I’m a bachelor this weekend. The wife and daughter decided to head down to Grandma house since I had to work. That means a nice, quite house with just me, the dogs, the cats and the fish. It’s Labor Day weekend so for many it’s the last big BBQ of the season. Seeing as I’m solo there’ll be no big BBQ spread. Besides, I’m a year round griller. I don’t understand those people that pull the grill out on Memorial Day and put it away on Labor Day. Any day is a good day to grill, whether it is 80° outside or 30°. The grill did see some action though. I popped a few burgers on it for my dinner tonight, but that is about the only grilling I will be doing this weekend. That’s the bad news. The good news is this gives me a chance to post a recipe I made not too long ago, but haven’t had the time, energy or desire to post yet. Yes, I’m being a slacker, but I’ve been hooked on Stumbleupon recently and my computer productivity has dropped. I’ll get bored soon and be back to posting more regularly, I’m sure.

This is a great late summer, early fall pasta dish. Slightly caramelizing the cabbage brings a wonderful depth of flavor to the dish, but it still is light enough to not slow you down when it is still warm outside. It’s not the quickest pasta to make, but neither will you have to spend lots of time in the kitchen preparing this.

Pasta with Caramelized Cabbage
serves 4

2 cups coarse rye breadcrumbs (light rye works best)*
4 Tbl. butter
2 cloves garlic, finely minced

4 slices bacon, chopped (I prefer thick cut bacon)
1 small head cabbage, coarsely shredded
1 medium onion
8 Tbl. butter

1 pound long skinny pasta (spaghetti, angel hair, linguine, etc.)

In a large saute pan melt the first amount of butter. Add the garlic and saute 30 seconds. Add the breadcrumbs and toss making sure all the crumbs are well coated with butter. Continue to cook, stirring regularly until the breadcrumbs get crispy and have become lightly brown. Remove from saute pan and set aside.

Wipe out the saute pan then add the chopped bacon. Cook over medium high heat until crisp. Remove the bacon, leaving the bacon fat in the pan. Add the onions and saute for 3-4 minutes. Add the cabbage and season with salt and pepper. Allow to cook for 4-5 minutes before stirring, then stir a bit to redistribute the cabbage and allow to cook another 3-5 minutes. Continuing to cook until the cabbage is tender. The goal is to allow the cabbage to start to caramelize. Let it start to brown before stirring, but be careful not to let it burn. While the cabbage is cooking bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Once the cabbage is 3/4s of the way done go ahead and cook the pasta according the the directions. When the pasta is done strain the pasta reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta liquid. Toss drained pasta in with the cabbage, adding the remaining butter also. Toss to mix, adding the reserved pasta water, a tablespoon at a time, if the pasta seems a little dry. Season with salt and pepper. Divide between 4 plates. Sprinkle the bacon evenly of the plates of pasta then garnish with a very generous portion of the rye bread crumbs.

*Note: To make the rye bread crumbs place fresh rye bread, sliced, into a food processor and pulse until you have pieces just smaller than a pea. You will end up with a mix of fine breadcrumbs and the coarser ones. This is what you are looking for.

I realize that I have been kind of lack in posting recently. I had all intentions of posting well before this, but things happen. On Friday, I confess, I just wasn’t in the mood to sit in front of the computer and write. On Saturday we threw a little party here. Nothing crazy; ribs, baked beans, cole slaw, etc. The problem lay in the fact that on that day I was introduced to Jeremiah Weed Sweet Tea Vodka. Mixed with lemonade it tastes just like an “Arnold Palmer” and you don’t realize just how much booze you have consumed until it is too late. So even if I wanted to post on Saturday be very thankful that I didn’t as I’m sure that anything I would have written would have been total gibberish!!! And well, Sunday…let’s just say I didn’t have a whole lot of motivation on Sunday and leave it at that. That brings me to today, and now I am guiltily posting what should have been posted days ago.

