Choucroute

Here's my favorite chef, the heartbeat of our home, and my partner in all things, including our wine and food hobby.

Hello again, everybody, and welcome back to Cèpage et Cuisine, our wine and food blog.  Cool autumn weather has finally arrived here in central Mississippi, so Mary cooked up a great dish in honor of the season.  Choucroute is a French term for "dressed sauerkraut," similar to German sauerkraut.  It is a traditional autumn and winter dish in Alsace.  This area in the very northeast corner of France has both French and German cultural influences.  Even the names of the cities and villages sound German ... Strasbourg, Riquewihr, Kaysersberg.

Choucroute is a savory combination of sauerkraut, smoked sausage, ham hock or pork chop, red potatoes, flavored with bacon, onion, and bouquet garni.

Here's Mary, discussing the ingredients in the two photos above. The first photo is more or less straight out of the grocery bag: sauerkraut, bacon, onions, thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns, garlic, beer, smoked sausage, potatoes, butter and mustard. That container of funny-looking stuff on the right is my homemade chicken stock, made from the carcass of a whole roasted chicken. It's my new favorite kind of chicken stock. The second picture was taken after the ingredients were prepped. Many choucroute recipes call for ham hock, but I used one boneless pork chop instead. Just personal preference.

The bacon is sauteed in a little butter, then sliced onions are added and cooked a bit. This is transferred to a Dutch oven, and the drained sauerkraut is mixed in.

This bouquet garni is simply a bundle of spices and herbs for flavoring.  This one is thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns, and garlic tied in cheesecloth. Juniper berries are used in choucroute, but I wasn't sure where to find juniper berries.

Bouquet garni went on top of sauerkraut, then the boneless pork, followed by the chicken stock and a bottle of beer (you could use Riesling instead of beer.) After this was heating in the oven, I decided I should have browned those pork pieces, so I took them out, browned them up on top of the stove, and put them back in to cook. It turned out great, but I would brown them at the beginning next time.

The covered pot went into the oven for 2 hours, undisturbed. When the 2 hours were just about up, I browned the smoked sausage in a skillet, just enough to give them some color. I also parboiled my small red potatoes, so they would be hot when I put them in the Dutch oven.

After two hours in the oven, the potatoes went in, along with a little water. After 30 more minutes in the oven, I added the sausage. Back into the oven for the last 15 minutes. Just waiting for the potatoes to be fork tender at this point, and the whole house smells wonderfully fragrant!

Voilá!  Here's choucroute, the finished product!  It is great with no additional seasoning, but we both liked mustard on the smoked sausage.  I know, I know, it's not the most healthful dinner, but we probably have it only a couple of times per year and it's perfect for the season. Besides, we are able to help control sodium by making our own chicken stock and draining the sauerkraut.

Now, the wine.  Following the general rule of "what grows together goes together," this dish cries out for an aromatic white wine like Riesling.  An Alsace Riesling would be perfect, but we chose a Riesling from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer area of Germany.  Specifically, this wine is from the middle Mosel, an area of nearly vertical slopes with mineral slate rising from the river.

German wine labels can be bewildering, what with all the coats of arms and complicated village and vineyard names.  In this case, the producer is Weingut Karthäuserhof, located in the village named Eitelsbacher.  The grapes come from a single vineyard owned by the producer, called Eitelsbacher Karthäuserhofberg. 

You can see the alcohol is only 8.5%.  That's because the wine is not fermented all the way dry.  There is still some residual unfermented sugar.  You also see it is called Kabinett.  This means the grapes are harvested at the lowest level of ripeness among German Riesling categories.  Although Riesling is also made in a dry style, most German Riesling sold in the U.S. have varying levels of residual sugar.  That's fine because the natural acidity of the wine creates a wonderful tension or structure that balances the wine.  It does not taste excessively sweet or cloying.  The sweetness and balance is perfect with the spiciness and saltiness of the dish.  It is a perfect offset for the smoky flavors of the pork.  Here are my notes on the wine.

Karthäuserhof Mosel Saar Ruwer Eitelsbacher Karthäuserhofberg Kabinett 2004.  This was a fantastic example of a fine Riesling from the Mosel.  The aroma showed enticing lime, peach, floral notes, and that great slate minerality of a high quality Riesling.  The palate was medium-bodied with linear flavors of peach, grapefruit and lime citrus, exotic mineral notes, and a sweetness that was balanced by racy acidity.  It was beautifully balanced, complex, and medium in length.  8.5% alcohol.  We paid only $20 for this delicious wine.  Many high quality examples of German and Alsace Riesling are available at good wine merchants.

That's it for today's post.  We enjoyed preparing the dinner (especially the great aroma!), the wine experience, and bringing this description to you.  We hope you enjoyed it.  Keep coming back for more blog posts at Cèpage et Cuisine.

Cheers, everybody!

Mary♥Brian