Alsatian classic: choucroute

As a fan of easy entertaining, I am always looking for recipes, which do not require too many pots and pan or last minute preparations but that can still feed a crowd. Old world gastronomic classics offer a wealth of inspiration: their only drawback is that they demand long simmering time. Using a slow cooker, which has become a popular commodity in department stores all over the USA makes simmering easier, as the dish can be programmed and left unattended. Choucroute or braised sauerkraut a popular bistro fare from the north east of France fits the bill with very little adjustment. And Americans have already developed a taste for it: when you eat a hot dog with sauerkraut, you are enjoying a mini choucroute on the go. Choucroute has also star power and its own people anecdote: it came to characterize Brigitte Bardot’s puffy hairstyle. While shooting Le Mépris, Jean-Luc Godard enticed her to let her hair down. To convincer her he did not go down on his knees but instead walked several feet on his hands.
The traditional recipe is described in Alexandre Dumas’ Great Cooking Dictionary first published in 1873. It calls for sauerkraut, the fermented cabbage dear to the German and extolled for its digestive and anti-inflammatory properties, to be first rinsed several times and then cooked in white wine and stock along with preserved (smoked) meats such as bacon, hot dogs and salami. The rinsing will remove any lingering sour taste. My version takes advantage of my frozen resources, the summer vegetable stock featured in my previous post, and uses duck legs and their fatty skin along with smoked sausage and marinated pork. It feeds at least 10 people and only requires half an hour real preparation time. Beer or a white Alsatian wine, which has slightly sweet overtones, is the traditional companion but red Burgundy is acceptable as well. Be sure to serve an array of mustards. Any traditional bistro dessert, floating islands or chocolate cake is a festive ending to the meal especially in the winter. A colder lighter lemon soufflé garnished with seasonal raspberries has my preference in the fall.

Choucroute garnie (Braised Sauerkraut)
(Easy, Preparation time: 30 minutes, dry brining one day ahead, cooking time: 3 hours and 1/2, Cheap)
Ingredients:
4 generously cut pork ribs (5 lbs)
4 tablespoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons of canola oil
2 lbs (1kg) smoked sausages (kielbasa or garlic cooked sausage)
8 duck legs
6 lbs (3kg)sauerkraut in plastic bags
1 large onion
4 garlic cloves
30 juniper berries
3 large bay leaves
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
11/2 cups(375ml) white wine
2 cups (500ml)defrosted frozen summer vegetable stock
5 large potatoes peeled and cubed

Material:
1 plastic bag
1 frying pan
1 colander
1 blender
2 6-quart slow cookers or 2 large saucepans
1 saucepan
Cutting board and paring knife
1 pair of tongues

The day before, place the pork ribs in a plastic bag with the salt and sugar. Close the plastic bag, shake well and store in the fridge. *
The day of the meal, clean the pork chops and dry them. Place the frying pan over the medium setting of the stove. Fry the pork on each side until browned. Sauté the duck thighs until nicely colored.
Remove the cooked meats and place them and the sausage at the bottom of the slow cooker’s pot. Do not wash the frying pan. Keep about 1 tablespoon of the fat released by the searing of the meats.
Rinse the sauerkraut under running water. Wring the water out of the wet sauerkraut by pressing it against the colander.
Peel the onion and garlic cloves. Mince them in the food processor.
Set the frying pan on the medium setting of the gas. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until soft and lightly colored, stirring continuously. Add the sauerkraut seasoned with the juniper bays, the caraway seeds and the bay leaves, and pour in the wine and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil. Transfer the content of the frying pan to the slow cooker’s pan. Cover and set the slow cooker on the highest setting for three hours and a half.
Thirty minutes prior to serving, set the potatoes in a pan, cover with cold water and cook until easily pierced with a knife, about 20 minutes after the boiling point is reached. In the mean time, fish the meat and sausages with the tongues. Set them on a cutting board, discard the pork bones and slice the pork, the duck legs and the sausages in several smaller morsels. Return the meats to the slow cooker set on the warm setting. Add the drained potatoes.
Serve directly from the slow cooker to keep the content warm for the second serving.
*It is a dry brine and as its wet equivalent tenderizes the meat.
Room temperature lemon soufflé
(Easy, Preparation and cooking time:1 and 1/2 hours, Cheap)
Ingredients:
1 stick butter (113g) at room temperature
1 cup (250 g) sugar
6 large eggs separated at room temperature
4 large lemons juiced, 1 teaspoon grated zest
2/3 cup (160 g) flour sifted
Pinch of salt
1½ cups (375ml) skim milk
1¼ cups(310ml) of heavy cream
2 cups (500g) raspberries
2 sprigs of mint