In our CSA box (now 1 1/2 weeks ago) we received another bunch of spinach. Now I know there are all sorts of novel things to do with spinach, but I have fond memories of Wilted Spinach Salad as a kid. It was the only way I would eat spinach. I wouldn’t touch the canned or frozen stuff if my life depended on it. Even today the thought of canned spinach makes me gag and while I do often use frozen spinach I only use it if it is an ingredient in a recipe. If I am sauteing spinach it has to be fresh or forget it. But as I kid I was even more prejudiced against spinach and Wilted Spinach Salads were the only way I’d eat the stuff. I’ve long gotten over my fear of fresh spinach, but still, every summer when fresh spinach is in season my favorite way to eat the stuff is loaded with bacon, onion and hard boiled eggs, all dressed in a sweet, smoky, warm dressing.

The key to a good Wilted Spinach Salad is to get just the right amount of wilt to it. Some people add so much hot dressing and end up literally cooking the spinach completely, while others I’ve had have been barely dressed with lukewarm dressing. I found the trick is to dress the salad a bit at a time, tossing between each addition. This way you control the amount of dressing and how much the salad will wilt. As for how hot the dressing should be. Once the dressing boils and the sugar dissolves, remove from heat and as soon as the dressing stops bubbling, start drizzling it over the greens but again, go slow or you will end up cooking your spinach which is not the goal here.

You will also notice I use 2 kinds of onions, both red onion and those canned fried onions. I love onion and those fried things are one of my secret indulgences. If you don’t like onions as much as I do you can leave one, or both, of those ingredients out.

Wilted Spinach Salad
serves 4 as a side salad or 2 as a main course salad

3 slices bacon (preferably thick cut) cut into 1/4″ strips
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup malt vinegar (you can use any variety of vinegar, but I prefer malt, sherry, or cider vinegar for this dressing)
1/2 cup salad oil
1/4 tsp. toasted sesame oil (optional)
1 pound fresh spinach leaves, stems removed
1/4 red onion, thinly julienned
3 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced*
1/3 cup canned fried onion rings (Durkee is the most popular brand)

In an nonreactive skillet fry the bacon until brown and crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan, leaving the bacon fat behind, in the pan. Add the sugar, vinegar and both oils. Stir constantly and allow the dressing to come to an easy boil. Remove from heat. Place spinach, both onions, sliced eggs and reserved bacon pieces in a large metal bowl. Drizzle a bit of the hot dressing over the salad and toss gently. Repeat drizzling and tossing until salad is dressed as you like it. You will probably have a bit of dressing left over. Divide among 2 or 4 plates and serve immediately.

*To get the perfect hard boiled egg. Start the eggs in cool water. Bring to a gentle boil and boil for exactly 13 minutes. Remove from heat and cool immediately in cold, running water.

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve been this excited about a project, but my recent endeavors at making bacon really got me pumped up. I mean, what’s not to love about bacon. It’s sweet, it’s salty, it’s smoky, and it’s got lots of crispy, chewy pork fat, Add to that, the fact that this bacon was made completely at home, from pork that a good friend raised, and you can’t go wrong. I have to admit though, I was also rather nervous. The last thing I wanted to do was to destroy the pork belly I had received with the half pig we had purchased. I’m not one to get overly philosophical about my food (though sometimes it seems like I do), but the last thing I wanted to do is ruin a good piece of meat that some animal died to provide me with. It might sound kind of “corny” but that thought went through my head a number of times during the bacon making process.

Making bacon isn’t all that difficult, but it does take considerable time, at least a week or more to do it right. In fact, about the hardest part of the whole process can often be finding a butcher willing to provide you with pork belly. Chances are, you will need to special order it unless you have a local butcher who makes his/her own bacon.

In the days before refrigeration curing bacon was a way to preserve the meat for long term storage. The bacon of yesteryear was heavily salted and smoked and didn’t much resemble the bacon of today. Today, modern refrigeration makes bacon a luxury, not a necessity. As such, we have been able to swap preservation with flavor. Today’s bacon doesn’t require numerous soakings in water to draw out salt to make it more palatable, and while still heavily smoked, it is not smoked to the point of almost being jerky-like.

