Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Welcome to the crock pot kitchen!

I don’t mean to turn Wednesdays into all cooking all the time, it’s just that I have been cooking lately.  Like the knitting, it’s something I have a lot of fun with and when something come out well, I want to share.  So I’m sharing :)

Sausage and Sauerkraut

I spent a while, earlier, trying to find out of this had a name other than sausage and sauerkraut.  I found lots of variety - sausage and sauerkraut with fennel, sausage and sauerkraut with bacon, sausage and sauerkraut with eye of newt - but it was all sausage and sauerkraut.

This is very simple.  You could dress it up any number of ways, but at base it’s just the four above ingredients combined in the crock pot and left to get acquainted for 8 or 9 hours.  You need:

1 lb smoked sausage
2 apples (something tart - Granny Smith or Macintosh)
2 medium onions (These are red because that’s what I had - use what you have or like)
1 (2 lb.) bag of sauerkraut
1 lb pasta

Slice the sausage into pieces and place in the bottom of the crock pot.  Peel and core the apples and cut into a medium dice; peel the onions and chop.

Add to the sausage and stir it around a little to mix together.





Drain the sauerkraut and layer that over the top of the sausage mixture.

Set the crock pot to low, put the lid on and leave it for 8 or 9 hours.  Don’t peek or pick the lid up during the course of the day - you want to keep the moisture inside the crock, not evaporating into your kitchen.

This is what you get:

I believe that potatoes are traditional with this kind of dish but we went with pasta which worked very well.  About a half hour before you want to serve, put a pot of water on to boil and cook a pound of your favorite pasta (not spaghetti and a larger shape works better than a smaller one)





I hadn’t known whether Myria had ever had sauerkraut before so I was concerned that this might be something she wouldn’t care for.  As it turned out, she liked it very well.  After dinner, she suggested that it might be interesting to try pineapple next time.  I thought about that for a minute - and I’ll bet she’s right.  It has a different flavor, but the same combination of sweet and tart that an apple does.  We agreed that should be served with rice :)

Note:  I have finally been able to unearth the Currant Scone and the Tomato Salad recipes from the so-called archive (don’t ask).  They have been added to the recipe section on the sidebar.  Enjoy! 

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1. my hungarian mil made something similar to what you’ve described and i cannot for the life of me remember what she called it- she always had caraway seeds in hers- it was quite yummy (after i picked out the sausage of course- evil grin!)

   as for the pineapple issue, why not? it certainly goes nicely on pizza- i’m thinking that it might be best to use fresh pineapple though, as i think the canned stuff is almost too sweet-

   side note of interest to no one but me probably: i’ve found that you can replace apples with cooking pears (around here we cal them ‘sand pears’) and get a very similar end product-

   i have no idea why *i* am giving *you* cooking tips- my kitchen disasters are legion!

   today is warm and sunny and the air is pollen-filled- i will go and bask on a rock and sneeze-

   stay happy-

   Posted by  on  03/30  at  12:04 PM
   Location : somewhere



2. Love ya’, Robbyn, but sauerkraut?! Blech!  ;-)

   Posted by Ryan  on  03/30  at  12:32 PM
   Location :



3. Barb - Yup, caraway is often found with sauerkraut, but I really don’t like it.  The pear idea is a good one too and I’ll have to remember it.  I like the fresh pineapple take as well :)

   And by all means, share whatever cooking info you’d like :) I learn from everything!

   Posted by  on  03/30  at  01:28 PM
   Location : Aboard the Dawn Treader



4. Ryan - Okay, no sauerkraut.  You just sit down right over here and I’llbring you a nice bowl of cream of wheat :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  03/30  at  01:40 PM
   Location :



5. hmmm what a good idea for a cool Autumn day/ evening with many mouths to feed…

   Posted by Nathalie  on  03/30  at  03:41 PM
   Location : at home again



6. Nat - Yeah, it probably would be a great autumn dinner - maybe with some cream of mushroom soup?

   Posted by  on  03/30  at  06:53 PM
   Location : On my toes...



7. When I was growing up we called it sauerkraut and polish sauge instead of sausage and sauerkraut.  It was just those two ingredients with some extra water cooked on top of the stove.  At some point, Mom would put quartered potatoes in to cook as well.  Yummy.  She also cooked spare ribs with sauerkraut.  That was when ribs were reasonably priced, not like today.  Either way, we’d frequently “dress” the kraut with catsup when we ate it.  Leftovers frequently got “fried” in the skillet.

   Posted by  on  03/30  at  08:14 PM
   Location :



8. Charlotte - Cool!  I don’t really care for Polish sausage so I just used the smoked stuff and I can’t imagine putting catsup on sauerkraut! (But what do I know - the only thing I use catsup on is hot dogs.) Frying the leftovers though, now that’s a teriffic idea!

   Posted by  on  03/30  at  08:59 PM
   Location : On my toes...

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