On Saturday we (me and 3 other guys) are cooking dinner for our reading group. Preparation has been under way for some time. We’ve made 3 different beers: a light apple ale, a nut brown ale, and a stout. We’ve kicked around menu ideas to pair each beer with a dinner course – and done much sampling of the beer to make sure it’s ok.
Preparation has begun earnest now though. The cooks are meeting tomorrow to finalize the menus, get our cooking timeline down, and get a shopping list together. I’ve cooked a couple different sauerkraut recipes to sample tomorrow and have a batch of artisan-style rye bread rising. Tomorrow I’ll put together a batch of sauerkraut balls to sample as a potential appetizer.
So far this is my favorite sauerkraut recipe to accompany a nut brown ale braised pork shoulder:
* 2 quarts of good-quality sauerkraut
* 1 pound smoked bacon, diced
* 1 medium onion, diced
* 1 large Russet potato, peeled
* 1 head roasted garlic
* 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
* 2 tablespoons paprika
* 2 teaspoons black pepper
* 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
* 1/4 cup cold roux (flour cooked in butter)
* 2 cups red wine
Rinse and drain the kraut.
Cook the bacon under low heat til it renders its fat.
Toss in the onion and garlic and crank the heat a bit, cook until the bacon is getting crispy.
Add the caraway seed and brown sugar, drop the heat to medium-low cook another 5 minutes
Add the kraut, wine, and shred the potato into the pan
Add the spices and roux.
Bring to a boil, then cook over low heat until the potato breaks up, an hour or so.
You’ll need to add water as you go to keep it at a creamy risotto type of consistency. I’m thinking using beef broth for this will make it really good.
This dish is surprisingly not winey tasting, but tart and rich and creamy and scented with caraway. Sehr gut!
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