Besides salt and sugar used in the curing of bacon, the cure also often contains sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate. These salts act as preservatives, helping to keep the meat pink and free from botulism. These chemical salts can be difficult to obtain and usually need to be ordered online or through the mail unless you are friendly with a butcher. Unfortunately, these salts can also be dangerous if used in higher amounts than needed. While I sometimes use these salts personally, I find it often easier, and less dangerous, to use Morton’s Tender Quick. It is a curing salt mix that can be found in many grocery stores and already has the nitrite and nitrate mixed into regular salt, removing the danger from the hands of novices. I developed this recipe using Morton’s Tender Quick and am quite happy with the results. I think you will be also.

As for the pork belly, you can either leave the rind on or remove it. You will hear proponents of both ways. I don’t think it makes a difference and I prefer to remove the rind (skin) before making my bacon. It saves a step later on. Also for easy of storing, during the curing process, I cut my pork belly into 1-2 pound chunks. I just find it easier to handle this way and it takes up less room in the fridge.

Maple Cured Bacon

1 whole pork belly (8-10 pounds) cut into 1-2 pound chunks

Curing Mix (per pound of meat)
1 Tbsp. Morton’s Tender Quick
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
1/4 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper

Weigh out each piece of pork belly and make up a batch of Curing Mix using the ratios above per 1 pound of meat. Rub the belly with the cure making sure to evenly distribute it over the entire surface of the belly and place in a zip lock bag. Remove as much air as possible and seal.

Repeat with remaining belly pieces. Place in the fridge and allow to cure for a minimum of 7 days per inch thickness of belly. Flip the bags once every day and massage the meat to ensure even distribution of the cure. At the end of 7 days test to see if belly is cured. The pork is done curing when the flesh no longer feels “mushy” and feels tight, like a well done steak. If not fully cured give another 24 hours and check again. Continue until pork is fully cured. Once done, remove from bags and give a good rinse in cold water, washing off all the excess salt and cure. Place on cooling racks set over cookie trays, place in fridge, uncovered, and allow to dry for 24 hours. The following day prepare your smoker or kettle grill and cold smoke bacon for 3 hours. Increase heat to medium and continue to smoke until you get an internal temperature of 150°F. In all, it should take 6-8 hours to fully smoke your bacon.

Chill the bacon overnight then slice to desired thickness, package and refrigerate and/or freeze.

When cooking this bacon, cook over medium heat or just a little higher. You don’t want to cook at too high of a heat due to the high sugar content of this bacon. Cooking over too high a heat will cause the bacon to burn before it is rendered crisp.

Let’s face it, steak is great all year round, but it’s even better in summer when you can get outside and cook it over a live fire. As much as I love some of the more traditional accompaniments to steak; baked potatoes, creamed spinach, salad with blue cheese dressing, etc., I really enjoy some of the lighter meals you can create around steak in the summertime.

This past weekend we made it down to Madison to visit my brother, his wife and their newborn baby. As part of the trip we made sure to stop by the Dane County Farmer’s Market. As usual we picked up more veggies than we really should have, but I guess that’s a good thing as I am trying to eat a little better than I used to. Included in our haul this time were, golden beets, fava beans, red spring onions, baby potatoes, most of which were just larger than a peanut M&M, a number of different lettuces, a couple loaves of bread and, my favorite find of the day, mustard greens. This doesn’t include the pastries we picked up to munch on as we walked the market, which included a pistachio baklava that was to die for!

