Bratwurst and Sauerkraut with Spicy Mustard

Sauerkraut and mustard are two very traditional accompaniments to a good wurst. Bratwurst is readily available in the United States, but feel free to use any wurst you choose. To learn more about the various types of wurst, be sure to check out my very first Squidoo lens called The Best of the Wurst, an introduction to German Sausages.

For those of you unfamiliar with Squidoo, it is a social networking community website where anyone can create "lenses" or pages focusing on a particular subject. These "lenses" are completely interactive and include content, Flickr photos, Google maps, YouTube videos on the subject being looked at. I’m brand new to the community and will be building more of these "lenses" dealing with cooking techniques and food subjects. If you have a moment, please take a look at my first lens, The Best of the Wurst and be sure to leave comments in the Feedback area.

Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is eaten throughout much of the world, although it is most commonly associated with Germany and eastern Europe. Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage. The fermentation occurs naturally, and it is fairly easy to make your own, although it is a time consuming process.

Like yogurt, fresh, unpasteurized sauerkraut contains many beneficial bacteria that aid in digestion. As well, it also contains high levels of Vitamin C. As a matter of fact, German sailors always had sauerkraut at hand on their ships to help prevent scurvy!

When using purchased sauerkraut, try to find a fresh, unpasteurized type, as pasteurization kills the beneficial bacteria and breaks down Vitamin C.

Bratwurst and Sauerkraut with Spicy Mustard
Serves 4

For the Bratwurst
4 Bratwurst
2 dark beers
1 large onion, sliced
1 pound fresh sauerkraut
4 Pretzel rolls, hoagie rolls or other long buns
Spicy mustard—recipe follows

In a saucepan, bring beer and onion to a simmer. Pierce bratwurst casings with a sharp knife. Place brats in the simmering beer, turn down the heat to just below a simmer, and let brats poach for about 6 minutes.

Over medium coals, grill brats until they have good color, turning so they are evenly browned—about 1 minute per turn.

If not serving right away, return the cooked brats to the beer/onion mixture to keep hot.

Split rolls almost all the way through. Place, cut side down, on the grill just to get some grill marks.

Gently warm the sauerkraut over medium-low heat. Don’t let it boil, you just want to warm it through.

Spread spicy mustard to taste in each bun. Top with a brat and then some warm sauerkraut. Finish with more mustard, if desired.

Spicy Mustard -
*Mustard must “ripen” three days in the refrigerator before serving, so plan accordingly.

½ cup flat beer (you can use water)
1/3 cup whole mustard seeds
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons dry mustard powder (such as Coleman’s)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1-2 tablespoons prepared horseradish (optional)

Combine beer and whole mustard seeds. Let sit for one or two hours.

Put soaked seeds and any remaining beer or water into the work bowl of your food processor. Add all the rest of the ingredients. Process for 30 seconds-4 minutes or so, depending on your texture preference. The longer you process, the smoother your mustard will be.

After processing, put the mustard in a small saucepan. Let it sit for an hour, then bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for one minute.

Remove from the heat and cool. Cover tightly and refrigerate for three days to ripen. Mustard will thicken. After three days, adjust the consistency with another teaspoon or two of water or cider vinegar.

Well covered, the mustard will keep for three weeks in the refrigerator.

Makes about 1 ½ cups of mustard.

Roasting a Rabbit Is Easier Than You Think

The hard part is finding a rabbit to roast. I am lucky to live in an area where we have a farmers’ market, and Eric who runs Stoltzfus Fresh Poultry at the Ardmore Farmers Market not only sells fresh farm chickens, eggs, ducks and turkeys, but he also has rabbit. They are sold frozen, but that’s fine with me.

I purchased one to prepare Rustic Rabbit with Sage and Pancetta from Marc Vetri’s cookbook Il Viaggio di Vetri, but never got around to it and left it in the freezer for another time. But when I heard my friend David B. from Utah was visiting, I pulled it out of the deep freeze to thaw.

David B. is one of the first people I met when I lived in Park City, Utah. He owned a local business that supplied local restaurants with high-end produce, mushrooms and cheeses. His business expanded to become the best local gourmet store in Park City. A few years later, David opened a restaurant on Main Street and is now designing high-end kitchens for local residents.

David knows a lot about food and is also a wonderful cook, so when I told him we were having rabbit, he rummaged around my refrigerator and pantry and together we made this incredible dinner for two. (My wife is out of town for business.)

We didn’t measure anything, so I’m guesstimating the amounts. With this dish, though, I really think it is more about the technique (see my web page on pan roasting) than an actual recipe. You can look through your cookbooks or go online for exact measurements, but I do recommend you experiment with ingredients you like and have on hand or are seasonal.

