Home Cured Sauerkraut

Since I have discovered this recipe in Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn book “Charcuterie” (must read for any serious cook) and made my first batch, I have not bought single jar or can of sauerkraut. The difference is amazing and it is so easy to make! I strongly recommend that you weight the salt rather than using volume measure.

Ingredients

4 liters water (4 quarts)

200 grams (3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs.)  Kosher salt

1 Green cabbage, about 3 pounds cored and finally shredded

 Directions

Combine water and salt in pot and bring to simmer, stirring to dissolve the salt. Remove from the heat, let cool and then chill.

Combine the cabbage and brine in non-reactive container. Cover the cabbage with piece of cheesecloth, place a plate on top pressing it down so that all the cabbage is submerged.

Cover container loosely with plastic wrap or container’s cover and set in cool place for 2 weeks (no warmer than 70°F – 75°F).

After 2 weeks drain the cabbage reserving the brining liquid. Refrigerate the cabbage while you prepare the brine. Bring the brining liquid to a boil, remove from heat, cool and then chill.

Pour enough of the cold brine over the sauerkraut to cover it completely; discard the extra brine. Store, covered, in refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

Note: I find it better to cut the recipe in half unless you use a lot of sauerkraut. It does go mushy after 4 – 5 weeks.

Pork Rouladen with Grapes and Apple Sauce

Even though I have prepared dozens of dishes using pork tenderloin as a main ingredient, I am still amazed at the versatility of this tender cut of meat. In this version I pounded medallions of tenderloin very thin, less than 1/8 inch, and made roulade with ham and cheese. It is lot simpler to prepare and cook than it is to describe it in recipe.

Ingredients

For Rouladen:
1 pork tenderloin cut into 4 equal pieces by weight
4 slices of Swiss cheese or any other melting cheese
4 thin slices of ham
Herbes de Provence
Dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper
Butcher’s twine
2 Tbs. olive oil

For Sauce:
3 shallots or 1/2 onion, finally chopped
1 cup seedless green grapes, cut in half
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup of dry white wine
Worcestershire Sauce
Frank’s Hot Sauce
1 Tbs. Olive oil
1 Tbs. butter

For side:
Mashed potatoes using 3 baking potatoes, Milk, Sour Cream, 1 cup of Green peas, White pepper, Nutmeg and Salt.

Directions
Place each pork tenderloin piece between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. With a mallet, lightly pound out the pork very thin, about 1/6 to 1/8 inch. Uncover the pork and season both sides with salt and pepper. Spread thin layer of mustard on one side and lay slice of ham and cheese on top (see picture below). Start rolling from one end while keeping the roll tight. About one turn from the end, fold the sides over and finish the roll. Secure the roll with butcher twine and set aside.
Heat 2 Tbs. of olive oil on medium high heat in heavy bottomed pan. Brown the pork rolls on all sides until golden brown, remove to ovenproof plate and roast in 400 °F oven while you prepare sauce.
Discard oil, add butter and oil and sauté shallots in same frying pan, then add grapes, apple slices, wine, Worcestershire and Frank’s sauce and simmer until apples are very soft and sauce is thick. Remove pork from oven and serve with sauce and mashed potatoes.

Weeknight Meals as a Weather Indicator

As I was organizing my picture directories, I have noticed that most of my main meals pretty much reflect the weather on that particular day: lousy days are great for comfort food and sunny days for nice light food. It is not difficult to match the photos of my food with weather.

 

Liver and Mushrooms with Egg Pasta

The caramelized mushrooms and onions almost completely cover the liver taste that so many people dislike. This is wonderful and tasty meal for any kind of weather. Recipe is the same as Calf Liver with Mushrooms & Spaetzle except I was using egg noodles instead of spaetzle.

Veal Stew à la Osso Buco

Perfect food for cloudy, rainy weather. Since I have used slow cooker for this stew it was no-work after initial browning of the veal. Can be done in big batches since it freezes so well. It is cooked just like Osso Buco Chops.

 

Salmon Sashimi with Cucumber Salad and Gari.

Yes, it was beautiful, sunny day when I prepared this simple and quick meal. All you need is super fresh salmon.

New Post on My Photo Blog

I have posted some photos I took on our outing in our Amish neighborhood. Have a look here.

Gratin of Cauliflower, Potatoes and Ham

This is simple, quick and filling weeknight meal. You can make it as rich or as lean as you want just by adjusting amount of cheese.

 Ingredients
2 baking potatoes, peeled
1/2 head of cauliflower
2 half inch slices of ham
Grated cheese

 Directions
Cut potatoes into 1” cubes and boil in lightly salted water until done, about 15 – 20 minutes. Cut up the cauliflower and ham and drop into pot with potatoes 10 minutes after potatoes start to boil.
When potatoes and cauliflower is cooked, drain and mix with cheese. Divide evenly in between ovenproof dishes that were buttered, top with extra cheese and broil until cheese starts to bubble. Serve with salad on side.

Just top with cheese and broil.