Now mustard greens might not sound like much to get excited about, but up here, in Wisconsin, it’s hard to find the type of mustard greens that I grew up with and really enjoy. Most of the mustard greens I find around are grown the by Hmong farmers and it is a milder, larger version of the stuff that I really like. The mustard greens I grew up with had smaller leaves that were less thick and slightly ruffled around the edges. Picked early it had a pleasant sharpness to it and just a little bit of a horseradish like heat. Later in summer that heat would take on a nose clearing intensity. My brother and I would find ways to either trick each other into eating, or just plain forcing each other to eat the hottest leaves we could find and would laugh uproariously as the other would suffer through the pain and heat. Ah…..memories.

Early in the summer, mustard greens are still pretty mellow and make a wonderful salad especially when paired with a warm bacon vinaigrette. Used as an accompaniment to a couple of ribeyes, grilled over charcoal and roasted baby potatoes, tossed in butter, garlic, salt and pepper, and you have a great summertime dinner.

Wilted Mustard Greens Salad

1 red spring onion, sliced thinly into rings
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. chili powder
vegetable oil for frying

1 bunch mustard greens, stems removed and torn into bite sized pieces (about 8 cups)

3 slices bacon, sliced into 1/4 strips, width wise
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
pinch salt
freshly ground black pepper

Fill a small sauce pot with about 3/4″ of oil. Combine the flour, salt, pepper and chili powder and mix well. Add onions and coat well with flour, breaking apart the individual rings. Allow to sit for 5 minutes. When oil is just barely hot enough (a small piece of bread placed in the oil should start to bubble immediately but should take a bit to brown) shake the excess flour off of the onions and place in the oil. Fry just to the point of turning light brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel. While onions are cooling fry bacon in a saute pan over medium heat, until brown, crispy and have render most of its fat. Remove bacon and add vinegar to the hot oil. Add the sugar, oil, and salt. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste. Remove from heat and add half to the mustard greens. Toss to wilt, adding more dressing if necessary. Add the bacon and fried onion rings, toss again and serve immediately.

Feel free to add halved cherry tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, sliced raw onion, or sliced hard boiled eggs to the salad if you so choose.

I have been blogging for just over a year now and I realized that I have not done a great job in promoting Wisconsin products, which is unfortunate as Wisconsin produces a lot of great food. Of course everyone thinks of cheese when they think of Wisconsin, and rightfully so. We produce much of the cheese found in grocery stores across the US. Most of this cheese is of the relatively bland, supermarket, let’s appeal to everyone, variety, but Wisconsin also produces lots of world class cheese, produced in small batches by farmers and cheesemakers whose whole philosophy revolves around the adage of quality of quanity. In fact, one of my favorite blue cheeses in the world is produced here in Wisconsin, in an Amish community where the cows, that make the milk for the cheese, are hand milked, twice daily.

Wisconsin also takes its pork seriously. We are a state that loves bacon, ham and sausages. A number of years ago, long before I moved to Wisconsin, I was introduced to Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Bacon and it was love at first taste. This was way back when bacon was still “taboo,” and those of us uttering the phrase, “Everything is better with bacon” were looked upon as nutcases, to say the least, or as heretics. The pro-pork movement hadn’t yet made its backlash against the “remove all fats from your diet” mentality of 1990′s.

Having been raised on supermarket bacon, I was blown away by the depth of flavor the Nueske’s bacon possessed and I was quickly won over. Since then Nueske’s has been the bacon by which I have judged all others. That was until a few months ago.

My wife, in her job as an area manager for a cleaning company, picked up a few accounts in Wautoma, WI. She was then told by a colleague that she needed to check out Stoneridge Meat and Country Market. On that first trip my wife picked up a number of items but it was the bacon that took me by storm. Thickly sliced, this smoky, salty, slightly sweet bacon has quickly replaced Nueske’s as my bacon of choice.

Since she only gets out to Wautoma every few weeks, she makes sure she takes along a cooler and we stock up on their bacon. There are three varieties that we buy, the Pit Smoked bacon, the Hickory Smoked bacon and the Pepper Bacon. They might have a few more styles but these are the ones we usually get.

