Pressure Cooker Japanese Style Meat and Potato Stew (Nikujaga)

This is your basic meat and potato stew.  It's hearty, comforting, and delicious.  

The use of the pressure cooker came about out of necessity.  The Japanese recipe calls for thinly sliced beef, which is not available at most american super markets.  Instead, I bought chunks of beef chuck and for some reason assumed it would cook in 30-40 minutes.  They were still tough and rubbery, so I improvised and cooked the beef in a pressure cooker for 25 minutes and they became soft and tender.  So, I thought why not just make the entire thing in a pressure cooker.  

The great part about it is that this normally would take over 2 hours to make, but because of the pressure cooker, I reduce the cooking time to only 40 minutes, which is just as fast as the traditional japanese recipe.

The 2 alternative ways to make this are 1. You can stew the beef for 2 hours until tender than add the rest of the ingredients and stew another 30-40 minutes until the vegetables are tender.  2. If you can find an asian market and thinly sliced beef, just cook this in a regular pot for 35-45 minutes until everything is tender.

ingredients:

serves 3 large servings (4 medium servings)

1.  Pressure Cooker

2.  2 cups of bite sized beef chuck roast, 1 - 1.5 lbs

3.  1 large clove garlic, minced

sauce:

4.  1 TBL sake (semi dry if possible)

5.  1 cup water

6.  1/2 tsp dashi powder

7.  1/8 tsp grated ginger

8.  2 TBL soy sauce

9.  1 tsp light brown sugar, packed tight

10.  2 tsp mirin

11.  healthy pinch freshly cracked black pepper

you can prep the veges as the beef cooks

12.  3 medium potatoes, yukon golds (breaks apart less than russets) pealed and cut slightly bigger than bite sized.  Soak in water to remove surface starch and prevent discoloration.

13.  1 large onion, cut in half then each half cut into 5-6 wedges

14.  2 large carrots, pealed and cut into bite sized wedges

15.  15 snow peas (5 per bowl) tough strings removed, quickly blanched in boiling salted water for 3 minutes and then set aside for garnish on top of stew.

16.  1 bowl of rice to serve with the stew.  I prefer firmer, drier, and room temp rice with this stew.  I think it goes much better with the stew than hot steamy rice.

recipe:
1.  Place pressure cooker over high heat.  As soon as it gets smoking hot, add 1 tablespoon of oil then add in all the beef and a healthy pinch of salt.  The beef should be making a very loud sizzling noise.  This indicates good browning.  If it's only a minor sizzle, you are basically boiling the beef and losing flavor because of the loss of caramelization.
2.  After 30 seconds, flip over beef and caramelize second side.  Mix beef and cook another minute.
3.  Take off heat, clear a spot on the bottom of the pressure cooker and add minced garlic.  Toast for 10 seconds.
4.  Quickly add in 1 TBL sake and place back on high heat.
5.  Let alcohol evaporate for 1-2 minutes, then add in the rest of the ingredients for the sauce and mix well.
6.  Place top over pressure cooker and lock in.  Follow instructions for your pressure cooker.  In general, you place pressure cooker over high heat until it reaches aggressive hiss, you then start your timer and lower the temperature to lowest setting to maintain a very faint hiss.
7.  Cook beef for 30 min, then release all the steam from the pressure cooker.
8.  Add potatoes, carrots, and onions to the pressure cooker and give a good mix.
note: - THE VEGETABLES WILL RELEASE LIQUID AS THEY COOK, SO YOU DON'T NEED TO ADD ANY MORE WATER, EVEN IF ALL THE INGREDIENTS ARE NOT SUBMERGED.
9.  Get pressure cooker back up to aggressive hiss, drop to lowest temp to maintain feint hissing, and cook another 8 min.
10.  Release all the steam from the pressure cooker and take off lid.  Cook over high heat to slightly reduce liquid.  I like mine slightly soupy so that there is plenty of sauce to mix with rice.
11.  Spoon into a bowl, garnish with snow peas, and serve with rice on the side.  I like to mix the rice into the sauce.