Fall food

It's definitely autumnal around here now. Leaves are falling everywhere. Temperatures are chilly. And it's raining. We've had about two inches (50 mm) of rain over the past three or four days.

At times like this, my thoughts turn to fall and winter foods. One of them is choucroute garnie. That's "fermented" cabbage (salt-cured) rinsed and then cooked slowly with white wine, carrots, onions, bay leaves, and juniper berries. It's served with smoked and salt-cured meats including brined pork shoulder or belly, Montbéliard, Frankfort, or Strasbourg sausages, and — the way I make it — smoked chicken. Oh, and steamed new potatoes.

Half a smoked chicken, a saucisse de Montbéliard, and some chunks of brined and

simmered pork shoulder "garnish" the sauerkraut, onions, and carrots.

Did I ever tell you that one of my main reasons for coming to live in France was — is — the food?

All the sausages I mentioned above are available in all the markets and supermarkets, along with many others. Montbéliard sausages are similar to the saucisses de Morteau that I posted about a few days ago. They come from the same region and are smoked the same way, but more lightly. The sausages themselves are 100% pork, and they're skinnier than Morteau

One kilogram of choucroute crue — raw sauerkraut — ready
to be rinsed, blanched, and cooked.

The sauerkraut itself is something I buy in its raw form. You can buy it pre-cooked in either Alsatian riesling wine or even champagne, but I prefer to cook it myself. The raw product has to be rinsed and blanched to remove excess salt. Then you just simmer it in white wine with herbs, spices, carrots and onions. It's a long, slow process, but the result is worth it. I make a big batch, because the choucroute improves with each re-heating and lasts as long as a week.

By the way, the same kinds of ferments lactiques, or milk cultures, that cure raw cream and turn it into French crème fraîche, which I wrote about yesterday, are the ones that transform raw cabbage into delicious, healthful, digestible choucroute. Fine ferments, I think.