About Eating Rabbit

You may be a little "reluctant" about eating rabbit, but remember, it is one of the more popular meats eaten in countries like France, Spain, Italy and Germany. Years ago, before the advent of industrialized meat production, rabbit was an important food source here in the United States.

Rabbit compares to dark meat turkey when it comes to calories and fat, and it is a good source of protein. It costs about $4 to $6 per pound, so it’s not nearly as expensive as red meat.

You’ll typically find it labeled "Fryer" or "Young" rabbit and "Roaster" or "Mature". The young rabbit usually weighs in between 1 1/2 pounds and 3 pounds while the mature rabbit weighs in over 4 pounds and is over 8 months of age.

The difference between young and mature rabbit can be found in the meat’s grain and color. The young rabbit has a fine grain that is much more tender than the older, coarse grained, darker mature rabbit. The younger rabbit can be grilled, sauteed or roasted whereas the older rabbit is better braised or stewed.

What Does Rabbit Taste Like?

To me, rabbit tasted like a cross between chicken breast and turkey breast, but my friend David thought it was more like a cross between the white meat and dark meat of chicken. It is mild in flavor making it a perfect conduit for a flavorful sauce like the pomegranate reduction sauce we made. The texture is very similar to eating chicken or turkey.

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Beef Stew

There are infinite recipes for beef stew. If you just did a Google search, it would come back with over half a million hits! This is one that I really like to make. I use some red wine for depth of flavor and homemade chicken or turkey stock. Sometimes making a beef stew with wine and beef stock makes it almost too rich. Using a lighter stock is a good compromise.

To learn more about stewing, check out my How To Make A Great Stew Recipe. It gives you cooking techniques, tips and ideas for stewing beef, chicken, fish and vegetables.

Ingredients

2 pounds beef suitable for stewing - chuck is nice for this - cut up into 2” cubes
5 pieces of bacon, cut into pieces
About 1 cup of all purpose flour, well seasoned with salt and pepper.
2 tablespoons canola oil (or other neutral oil)
1 medium onion, chopped
4 oz. fresh sliced mushrooms, try crimini or button
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon tomato paste
½ teaspoon red pepper flake (more or less, to taste)
1 shallot, minced (you could use garlic, if you prefer)
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, or herb blend of your choice
½ bottle dry red wine
Enough chicken stock or turkey stock to just cover the meat
4 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed, (peel them if you want to) cut into large chunks
4 medium carrots, scrubbed, (peel them if you want to) cut into 1 ½” chunks
1 can of pearl onions, drained (or, about 2 cups fresh pearl onions, skins removed)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (optional)

How to Make Beef Stew at Home

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees, F.

Dredge the beef chunks in the well-seasoned flour. Knock off the excess.

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat for 3 - 4 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of the canola oil and heat the oil until the oil shimmers in the pan. Brown the meat in batches but don’t crowd the pan. Sear on all sides until a deep brown.

In the same pan, fry the bacon for a couple of minutes. You don’t have to get it crispy, you just want to render out some of the fat. Pour off some of the fat, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the pan.

Sauté the onions, mushrooms, carrots and celery in the same pan along with the bacon and a heavy pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the tomato paste and dried herbs. Saute for another minute or two. Watch your heat and turn it up or down, as needed to keep a good “sizzle” going without any smoking. Deglaze the pan with the wine. Reduce the wine by half.

Add the meat back into the pan, and add the chicken or turkey stock to barely cover the meat. Heat on the stovetop until simmering. Cover the Dutch oven tightly, and put it on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Stew for about 2 ½ hours.

Take the stew out of the oven. Working quickly, carefully remove the meat to a platter and cover tightly with foil. Strain the cooking liquid and skim off the fat. Pour the strained and de-fatted cooking liquid back in the Dutch oven. Add back about half of the spent vegetables, leaving the bacon. With a stick blender, puree the liquid.

Put the meat and the liquid in a large container. Cool it down quickly. I put float ice packs in gallon-sized zipper bags in the stew to chill it quickly. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, pull off any additional solidified fat from the top of the stew. Put the stew back into a Dutch oven and add the cut up potatoes, carrots and the pearl onions. Bring up to a simmer and simmer on low heat, covered, until the vegetables are tender.

Stir in the olive oil—I always do as a nod to my heart, but you are welcome to leave it out. Serve in bowls with some hearty bread and a salad.

This might be a two-day project, but it is worth it. Enjoy!