I promised my co worker that I will make more vegetable curry and chicken curry top share. Well she is making her vegan chocolate cookies that I swear I can eat the whole container of it. So good.

So today I am making the vegetable curry for her using different veggies than the last time. I have eggplant, chayote, cabbage, green beans. All cut up around 1″ cube and just half the green beans and quartered the cabbage.

The last time I used butternut squash and other squash, I did 8 minutes and I felt it was almost too mushy. So this time I did 4 minutes. Yepp you heard me right! 4 minutes. I usually make my curry on the stove and it took a while. 15 to 20 minutes easy for the vegetable. Chicken and beef well…it’s a labor of love, let’s leave it at that.

4 minutes veggie curry, Once it’s done I started my chicken curry, the non spicy version for my boys who do not eat spicy stuffs. I had to cheat using sweet peppers to get the reddish color without the heat. 10 minutes later I got the curry for the boys. Then I add my chili paste into the leftover curry in the pot, add my potato and carrots and let it cook under pressure for another 3 minutes. All tender and perfect. Some of the chicken are fall apart as you can see. I used boneless skinless chicken breast. Usually I use bone in chicken when I make curry, more flavorful. I am using what I have thawed today. Though there’s lots of whole chicken in the freezer.  Albertson’s had it on sale for around $4 per chicken. Well here are our dinner for tonight.

The base paste for my curry :

Fresh ginger 1″, sliced

Galangal 1″ sliced thinly

1″ fresh turmeric or 1 tablespoon ground turmeric

1 lemon grass sliced

5 cloves garlic

2 small shallots, if you have the big ones use 1.

*3 red chili + 3 thai bird’s eye chili if you like spicy, if not use sweet peppers the red ones.

salt

pepper

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon tamarind paste

1 teaspoon ground coriander

5 candlenuts (roasted) or you can subs with macadamia nuts.

5 lime leaves

Put them all in the blender until smooth. That’s the base for my curry (* this is Indonesian curry, not Indian or Thai – closer to the Thai version as we are using the same ingredients)

Saute the spices with a little oil until fragrant, then add the meat if you are making meat or chicken curry. Mix thoroughly, then add the broth around 1 cup just to deglaze the pan.

The next step is adding 1 can coconut milk. If you want a  thicker curry, use the coconut cream. At this point I add all of my vegetable for my vegetable curry, seasoned with salt , pepper, sugar to your taste. Closed the lid and run the pressure cooker for 4 minutes. Quick release and serve. That’s for the vegetables. As for the chicken, same process, except I cooked it for 10 minutes. Wonder if I can reduced to 8 minutes as I am using boneless skinless chicken breast that I cut up 1″ size. Maybe next time I will try to do 8 minutes. This chicken are at the point of falling apart after I add 3 minutes to cook my potato and carrots.

But all taste so good.. I have to agree with people who say cooking under pressure is more flavorful. For you that is still thinking about getting one, I absolutely encourage you to take the plunge. It is worth the $118 spend. Think about it…well at least for me and my family.. It’s fast, dinner in 30 minutes for most of the recipes. Some take 1 hour. I feel like I have more times on my hand because I don’t need to spend hours in the kitchen. I can hang out with my son more since I don’t spend most of my time cooking. I can get inexpensive meat that usually takes longer to cook to get a tender result. Not anymore..I have been stocking on meat on sale and freeze them. Our dinner for the most of time is around $10 and that feed us 3 and easily feed 5 people. Yes we eat a lot. Big portion lol. Even my 9 years old boy. The next point is leaving me with a mix feeling…no leftover. The pot size is just perfect size for us. No leftover. Meaning they like it, and yes, no leftover. Hahaha sometimes I wish I have leftover for lunch at work. But no..not since I am using the pressure cooker called Instant Pot. It’s awesome. Clean up is a breeze…1 pot, 1 chopping board, 3 plates. Can’t beat that!.