Choucroute Garnie à l'Alsacienne
Sauerkraut Garnished with
Smoked, Cured, and Fresh Pork
Serves 6-8
Not one other dish showcases the highly varied charcuterie of Alsace that can compare with choucroute. This recipe was adapted in one of eight varieties offered at Maison Kammerzell, Guy-Pierre Baumann's legendary choucroute institution in Strasbourg.
1-1/2 lbs, fresh pork hocks
1/4 cup goose fat
3 small yellow onions, peeled and finely chopped
4-1/2 lbs. sauerkraut, drained and rinsed
3-1/4 cups Alsatian riesling or any other dry but fruity white-colored wine
1-1/2 lbs. boneless pork loin
1 lb. smoked pork
1/2 lb. slab bacon
Bouquet garni with 1 mind garlic clove, 3 whole cloves,
6 juniper berries, and 5 coriander seeds added
Salt and freshly ground pepper
12 medium red bliss taters, peeled
6 fresh pork sausages, for example saucisses de Strasbourg
3 bloodstream sausages (optional)
1 tablespoons of. peanut oil
6 smoked pork sausages
1. Place pork hocks inside a large pot. Cover with water and simmer over medium heat for 1-1/2 hrs. Drain and hang aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350 levels. Melt goose fat inside a nederlander oven, or perhaps a large heavy pot having a lid, over medium heat. Add onions, prepare until soft, 10-fifteen minutes, adding sauerkraut, wine, pork hocks, pork loin, pork, bacon, and bouquet garni. Season with pepper and salt, cover, and prepare in oven until meats are tender, about 1-1/2 hrs.
3. About 35 minutes before serving, place taters inside a pot of salted water over medium-high temperature and prepare until tender, 20-25 minutes. Drain and warm.
4. Prick fresh and bloodstream sausages, if using, having a fork, then devote a skillet, cover with water, and simmer over medium heat for ten minutes. Drain. Dry skillet, add oil, as well as heat over medium heat. Brown fresh and bloodstream sausages (if using), turning from time to time, then remove. Within the same oil, adding more if required, brown smoked sausages, turning from time to time, then remove. For everyone, spoon sauerkraut onto a sizable platter, discarding bouquet garni. Slice pork loin, pork, and bacon, and arrange on platter with pork hocks, taters, and all sorts of sausages.
Cutting Cabbage
The term choucroute has additionally arrived at mean the show-stopping dish, definitive of Alsatian cuisine, of sauerkraut capped with copious servings of pork in myriad forms however it translates simply as fermented cabbage. The first mention of the sauerkraut in Alsace dates in the 15th century. For years and years, before the early 1900s, Sürkrüt-schniders, or sour-cabbage cutters, toured the countryside, shredding cabbage to buy. Today, the operation is left to professionals. "You can also make it in your own home,Inch states Xavier Schaal, md from the Choucroutal cooperative in Geispolsheim, "but you'd need a minimum of 100 kilos of raw cabbage at any given time.Inch
Saveur Cooks Authentic French
Rediscovering the Recipes, Traditions,
and Flavors from the World's Finest Cuisine
Through The Editors of Saveur Magazine
Chronicle Books, November, 1999
Hardcover, $40.00
320 pages, 400 full-color photographs throughout
ISBN: -8118-2564-7
Recipe reprinted by permission.