Under Pressure

Today I discovered a new land, the land called “pressure cooker”. We had two of those sticking around for a while, since my father is a huge fan of them. I never had enough guts to try them out. I don’t really know why, but I was always much more into cooking and roasting than using the pressure cooker. But since our oven is busted (yes it’s a huge tragedy for me – because it means no baking!) I needed a new toy. Today it’s been raining cats and dogs since early morning, so there was no way I would walk to the market, especially not with the cold I’m having :S The pantry and deep freezer were my salvation.  After a closer inspection I was happy with my findings – a nice rack of spare ribs and sauerkraut, that were a perfect indications that my dad was planning to cook German. I gathered my findings, plus nice six big onions and a bottle of wine, and got cracking with cooking.

Pressure cooker is fun to use. The main idea behind is to cook without the loss of taste nor temperature, and that is achieved by keeping the steam under the airtight lid while cooking on a rather low flame. It allows to decrease the cooking time to a 20-40 mins depending on the dish prepared. The good thing is that no matter what kind of meat, from which part of the animal goes into the pressure cooker, it always comes out nice and tender, almost melting in one’s mouth. So that’s perfection, every stew my Dad tried so far was mouth watering experience and after today I think that pressure cooker and are going to be best friends! The food from pressure cooker is very aromatic and tasty. Thanks to the steam the taste stays in the dish and doesn’t disolve as in the regular cooking.

The recipe is straight forward and was my invention, but based upon a council and long conversation with my Dad where we allowed our tastebuds to tell was what should go into the cooker. I wanted sweet and reach taste broken with the note of sauer from the cabbage but enhanced by the earthy taste of gasconian red wine. And yes… it’s worth it! It’s a perfect dish for a gloomy day, it warms one up and keeps up the spirit

Spare ribs with sauerkraut, honey and wine

for lousy rainy days

(serves 6 at least)

700g of spare ribs (I had pork but you can use beef as well) cut in pieces of 1 rib

1 kg sauerkraut

150g smoked bacon diced

5 big onions cut in feathers

4 tea spoons  french corny mustard

4 tea spoons dijon mustard

6 tea spoon of liquid honey (I used buckwheat honey)

5 garlic cloves squeezed

250-300 ml gasconian red wine

salt, peper in seeds, juniper, caraway

In a big bowl mix together the mustards, honey, some salt and garlic. Toss in the ribs, mix and leave to marinate for 30 mins. In the meantime in the pressure cooker place 1/2 of cabage, add some salt, pepper, juniper and caraway and give it a toss. Then knock it flat on the bottom. Fry the bacon and spread evenly on the cabbage. Then fry the onion and spread the half, keep the other for later. Fry the ribs. Set them aside. Give a quick fry to the marinate and spread half on the onion, then place the ribs, the onion again and fried marinate on the top. Then spread evenly the rest of sauerkraut and then on the top pepper, juniper, caraway and salt. Then pour the wine. Close the pressure cooker and follow the instruction. Cooking time is 30 mins. Serve with fresh bread and glass of gasconian wine Enjoy!