Material:
10 Martini glasses
1 food processor fitted with the eggbeater attachment
1 salad bowl
Whip
Rubber spatula
1 soufflé dish (8.7 inch or 22 cm) in diameter
1 oven proof dish large enough to contain comfortably the soufflé dish

Preheat the oven at 350 F (180C), with the rack in the lower middle position.
Place the sugar and butter in the bowl of the food processor and beat until homogeneous. Add the yolk one at a time, beating in between. Add lemon zest, juice, flour and salt and beat until well combined. Pour the content of the mixer in the salad bowl. Wash and dry the mixer bowl and whip. Reassemble the food processor.
Add to the content of the salad bowl the cream and milk and whip until homogeneous.
Place the egg whites and the cream of tartar in the bowl of the mixer and beat until they firm and peaks form.
Mix carefully the content of the two bowls using the spatula to lift the whites.
Pour the batter in the soufflé dish. Pour boiling water in the large rectangular dish and carefully settle the soufflé dish in the middle.
Bake for 45 minutes. When done (the soufflé will hardly have risen and the top will be brown) remove the soufflé dish from the other and let cool at room temperature for at least 2 hours.
To serve, cut wedges and place in a Martini glass. Top with strawberries and a chiffonnade (lobster salad in September 4th post) of washed and dried mint leaves.

Saving summer bounty

Among the many somewhat neurotic Greek gods Demeter has always been a favorite of mine. Her devotion to her daughter forced her to tread inconsolably the earth barren by her anguish, while Persephone abducted by Hades sojourned in the Inferno. Eventually the situation resolves when Zeus intervenes and divides Persephone’s year in two: one half to be spent on earth with her mother and the other six months to reign with her terrible husband over the realm of Shadows. As fall approaches, one cannot help but recall the goddess of agriculture and seasons. When the garden (whether yours or the farmer markets) produces its last summer firework, it is cost effective to save the results of its labor to consume in winter. Tomatoes and cherry tomatoes finally fruit abundantly. There is a cornucopia of raspberries, string beans and herbs. The last zucchinis and eggplants show off. To retain a little of the summer warmth and do away with the tasteless greenhouse tomatoes, using the freezer is less time consuming than preserving. It is also more true to the product, as it does not require the addition of preservatives. Laziness becomes a virtue. I simply lay raspberries on a cookie sheet, which I then place in the freezer. A couple of hours later, I bag them and return the labeled bags to the freezer. Herbs and string beans are another good candidates for freezing. With minimal care, frozen summer vegetable stock and tomato sauce line up to enrich my future winter meals.

Summer vegetable stock
(Easy, Preparation and cooking time:30 minutes)
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion frozen for 10 minutes
3 garlic cloves
1 leek
2 carrots
Any vegetable available (zucchini, eggplant)
4 cups (1000ml) water

Material
8-quart saucepan
Peeler
Paring knife and board
Strainer

Peel the onion and slice finely. Peel and crush the
garlic cloves.
Slice off the bottom of the leek. Keep the white part and ¼ of the green tops. Slice finely and wash in cold water to remove all the earth. Save a full clean leave for the bouquet garni of the frozen tomato sauce.
Peel and slice the carrots. Wash the zucchini and eggplant.
Pour the olive oil in the saucepan and set on the low range of the gas. Add the onion and garlic. Stir-fry for about three minutes. Add the sliced leek, carrots, zucchini and eggplant and cook for another 5 minutes. Pour the 4 cups of water and simmer for another 20 minutes.
Strain the stock, keeping the vegetables for a salad and to thicken the frozen tomato sauce.
Pour a cup of stock in as many containers as needed. Wait until it is cold to freeze. Label each container with date and content.