The bacon comes sliced nice and thick, between 1/8-1/4″ thick, and has a wonderful smokiness that supermarket bacon just never quite achieves. While salty, like any good bacon, Stoneridge bacons have a nice sweetness that compliments that saltiness, making it very easy to overindulge. This also presents the only downside to this bacon. Due to its thickness and slight sweetness, this bacon is easy to burn, if not closely watched. But cook it over medium heat and watch closely and you will be rewarded with a little bit of hog heaven brought to you by the folks in Wisconsin!!

If interested you can also find them online at Stoneridge Country and Meat Market. They do have online ordering, though I don’t believe bacon is on there. It would be worth a call though to see if they will ship some to you. Or if you know someone headed up this way, make sure they stop and pick some up!

I am often reminded how wonderful the simple things can be. This past Sunday was beautiful, with lots of sunshine and temperatures in the low 60s. The day begged for firing up the grill so that’s exactly what I did. It was nothing fancy or complicated, just bratwursts and a hobo pack filled with potatoes, bacon, onions and garlic. It was a simple affair for me, my wife, and my daughter, who ate some potatoes but has yet to develop a taste for any sausage type food beyond hot dogs and breakfast sausages. Yes, I know….it’s something I need to work on. Especially living here in Wisconsin. Most people up here are born with an instinctual love for the almighty brat!

Hobo packs are a camper’s and griller’s best friend; packets of aluminum foil filled with all sorts of goodies left to cook over an open fire. Add a good amount of oil and butter and the vegetables both steam and fry creating a great side dish to any grilled meat, or even taking the place of the meat all together. Hobo packs can be simple and straight forward, or they can be filled with exotic vegetables and spices. Most start with a base of some starchy vegetable, usually potato, yams, taro, turnips, carrots, or any other root vegetable. Other vegetables, aromatics, herbs and spices are added to taste and the whole thing is wrapped in a few layer of foil and allowed to cook over an open fire.

This recipe is for a very simple hobo pack, made with ingredients almost everyone has lying around the kitchen most of the time. This makes this a great recipe for last minute meals or an “on the fly” cookout. Feel free to add any touches and flourishes you wish.

A word about cooking hobo packs. First don’t make your packet too thick or it will take forever for it to cook through. I usually spread the ingredients out so that they aren’t more than 2 inches deep. It is best to use a covered grill as you can then cook by indirect heat (placing the coals on 1 side of the grill and placing the packet on the other side. This way you only need to flip the packet about every 10 minutes. If you don’t have a covered grill you will need to cook the packet over direct heat, which will require you to flip the packet every 4-5 minutes to ensure that nothing burns.

Potato Hobo Packs
serves 4

3 slices bacon, thick cut, chopped
4 medium potatoes, skin on
1/2 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 Tbsp. butter
Salt
Pepper

Light your charcoal and let it burn down until covered with white ash. Meanwhile, cook the bacon until crisp.

Remove from skillet and drain, reserving 1 Tbsp. of the rendered fat. Mix the butter, bacon fat, and garlic in a small pot and heat until the butter is melted. While the bacon is rendering slice the potatoes about 1/4″ thick. Slice the onions also.

Take 2 18″ pieces of heavy duty aluminum foil and lay them on the counter, one lengthwise the other one on top and perpendicular to the first one. Lay half the potatoes on top, along with half the onions. Season liberally with salt and pepper and drizzle with half of the butter, bacon fat mixture. Place the cooked bacon over this, then repeat with the remaining potatoes, onions, and butter mixture, again seasoning liberally. Tightly fold the top piece of foil then the bottom piece of foil to make a secure packet. Take another piece of foil and laying the packet seam side down, wrap the foil around it. This seems like a lot of foil, but I often use this much to make sure I have no blow outs, which can send potatoes pouring all over your grill. You can get away with just 2 sheets, but you need to be extra careful when flipping the packets. Spread the coals out on 1 side of the grill and place the hobo pack on the other side. Cover the grill and cook for 30-40 minutes, flipping the packet over every 10 minutes. Insert a knife into the packet to test the doneness of the potatoes. When they have just the slightest amount of resistance remove from grill and allow to finish cooking, off the heat for 8 minutes longer. Unwrap and serve.

