Choucroute or Sauerkraut

This winter has been riddled for me with heating problems. As I type this, my cold fingers are trying to withstand the last moments of 9 °C temperature in my home, ever since the heat waned since early morning yesterday, until the technician comes with the spare part and a solution. Even with a cosy temperature indoors, Sauerkraut or choucroute is perfect on the menu, not in the least because of the variety of inane meats one rarely has, but also because the salted and fermented cabbage is a vitamin C bomb.

Here is a healthy way of preparing it. Unlike Ukrainians, I don't ferment the cabbage from scratch, but I don't follow instructions on the package either.

The cabbage (300 g)
Instead of boiling the ready-made fermented cabbage in water, I stew it softly in its own juices. Add a couple of juniper berries.

The meat:
Casseler ham
Bacon
Frankfurters

Instead of frying the meat, here's a method for preparing ham Florentine style, from Françoise Bernard's 1000 recipes of French cooking.

Preheat the oven at 70 °C.

Put the meat in an oven dish.

Take one glass of port, and pour it over the meat.

Put the oven dish in the oven, cover it, and let this cook for 25 minutes.

Note: I used a great Italian aperitivo called Punt e mes instead of port.

Remove your mittens and eat.