I promised Jacques an authentic Alsatian Choucroute Garni for Christmas, or at least as authentic as possible. I had recipes by Julia Child and Andre Soltner, and a friend told me about an authenic German deli in Old World Market Place, Huntington Beach, so I took a stab at it.
Here's what the deli and I came up with:
2 lb. sauerkraut
3 cups sliced onion
Duck fat or lard
1 cup white wine (Andre says Alsatian Riesling. Julia says dry Vermouth. I used Vermouth)
1/2 cup water
3/4 lb. smoked bacon, unsliced (theirs was from Denmark and very lean).
1/2 tsp. juniper berries
1/2 tsp. caraway seed
2 garlic cloves, crushed, unpeeled
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
3/4 lb. smoked pork loin, unsliced
2 bratwursts (I was supposed to get the smoked ones but I bought the raw ones by mistake. They were good, though!)
2 Hungarian smoked sausages (they didn't have blood sausages, but the deli said these would be good in sauerkraut.)
Small boiling potatoes
1 Tbs. Kirsh
Soak the sauerkraut in a big bowl of water for 20 minutes. Drain and taste. If it is still very sour, repeat. When satisfied, squeeze out excess water and fluff the strands with a fork.
(When I opened my sauerkraut I realized that it had already been cooked, with onions and spices and bits of pork rind. I didn't know what to do so I just soaked and squeezed as if it had been raw.)
Preheat the oven to 325*F.
Saute the onions in duck fat in an ovenproof pot. When tender, add the wine, the water and the bacon. Cover and cook 20 minutes. Add the sauerkraut to cover the bacon, along with the juniper berries, caraway seed, garlic and bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and place in the oven for 1 hour.
Meanwhile brown the bratwursts in a frying pan,(if, like me, you bought the raw ones).
Add the pork loin and both sausages to the pot, burying them in the sauerkraut, and return to the oven for 1/2 hour.
(Turn the oven way down and keep warm until ready to serve.)
Peel the potatoes and boil them in salted water until done.
Romove the meats and sausages from the pot and slice them. Stir the kirsh into the sauerkraut. Remove the garlic. Pile the sauerkraut on a platter and surround it with the meat and potatoes.
The verdict: This was by far the best sauerkraut I have made, so maybe the secret is to buy it already cooked and cook it again. The bacon and bratwurst were the best--they melted in your mouth. The pork loin got a little chewy--I'll add it later if I use it again. The Hungarian sausages were out of place in my attempt at an Alsatian dish, and they gave me heartburn, but they gave the sauerkraut such a nice flavor that the heartburn was a small price to pay.
By the way, besides the blood sausage, Soltner's recipe calls for salted pig's knuckle to be cooked long and slow, separately. I couldn't find any of those either. Julia's recipe is simpler, with pork chops, boiled ham and whatever sausages you can find. I think you could put together whatever you can find and come up with a successful choucroute
Here's what the deli and I came up with:
2 lb. sauerkraut
3 cups sliced onion
Duck fat or lard
1 cup white wine (Andre says Alsatian Riesling. Julia says dry Vermouth. I used Vermouth)
1/2 cup water
3/4 lb. smoked bacon, unsliced (theirs was from Denmark and very lean).
1/2 tsp. juniper berries
1/2 tsp. caraway seed
2 garlic cloves, crushed, unpeeled
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
3/4 lb. smoked pork loin, unsliced
2 bratwursts (I was supposed to get the smoked ones but I bought the raw ones by mistake. They were good, though!)
2 Hungarian smoked sausages (they didn't have blood sausages, but the deli said these would be good in sauerkraut.)
Small boiling potatoes
1 Tbs. Kirsh
Soak the sauerkraut in a big bowl of water for 20 minutes. Drain and taste. If it is still very sour, repeat. When satisfied, squeeze out excess water and fluff the strands with a fork.
(When I opened my sauerkraut I realized that it had already been cooked, with onions and spices and bits of pork rind. I didn't know what to do so I just soaked and squeezed as if it had been raw.)
Preheat the oven to 325*F.
Saute the onions in duck fat in an ovenproof pot. When tender, add the wine, the water and the bacon. Cover and cook 20 minutes. Add the sauerkraut to cover the bacon, along with the juniper berries, caraway seed, garlic and bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and place in the oven for 1 hour.
Meanwhile brown the bratwursts in a frying pan,(if, like me, you bought the raw ones).
Add the pork loin and both sausages to the pot, burying them in the sauerkraut, and return to the oven for 1/2 hour.
(Turn the oven way down and keep warm until ready to serve.)
Peel the potatoes and boil them in salted water until done.
Romove the meats and sausages from the pot and slice them. Stir the kirsh into the sauerkraut. Remove the garlic. Pile the sauerkraut on a platter and surround it with the meat and potatoes.
The verdict: This was by far the best sauerkraut I have made, so maybe the secret is to buy it already cooked and cook it again. The bacon and bratwurst were the best--they melted in your mouth. The pork loin got a little chewy--I'll add it later if I use it again. The Hungarian sausages were out of place in my attempt at an Alsatian dish, and they gave me heartburn, but they gave the sauerkraut such a nice flavor that the heartburn was a small price to pay.
By the way, besides the blood sausage, Soltner's recipe calls for salted pig's knuckle to be cooked long and slow, separately. I couldn't find any of those either. Julia's recipe is simpler, with pork chops, boiled ham and whatever sausages you can find. I think you could put together whatever you can find and come up with a successful choucroute
