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        Life in rural France - Food - Friends - Wine - Cheese - Comments

   Welcome to French Food Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food and because I live in rural   
   France the stress will be upon French food.  There are numerous posts concerning life in France and, certainly, opinions
   about anything that strikes my fancy.
   If you have some good recipes  or if you want to rave about any great French restaurants this  is the place to do it.

 I hope you enjoy my ramblings about rural France! 

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This is our village. Our house is the white one at the top right.                      

Choucroute

The Boss is away and an old man's fancy turns to..... food! Linda is off in England visiting her sister this week so I've taken the opportunity to make a dish that she doesn't like, but that I love.

Namely Choucroute. This famous dish from the Alsace region of France has been one of my favorites every since I first had it many years ago at Brasserie Lipp. I won't pretend that my version is 100% authentic, but it is delicious and very easy to make if you have access to a decent charcouterie (or a good deli will do nicely)

 

 

Here's a shot of the bag everything I purchased came in, plus some Chef's lubricant.

 

As you can see the price came to 6.87 Euros. I'm not used to shopping for one so these ingredients made enough Choucroute for two hungry people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's everything unpacked. Namely:

 

• Uncooked sauerkraut.
  Cooked will do, but either type must be fresh.
• 
   
• Hot dogs. The old fashioned kind.
• 
   
• Good quality smoked bacon.
• 
   
• Garlic sausage, smoked if possible.
• 
   
• Coriander seeds & Juniper berries.

 

 

 

Some smoked pork chops can substitute for the sausage (or be in addition to). Here I can use lardons instead of sliced bacon, but I prefer to have the slab bacon cut to order as it has a stronger flavour.

 

In any case rinse the sauerkraut then squeeze out as much water as 

possible using your hands. Repeat this three times.

 

Then, first cut up your bacon into lardon sized slices and mix it well into the sauerkraut. Place it into an over proof casserole that has a tight fitting lid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next cut up your sausage.

 

 

 

 

 

Then grind the coriander seeds & juniper berries up in a mortar & pestle as seen below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now sprinkle the herb mixture over the sauerkraut. Then arrange the frankfurters & sausage slices over the sauerkraut mixture.

 

Add enough dry white wine to just come to the top of the pressed down sauerkraut. Riesling is traditional, but any fruity dry white will do. I used a light chardonnay because that's what I happened to have available.

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                       

Put the lid on making sure its tight. If too loose make a little paste with flour & water to seal or place a sheet of parchment paper over the top to seal.   

 

Bake at about 250 degrees F for at least 2 hours, longer won't hurt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the finished product. The traditional side dish is boiled potatoes, but I find the much too heavy so I don't serve Choucroute with anything, anything that is except THE most critical ingredient of all!

 

LOTS OF GOOD DIJON MUSTARD!!

 

Lots of good white wine goes without saying although this is a dish that works well with a good beer. A 'brun' here in France is wonderful with it.

 

 

 

 

 

                           If you've never had this dish try it! Then let me know what you think.