Pressure cooking with a touch of German

I can hear crickets at night, a sign of the end of summer. I am a little sad that summer will be over soon. We will be closing up the Lake homes, putting away some summer toys. The herb garden will soon go into its winter “sleep”. At the same time, I also look forward to Fall, my favorite time of the year, with the bountiful of Fall harvest,. I love the change of season, especially the color of the leaves here in Upper mid-west. It is also the season for home hearty cooking, my pressure cooker is calling me.

Mr Wonderful and I had a short trip to Vegas and we had a great time. Being gone for the week, I had to “restock” today. I also decided to make him a “comfort” meal, something German with the pressure cooker. Well… You should know by now, it would be my version of “German” and it is:

Pork and Sauerkraut

2-3 lbs boneless or bone-in Pork butt or shoulder, trimmed of excess fat

32oz (1 quart) sauerkraut, drained.

1 onion, sliced

2 tsp fennel seeds, traditionally, it would be caraway seed.

2 tsp garlic powder

5 small plums, stone removed and quartered (we just picked some plums from the tree here) or 1 small apple, cored and diced. 

Olive oil

1 cup water

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Set up pressure cooker for browning. I am using an electric cooker. You can also work on the following step in large pot or Dutch oven if you plan to cook this on the stove or you can transfer the everything stove top pressure cooker.

 Heat 3-4 tablespoon of olive oil till hot.

Brown the pork, season lightly with salt and pepper (be careful not to over salt, since the sauerkraut is salty. 

 Remove the meal and add onion,

 Sauté till soft and caramelized

 Add fennel seeds

 Add plum or apple, mix well

 Add sauerkraut. 

 Add garlic powder

 Return the pork to the pot. 

 Add water. Bring to a boil. 

 Set to pressure cook for 40 mins with high pressure.

Release steam when ready

Taste and correct seasoning as needed.

 If you plan to cook this on the stove, lower heat to medium low, cover and cook for 1.5 hours till the meat is tender. Stir occasionally, add water as needed

To serve, remove the meat from the stew and let it stand for 5 mins. Slice the meat. In a shallow bowl, place some sauerkraut on the bottom, top with some meat. I love to serve this with some pretzel rolls.

Serve 4.

Enjoy

Aloha

The Wicked Spoon

I had a week in Vegas. It was a work trip, but I decided to take a couple of days off after the meetings. Mr Wonderful had not been for Vegas for over 10 years. I thought it would be fun for him to meet up with me.  We had a great time. We did our tourist wander. We didn't plan on any big meal. We agreed that we wanted to keep things simple

On our last day in Vegas, we had to have a buffet to finish our Vegas experience. We chose Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan. We read a few reviews and we decided on brunch since we were leaving in the evening. I would highly recommend this. Reasonable priced. The food is very good and I love the small individual serving. It was perfect for sharing. Mr Wonderful was in a tasting mood. We split almost everything we took. We were not too full. We had fun.

When you go to Vegas, remember to try their buffet, we will definitely go back.

Here is some of the sampling we did

Heirloom tomato salad

Roasted beet salad

Olives wit

Pretzel rolls

Cheese selection

Chicken Apple sausage

Virginia Ham

Grill sausages

General Tsang's chicken

Korean Beef Kalbi

Egg Benedict with Virginia ham

Salmon with cream sauce and fennel

Corn, zucchini and edaname succotash

Mac and Cheese

Cod in coconut milk with lemongrass, great flavor,

but cod was over cooked

Clam in wine sauce

Wicked Fried Chicken

My little one digs right in!

Fudge and Marshmallow

Chocolate dessert, the waffle was a bit soggy. 

This is not ice cream

Raspberry mousse and Chocolate truffle cup

Strawberry and Pistachio Gelato

Berry Tart

Molten Chocolate Cake

Pear Pastry

 

Louie not interested in the cone

Passion fruit meringue

Dessert Display

tempting display

Love the petite size

Other places that we ate: 

Volcano Nacho

We ate at Margarettaville on the night that Mr Wonderful arrived. I was over hungry while he was not. We thought we would order a nacho and a salad to share. We were in shock when the nacho arrived. We were lucky that our waitress was kind to let us cancel the salad and we still could not finish the nacho.

My boys love Frozen Hot Chocolate as much as m

We went to Serendipity 3 for a late lunch. The truth is I wanted Frozen Hot Chocolate. It reminded me of NY.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

We shared a BBQ chicken pizza, it was very good and the Frozen Hot chocolate - heavenly as usual.

 

Wonton Noodle soup

We skipped dinner one l I took him to the Noodles at the Bellagio. The minute I walked into the restaurant, I had the image of Hong Kong immediately. It was that smell of the soup and noodle, so familiar and so comforting. I had to order my favorite Wonton noodle soup. It was always my favorite. I also order an order of Chinese Spring roll. Mr Wonderful had no experience with real Chinese food. He loved the wonton and noodle

Spring Wonton

The wonton is as good as Hong Kong, classic Hong Kong style filled with shrimp with a thin tender translucent wrapping. I was in heaven

Classic Hong Kong Spring Roll

Mr Wonderful learned that Egg roll is American and loved the real "Spring rolls". He now knows the difference between lumpias and Spring rolls. Oh, I am teaching him to use chopsticks now.

 

Aloha!