january food

January Food: things that keep us warm, such as stews, but also real vitamin boosts, as from these dishes: Smoked Herring Salad with freshly cooked potato and beet, from Michael van Straeten's book of Super Salads, and Sauerkraut. This German meat bonanza is a weird craving, a consequence surely of winter, but pickled shredded cabbage is an excellent source of vitamin C. I buy it pre-shredded.

Sauerkraut: I've posted this exactly a year ago (see label Cabbage types), with an interesting method for the meat by Françoise Bernard. I didn't bother with the meat now. Here's the method from Menu Maison, Henri Kleinblatt and Livia Claessen (ISBN 978-90-2099185-7), for the cabbage. I quote by heart: add 2 dl of white wine or water to the drained cabbage, and let simmer for 25 minutes with a few juniper berries, 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper. Add the Casseler with the cabbage, the sausage and bacon towards the end of cooking time. The fun aspect of Menu Maison is that the recipes are listed seasonally per month.