Cut up the veggies: onions chopped, garlic minced, and the celery chopped.

Cut off the skin and outer fat from the pork shoulder. It is okay to leave a little fat on it. Discard the trimming.

Cut the pork shoulder meat away from the bone. Set aside the bone for the stew; we’ll add it in later.

Cut the meat into inch-sized pieces.

In an instant pot on high heat or 'Sauté', add pork lard and cumin seeds.

Once the seeds are starting to crackle, add onion and cook until yellow.

Add garlic and cook for a minute.

Add pork meat and then the other powdered spices. Stir everything together. Continued stirring and searing until the spices are fragrant.

Add in coconut milk, ginger, and bay leaves. Once bubbling can be heard, add broth and turn off the instant pot and stir again.

Set the Instapot to 'meat/stew' mode, high pressure, high level, 40 minutes. If possible, without keeping warm after the cycle but you may choose to if the pot is being left unattended before being served.

Add in the rest of the veggies. Add salt. Add water to fill fluid up to MAX level or to where the veggies just barely start to float.

Cover the instant pot and close the seals. Let it cook.

Ideally, let the instant pot naturally depressurize.

Add pork lard to bring out the flavour of the spices if there wasn’t a lot of fat on the pork or if it hasn’t dissociated from the meat.

If the stew is too runny, stir in the corn starch slurry and cook until just starting to simmer on Sauté mode again to thicken it. It will continue to thicken with heat, so stir occasionally after turning off the heat.