Transylvanian Goulash - Slow Cooking at Its Best

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Transylvania is a province in central Romania that's surrounded by the Transylvanian Alps and the Carpathian Mountains. If we are to believe the likes of Bram Stoker and Anne Rice, this plateau is also the ancestral home of vampires. While imagination should be allowed to soar, I wish the two of them, in the midst of all that Gothic angst, could have given a nod to Romanian cooking. I've held on to this recipe for quite a while now. It first appeared in "The Cooking of Vienna's Empire" by Joseph Wechsberg and it was featured in The New York Times in 2006. I didn't give the recipe a try until last week. My bad! This is absolutely delicious and I hope those of you who trust my opinion and recipes will give this a try. A bit of back ground will help here. We've had unseasonably cold weather in Oregon this past week. I had a taste for choucroute garni but my pantry and freezer did not have all I needed to make it. I decided that this would be a perfect time to give this recipe a test run. I'm so glad I did! This is perfect winter fare and the recipe adapts beautifully to crock-pot or low-slow oven cooking. I'm giving directions for both. Here's the recipe.

Transylvanian Goulash...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
1 pound (drained weight) sauerkraut
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, miced
Salt
2 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
3 cups chicken broth
4 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut in 2-inch cubes
1-1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1/4 cup tomato puree or plain tomato sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons flour

Directions:
1) Wash sauerkraut under cold running water then soak in cold water for 20 minutes to reduce sourness. Strain well, pressing out excess water.
2) Melt butter in a 5-quart casserole; add onions. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until lightly colored, 6 to 8 minutes. Add garlic, season with salt and cook a minute or two longer. Stir in paprika, pour in 1/2 cup of broth and bring to boil. Add pork cubes. Spread sauerkraut over pork sprinkle with caraway seeds. Combine tomato puree and reserved broth in a small bowl. Mix well and pour over sauerkraut. Bring to a boil.
3) If using a crock-pot, transfer contents of casserole to crock-pot insert. Cover, and cook on high, for 3 to 3-1/2 hours, or until pork is fork tender but still retains its shape.
4) If using a conventional oven, preheat to 250 degrees F. Cover casserole and transfer to oven. Cook, covered, for 3 to 3-1/2 hours, or until pork cubes are tender but still retain their shape.
5) When pork is tender, transfer meat and sauerkraut to a serving platter with high sides. Tent with foil to keep warm.
6) Transfer sauce to a 2-quart pan. Set over medium heat. Combine flour, heavy cream and sour cream in a small bowl. Whisk until smooth. Stir mixture into sauce and simmer for 10 minutes longer. Do not boil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour over meat and serve. Pass additional sour cream as a side. Yield: 6 servings.

This post is being linked to:

Crock-Pot Wednesday at Dining with Debbie

Sauerkraut Soup

Do you remember the dust-up over French freedom fries a few years back? I was amazed to learn that a similar thing happened during WWI when the manufacturers of sauerkraut renamed their product liberty cabbage. I first had sauerkraut just after I was married. Our apartment was in an old building whose walls had absorbed aromas from the kitchens of tenants, past and present. On any given night the brisket in apartment 2D fought with the curry in 2F while the unmistakable smell of sauerkraut wafted down the stairs from 3A. It was like a street market. As you walked through the hall you could hear snippets of conversation or the clatter of dishes as the tables were being set and if your olfactory senses were the least bit keen you could tell what everyone was having for supper. I must admit I found my first taste of sauerkraut off-putting. Mama S made it her mission to correct that and while I'll never rise from my death bed to cry "Choucroute" I came to like it well enough. The secret is, of course, to rinse and soak it in several changes of cold water before using. Mama's sauerkraut was more French than German and years later I'd realize what she had taught me to make was actually a choucroute garni. Tender mercies! When I heard about the weather folks on the east coast and plains areas are having, I knew it was time to roll out my sauerkraut soup. The soup has an inverse relationship to the weather - the colder it gets the better the soup tastes. The photograph looks gentile, but the soup is true, hearty peasant fare. Add a salad and some bread and it's a meal in itself.

Sauerkraut Soup

Ingredients:
1 (32-oz.) jar sauerkraut
1 large baking potato, peeled and grated
6 slices thick cut bacon, diced
1 pound smoked sausage, diced
1 large (about 12-oz.) onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 large carrot, grated
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon Hungarian hot paprika
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 (12-oz.) bottle non-alcoholic amber beer (i.e. O'Doul's)
8 cups beef stock
Salt and pepper

Directions:
1) Drain and rinse sauerkraut. Place in a large bowl; cover with cold water and soak for 20 minutes. Drain. Set aside. Place grated potato in a small bowl. Cover with cold water. Drain just before using.
2) Meanwhile, place bacon in a large skillet and saute until crisp. Remove from pan and drain on paper toweling. Add sausage and saute until lightly brown. Remove from pan and drain on paper toweling. Add onions to pan and saute until limp and transparent. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Return bacon and sausage to pan. Add grated carrots, fennel and caraway seeds, paprika and tomato paste. Add beer, scraping bottom of pan to release fond.
3) Place sauerkraut in a large soup pot. Add beef stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; add drained potato and contents of skillet. Simmer for 1 hour. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Yield: 8 servings.