Instant Pot: Swiss Steak with Tomatoes and Cream

I got this Instant Pot for my birthday from my wonderful son.  I have always wanted a pressure cooker.  I remember using one in high school (old school, stovetop type) in Home Economics class and made Swiss Steak.  I remember thinking how delicious it was and that memory has always stayed with me for whatever reason.  It is something I have never made since then and I've never used a pressure pot since then either.  Now that I had the Instant Pot, I was a little intimidated and did a ton of reading about it.  I found online "community" posts confusing because everyone had their own opinions about how to do things but it did help me find helpful links though.  I also bought this cookbook (online version) to get started.  The recipe below is from this book.  I knew it was going to take some time to build my confidence using this unit, so I decided I needed to try trusted, tested recipes to start so I could get the hang of how the thing worked.  Before I started, I did the "water test".  I also perused this link for beginners.  I was finally ready to begin...

EFFORT: A LITTLE • PRESSURE: HIGH • TIME UNDER PRESSURE: 20 OR 30 MINUTES • RELEASE: NATURAL • SERVES: 6

• 2 tablespoons olive oil 
• 2 pounds beef eye of round, cut into 6 equal steaks 
• ½ teaspoon salt 
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper 
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic (I used 3 cloves)
• ½ cup moderately dry red wine, like Zinfandel (I used CabSav)
• One 15-ounce can diced tomatoes (I bought reduced sodium) 
• 3 tablespoons packed fresh oregano leaves, minced (recipe said not to substitute dried oregano).
• ¼ cup heavy cream (I used coffee cream at 18% milk fat)
• One 4-inch cinnamon stick

I got all my ingredients ready and I followed everything exactly except what's noted above.

2 tablespoons of oil seemed like a lot and it did splatter at me quite a bit when turning the beef.  I browned each side for 3 minutes.

I seared the steaks in two batches of three.  The saute function got really HOT.  When the steaks came out and I put in the garlic, it only took seconds till it was fragrant, so I put in the wine.  That really helped the high heat and I got all the brown bits scraped up with a wooden spoon.  After 3 minutes, I added in the tomatoes, cinnamon stick and the oregano.  I stirred and then added back in the beef and all the juices.

I hit the cancel button while I put the lid on.  When it was locked, I set the manual button to 30 minutes at high pressure.  It hissed until the pin popped up and then it was sealed and got quiet.  Then the clock started counting down my 30 minutes.  I got some egg noodles to serve with this.

I just boiled them, drained, tossed with Becel margarine, minced parsley and S&P.  I started these when the cook time was finished on the pressure cooker.  They were ready when the "natural release" was finished on the instant pot.

When the cooking was done, I hit cancel.  The recipe said not to let it go into "warm mode" so I just made sure it was in OFF mode.  The pin dropped 20 minutes later.  I opened the lid.  I moved the steaks to a small plate and added the cream.  I hit the "saute" button again, and brought it to a simmer for about a minute.  The sauce wasn't thick enough for my liking so I mixed up about a tablespoon of cornstarch and cold water, then added that in.  That worked good enough though I still would have liked a thicker gravy.  I plated and garnished with some parsley, fresh cracked pepper and kosher salt.

The beef was fork tender and the sauce was good - the cinnamon gave a nice note to it.  Above is my serving and one steak was enough.  My son had two with his.  Nothing to complain about.  I have nothing to compare it to though.  My son said he really enjoyed it.  Anyway, I'm glad I got the first recipe done and it wasn't a disaster!  Whew!