When it comes to Thanksgiving, I am very much a “traditionalist.” I like my roasted or grilled turkey, the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc. I don’t have nearly that same feeling about Christmas dinner. Sure, I am happy with a repeat of Thanksgiving, which often happens in my family, but I am also very happy to change it up. My wife’s family often follows a more European tradition and serves goose, with all the trimmings. Since her father is from Hungary that usually means an Eastern European flair to the meal with lots of sweet and sour dishes, plenty of starches, the giblets showing up in numerous recipes, and wonderful, earthy rye bread.

In my family, when we move away from turkey, we sometimes do a standing rib roast (aka Prime Rib), one of my favorites, but in recent years we have done a lot of pork, usually in the form of a Crown Roast. It usually gets filled with a stuffing of cornbread, sausage, dried cherries and pecans. This has become a favorite of ours and looks quite festive and elegant gracing our holiday table. Unfortunately, if you want to do a crown roast you either need to be feeding an army or be prepared for plenty of leftovers as these things are quite large. Luckily pork is very versatile and there are numerous, smaller cuts that can be turned into an elegant centerpiece for your Christmas dinner.

Pork loin is an obvious choice for a holiday dinner. Roasted, it makes a beautiful looking focal point to the holiday groaning board. It can be purchased is any size from 1 pound to about 8 or 9 pounds, making it a great choice for just about any size get together. Pork also goes well with many of the dishes people serve at Christmas time, many of which mirror people’s Thanksgiving spreads. To make it even more of a standout, I like to stuff it “pinwheel” style. Sliced and laid out on a platter, surrounded by Rosemary Roasted Potatoes and a few sprigs of fresh herbs, you have a dish that will wow friends and family alike. (continue reading…)

Souffles have fallen out of fashion, at least in regards to home cooks. I have hundreds of cookbooks spanning back over 120 years. In many of those books, dated from the 50′s through the 70′s and even 80′s, you’d find recipes for all sorts of souffles from sweet to savory. In the 80′s their popularity started to wane and now it is rare to find a new cookbook with a souffle recipe in it. That’s too bad as I think every decent home cook should know how to make a souffle.

There seems to be a mystique surrounding souffles and how difficult they are to make. Most of it is a load of crap. I can’t begin to count the number of souffles I have made, in both professional kitchens and at home, and I think I have had only 1 turn out a failure. They really aren’t that difficult to make, and they most certainly are not nearly as tempermental to bake as the myth has it.

I want to share 4 tips that will allow you to serve a perfect souffle almost every time. There’s nothing secret about these, nor are they all that enlightening, but follow these 4 tips and your success rate will be like mine.
1. Don’t over whip your egg whites. Leave them just shy of stiff peak to get maximum rise out of them.
2. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into your base to lighten the base then gently fold in the remaining whites. It’s okay to leave a few streaks of white unincorporated. This is better than over stirring and deflating your whites.
3. Once in the oven do not open the oven door for the 2/3 of the baking.
4. Serve the souffle as soon as possible after coming out of the oven. Even the best made souffle will start to collapse as it cools down. Time is of the essence.

This recipe makes a great breakfast souffle that will serve 4 people when accompanied by toast, bagels or pastries.

Cheese and Bacon Souffle

1/4 cup Flour
1/4 cup Butter + more for greasing the mold
1 cup Milk
Fresh nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Dry Mustard
1/2 tsp. Granulated Garlic
3-6 dashes Hot Sauce
2 Tbsp. Parmesan Cheese, grated
6 oz. Cheddar cheese (sharp or medium)
3 sliced Bacon, thick cut
5 each eggs

