{"id":4444,"date":"2013-12-08T21:11:06","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T01:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/?p=4444"},"modified":"2013-12-08T21:11:06","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T01:11:06","slug":"choucrote-garnie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/?p=4444","title":{"rendered":"Choucroûte Garnie"},"content":{"rendered":"

I first had choucroûte garnie at Fleur de Sel in Calgary, back in those happy[1]<\/a> days when I traveled on an expense account. Debbie and I also went there one time when she came along to Calgary. We both remembered the restaurant, I mis-remembered the name as Fleur de Lis, but I correctly remembered it was on 4th St SW. It’s still there<\/a>, and still has choucroûte garnie on the menu.<\/p>\n

We had a couple packages of pork chops in freezer, and I had some sausage I’d smoked the other day. Egolf’s IGA in Churubusco had some droolingly good looking sausage in their meat counter and I bought a couple pounds and smoked it in a sausage-induced frenzy without a clear plan what I was going to do with it. And of course I had sauerkraut that I’d made earlier in the year. What to do with all that was obvious: choucroûte garnie!<\/p>\n

Nephew Tom was coming over today to bottle up the last 6 gallons of hard cider we made so it would be ready at Christmas-time. A perfect time to cook up a huge platter of pork and sauerkraut when we’d have someone to help us eat it up.<\/p>\n

\"Choucro\u00fbte<\/a>
Choucro\u00fbte garnie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Choucroûte garnie is just smoked meat and sausage and sauerkraut, all simmered in wine and served with boiled potatoes. A most German meal[2]<\/a>, and with a name like Zumbrun, it’s like coming home[3]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s very easy to make. I smoked my pork chops and sausage in my Jay Rosswurm Signature Big Stone Cooking Area, but if you live around here you can buy smoked pork chops at Egolf’s IGA in Churubusco and smoked sausages anywhere.<\/p>\n

The recipe I used is based on the one from Anthony Bourdain’s “Les Halles Cookbook.”<\/p>\n

\nChoucroûte garnie<\/b><\/p>\n

4 main course servings for hearty German farm folk<\/i><\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/b>
\n4 smoked pork chops
\n1 lb more or less smoked sausage (whatever sausage you have or like, brats, hot dogs, smoked sausage, etc are all good)
\n2 quarters duck confit
\n2 lbs sauerkraut
\nAbout 1\/2 cup onion, chopped fine
\n10 juniper berries (I picked them from the tree in our front yard, nobody died)
\n1 cup dry white wine
\n1 cup dry apple cider (I used this because we had the aforementioned 6 gallons to bottle)
\n1 cup water (use liquid in any proportion that you have, dry white wine, stock, water, dry cider, etc)
\n1 bay leaf
\nBig pinch of coriander
\none garlic clove, smashed
\n4 slices salt pork
\nlard or duck fat or if you don’t have any of that, oil
\n3-4 potatoes<\/p>\n

Process<\/b>
\nRinse the sauerkraut in a colander and set aside to drain
\nIn a big dutch oven or other pan cook the onion in the fat until translucent
\nAdd the sauerkraut, juniper berries, garlic clove, liquid, bay leaf, coriander, salt and pepper to taste (with all that kraut you probably don’t need much salt) and bring to a simmer
\nAdd the smoked pork and if you’re using duck or an uncooked sausage, add it now too.
\nSimmer for 1 1\/2 hours.<\/p>\n

In the meantime peel the potatoes and cut them into quarters.
\nBoil them in another pan until tender
\nShut the heat off and if you’re using cooked sausage like smoked sausage or frankfurters toss them in with the potatoes to get warm.<\/p>\n

When the kraut and pork is ready, heap the kraut in the middle of a big platter, arrange the meats around it. Put the potatoes in a bowl, and some of the liquid from the kraut and pork in a bowl.<\/p>\n

Serve with grainy mustard, horseradish, cranberry relish, applesauce, or whatever you like with rich, fatty meat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

1. Not! It wasn’t happy and I don’t miss traveling at all. I haven’t been on an airplane for years, and I have no interest in getting on one now for whatever reason. The expense account was pretty nice though.<\/p>\n

2. If you’re wondering why a “most German meal” of sausages and sauerkraut has a sissified French name like choucroûte garnie it’s because it’s an Alsatian dish, and in the tragic tug-of-wars culminating in World War II, Alsace ended up as part of France.<\/p>\n

3. Actually my German ancestor, Heinrich Zumbrun, got off the boat in Maryland in 1753. About the only thing German about me is a year of studying German in college.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first had choucroûte garnie at Fleur de Sel in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cooking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuckzumbrun.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}