Thursday, March 27, 2008

Because I'm German

Seitan and sauerkraut

It's a fact: If I don't eat sauerkraut at least once a week, I'll die.

Three out of four doctors agree.

Seriously, I was amazed when I moved here and met so many people who have never eaten sauerkraut before. I mean, what do you eat when you're drunk, if not glorious pickled cabbage? So I do my part by cooking it as often as possible for friends, family ... anyone willing to eat it, really.

For this round, I slow cooked the sauerkraut, which removes a lot of the bite and bitterness. (I'll admit -- sometimes I just eat it by the spoonful, straight out of the can/jar/bag. That is because I am gross. But when I'm cooking for others, I try to make it a little more palatable.)

I served the sauerkraut with grilled seitan sausages that were based on this easy and awesome recipe from Julie Hasson, though I changed the spices to be more like bratwurst. I also ground up dried wild mushrooms into a fine powder and added that to the mix -- it not only added a lot of earthy flavor, the powder also soaked up a lot of liquid while cooking, which made the sausage links plump, moist and firm.

And that sounds altogether too dirty, so I'll stop there.

4 comments:

Foodeater said...

You're not the only weirdo because I think that looks delicious! I love sauerkraut straight out of the jar too.

trina said...

I love the idea of the dried mushrooms in the sausages. What spices did you use?

Unknown said...

Mmm! I just came across your blog and I have been eating the exact same thing since I started making the steamed sausages.. and I too eat the kraut right out of the jar.

Maggie said...

Yay! Good to know I'm not the only out-of-the-jar sauerkraut eater.

Trina, for my sausages I used white and black peppers, powdered garlic and onion, and Bill's Best Chik'nish seasoning.