Frozen tomato sauce
(Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes, Cheap)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
2 lbs (1 kg) tomatoes or cherry tomatoes*
1 bouquet garni (leek leave, a sprig of thyme, sage and laurel leaves, oregano and parsley and any other herbs available)
1 cup cooked vegetables leftovers from the previous recipe

Material:
1 4-quart pot
1 paring knife
1 blender
Plastic containers of 1-cup capacity

Place the onion in the freezer for about ten minutes.
Wash a leek leave, a thyme branch, a sage and a laurel leave, Roll the leek around the other elements and secure by knotting the leek ends together for a twine-free bouquet garni.
Peel and slice the onions.
Place the flat blade of a knife over a garlic clove, and hit it with the other hand. Peel off the skin. Repeat with the other cloves.
Pour the oil in the pan and set the pan on the low range of the gas. Stir-fry the onions and garlic until slightly colored.
Cut the tomatoes in quarter and remove the seeds. If using cherry tomatoes, remove the stems and leave whole.
Add the tomatoes and the bouquet garni.
Cook for about 20 minutes. Retrieve and discard the bouquet garni.
Place in the blender, add a cup of the summer vegetables from the stock and mix.
Pour a cup into as many plastic containers as needed and bring to room temperature prior to freezing.
Label with the date and a description of the content.
* If the tomatoes are slightly acid, add a tablespoon of sugar

Frozen herbs
(Easy, preparation time: 10 minutes)
Ingredients:
A bouquet of basil
A bouquet of mint
A bouquet of chives
A bouquet of dill

Material:
Scissors
Salad spinner
Paper towels
Blender
Plastic bags
Labels

Wash the bouquets separately, gather the leaves and spin in the salad spinner.
For the mint and basil leaves, the technique is the same: align the leaves on top of each other, roll into a tight cigarette and cut into thin bands. Gather a spoonful worth of herb per package, label, date and freeze.
For the chives: clean and dry the chives and snip off the end. Gather a spoonful worth of herb and proceed as highlighted above.
For the dill, place the cleaned leaves in a blender and pulse. Place a tablespoon of the minced herbs into a bag and continue as above.

Frozen string beans
(Easy, Preparation and cooking time:10 minutes, Cheap)
Ingredients:
String beans

Material
Saucepan
Plastic bags and labels

Snip off both end of the string beans.
Pour water in a saucepan and bring to a high boil. Drop the string beans in the water and wait until the boiling resumes.
Strain and refresh the string beans under cool water.
Bag and freeze.

The subtle cuisine

The only French three-star woman chef in fifty years practices her art quietly in Valence, France at Maison Pic, the restaurant where her grand-father and father worked before her. Anne-Marie Pic is a slip of a woman, whose large dark eyes speak of steel determination. Having breathed and lived cooking in her younger years, she left to study management and work in Paris and in Japan. With the realization that her true call was creation, she came back to her father’s kitchen three months before his untimely death and pursued her apprenticeship, until she felt she owned the basics and could go beyond. The reward: three stars at 37.
Her cooking style pays homage to her inheritance without being its hostage. First and foremost the products are perfect. Their transformation is subtle and often involves the association of a fruit or a spice and a sweet component. The recipe Anne-Marie gave me to share is typical. It hints of Japan sashimi and pickled vegetables, but the fish is cooked albeit at low temperature and the vinegar is grape based rather than rice. The dish is sweet and elegant, the selected spice, green anis, is present without being overwhelming.
There were no special difficulties in shopping for the components, except for the fennel flowers that act as a decorative touch. I chose dill fronds as a substitute. The use of low cooking merits a special mention. As far as a casual research through the Internet can tell, the method is exclusively documented for meat. Both Thierry Marx (featured in the May 1st 2009 of I am therefore I cook) and Michel Bras (Friday, May 15th) among other celebrated chefs, use it for fish. The advantages are obvious: less water is lost, leaving the flesh particularly tender. Whereas a raw piece of fish is chewy, a normally cooked piece can be dry. For fish eaten cold, low cooking which brings its temperature at 153F (47C) is also a gain of time.

