Last night, I tried a somewhat different approach to making choucroute alsacienne (also called choucroute garnie), and it turned out great. My usual approach to this meal results in excellently flavored meat but limp sauerkraut and mushy apples. So this time, I changed up the prep method by making the kraut, setting it aside, and reserving the liquid. I par-cooked all the meat, starting with the bacon, then I used the bacon fat to pan-fry the Korean ham (a spam-like mutant brick of ground pork that's normally kind of gross) and the kielbasa. I then stacked the components in the pot by going potatoes first (I usually go potatoes first because they go in raw), ham and kielbasa next, and bacon last. On top of all that, I placed my giant hunks of apple. This would keep the apples mostly out of the liquid. I then poured in the sauerkraut juice, plus the rest of a large plastic bottle of Cass beer (not being a beer aficionado, I'm not picky). I brought the ensemble to a boil, then reduced it all to a simmer. After 35 minutes, I plucked out the apples, and I let the meat and potatoes cook another 35 minutes to achieve their full, beery glory. Here's the result of my efforts:
This revised procedure produced a much better choucroute. It's also a bit more in keeping with the actual method used by the French, who sometimes prep the components separately instead of treating this like a one-pot meal.* This method is slightly more labor-intensive, but only slightly. The vastly improved results make the effort worthwhile.
*My Simplissime cookbook, however, recommends cooking the kraut and the sausages together at the same time, covered, on low heat. Potatoes are cooked separately.
Cass--aaarrrgghhh!
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, though, I think cooking beer can probably be just about anything, even if I might have gone with something slightly more flavorful.
But there is definitely such a thing as going overboard. I was looking at a recipe for a whisky chocolate cake the other day, and one of the commenters was talking about how she bought a nice 12-year single malt to put in the cake and I was like, "Nooooooo! You drink that stuff! You don't put it in cakes!" I mean, I guess it was only 12 yo, but still. She could have put Kirkland blended whisky in the cake and had a dram of the single malt on the side. When you bake or cook with an alcoholic beverage, you are not getting the finer details and complexities that you get from it when drinking, so it's really just a waste.
Bottom line is that I might make fun of Cass, but I think you're more than justified in using it for choucroute.
I probably could have gone for a Weißbier; the building's grocery usually stocks some foreign brews. I've seen Heinekens, some kind of Hefeweizen, etc. But yeah, for what it's worth, the Cass did the trick, and everything ended up tasting pleasantly beery.
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