Choucroute Garnie

Xangus's Note:

This is a wonderful full flavoured main dish that makes a great winter meal. It's hearty and tasty,,worth making.

• Total Time: 2 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 2 lbs sauerkraut (preferably,from a jar or vac pac bag)
• 4 ounces roughly diced bacon
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 large onion , chopped
• 3 carrots , diced
• 1 unpeeled granny smith apple , grated
• 1 teaspoon caraway seed
• 1 bouquet garni
• 8 juniper berries
• 8 ounces white wine
• 1 ¾ pints chicken stock
• 1 ½ ounces butter
• 1 lb diced lean pork
• 1 lb smoked pork sausage , eg.kransky,knackwurst,cut into thick diagonal slices
• 4 tablespoons chopped parsley

Directions:

1. Soak Saurkraut for 30 mins in cold water.
2. Drain.
3. Cook bacon in a frying pan for about 5 mins, add oil,onion,carrots and cook, stirring until onion is golden.
4. Place Saurkraut,in a casserole dish, stir in bacon mixture, apple and carraway seeds.
5. Add juniper berries,boquet garni, wine and enough stock to just cover.
6. Top with buttered greaseproof paper and bring to simmering, cook for 30mins adding stock to stop any drying.
7. (this can be done in oven or in large pan on stove top.) Meltbutter in frying pan and cook pork stirring until golden.
8. Add pork and sausage to casserole Cook about 2 hours or until tender.
9. Remove boquet garni, sprinkle with chopped parsley.
10. Serve with ryebread, boiled potatoes and German style mustard.

Reviews

[mianbao]

This is a wonderful recipe. I tried a couple sauerkraut and pork recipes before this, but this one is the best. The juniper berries are definitely worth using. I cut the recipe down to two servings and cooked it on the stovetop. This made the cooking time somewhat shorter. Other than using a different variety of apple, I kept strictly to the list of ingredients. The combination of the flavors is excellent. (Written before I sampled the wine.)

[flower7]

This is very similar (same ingredients, slightly different amounts) to the recipe my family has every year on New Years Day. It is wonderful! We pile it on top of mashed potatoes and eat until we explode :) It is wonderful with shortribs instead of the diced pork (we change the meats we use each year). Also, we put the juniper berries and bouquet garni in a cheesecloth parcel for ease of removal later (cause who wants to bite into a juniper berry?).