I’m planning to make Spicy Beef Rendang for dinner today. This is a dinner favorite I’ve made a dozen times or more, but I always make it on the weekend because it takes around 4 hours. But most of that is oven time, and I work from home, so I figure I can make this work.
The cooking process in the recipe I linked calls for simmering covered for 90 minutes first, then in the oven uncovered for 2-2.5 hours. The ‘uncovered in the oven’ part is essential, since much of the liquid in the coconut milk needs to evaporate, but I figure I can cut some time and it would be safer than leaving a simmering pot on the stove while I’m working to do the ‘90-minute covered simmer’ part in the Instant Pot.
So my question is, what would be a good time conversion from a 90-minute covered simmer to the Instant Pot? I’m thinking 30 minutes in the IP at the low pressure setting. Does that sound about right?
IMO, a recipe that depends on evaporation is simply not going to work well in an Instant Pot, which seals against evaporation. To give you an idea, when you make ordinary white rice on the stove, the water:rice ratio is 2:1 to account for evaporation, while in an Instant Pot, it’s 1:1.
Granted, I’m not the most expert IP recipe creator around, so someone might have a more helpful answer for you.
Sorry if my OP wasn’t clear-- there’s a 2-step process:
Simmer covered for 90 minutes
Cook uncovered in oven for 2-2.5 hours
The second step I will still do in the oven, but the first step is where I’m looking for advice on conversion from a 90-minute covered simmer to an Instant Pot.
Again, I’m thinking 30 minutes in the IP at the low pressure setting. Does that sound about right?
With pressure it will take less time, but I can’t say how much at a low pressure setting. I assume you’re trying to get it to cook in less time because you can still simmer in the Instant Pot without pressure. Under full pressure cooking times are 3-4 times faster. If this is a stew like recipe with thick pieces of meat or vegetables I’d think it would take 20-30 minutes at full pressure. Is there a reason you don’t want to cook it at full pressure? The result should be very close to the same.
When I googled converting a recipe from ‘covered simmer’ to ‘Instant Pot’ I didn’t find a lot of time-conversion info, but I did find on the Instant Pot site itself to use the low-pressure setting in place of a covered simmer.
Also I figure since I’ll need to do a quick release to get it in the oven for step 2, low pressure will mean less ‘Old Faithful’ style geysering.
In my experience (limited, because with simmered dishes I normally use my slow-cooker rather than pressure cooker) a good compromise is to cook on high pressure for 1/4 to 1/3 the expected conventional simmer time (similar to what @TriPolar says) followed by allowing the Pressure cooker to “naturally release” pressure. IE high pressure up front, followed by turning it off and waiting generally around 20ish minutes. Longer overall cook time, which you are avoiding, but better results IMHO, and no risk of geyser! Here’s a representative article on the various common pressure-release options:
A slow cool down works well with a lot of things. I cut 15-20 minutes off the time at full pressure to accommodate that since the cooking continues. Not sure what low pressure is like, but it probably doesn’t change the time much from a covered simmer in a regular pot.
Why mess with the InstaPot? OP has made this a dozen times and it came out well. Keep doing that (looks like a yummy dish…I have saved it to my recipe list).
OP works from home. I see no need to speed the process that has worked so many times before. I certainly would not experiment if the dish is meant to be given to others. If you need to speed things up for some reason then do it when it is just you. Experimenting is good. Just not with guests coming over.
ETA: On re-reading I see guests were not mentioned so go nuts. I am interested in the results.
Thanks for the advice! I decided to go 25 minutes on high pressure, then I’ll let it sit turned off for 20 minutes to cook a bit more and naturally release pressure so it doesn’t geyser. That’s still half the time of a 90-minute simmer.
As mentioned above, to save a little time since it’s a workday, and also for the ‘set it and forget it’ aspect- I don’t like to leave a pot simmering while I’m upstairs working.
Yeah, this is a crazy good dish- it’s more like Spicy Beef RenDANG!
My wife and I first had it at a local Indonesian restaurant that sadly, is gone now. As soon as we tried it my wife said “you gotta reverse-engineer this at home!” The recipe I linked to is pretty close to the restaurant’s, but the restaurant’s also had crushed almonds, which I add if I have them, and I also add some good soy sauce in place of the salt in the recipe for added umami.
The 2.5 hour low-temp oven part is crucial-- most of the water needs to evaporate out of the coconut milk, which then leads to the fat separating out on top, and frying the chunks of meat in the fat. When I give it stir every 1/2 hour I try not to disturb the meat chunks too much, other than to make sure they’re turned over so the other side can cook in the fat. I skim off some / most of the separated fat out at the end.
Meant that to say be “… without thick pieces of meat and vegetables…”. Under pressure it still takes a little longer to get thicker pieces of meat and dense vegetables done. So more like 1/3 of the time instead of 1/4.
Your recipe is on my list. Great use of flavorful chuck steak. Might work with cross cut beef shanks and a little more simmering/pressure time. I might get out my Instant Pot to pressure cook this dish!
It is well worth making! Today was a very good batch.
But keep in mind the first step, which I did with the pressure cooker instead of simmering on the stove, is not the most crucial part of making it. My asking for advice on the pressure cooker time was to make sure I don’t overcook that part. I didn’t want the cut chunks of chuck roast falling apart before the oven step.
If you do it all in the pressure cooker, you’ll end up with a perfectly OK batch of Asian-flavored beef soup, but it won’t be Rendang. The 2-1/2 hours or so of oven time in a wide uncovered casserole dish (or similar) is the key. 300F on convection mode (the circulating air seems to help evaporation). As the water in the coconut milk evaporates, a layer of fat separates out on top that the meat fries and carmelizes in. Every half hour I give it a gentle stir to make sure nothing is sticking on the bottom, and rotate the pieces of chuck so that the dark browned parts on top get turned over and the other side of the meat gets to cook in the fat. Once it’s cooked down enough and you skim off most of the top layer of fat, the resulting sauce with the meat will be very thick and unbelievably rich.
Again, the Instant Pot part that I did with this recipe is the least of it, and doesn’t cause the coconut milk to coagulate. That happens in the more important oven part.
Coagulation is the process of an emulsion breaking, so solids and liquids separate. That’s what you want to have happen in this recipe- separating out a layer of fat from the coconut milk solids that rises to the top, letting the meat cook in the fat, and then skimming off the fat before serving, leaving the solid part along with residual liquid to make a very thick sauce.
Thanks for the feedback on how it went. I think I’ll experiment with something with a similar flavor/texture profile, but as I’m the only meat-eater in the house these days, I think I’ll have to adapt it to some sort of “inspired by” dish, and if it ends up being delectable to me, then justify a full rendition, which I’ll probably portion and freeze so as to not overload.
Thank you for the advice upthread! You were right, there was no reason I couldn’t wait 20 minutes to let the pressure release naturally, so that part worked out perfectly.
I made this last night. Was quite good. I appreciate the photos in the recipe showing the contents being reduced in the final open cooking so I could tell I hadn’t gone off the rails.
I reduced the amount of most spices a little, and left out the chiles entirely because I didn’t have any. I’d say it really needs them to contrast the rest of the dish. Even without them it was delicious.
Glad to hear you made and enjoyed it! Yeah, the photos on that recipe site of what it’s supposed to look like at different stages of the cooking process definitely help to assure you that things aren’t going horribly wrong.
