I’m not sure how accurate my memory is regarding my Grandmother Ruthie’s pressure cooker, but I do think I remember correctly the Swiss Steak she made with it. I’ve been thinking about that Swiss Steak … and I have no idea why it’s called Swiss Steak – it is an inexpensive cut of “steak” that is cooked low and slow with a tomato-mushroom-beef broth. The result is a fork tender dish of meat and sauce typically served over mashed potatoes or egg noodles. Mashers is my preference!

I bought a pressure cooker cookbook some time ago on a hunt for a recipe. I have gone back and forth about getting a pressure cooker as they were somewhat out of favor for a time due do their tendency to explode if not operated correctly.

Recently, more attention has been given pressure cooking with newer and safer stovetop cookers as well as electric pressure cookers. Enter the InstantPot with the current model being a 7 in 1 multi-cooker. It pressure cooks, slow cooks, sautes, steams and makes yogurt. It has automatic buttons for rice, beans and porridge. Is that 7? Anyway, it does a lot and after my food blogging hero, Mel of Mel’s Kitchen Cafe, wrote an extensive post on pressure cooking stovetop vs electric…I succumbed.

And then I made Swiss Steak.

I started with a quick saute of onions and mushrooms and browning of the beef. My first go so I went with a small test amount.

Next I dumped in some tomatoes, water and then set the cooker to pressure for 18 minutes.

Set the Vent to Pressure vs Steam.

The InstantPot takes about 8 minutes to come up to pressure and then starts counting down…

13 minutes to go.

After the 13 minutes (18 minutes total), it automatically changes to “keep warm” mode and starts counting up so you know how long it has been in “keep warm”.

Fork tender meat – yea!

Swiss steak that fit my memory, a rough mash of red potatoes and kale with a side of local made sauerkraut.

I call that a good supper! It might not be my grandmother’s pressure cooker, but I think I came pretty close with the Swiss Steak. From the first chop on an onion until I sat down to eat was 40 minutes and 30 of that was hands off, sitting in my chair and relaxing with Auggie.

I’ve used the Instant Pot for beans, rice, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, soft boiled eggs and now the Swiss Steak. I’m still learning, but have no regrets about this addition to my kitchen tools.

Meanwhile… Cat on a cold front porch.

I’ve written about making crackers and about making sourdough crackers.

Homemade crackers are so good and so much fun to make.

Just before Christmas, I saw this recipe and gave it a go … with my own modifications. (my recipe at the end of this post).

In addition to a new recipe, I’ve been using a pasta roller to roll the dough versus rolling by hand. The benefit is that the dough is rolled evenly and bakes evenly. If you have a pasta roller with the typical 0-9 settings, I roll to 4 for “saltine” thickness or 5 for very thin, “potato chip” crispy thickness.

…the assembly line.

I start with a golf ball sized piece of dough at setting 0.

After the roll at zero, I flour and proceed. I flour again between 3 and 4.

This is rolling at setting 3.

I score the dough with a pastry cutter. It does not really cut and does not harm the silpat. Then brush with a wee bit of olive oil and sprinkle some coarse Celtic salt.

After baking, the oblongs break apart at the score lines…

…and we have crackers!

My adaptation of this recipe: above photo is below recipe doubled.

Cracker mix:
75 grams Semolina flour
228 grams All Purpose White Flour (I use Wheat Montana)
1 T nutritional yeast (optional, but adds a bit of subtle “cheese” flavor and some extra nutrition)
Lemon pepper & rosemary (approx. 1 tsp lemon pepper and 2 tsp rosemary ground together) ***
2-3 T olive oil plus another T for rising
1/4 tsp sea salt (fine ground)
1 tsp instant yeast
3/4 cup warm-hot water

Topping:
olive oil
coarse ground sea salt

more flour for rolling

Mix all cracker mix ingredients in medium-large bowl. Knead briefly until dough is smooth – it will be sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 6 hours minimum … I’ve kept it refrigerated for 48 hours with no problem. (put some olive oil in bowl and spread with hands – add dough and turn dough so it is coated with olive oil)

Remove dough from refrigerator 1 hour before baking. Preheat oven to 375F. When ready to bake, briefly knead dough – it will “collapse”. Prepare baking pan with a silpat liner.

Pinch off golf ball sized pieces of dough and roll in pasta roller to 4 (saltine thickness) or 5 (thin “potato chip” thickness”). Flour dough between settings as needed.

Place dough on silpat. Score dough with pastry cutter to desired size or leave unscored and break rustically after baking.

Bake for 9-14 minutes – time will vary depending on thickness and your oven. Make a small batch(es) until you know how long for your conditions. Crackers go from done to burned quickly so you need to watch carefully and test with your oven and your rolling thickness.

Transfer lightly browned crackers to cooling rack for several minutes and then break apart along score lines. Cool completely before storing in airtight containers.

I’ve kept these for 7 days and they were fine. I’m guessing they will go longer, but ???

***you can use any combo of spices/herbs that sounds good to you. Another favorite of mine is fennel and thyme. I grind them with together (mortar and pestle) and eyeball the amount depending on how much flour mix I’m making.