Still Moments Magazine: On The Menu

From Brenda's 'I Hate To Cook' Kitchen

No Sour Sauerkraut

My grandmother, Granny, on my dad’s side was German. My mom, who didn’t have a mother, learned to cook certain dishes from Granny. I didn’t realize that many of these meals were Americanized German recipes until FDW and I spent three years in Germany. I’m not sure why Granny didn’t make her sauerkraut from scratch, but I grew up eating sour canned sauerkraut. I didn’t know how really delicious it could be until I had authentic German kraut. I absolutely fell IN LOVE with German food. After Germany, I cooked canned sauerkraut, adding spices to tone down the sour. But why use canned, I thought. And the following recipe was born. It’s a touch more work than opening a can (yes, totally unlike me), but this kraut is close in flavor to the real German thing. Cooking can be worth it to get something I truly love!

Ingredients:

One head fresh green cabbage

1 ½ pounds boneless pork country ribs

½ tsp cumin

¼ tsp celery seeds

½ tbs dill weed

½ tsp caraway seeds

½ cup white vinegar

½ + ¼ cup water

Directions:

I use a pressure cooker, but I think a slow cooker would work just as well. You could cook on a stove top, but hey, that sounds like more work to me. This should easily feed four.

*Slice cabbage and fill cooker 2/3 full. This may or may not take a whole head depending on the size of the head.

*Mix together 1/2 cup white vinegar and 1/2 cup water. Pour the mixture over cabbage. Sprinkle cumin, celery seeds, dill weed, and caraway seeds over the cabbage. Gently pour ¼ cup water over it to carefully wash some of the seasoning down into the cabbage, but not all of it.

*Place pork on top. I cook in the pressure cooker for 30 minutes. If you use a slow cooker, I would guess 6 hours on high, but you'll know your cooker better than I do.

About Brenda: Brenda and her husband are gypsies at heart having lived in six states and two countries. Currently, they split their time between the Lake Roosevelt basin in Central Arizona and the pines in the north. Wherever Brenda opens her laptop, she spends most of her time writing stories of discovery and love entangled with suspense. http://www.brendawhiteside.com/

Austria’s food is very similar to their neighbor, Germany. Lead in here (wink, wink)…the third book in my Love and Murder Series, A Legacy of Love and Murder, is set in Austria.