Ursula

This is an adaptation for yhlee of a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian Cooking for a modern approximately-six-quart Instant Pot. This is a good first Instant Pot recipe because it only uses one feature. I'm suggesting lots of shortcuts, but if you want ideas about how to shorten the prep even more, let me know.

Make rice to serve this with separately. (Some people use an Instant Pot to make rice, but these are weird people who are not simultaneously using the device to make something to put over the rice.)

Ingredients

2 small or 1 large onion(s)
1-inch piece of fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic
1½ pounds lamb meat cut into chunks (you can often buy "stew meat" or "kebab meat" at the butcher counter of your grocery store, already cut up)
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
3/8 cup (6 tbsp) plain yogurt
1 tsp ground cumin
Big pinch salt
1 tsp garam masala

Prep

Peel the onion(s) and cut them in half, then into fine half-rings. Peel the ginger and chop it finely. Peel and chop the garlic.

Cooking

Dump everything except the garam masala into the Instant Pot. Stir if you like. Put the lid on and lock it. Check that the valve is set to Sealing (on mine there is a picture of three narrow Ss inside a square). Select the Pressure Cook option and set the time for 30 minutes (on mine I would use the "meat stew" option).

The Instant Pot will take some time to come up to pressure, and then it will count down until the 30 minutes are over. At this point, it will beep and the temperature will switch to low to keep the contents warm (you may see an indicator reading "Lo").

You now have a choice. You can wait around until the pressure releases naturally (wait about fifteen minutes and then see if you can move the lid). Alternatively, you can do a "quick release". That means moving the valve to let the steam out. DO NOT PUT YOUR HAND OVER THE VALVE, OR YOU MAY BURN YOURSELF. I usually cautiously flick the valve with my thumb, holding my hand to the side, but you can look for Instant Pot quick release instructions on YouTube if you want more detailed instructions or suggestions on possible tools. The steam will hiss loudly until the pressure is normalized.

Finally, remove the lid and stir in the garam masala.

Variations

You can use cubes of stew beef if you prefer. If you want to use a different quantity of meat, the rule is twenty minutes per pound. Double the time if the meat is frozen when you dump it in.

Increase the garlic to six cloves if you like garlic (I dial garlic levels back sometimes because that lets me procrastinate on trips to the big grocery store).

If you want a hotter spice level, you could add anywhere from a quarter-teaspoon to a teaspoon of cayenne, depending on your preference and how fresh your cayenne is.

Garnish with chopped cilantro, parsley, or mint if you want something green. Slices of cucumber on the side would also be good, especially if you're adding cayenne.

commodorified is organizing a blog "carnival" with the theme "Cooking for People who Don't: Food Security". As far as cooking goes, I am definitely a Person Who Does; I didn't exactly learn to cook at my mother's knee (we're too territorial about our kitchens, in my family), but I did acquire a general sense of fearlessness. That means I can't give good advice on overcoming one's trepidation in the kitchen (as far as I'm concerned, the best strategy is to cook all the time and use sharper knives), but maybe I can suggest specific recipes for scary foodstuffs?

In particular, I'd like to write a post (or three) on How To Make That Fruit or Vegetable Into Dinner. I'm taking nominations for fruits and vegetables. Is there a fruit or vegetable you particularly love, that you'd like more recipes for? Is there a fruit or vegetable that you don't know how to use? Right now I'm thinking of apples and beets, because of the season, but I'm open to suggestions.