Hawaiian salt
Shoyu
1/4 c. water
Banana Leaves (Cleaned)

Directions:

1. Thoroughly clean the luau leaves and take out the fibrous parts.

2. Line your crock pot with the cleaned banana leaves with the shiny side facing up.

3. Cut up the pork into big chunks. Mix about a 1/2 tbsp. Hawaiian salt and 1/4 c. shoyu.

4. Grab two leaves into your palm and lay a few pieces of pork and butterfish. Wrap up meat with leaves (view video for better idea).  Repeat with ingredients to fit as much as your crock pot allows (I wasn't able to use all of the pork and fish, so I made a very small batch of kalua pig and just threw the extra fish into the crockpot). Add 1/4 c. water over the laulau

5. Line another layer of banana leaves over the laulau and cover with a sheet of aluminum foil. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.  The video says you could also cook it on HIGH for 4 hours but according to some of the reviews some people complained the leaves weren't cooked well and their throats itched a little.

6. All the deliciousness right here! My house smelled SO good and couldn't wait to eat this up.

ENJOY!!