Eggplant, Ham and Pimento Ravioli Potstickers

This is my latest and very unusual creation that came from my desire to experiment. Yah, right!  Actually, I had no idea what to cook for dinner so I raided the freezer and pulled out bag of grilled eggplants, grilled red peppers in olive oil and container with grilled red pepper and sundried tomato sauce. In refrigerator, I had shallots, garlic, ham and wonton wrappers and I came up with sort of Chinese – Italian fusion recipe. I chopped the eggplants and peppers while they were still frozen, than I chopped the shallots, garlic and ham and sautéed them until soft. I added eggplants, peppers and 1/2 cup of white wine and I cooked it untill there was no liquid left, let it cool before mixing in quite a bit of grated Parmigiano Regiano cheese. Of course the mix was seasoned with salt and pepper along the way. The dumplings had a shape like ravioli but I cooked them like potstickers. Served on top of sundried tomatoes and pimento sauce, they were so delicious! I have especially liked the mix of textures in wonton wrappers that run from soft to chewy to crispy crunch, just perfect. Next time, and it will be soon, I will serve the sauce on side, just like Chinese potstickers, because the crispy bottom of ravioli that touched the sauce got soft. They were still great but soft.

My New York Style Pizza – Vegetarian

Even though I am dedicated carnivore, I just do not like pizza with any sort of meat product on it. It used to be that when I ordered pizza it had to be meat-eater special: bacon, ham, Italian sausage and of course solid layer of peperoni. If we wanted to eat pizza we had to go to pizza joint or order one. Well, how the times have changed! Now, the only pizza we eat is just what I bake: super thin crust (from a dough I made night before), the best tomato sauce (mine, of course made from my own grown-from-seeds tomatoes), mix of Italian cheeses that I grate (Provolone, Asiago, Parmigiano Regiano and Mozzarella). For toppings, it is just white or Vidalia onions, zucchini and red peppers chopped into 1/4” chunks and sliced cremini mushrooms, all in one thin layer. I like to see the cheese in between the vegetable toppings, only the mushroom slices are overlapping in second layer. Way back, I used to order Chicago style pizza from time to time but now I would have to be close to total starvation before I would touch this thing. Pizza? More like a casserole (just like Bobby Flay likes to say) or a stew on a wet bread.

 Perfect thin crust pizza.

Here is my time proven recipe. This pizza is just as good when reheated in a toaster oven as it is when served fresh. One very important note: don’t even bother to try to make thin crust pizza without pizza stone, it just will not work. Also, I always pre-bake my pizza and then dress it up, it makes the job of dressing the pizza so much easier and it gives the crust that a nice crunch! Also, make sure to dock the pizza dough with a docker or with a fork.

Another trick I have learned over time is to use wire cooling rack to put pizza on after it is pre-baked, it helps to keep bottom of the pizza to stay dry. Actually, it takes much longer to describe the whole process than it is to actually do it, but here it goes.

Dough

1-1/2 cup hard (bread) flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp. fine sea salt

1/2 tsp. sugar or honey

1 T. olive oil

1-1/4 tsp. instant yeast (or heaping teaspoon)

Up to 3/4 cup warm water 

Pulse all the dry ingredients in food processor with steel blade attached.

Turn the machine on and drizzle in olive oil through the feed tube and then slowly add 1/2 cup tepid distilled water. Keep the machine running for about 30 seconds and then start adding more water one teaspoon at the time until the dough is one smooth ball whirling around. When the dough clears the side of bowl, you are done. Remove the dough to floured board and shape into smooth ball. Place in bowl thinly coated with olive oil, cover with plastic film and place in warm, draft free place. Better yet, let the dough rest in cool place overnight.

Assembly and baking

Preheat oven with pizza stone placed on bottom shelf to 500 °F, it will take about half an hour.

Roll out and stretch the pizza dough on floured countertop until the dough is 1/4” thick. Let the dough rest while you prepare the toppings.

Have a sauce, cheese and veggies ready next to cooling wire rack.

When the oven is ready (and infrared thermometer reads 500 °F on pizza stone) slide your peal (that was generously floured first) under the pizza and carefully slide it on pizza stone. Make sure that pizza was docked before it goes into oven or you end up with supersized pita bread (see above) It happened to me first time I made it. Bake for only 3 minutes.

Remove from oven and turn over onto cooling rack with baked side facing up. Now is time to dress it up. Sauce goes down first in thin layer, then cheese and finally veggies. Mushrooms, if using, go on last. Slide pizza back on the peel (you may want to sprinkle a bit of flour first) and back to the oven for 10 minutes. Remove pizza from oven, cut into pieces and slide it back on cooling rack, it will prevent pizza bottom from getting soggy. When you look at the bottom you will notice how beautifully the dough is baked: nice caramelized blisters all over the bottom of your pizza pie.

Pizza is docked and ready for 3 minute pre-bake.

One side is baked, flipped over and ready for toppings...

starting with tomato sauce…

followed by cheese…

and finally the toppings.

In 10 minutes it will be ready!

Pork Tenderloin Schnitzel and Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes were actually creamy mashed Yukon and sweet potatoes with celeriac. It just happens that all three need same time to cook – 17 minutes once the water starts boiling. I mashed them with 1:1 ratio of 3% milk and 35% cream and a bit of butter. And, creamy they were!

For the schnitzel I used pork tenderloin that I sliced into 2” thick medallions and then I pounded them with heavy aluminum pan until they were evenly 1/4” thick. After they were seasoned with salt, pepper and hot Hungarian paprika they cooked in 5 minutes: 3 minutes on first side and another 2 minutes on the other side. In separate skillet, I caramelized onions and mushrooms and served them with potatoes and pork. Great meal that can be done in under 45 minutes, including all the prep. This is my all-seasons standby.