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Life & Arts Blogs
 
Sex in a Bowl
By Irv Dean
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
One of my favorite dishes to make for guests is a version of the Alsace-Lorraine regional specialty known as choucroute garni. It is a wonderful combination of smoked pork parts, sauerkraut, spices and herbs, potatoes, brown sugar and broth or other liquid that you can slow cook in a crock pot or make on the stove top in a heavy kettle like a dutch oven. A friend describes the finished product, which you serve piping hot with a nice crusty French bread, as so good it should be called “Sex in a Bowl.” You can experiment with your own version. I tend to use a smoky sausage, like a kielbasa, sliced thick. I also use bacon that has been crisped and then cut into bite-sized pieces. The dish begins with the assembly of a bouquet garni, a piece of cheesecloth encasing complementary herbs and spices: sprigs of flat-leaf or curly parsley and fresh thyme, a few cloves, a couple of bay leaves and some chopped cloves of garlic that you have peeled and mashed a bit. You can add peppercorns, if you like. Truss up the cheesecloth containing the herbs and toss it in the pot. (You'll discard it later.) Potatoes should be peeled and cut into bite-size pieces. A waxy potato like a Yukon gold works best, but any potato will do. You can also add sliced apples to the mix. They tend to mostly dissolve but add to the depth of the flavors you're creating. And instead of broth, you can use a bit of good beer along with broth or water. I'm not going to give you a specific recipe for this because you ought to develop your own. It's awfully hard to mess it up. I will strongly recommend that you make it in a slow-cooker. I've done it in a crock pot and in a dutch oven on the stove top and the crock pot produces a much superior dish because the various flavors have a long time to marry. Serve it with a fruity Riesling or your beverage of choice. Now that's fusionJose Malone's on River Street in Troy calls itself a Mexican-Irish restaurant and pub and you have to love the imagination of whoever came up with that combination. A colleague, reading an e-mail over my shoulder, commented, “Mexican-Irish? What do they make, corned beef tacos?” No, they do not, smartie pants. But they do have a new chef and a new menu and are now serving red bliss potatoes stuffed with ground chorizo and pickled jalapenos, all smothered in a blend of cheddar, Monterrey jack and mozzarella cheeses and topped with a pasilla chile-scented sour cream. Another dish that got my attention is a vegetarian butternut squash tamale – chunks of fresh butternut squash, onions, fresh pineapple and jicama with a black bean mole poblano sauce, steamed in a blue corn masa wrapped in banana leaves. Cold pizzasJason Watt and Ryan Szablewski have pulled the wraps off a new offering at their Samuel's Coffeehouse at 258 Alplaus Ave. in Alplaus. On July 9, they debuted a gourmet cold pizza, which Szablewski describes as a curry-chili crust topped with fresh basil, red onions sauteed in balsamic vinaigrette with garlic and rosemary and topped with salami, yellow tomatoes, calamari, olives and an asiago/feta cheese mixture. Fresh basil and cilantro leaves also make their way into the mix. Other cold pizzas will include pineapple, red peppers, mozzarella and gorganzola and various spices and marinades. Quite creative and likely to be a big hit. Reader feedback is welcome. Comment below or drop a note to me at dean@dailygazette.com.
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October 6, 2008
11:55 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
Hm. I had that sauerkraut stuff once, and I always sorta wondered where that bizarre-but-tasty dish came from. I wouldn't heap as much praise on it as the subject of this entry, but it was surprisingly good for such an unusual bit of cookery.
4:23 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
Choucroute garni? Holy cow (or should I say pig?) Ok... Holy Pig, who knew? I wish it was crock pot season! Sounds orgasmic. Now we just need a lo-fat version (just kidding, pass the bread please.)