Melange rules the day

Yesterday I made another version of choucroute garni. Peter had picked up two different sausages, Johnsonville brats and Boulder (CO) breakfast sausages. We did a major shopping excursion and stocked up on necessities for the next week’s menus. We had leftover homemade sauerkraut and were saving the homemade corned beef for lunch today: Reuben sandwiches.

I could have titled this posting “The best choucroute you will never make,” simply because nobody else has exactly the same stuff in the fridge. Here’s how it came together.

I boiled red potatoes and carrots until tender. I braised 4 brats and 3 breakfast links along with some fresh, finely sliced cabbage. I threw in salt and pepper and some ground caraway seed. When the potatoes and carrots were done, I combined them with the sausage, topped the whole thing with some homemade sauerkraut, and let everything merge and meld. We nearly wet ourselves when we started sucking up this succulent mix, accompanied by some coarse-grain mustard as a condiment.

Why am I writing about this without a recipe? It’s “ideas” my friends. It’s all about ideas.

By the way, the artisanal sausage from Boulder was way less flavorful than the Johnsonville brats. Chemicals be damned. Sometimes it’s about the taste! We ate far more than we intended and have slotted in Monday’s dinner to polish off the rest (and there’s still a lot of it). Buon appetito!