So I'm trying to learn to cook here in Germany, so mostly I watch Alfons cook and when he's not here, I use the internet to translate the back of food I buy at the grocery. Tonight, Alfons wanted to make goulash, so I carefully watched as he chopped the onions, put the special pepper and tomato sauce in with a certain amount of water, and put the lid on the pressure cooker.
I am scared to death of pressure cookers and always will be. I've heard horror stories of people putting a hole in their ceiling when the lid pops off and since I know I suck at cooking, a pressure cooker just isn't a good idea for me in the kitchen.
What I can do is boil water. So Alfons tasked me with cooking the noodles that go under the goulash. Once the water was boiling, I put the noodles in the pan and set the lid on top. Then Alfons decided to let some of the pressure out of his contraption and I was in awe!!! This this was making crazy noises and squirting out of holes I didn't know it had. And just then, the water from my noodle pan poured over the edges! And I mean POURED!
Alfons and I grabbed towels and tried to clean it up before the stovetop started burning, but then he told me to get away quickly! I don't know how European appliances work, but I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to see steam coming out of the oven when you just spilled water on the range. So I got out of the kitchen and watched from afar as he tried to figure out how water got down below and how much damage it had caused. He then realized the wiring for the stovetop was right where the water had seeped in, and he ran to the circuit breaker to shut off all the kitchen power.
He grabbed a screwdriver and took some time getting the entire over out from under the built-in range and sure enough, there was water puddled where the four burner wires connect to the main unit. He used the vacuum and a hairdryer to dry out the area. Whew!
And as if that weren't enough cooking excitement for one meal, by the time we got that all cleaned up, Alfons was more than ready to eat and was a bit impatient with his goulash. He let most of the steam out and then assumed it was okay to take off the lid of the pressure cooker. WRONG! As soon as he unlatched the handle, the goulash burst out in 360 degrees! Red sauce went all over the stove and floor. I couldn't help but laugh knowing this one wasn't my fault (not directly anyway)!
I hate cooking. Remember?
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