My sauerkraut recipe seems to have worked and I will be making a Choucroute Garnie this week, something that I am strangely excited about. Yay! I have finally mastered homemade sauerkraut after failing so badly 23 years ago that I never attempted it again until now. The only thing that I can’t quite work out is what to serve with it as part of a cohesive dinner.
My thought process is as follows: Choucroute Garnie is quite heavy (5 kinds of meat), so a light dessert, preferably one that - despite sauerkraut’s much lauded probiotic health properties - aids digestion makes sense. Can I get away with not serving an appetizer because – again – a choucroute is a behemoth of a dish. But then, what do I serve as nibbles with drinks? Something full on vegetarian to counter all the animal protein is probably the answer…
Here’s the thing – there is such a thing as a cohesive dinner menu. If you are serving a very meat and carb oriented main course, you need to amp up the veggies elsewhere. Try to have a salad in the mix. If you are serving potatoes as a main course side dish, don’t serve Vichyssoise as an appetizer. If – as happened at a dinner party to which I was invited - you have made pork rillettes to be eaten with drinks, served me pan seared foie gras as an appetizer (thank you, by the way) and then dished out a rich, cream based pheasant stew with grapes as a main course, please do not then bring out a sinful chocolate cake for dessert. I admire your culinary skills and your budget, but I want to go home now. Dinner, like life, is all about balance.
L. thinks that I suffer from a rare strain of culinary OCD, but I stand by my convictions. And remind him from time to time when particularly provoked that he will only realize how well he eats, and how much thought and love is put into his meals, once he is on his own and catering for himself. A friend recently mentioned that he pitied the woman that L. married, to which my response as a feminist was that perhaps L. would be the one cooking for his household. Hopefully by then he will have learned menu planning by osmosis...
So, Sunday morning rant over. Back to basics. This Week's CSA box contained:
Herbs: a few sprigs of tarragon
Greens: a bunch of collard greens, a punnet of micro kale sprouts, a bag of flat leaf spinach (photo above), a bunch of Swiss chard
Alliums:
Vegetables: a bunch of red beets, a small bag of Brussels sprouts, 2 sweet potatoes, a handful of Yukon gold potatoes, a bunch of carrots, one purple daikon which, despite my love of Japanese food, I am quite tired of incorporating into my diet
Fruit: -
Extraneous items for Oscar viewing nibbles and salad greens for the week aside, the contents of this week's box will be transformed into:
Sunday [“Raid” Meal; fridge, freezer and pantry item dinner]
Out – Oscar Viewing! We are responsible for bringing some snacky dinner things so check back in later for photos and recipes of items that worked
Monday [Wildcard; a more complex or fiddly dish than usual to test my culinary skills but don’t feel like it this week]
Mixed Salad
Silky Braised Greens
Sour Cream Biscuits
Tuesday [Pasta]
Roasted Beet and Micro Kale Salad with Purple Daikon Dressing
Grilled Steak with Onions
Baked Potatoes with Sour Cream and Tarragon
Wednesday [L.'s choice of an item I have made in the past but dinner party instead with my homemade sauerkraut which seems to be working]
Thursday [Fish]
Mixed Salad
Kombu Steamed Tilapia with Meyer Lemon Dressing
Kelp Powder Spaetzle with Shredded Brussels Sprouts
Friday [Vegetarian]
Chopped Salad
Heart of Palm “Crab” Cakes with Carrot Green Gremolata
Glazed Carrots with Cardamom and Ginger
Saturday ["Picnic" Dinner; something that is easy to assemble and easy to eat in front of a movie]
Out
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