German Fest in My Fridge

Ever have leftover CSA vegetables you didn’t know what to do with?

In January?

Yeah, this surprised me as well. But sure enough, just after New Year’s, I found myself staring at some leftover kohlrabi, turnip, and carrot and half of a huge head of purple cabbage. They were perfectly fine – wrap and package anything properly and it will keep for a pretty long time. But somehow it seemed like if our last CSA delivery was in mid-November, these babies should probably get out of the fridge and onto a plate.

I decided to do one of my guinea pig dinners – one where I make something for the first time and serve it to guests. This is a fun game. Once upon a time, I would never have served a meal to guests without having tested it in-house first. Somewhere along the line, I got over that and now I see it as a great opportunity to try something new.

And so I did.

Not only did I do a guinea pig dinner, but I also made it a dinner using only what was on hand in the kitchen – no shopping. Kind of like my own little home version of Chopped. But not really. Because nobody gave me $10,000 at the end. Oh, well.

Here’s what I had that I wanted to use mostly because they needed to be used:

• three kohlrabi
• a bunch of carrots
• one huge turnip
• half of an enormous head of purple cabbage
• a red onion
• about half a package of turkey bacon leftover from some breakfast endeavor

After poking around the pantry and the fridge, I added the following to the pile:

• one Granny Smith apple
• two chicken sausages – one with provolone and parsley; one with white wine, lemon, parsley, and garlic

My first inspiration was the cabbage – I knew that would work well braised and so I got out the braising pan my Mom got me when braising started to be a thing and put it to work.

Into the pan went the following:

• grapeseed oil (or olive – whatever you like) – cover the bottom of the pan with a swirl or two and heat
• the red onion (chopped) – cook a few minutes until translucent and starting to caramelize
• the bacon (also chopped into small pieces) – cook until as crispy as you want it, then proceed
• the cabbage (also chopped) – toss it in with the onion and let it start to soften
• the Granny Smith apple (also chopped) – toss it in after the cabbage softens a bit
• some raisins (maybe) – could have been dried cherries. I think it was cherries. Use either – whatever you like.
• brown sugar (a couple of tablespoons)
• Dijon mustard (a couple of tablespoons)
• apple cider vinegar (about 1/4 to 1/3 cup)
• red wine every now and then (many times…many many times) to deglaze and give the mixture something to soak up

The above happened in no particular order (unless so noted) and really just according to taste. I did the “cover the top” and “you’ll know when it tastes right” methods my Grandmother and Mom used when I was growing up.

While all that was happening, I peeled and chopped the kohlrabi, carrots, and turnip, dumped them into boiling water and treated them much the way you would if you were making mashed potatoes. Once they were drained, I added a splash of light cream, a few pats of butter, some salt and pepper, and perhaps some nutmeg. Mash slightly with a hand masher – you want all those really good chunks of veggie staring at you. I suppose you could puree them with an immersion blender or whatever if you like them that way, but I liked the slightly smashed version for this meal.

While all those veggies were doing their thing, I swirled some grapeseed oil in a skillet and heated that for the chicken sausages. No, they weren’t the same flavors, but they were close enough. I like to sear off the sausages and get them a little brown on the outside, then when they’re not quite cooked through, slice them and then toss the little pieces back into the pan so they get brown on as much surface area as possible. But that’s just me.

Once everything was finished, I assembled my own little pseudo-Sauerbraten plate. Granted, chicken sausages are not exactly a marinated beef roast, but they were a fun spin on the traditional dish. While classic Sauerbraten is traditionally served with something like potato dumplings or Spätzle and red cabbage, I subbed in the mashed root veggies for the potatoes and kept the cabbage. All in all, we ended up with a slimmed down and healthier version of this meal and I couldn’t have been happier with the way it came together.

The end result tasted as good as it looked. This was so fun to make and I was thrilled with the way it turned out – especially since I had exactly no plan whatsoever. It smelled absolutely amazing from the minute the onions went in the pan and it just built from there. The Fab Hub ate it, Kidzilla ate it, and the guests ate it. Everyone loved it. I can’t lie – it made me feel really great that everyone was so pleased and impressed.

Even better, this was really completely easy. For both the cabbage and the root veggie mash, you really can’t go wrong – if the worst thing that happens is you overcook something a bit, so what? It will still be terrific. Crispier bacon? Softer cabbage? Softer veggies? No problem. OK, maybe pay attention to the chicken sausages and don’t burn those. Total time from start to finish, including chopping up the bacon and all those veggies was about 90 minutes. That’s not too bad. I probably could have done it in an hour if I had it planned out ahead of time and didn’t tend to get a little distracted when we have company and I’m cooking.

I would definitely make this again – on purpose – even if I don’t have to use up some forgotten CSA goodies. This could easily earn a place in our regular roster. I like that it was simple, rustic, and so easy. And yet it was interesting and impressed the guests at our table. That’s a big win – especially for a “clean out the fridge” project!