Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew) in Instant Pot

The nephews are visiting us today so my wife wants to use the instant pot to cook something. We got the instant pot two weeks ago. Bo Kho (Vietnamese beef stew) seems to be the perfect dish.

Ingredients

• 2-3 pounds of chuck and/or sirloin roast beef
• 1 pound of ox tail (optional)
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 3-4 loose carrots
• 2 stalks of Leek
• 2-3 stalks of lemongrass
• Fish sauce
• Chicken bouillon powder
• Bo Kho spice (Kim Tu Thap Brand)
• Cilantro
• Salt
• Garlic powder
• Vegetable oil
• 1 can of coconut milk
• Starch flour

Preparation

Crush cloves of garlic

Cut up the stalks of leek into thin slices.

Heat up the wok, add 2 teaspoons of oil, and cloves of garlic. Stir in ½ of the chopped leek for about a minute.

Add beef and sear until brown on all sides.

Add salt, sugar, chicken bouillon power, and bo kho spice into the pot and flavor according to preference.

Add fish sauce.

Cut up loose carrots into small cubes.

As you can see here, those are Grandma's hands. She's helping with the cooking preparing the ingredients.

Slice stalks of lemongrass into thin slices.

Add the seared beef, loose carrots, sliced lemongrass and remainder of leeks into instant pot.

Make sure you practice safe cooking and don't burn yourself.

This is the fun part because you're putting everything in the pot and the hard work is pretty much done.

Turn on instant pot and press “Saute”. Let all of the ingredients simmer together.

Open a can of coconut milk with a can opener, add content into the instant pot and stir the ingredients. Keep working it.

After the pot comes to a boil, taste the broth, and adjust flavor to your personal liking.

Wait for the pot to boil again, making sure that all of the beef, vegetables, and broth are below the instant pot max line.

Close the instant pot lid, seal the valve, and set to pressure cooker in the high setting for 35 minutes.

Serving

Natural release for about 5-7 minutes and then manual release. Test to see that the meat is tender to your liking and adjust flavor if necessary. Fish sauce never hurts.

Turn on the saute mode. Mix 2 teaspoons of flour into 1 tablespoon water and pour the content into the pot. Stir around to thicken the broth. It is now ready.

To serve, garnish the bo kho with finely cut cilantro in a serving bowl. Serve hot with French bread.

Enjoy!

Check out the happy faces! You know that you did well when all of the little ones eat the food and compliment on on how good the dish tasted.

Pictures were taken with iPhone X.