Friday food

I love sauerkraut.

I was thinking about sauerkraut earlier this week, when I posted the previous entry about The Teen's birthday. During the first trimester of my pregnancy with him, sauerkraut was my food craving. Many nights I came home from work, heated up a bowl of sauerkraut, and washed it down with a glass of skim milk. DH went along with it, fixing his own dinner and not commenting on my odd choice until one night I had my sauerkraut with a side of pickled pigs' feet. He left the table. No doubt wishing his wife would develop more stereotypical pregnancy cravings, like ice cream. Which, after the first trimester, I did; unfortunately, there was a Dairy Queen right around the corner from my workplace, and by the third trimester, my doctor sent me to Weight Watchers. Yes, there is a special Weight Watchers program for pregnant women. You have to have a doctor's order to sign up for it.

Anyway. I never got tired of sauerkraut. I think it's a lovely thing to eat. My favorite form of cabbage. So when Kate published a recipe earlier this year that had sauerkraut in the spotlight, I had to try it.

First, though, I made a trip to a place I've been longing to visit: Kramarczuk's. if you like sausage, any kind of sausage, this is your Nirvana. There were smoked sausages and lamb sausages and curry brats and beer sticks and chicken sausages and and and...you have to see it to believe it.

I came home with this:

Krakowska and sauerkraut.

Look at that sausage! It's huge!

A lovely garlic-filled sausage. Mmmmm.

Kate's recipe (here) is really easy. You brown onion and garlic, then brown the sausage. Remove the sausage, add sauerkraut, white wine, chicken stock, bay leaves, whole cloves, peppercorns, and juniper berries. Mix all together, put the sausages on top, cover, and simmer.

Voila!

Soooooooooo good. And plenty of sauerkraut to have for lunch. Without the skim milk this time.

Comments

[cindy]

Another sauerkraut lover here!
Boiled potatoes, mashed with a fork right on the plate with butter and saurkraut, a little polish sausage on the side: yum!

My Dad used to make sauerkraut rolls. Bisquick dough patted out into a rectangle, spread with sauerkraut, rolled up like a jelly roll, sliced & baked.

[Jess]

Oooh, yum! That'd also be lovely with smoked pork chops, I'd bet.

I love sauerkraut with a passion, and there will definitely be a goodly amount made this year. Yummy yum yum.

[kate]

Um ... no. Not a fan of the sauerkraut. Nope.

[revolutionme]

Kramarczuk's is really close to Eikon's, and him being a hunkie, we've eaten there many a time. Sigh. . .being a sausage loving a vegetarian doesn't always work out so well. . .

[debra]

I also love saurkraut---with caraway seeds. I'm not much of a meat eater though--would it work with veggie sausages?

[Carrie K]

Yum, sauerkraut. Pigs feet? Not so much.

[Celia]

Here, we have someone who makes seven different kinds of raw organic sauerkraut. A dairy-free source of lactobacillus! Delicious -and good for delicate digestive systems.

[Chris]

Eeep. I can't really blame your DH for leaving the table when the kraut and pigs feet came out...

[Guinifer]

Well, it sounds lovely...

[Connie]

My grandmother used to make her own sauerkraut in Red Wing crock jars. It was a staple growing up. The kids think it smells bad so I have to put it at the other end of the table when I have it. I also craved sour stuff when I was pregnant and drank gallons of the cartoned lemonade!

[Kim]

I looove sauerkraut. I prefer mine cold. I like the crunchiness when it comes out of the refrigerator.

My father-in-law cans sauerkraut, so we have plenty all through the winter. Delish!

[Jeanne]

Ah...yum! Not with skim milk though. That is just gross.

[bezzie]

I do have some German in me and my hometown is known for their cabbages, but I've never been able to get into saurkraut. That sausage looks delish though!

[kmkat]

I am not a sauerkraut fan but Smokey is. Must try that recipe.

[Lorette]

Oh man, I thought I was the only one! I love sauerkraut so much that I used to make my own from raw cabbage (it's easier than you'd think). Now I want some. My husband is not such a fan, though, alas.

[deb]

I love sauerkraut!!

[Kitt]

Yum! I love sauerkraut, too. Even though spring is (sort of) here, I've been craving it lately.

Did you see the choucroute recipe at the New York Times recently?

Here's a link:

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/eds-non-choucroute/

[Miss T]

Dammit, girl, now I need to go back to Kramarczuk's again. Our Krakowska is gone already!!

[Nora]

Sounds wonderful. I'm a huge kraut fan, too. My mom used to braise pork ribs until they were falling apart and serve them in a bowl of kraut that had been sauteed with butter and onions. Nirvana.