Preheat oven to 375. Dice bacon and render until crisp. Pour off fat and reserve bacon. Grease a 2 qt. Souffle mold or high sided baking dish with butter and dust with parmesan cheese. Place in the fridge. Separate eggs with whites in 1 bowl and yolks in another. Meanwhile melt remain 1/4 cup of butter over medium heat. Combine flour, a couple grates of fresh nutmeg, mustard, and garlic and add to the butter. Cook for 2 minutes then add the milk. When thickened add hot sauce and stir in cheddar cheese. Continue to heat until cheese has melted. Remove from heat. Whip egg whites to a point just short of stiff peak. Temper cheese mixture into yolks, stirring to combine. Add bacon. Gently fold in 1/3 of the white into the yolk mixture then fold in the remaining whites. Pour into mold and bake for 25 minutes. After 20 minutes quickly check for doneness. To test a souffle for doneness test just like a cake. Insert a toothpick or small knife into the souffle. If it comes out clean then it is done. Serve immediately.

About 3 weeks ago I made my own sauerkraut for the first time. You can find the post about it here. For the last week, I have been checking and tasting it daily to see if it was ready. Today I decided it had fermented enough so I packed it up into smaller containers and refrigerated it. In hindsight, the next time I make sauerkraut I will let it go just a little further and get a touch more sour as I really like sour things, though my wife thought it had just the right amount of sourness. Either way I am very happy with the results. My homemade stuff is so much better than the store bought stuff, and it is so easy to make. I don’t know why it took me so long to attempt to make sauerkraut, but after this experiment I think it will become, at the very least, a yearly thing. Maybe next year I will make a larger batch and attempt to can some when it is done.

Of course, once the sauerkraut was ready I couldn’t wait to cook with it so I threw together one of my favorite dishes, Choucroute. Technically what I prepare is not truly choucroute as I use beer in my dish as opposed to white wine (usually Riesling) and I skip many of the traditional spices such as juniper berries, mace, nutmeg, etc. in favor of caraway seed, but choucroute sounds so much better than Sausages Braised with Sauerkraut. This dish can be made up pretty quickly, but I prefer to cook it slow and low for 1-2 hours as I find this long, slow cooking yields a depth of flavor that quick cooking just can’t achieve. (continue reading…)

French Onion Soup is one of those dishes I have pretty much stopped ordering at restaurants unless I am familiar with the place and know they make it properly. It’s not that most places have bad French Onion Soup, it’s just not that good. That’s too bad because good French Onion Soup is not difficult to make, it just takes a little time and patience. French Onion soup gets its extraordinary depth of flavor in the long, slow cooking process of caramelizing the onions. Rush this step and that is the difference between a good onion soup and an okay one. Onion soup should also be made with homemade beef stock, but not many people keep beef stock around like they do chicken stock. If you don’t have beef broth around then at least buy canned beef broth. Whatever you do stay away from the bouillon cubes or packets as they tend to be overly salty and taste way too artificial.

The first recipe is a standard recipe for French Onion Soup. The second recipe is for a Creamy Onion Soup with Blue Cheese. It starts just like the French Onion Soup, but then thickened and finished with half and half and blue cheese. It is one of my favorite variations on Onion soup

French Onion Soup

2 Tbsp. Butter
4 pounds Yellow Onions
1 cup Red Wine**
2 1/2 qts. Beef Broth
1 each Bay Leaf
3 sprigs Thyme
Salt
Pepper
Gruyere or Swiss Cheese
1/2 thick croutons cut from a Baguette, toasted

Peel and julienne the onions. In a large pot, over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onions, season with salt and pepper and slowly caramelize the onions. Over medium heat this should take about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir regularly to keep the onions from burning. This is important in the later stages as the onions start to caramelize It is this long, slow caramelization process that really builds the deep flavor of this soup so don’t rush it. When the onions are dark brown raise heat to medium high and deglaze the pan with the red wine. Add the bay leaf and thyme. Reduce the wine until almost dry then add the beef broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. To serve ladle into soup crocks top with a crouton then the cheese. Place under a broiler until the cheese is bubbly and slightly browned in spots. (continue reading…)