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After many requests, I finally got a pressure cooker! An Instant Pot to be exact. In this video I show you how you how to make this delicious Thai Massaman curry that would normally take 3 hours to make, but we can do it in just 1 hour in the Instant Pot or another pressure cooker you have. Follow this recipe, or use this video as a guideline for how you can take a Thai curry recipe that you already have, and modify it to work with an Instant Pot.

Check out the Instant Pot I use on Amazon

How to Modify Regular Recipes for the Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker

There are a few questions you need to ask yourself when attempting to use a regular recipe in a pressure cooker:

Is it worth doing it in the Instant Pot at all?

The instant pot promises that food will be done quickly—it can cut cooking time by hours! But...if the original recipe doesn't take hours to cook to begin with...the how much time does it really save?

Remember that before the Instant Pot can get to pressure cooking the food, it has to spend time preheating AND releasing pressure. A "quick release" of pressure lets you open the pot in 1-2 minutes, but it's not something you can always do, and a "natural release" of pressure takes at least 10 minutes. So you must factor these into the "cooking time" of your food as well. See video at 8:22 when I talk about a "quick release" VS the "natural release" of pressure.

Not to mention...not all parts of the recipe can be done under pressure (see below) so don't forget to take that into consideration too.

ALSO, if reducing liquid until thick is part of the recipe, you're still gonna need to do that stove top because a pressure cooker is a closed environment and water does not evaporate during cooking.

What part of this recipe can be cooked under pressure? And what parts cannot?

For this recipe, I chose to cook only the beef under pressure, which is the part that takes a long time. But I finish the vegetables, potato and onions, at the end on regular "saute" mode. Yes, there are some recipes that say you can put all the veggies and meat into the instant pot and be done with it in one go, but I am particular with the doneness of my veggies, and I do not want my potatoes to become too mushy, so I choose not to do that. This depends on what vegetables you're using, and whether or not you care about how soft they are.

Also remember that vegetables don't generally take that long to cook so it's not like you're spending that much more time. Totally worth it for well-cooked vegetables, I think.

How much liquid do I need to reduce?

As I mentioned earlier, the pressure cooker is a closed environment, so whatever liquid is there to start will still be there when it's done. This includes liquid from meats that will inevitably come out during the cooking process. This is not the case when you cook stovetop, as liquid is constantly evaporating. So you have to generally reduce the amount of liquid used in the recipe in order for it to not come out too watery. In Thai curry recipes, conveniently there is usually water or stock added to thin out the sauce, so I find it works well to simply omit that and use only coconut milk.

However, reducing liquids CAN result in flavour problems because if the liquid called for is not water, say coconut milk or chicken stock, then reducing it will also reduce flavour/fat/richness or whatever that liquid provides. So alternatively you can spend time reducing it after it is done cooking under pressure. So if that's what needs to happen, factor it into your plan.

What types of food is good to cook in an Instant Pot?

Generally, pressure cookers are great for anything that needs to stew or braise for a long time. Beef stew, short ribs, pulled pork...slow cooking meats basically.

Making stocks (bone broths) is also great in the Instant Pot. A bonus is that the scum tends to just end up sticking to the sides of the pot...so you don't have to skim!

What doesn't benefit much from pressure cooking?

These are just my thoughts so far:

Things that take less than 30 mins to cook. I generally don't find vegetables to be great candidates, as they don't take much time to cook, and they become mushy easily.
Recipes that need to reduce and concentrate a lot, like some tomato sauce recipes
Foods that require precise doneness (anything that overcooks easily like chicken breasts). Because you can't check doneness while you cook, and you can't stop the cooking immediately as it take time to release the pressure whether you do a "quick release" (still takes a minute or two) or "natural release" (at least 10 mins).
Some recipes with multiple steps that can't be done under pressure. You might still save time even with multiple extra steps outside of the IP, like this massaman curry recipe is a great example of that, just don't forget to factor these steps into your planning.

*Extra Goodies for Patreon Members: In this episode's "Show After The Show" I share some of my other experience using the Instant Pot. Click here to find out more about becoming a Patreon member!

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video below to ensure success - and if you enjoy the show, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thank you!

Instant Pot Massaman Beef Curry แกงมัสมั่นเนื้อหม้ออัดแรงดัน

Jump to video!

How to Modify Regular Recipes for the Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker

What types of food is good to cook in an Instant Pot?

What doesn't benefit much from pressure cooking?

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!