Choucroute Garni Two Ways

The joys of making your own sauerkraut, and a couple of variations on choucroute garni. This is great Winter food, whether paired with traditional pork garnishes, or smoked turkey (above).

A Summer Terrine

Here is a light, cool terrine for a Summer lunch.  Chicken surrounds a central layer of vegetables and asparagus mousse.

Chicken Sausages with Apple and Calvados

You come home from work, you're tired; a bag of chicken thighs in one hand and a bottle of Calvados in the other.  What to do?

Well here's another idea.   If you keep sausage casings handy (and they keep an extremely long time), you can quickly make these sausages.  They are nice to keep in the freezer for a quick supper or weekend lunch, and best of all, they can be varied by the addition of dried fruits such as figs or prunes.

Sauerkraut and Vermont Choucroute Garni

It started with a crock, as so many things do.  

In this case, a beautiful wood-fired stoneware sauerkraut crock made by local potter Maya Zelkin.  As I stood in Maya's chilly studio last fall (she lives off the grid), her son, who is very young, offered me a bite of raw sauerkraut and a glass of juice.  I was charmed, and I loved the sauerkraut, which was crunchy, light, fresh.  Then Maya showed me the Crock.  

To justify the purchase of this object, I promised myself to make sauerkraut according to Maya's directions: Tamp, Tamp, Tamp the cabbage, and keep on Tamping.  Put on a little salt.  And in fact, that is basically the recipe for sauerkraut.

Linguine with Tuscan sausage and lobster mushrooms

This is a spectacular pasta, using savory pork sausages which are elevated to a higher level by fresh spinach, herbs and wine.  The sauce plays off the rustic flavor of the sausage, using large chunks of tomato and lobster-red mushrooms in a tomato-Madeira-cream sauce.  Fennel echoes the Pernod in the sausage, rounding out the flavor balance.