Traditional Alsatian Choucrout Garni

Dan introduced me to this traditional Alsatian dish. I was challenged to make this dish, and rose to the challenge, even if it meant hunting down pork all over Boston.

This was a Valentine's gift I made for Dan, complete with Muller Alsatian wine. It was perfect.

Originally posted 02/18/08

You will need:

Sauerkraut (I used 3 large-ish jars... maybe 3lbs total?) A whole lot.
One large, yellow onion
butter
1 bottle of Alsatian Riesling wine or another dry Riesling
More pork than you will ever know what to do with. I used:
2 pork chops
2 smoked ham hocks
4 fresh pork sausages
2 fresh pork frankfurters
3 bratwurst (one was smoked)
2 smoked linguica
1 lb bacon, cut into 2 thick slabs

Juniper berries (I used about 2 TBS, WAY more than any recipe I found.)
1 bouquet garni with 4 bay leaves and 10 peppercorns. (I didn't have cheesecloth, so I emptied out an oversized tea bag and used that. If you don't have that, use 2 small ones. If you don't have that, you need to get some.)
Cloves. If you have whole cloves, put 5 in your bouquet. If you don't, sprinkle some powdered cloves over the top... maybe a teaspoon?
Red Potatoes (I used 10?)


You can, of course scale this down. Use one jar, a small onion, a little wine, and a lot less pork. But this way is so good.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
While that is heating, drain the sauerkraut. Separate and squeeze the sauerkraut. This stuff holds more liquid than I would have ever imagined. So annoying. Leave it to drain some more.

Put the onion in a blender. Get it as fine chopped as you can. I accidentally liquified some of mine, but that turned out to not be so bad.
Saute the onions in butter in your large, oven-safe dutch oven until they are soft, but not brown.
Turn off the heat on the stove.
Add half the sauerkraut (squeeze it again by the handful) to the pan.
Place any meats that are not fresh sausage into the pot. Remember to poke anything that has a casing with a fork a few times.
Add the bouquet and the berries, then top off with the remainder of the sauerkraut.
Pour the wine in and let it cook for at least 1.5 hours, stirring the sauerkraut every 30-45 minutes. Add water if the liquid is all absorbed and the kraut starts to brown or stick (just about 1/2 cup - 1 cup at a time).

30 min. - 1 hr before you want to eat, poke and cook up the remaining sausage, then add to the pot. Peel potatoes and add them as well.