Coastal steamed turbot with cucumber puréed and pickled and anis butter (Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 45 minutes 6 hours before, cooking time: 20 minutes before the meal, Cheap)

Ingredients
For the fish:
4 skinless pieces of turbot or halibut 3-oz (50 g) each
Pinch of salt
6-oz (100g) salted butter
1/8 teaspoon (1g) green anis powder
For the cucumber purée:
1 medium-sized cucumber
1/6 teaspoon (3g) green anis seeds
Pinch of salt
For the marinated cucumber:
1 medium-sized cucumber
80 g sugar
90 ml white balsamic vinegar
Pinch of flower salt
For the anis butter:
1 cup (200 g) sweet butter
1 teaspoon (8g) green anis seeds
¼ cup (50ml) heavy cream
¼ cup (50ml) vegetable stock (February 16th 2009)
Garnish:
Dill flowers
Anis powder

Material:
Peeler
Paring knife
Grapefruit spoon
Blender
Thin cloth
Strainer
Saucepan
Whip
Salad bowl
Parchment paper covered cookie sheet

The day or 6 hours before:
Skin the cucumbers with the peeler. Cut longitudinally and remove the seeds with the grapefruit spoon. Cut in cubes. Steam ½ the cucumbers for 5 minutes or until soft. Cool under running cold water. Mix in the blender with the green anis. Place the cloth over the strainer and strain the purée. Add the pinch of salt, taste and add more if needed. Reserve in the fridge.
Prepare the syrup by boiling the sugar and vinegar together. When the syrup is cold, use it to marinate the raw cucumber for 6 hours. Pass through the strainer and reserve.

Twenty minutes before the meal:
Preheat the oven at 160F(50 C).
Melt the sweet butter. Add 1/3 of the anis seed and let the savor build in the refrigerator.
Place the vegetable stock and anis in a pan over the medium range of the gas. Bring to a boil. Add the cream and let it reduce by half. Remove the saucepan from the heat and immediately whip in the chilled butter little at a time. The sauce should be thick and ivory colored as a light hollandaise. Filter. Taste and add salt if needed. Reserve.
Mix the salted butter and the powdered anis. Brush onto the fish. Place the fish on the cookie sheet and cook for 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature reached 150F (48C).
For the restaurant touch, start by laying the cucumber purée, top it by three cubes of marinated cucumber. Add the turbot and the sauce. Sprinkle dill flowers and anis powder.

