Choucroute Garnie

This is a very hearty meal that you would expect to be on a winter menu - yet in the Alsace they only make it until September.  I can only assume that they are using up the last of the previous years canned cabbage and preserved sausages, ready for the canning to come when the last of the cabbages are pulled.  To be fair, the last time I cooked this dish was as part of a bigger meal for a very dear friend who chose to visit on the hottest day of the year.  We had it with Pork Schnitzel, Polish Potato Salad and Cheese Pierogi fried off in bacon and onion.  All these recipes will, in time, be printed up in here.  If you want to see the Cherry Sacher Torte I prepared for afters you'll need to look in the Amazing Bakery blog!

Sainsbury's were our saviours for this dish, with their Sauerkraut in wine.  Normally in the UK you buy it in vinegar or brine, but that is not what you want.  Vinegar is too harsh for what is about to become an extraordinarily fragrant dish and brine is too salty, it would overwhelm everything.  

First thing you need to do is wash the cabbage.  The wine that was in there is no good now and can be poured away.  In the Alsace, when you go to the supermarkets, you'll see huge vats of cabbage.  When you buy it they scoop it out fresh and put it in a pot for you.  They usually have several types of pickles for sale in this manner.  

As Mr FC discovered, you can't just shake out the jar.  You'll need to use a fork or spoon to get the highly compressed cabbage to give up its cozy home.  Use the biggest collander you've got, so you can fluff up the cabbage, getting all the wine out and separating the strands.  

When it's washed, drain it well for a few moments before putting it in the largest casserole dish you own.  Not a stock pot, but a spacious casserole that the cabbage looks a little lost in.  That way there is room for the rest of the ingredients.  

Top, tail and peel an onion well, stripping off any tough outer layers.  

It doesn't take many herbs and spices for this dish, 6 cloves, a bay leaf or two, a handful of juniper berries.  The key, though, is making them as fresh as possible; so that even though they're dried they're still full of flavour.  Hold them in your cupped hand and smell them.  It's a most luxurious combination.

Stud the onion with the cloves, one top, one bottom, four at the compass points round the middle.  This makes it a lot easier to keep track of the cloves so you don't bite into one and numb your mouth completely!

Pop all of the herbs into the pan with the cabbage - don't worry about spreading them around or whatever, the flavour will get everywhere, I promise.  

It's worth getting a wine from the Alsace for this, as it adds to the fragrant bouquet you will get at the end.  Just add enough to the pan that you can float a couple of the berries.  Remember, this dish steams more than boils, so don't overdo it with the liquids!  

The dish is wide, so there is more wine in there than it looks like.  I think I used about a third of a bottle of white wine.  You need to ensure that even when the fluid is simmering the bottom of the pan remains covered.  

Next comes the meat - and lots of it!  You can use plain pork belly strips, or you can buy pre-seasoned ones; but remember they will pick up the flavours of the spices and smokiness from the other sausages used, so there could be a clash of flavours.  Here I've used Pork Bratwurst, Bockwurst, long Kabanos and plain pork belly slices.  A good mix of meats and sausages adds to the fragrance of the final dish - not to mention the taste!  

The bad news is that I don't have a photograph of the finished dish.  After two hours of simmering Mr FC was so hungry he just threw the food on the plates and brought it in.  We were nearly finished eating when I suddenly asked if he had taken a picture of the finished pot, but he hadn't even thought about it.  Clearly I shall have to cook this again so you can see it when it's cooked.  We had it with simple, boiled potatoes and a good dollop of mustard!  It was delicious.  The sausages and pork were cooked to the point of falling apart, the cabbage was sweet and well spiced.  Everything complimented everything else.  

You can see that there is still some liquid in the bottom of the pot, so that tiny bit of wine was just right for the job.  I promise I didn't add any more cooking liquid.  If your lid fits well the fluid simply condenses and runs down back into the dish to heat up again.  This is the unfortunate debris that I found in the pan when we cleared our plates and took them to the kitchen.  One lonely Bratwurst, one lonely Bockwurst, an onion and some cabbage.  I believe it became lunch the following day!  It was delicious, and I think after 2 hours of waiting you can forgive us failing to provide you with a picture of the cooked pot.  To be fair, it doesn't look much changed from the uncooked one, except the meat has changed colour a little. 

If you prefer your sausages browner, although most German sausages are cured ready for eating, you can always put them under the grill for a minute or two before you cook them; although there's really no need and it adds nothing to the flavour.

The smoked flavours from the sausages along with the caraway seed tastes from the Brats ensured there were plenty of husky tones to match the spices and herbs.  When you lift the lid on this dish the whole kitchen suddenly smells of Christmas or a hunters lodge when they're cooking stews.  It's delicious, you can't help but drool.  Best of all, Mr FC finally gave it his official seal of approval by saying that I had got it "right".

I did try to find a recipe in my books for this, but drew a total blank - I learned it from Mr FC's mother.  The only one I found was a total surprise after I received a copy of a 1978 book by Prue Leith, cooking for guests.  I could not believe that this was the only cookbook to have the recipe in.  Hers varies a little from mine, as is to be expected, and the only guarantee of authenticity I can offer for this recipe is that it has been passed down an Alsace family for several generations.  

Choucroute Garnie  (Printable Version)

Serves 4 with boiled potatoes

Ingredients:

1 jar of Sainsbury's sauerkraut in wine
1 onion, topped, tailed and well peeled
6 cloves
5 juniper berries
1 or 2 bay leaves
2 slices of pork belly, halved - allow between half and a whole strip per person on average.
A selection of sausages, either whole or halved.  Can include Bockwurst, Knackwurst, Bratwurst, Kabanos, Nuremberg, Frankfurters, Strasbourg Sausages or other German or Eastern European sausages.  Allow 2 or 3 halves per person on average of the larger sausages.  
White wine as needed


Method:

Take the sauerkraut out of the jar and wash it well.  Allow it to drain before adding it to a large casserole dish.  

Stud the onion with the cloves, then add all the herbs, spices and meats to the pan.  

Add wine sufficient to cover the bottom of the pan and allow for the meal to be steamed.  

Bring the dish to a simmer, then cover with a well fitting lid and allow to simmer gently for 2 hours or more as wished.  

Serve hot with the boiled potatoes and a selection of good mustards.


Enjoy!