Sauerkraut and choucroute garnie
"In nineteenth-century Russia, sauerkraut was valued more than caviar" Mark Kurlansky
I found this in my drafts as well - it was originally written back in August 2017. So here it is at last!
I love sauerkraut, though we hardly ever eat it for some reason. And you have to search a tiny bit in the supermarkets to find it. It is there though - either tinned or in a jar. You can, of course make your own but I confess I can't be bothered. A bit like olives - it's a slow tedious process. And in case you didn't know - sauerkraut is fermented/pickled cabbage, and therefore is probably about to make a comeback because fermented foods are in. It's not the same as kimchi though - and that is trendy. It's made its way to the supermarket shelves anyway. Sauerkraut is particularly good for the digestive system and the associated immune system - another very hot topic being the human biome (the bacteria in your gut). And another tiny thing - if you cook with it it's best to rinse it first. This will make it less sharp.
So when today I caught up with Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries III - A Year of Good Eating - I saw that he was featuring sauerkraut in a dish he describes as "a tangle of sauerkraut, browned onions, soured cream and sausage". I think I might try it out soon - though not in the immediate future because of all the leftovers from my Saturday dinner party and the other things I need to use up. Soon though. It's a promise I am making to myself. (The recipe is at the bottom of the post.)
But it has to be said, that like cabbage itself, sauerkraut does not have a good reputation - being associated with German food - which also for no apparent reason - has a bad image. I guess it's seen as stodgy, associated with beer halls, drunken Germans singing beer songs at full volume. I shall never forget the beer hall we wandered into in Munich very many years ago and being totally overwhelmed by the size and noise of it all. Not just people singing, talking and laughing at full pelt, but bands too. And yes, the Germans do eat a lot of sauerkraut and it's generally served with German sausages - but hey these are very tasty. Witness the sausage stall in the Queen Vic market which serves a sort of hot dog made with bratwurst and sauerkraut. There is always a queue.
And yes, sauerkraut does go beautifully with sausages and all things pork, not to mention the beer and the wine (white). But it's much more flexible than that. And here is a lengthy quote from Julien Freund, Director of the Institute of Sociology in Strasbourg, (Les Saisons d'Alsace) explaining its virtues - rather better than I could.
"Sauerkraut is tolerant, for it seems to be a well of contradictions. Not that it would preach a gastronomic neutrality that would endure all heresies. It rejects dogmatism and approves of individual tastes. It forms a marvellous combination with numerous spices, odours, or spirits: juniper berries, coriander seeds, peppercorns, cranberries, Reinette apples, stock, and wine; it even welcomes flakes of yeast or leftover Gruyère since it accepts being prepared au gratin. Its flavour sustains various potato dishes: boiled in their skins, crisps (potato chips), braised, sautéed, grilled, or simply cooked in water. It adopts many sorts of fat, including lard, butter, goose fat, or roast dripping. The variety of meats to which it consents is infinite: sausages of all kinds, such as knackwurst, white sausage, Lorraine, Montbeliard, chipolata, black pudding, hams, smoked or salted bacon, quenelles, pickled and smoked pork, goose, pheasant, etc. It makes excuses for red wine, although it has a weakness for beer and lets itself be spoilt by white wine. Each stomach may find its own happiness in it."
Strasbourg, of course, is the capital of Alsace, that part of France that, throughout history, has wavered between being part of France and part of Germany. And it loves sauerkraut - most famously in that wonderful dish, choucroute garnie
the Alsatian national dish if you like. I think I have mentioned my first taste of France (tomato salad) in a restaurant in Paris called Aux Armes de Colmar. Colmar is a town in Alsace, and the restaurant is named after it. it was actually a brasserie - one of those wonderful old places with the mirrors on the walls that the Impressionists featured so much in their paintings of boulevard life. I tried to find some pictures for it still seems to exist - near the Gare de l'Est - but I could not find any. The speciality of the house was choucroute garnie - huge platters of which we saw being conveyed through the restaurant, balanced precariously in the hands of the waiters who carried it one-handed and aloft from kitchen to table. Not to ours though I think. We were only four and two of those were young girls. No it requires a large number of people to eat choucroute, for as Robert Carrier says:
"Choucroute garnie is the beginning and end of all party meals: perfect for informal parties, beer gatherings and any other hospitable occasion when appetites are keen. Do not attempt to make this dish unless you know seven hearty trenchermen to share it with you. For choucroute garnie (with all the trimmings) is not for the timid, for the wary or for the ubiquitous watchers of weight. This great country dish from Alsace is definitely for those who like to eat and prefer to wash down their hearty fare with generous quantities of chilled lager or dry white wine."
It takes a while to cook too - it's a slow-cooked oven dish. I have made it a few times in my life - but not for some time. Maybe it's time to do it again. Though I am always a bit nervous of serving it because of the bad reputation of sauerkraut. I think I used either Robert Carrier's or Elizabeth David's recipe - or maybe even the one in Mastering the Art of French Cookery. And I may well have tampered with the kind of meats I included but I always love it. It's completely different from anything else I know. Cassoulet is probably the nearest thing to it that I can think of. Similar but with beans instead of sauerkraut. So maybe I should organise one of those informal gatherings or dinner parties that I wrote about a couple of days ago with choucroute garnie as the star performer.
"This is one of the greatest, most extrovert, man-sized party dishes in the world, perfect for informal entertaining." Robert Carrier - Great Dishes of the World
There are very few photos in Great Dishes of the World but there is one of choucroute garnie and a mini essay too. So he obviously has it up there in his top few. I scanned the photo - it's the one beside his other quote - though it does only show the ingredients - not the finished dish. The picture above is lifted from the net somewhere. Have a go - trust me it's super - tangy, yet unctuous at the same time. You'll need a really big serving platter though.
NIGEL SLATER'S POLISH SAUSAGE, SAUERKRAUT, ONIONS AND SOURED CREAM
Floury potatoes, medium-sized
An onion - medium to large
Chestnut mushrooms - 200g
Kielbasa or similar sausages - 200g
Olive oil or groundnut oil - 2-3 tablespoons
Sauerkraut, rinsed - 200g.
Dill, chopped - 2 tablespoons
Soured cream - 2 heaped tablespoons
Peel the potatoes, cut them into quarters, then boil them in deep, salted water till tender to the point of a knife. Drain the potatoes, then slice them thickly.
Peel and finely chop the onion. Slice the mushrooms and cut the sausages into thick pieces. Warm a tablespoon of oil in a large shallow pan, add the onion and let it soften over a moderate heat for five minutes, then add the sliced mushrooms and kielbasa, and, if necessary, a little more oil. Continue cooking until the mushrooms are starting to turn golden brown. Add the potatoes to the pan, crushing them lightly as you go.
Spoon the sauerkraut into the pan, tucking it amongst the mushrooms and onions. Season with salt, pepper and the chopped dill, then add the soured cream in spoonfuls. Do not be tempted to stir the cream in.
It's a little vague at the end. Surely you need to cook the sauerkraut a bit before finally adding the cream at the end.