Green Beans

Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), not to be confused with the African Dolichos or Vigna are another gift of South America quickly passed from the Papal table to the European courts. Pope Clement VII created a special envoy in charge of spreading the Andean gift to the rest of the world: Piero Valeriano fulfilled his mission by entrusting the new seeds to Catherine de Medicis as she sailed to marry the heir to the French throne, the future Henri II in 1533. The introduction of this new plant corresponds to a shift in diet from mainly cereals to an increasing vegetable consumption. Behavior changes along as Catherine brings forks to the Royal banquets and plates replace bread slices. Our modern green beans, evolved from the new import, are only a century old. Their birth is also linked to a cultural shift towards ideal thinness. Not only is the French bean an appropriate metaphor for a skinny body, but its high water (90%), mineral (potassium, calcium and magnesium) and vitamin (C, A, E and B) content turns it into a healthy choice. Unfortunately this perfect marriage of esthetics and nutrition is easily broken by poor cooking techniques. Too often cooks are admonished to boil the string beans in a large quantity of salted water for twenty minutes. Although it preserves the bright green color of the vegetable, it also eliminates the vitamins. To preserve both nutritional qualities and color, string beans should be blanched for a few minutes and then stir-fried. If the color is of no importance, it is better to cook the beans in a covered pan with as little water as possible.
The qualifiers used to describe this vegetable are indicative of the many stages it can assume. Rather than favor the skinny (French) beans which spoils fast and may have been harvested far away, go for the freshest and plumpest ones found in your local farmers’ markets or even better in your own garden as cultivation is easy, doesn’t require soil amendment and procures abundant harvest for minimal work. Before cooking, snip off both ends with your fingers and remove any strings attached. The following recipes serve 4 and associate string beans with onion and herbs for a side dish or for use in an end-of-summer lobster salad.

Stir-fried green beans and onions
Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 20 minutes, Cheap
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1½ lbs (700g) green bean
1 onion peeled and sliced
¼ soy sauce
½ cup chives
Salt and pepper

Material:
Saucepan
Colander
Wood spoon

Place a saucepan full of water on the high range of the gas. When it boils, add a tablespoon of salt and the washed and snipped green beans. When the boil resumes, cook for 5 minutes. Drain the beans in the colander.
Place the dried saucepan on the medium to low gas range, add the oil. After about 1 minute, add the onions stirring constantly for about 5 minutes, until they turn golden. Add the beans and soy sauce and cook for another 5 minutes. Taste one bean, if it is too crisp to your taste continue to stir-fry.
Sprinkle the chives on top and serve hot. Beans are delicious along a plate of lamb or pork.

Green beans, tomato and corn lobster salad (One pot lobster salad)
Easy, Preparation and cooking time: 60 minutes*, A little expensive**



Ingredients
For the salad:
1 lbs (500g) string bean
3 ears of corn
3 tomatoes
6 basil leaves
Chives
3 lobsters
For the dressing:
1 shallot
½ cup (125ml) olive oil
1 tablespoon mustard
¼ cup (60ml) lemon juice

Material:
6-quart saucepan and cover
Set of tongues
Grapefruit spoon
Nut cracker
Blender
Salad bowl
Board and paring knife
Pair of scissors

Place the lobsters in the freezer for 30 minutes to anesthetize prior to boiling.
Fill the saucepan three-quarter of the way with water, add 1 tablespoon of salt and place on the high range of the gas. When it boils, place the ears of corn in the water. Upon resumption of boiling, count five minutes and remove the corn with the set of tongues. Refresh the corn in cold water and reserve.
Plunge the string beans and tomatoes in the boiling water. Remove the tomatoes when boiling resumes. Refresh under cold water. Peel and seed when cold enough to handle. Cut the tomatoes in small pieces and place in the salad bowl. Count about 10 minutes after the water boils again for the string beans. Remove from the water with tongues and place in the salad bowl along with the tomatoes.
Plunge the lobsters heads first into the boiling water. When the water boils again, count 7 to 10 minutes depending on the lobsters’ size. Refresh under cold water.
Place each ear of corn at a time in the salad bowl. Using the paring knife separate the corn grains from the cob and discard the cob.
Remove the lobster meat from the shells and the legs. Cut in one-inch pieces and add to the content of the salad bowl.
Snip the chives and basil leaves and add to the salad.
Place all the ingredients of the dressing in the blender and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour the dressing in the bowl and mix until all the ingredients are well coated. Serve immediately. If eating the lobster salad at a later time, keep the dressing separate.

* The only lengthy part of the recipe is the lobster preparation. To save time buy lobster meat from your fishmonger.
**Shrimps can be substituted for lobster for a considerable gain of time and potential savings. Count 4 pieces per person and cook in the microwave or boil until pink.