It was a busy weekend here, cleaning, moving furniture, re-moving furniture
, and holiday decorating. All my chores kept me home all day so I got some sourdough rye bread baking, got a large pork butt smoking on the PK, and made up a batch of choucroute garnie for dinner. Sorry ....not many pics due to the busy day!
Choucroute is French for sauerkraut and garnie is a dressed version. This was a new way for me to make this hearty dish. It was baked in a 200F oven for 5 hours to meld all of the good flavors. A few pieces of bacon got rendered in a large Dutch oven, bacon was crumbled over 3lbs. of drained sauerkraut in a bowl. A dozen halved small red potatoes were browned in the d.o. then a sliced onion was added. All was stirred and then 1/2 the sauerkraut tossed in. A spice mix was made with juniper berries, bay leaves, pepper, and minced garlic. 1/2 of this went on the sauerkraut. Then the magic starts. 1 lb. of sliced, smoked beef was laid over the kraut, along with 6 smoked bratwurst that were quartered, and 1/2 of a smoked chicken, cut into pieces. This was covered with remaining kraut, and finally a bottle of Fat Tire was poured in, d.o. covered, and put in oven for five hours. Oh the smells! When done this hearty meal was served with whole grain mustard, horseradish, freshly baked sourdough rye and plenty of German riesling. This is how I will make this dish from now on!
Cheers...
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