You can make it easy on yourself or you can go hog wild by fermenting your sauerkraut, stuffing the sausages, smoke the pork and in about five weeks or so, which is no time at all if you’re waiting to eat, your dish should be ready. Somewhere along my travels, I found myself in Bruxelles (Brussels if I must), waiting to meet someone I was told I would recognize. Just as the cathedral bells rang the noon hour, I realized was powerfully hungry and decided to stroll around old familiar stomping grounds near the Grand Place and the little cobble-stoned side streets filled with restaurants, cafes and numerous maison de chocolat where one can sample little bits of heaven! I found myself returning to old familiar streets: Rue au Beurre, Rue du Midi, Rue des Pierres and finally, une bonne addresse, 78 Boulevard Anspach where Le Grand Café is situated and just a short walk from the Grand Place.  


The restaurant has a simple menu, which I like, but the real difficulty is deciding to choose just one item. If you have the willpower to make it pass the selections of moules and the frites (french fries) and past the beef selections, then you will have made it to the Spécialités Belges – or Belgian specialties – and there is the Choucroute à l’Alsacienne au Cremant d’Alsace. Of course you want your sauerkraut made with Cremant d’Alsace (regional sparkling wine of the champagne variety.) Who in their right mind would not? So there you are having ordered and now comfortably sipping a nice dark local beer, perhaps a Chimay, when your waiter appears holding the world’s largest tray which he gently places on a serving station. With great ease he maneuvers the fork and serving spoon with one hand placing a mound of sauerkraut on your plate then adding several different types of sausages, some short and fat, others long. Boiled potattoes are added to your plate then a pot of brown spicy mustard appears. Will that be all Monsieur? It is Heaven personified, I can assure you. There is no other word for it. Maybe the dish was meant for two, you’re not sure but one thing you do know and that is you are up for the challenge. The sauerkraut is spectacularly flavorful beyond your wildest imagination. You cut a hefty piece of sausage and dip it into the dark brown spicy mustard until it disappears only to be rescued as you push on a pile of sauerkraut then devour this combination, this elixir of the god’s. A long, slow sip of beer completes the moment. You smile satisfactorily and thinking to yourself “I wonder what the rest of the world is doing?” Truly nothing can be better than this.

Choucroute Garnie is probably as good a poster child for comfort food or “cuisine grand-mere.” It’s one of those dishes that takes me back to my childhood when winters were generally colder and lasted longer unlike the Mid Atlantic region, where our Indian Summers last well into October.  If you come from the Alsace region of France, choucroute garnie probably tastes like home to you as well. It does reflect its German ancestry and thus retains the heavy footprint of a hobnailed boot. Nevertheless, history reminds us that with the French annexation of Alsace and Lorraine after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 this dish quickly caught the eye of French chefs who added something special and dish was made famous. Many Americans I suspect, think of Al Sace as the local insurance man down on Main Street. That inconvenient truth aside, this French dish is all about warmth, comfort and abundance: sauerkraut simmered with wine and juniper berries and studded with various cuts of pork, piled high on a platter and surrounded by a ring of boiled potatoes. Of course, the dish does pair perfectly with a good glass of Alsatian Riesling or, if you are planning a putsch, perhaps a strong German beer and a salute would do just a well. 

Choucroute Garnie Alsacienne 
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients:
  • 3 pounds fresh or canned sauerkraut, washed
  • 3 cups chicken stock (or a nicer alternative, see below)
  • Big chunk of salt pork, soaked in water to remove excess salt
  • 2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 3-pound piece smoked pork loin (not ready-to-eat)
  • 12 frankfurters, 6 knockwurst, or other hearty sausages
  • 1 pre-cooked Polish kielbasa
  • 12 potatoes
  • Strong French or German mustard

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325ºF.
Put washed sauerkraut in a stockpot with chicken stock. If you like, use beer or white wine or champagne for part of the liquid. Add a big chunk of soaked salt pork, garlic cloves, and black pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Put frankfurters or knockwurst’s and kielbasa in with the sauerkraut for the last 20 minutes to heat through.
Roast smoked pork loin the oven about 25 minutes per pound, or until it reaches an internal temperature of 170ºF. Boil potatoes in their jackets separately, then peel.
When it comes time to assemble the dish, drain the sauerkraut and mound it in the center of a big platter. Slice the pork loin and arrange around the sauerkraut. Garnish with sliced kielbasa and salt pork, whole frankfurters or knockwursts, and peeled potatoes. Serve with hot mustard, such as a Düsseldorf or German-type mustard, or French Dijon.

Now about those wines and beers:

Alsace Riesling – Alsace region
Sylvaner white wine – Alsace region
Alsace Pinot Noir – Alsace 
Muscade – Val de Loire
Cremant d’Alsace – Alsace region
Moselle Riesling – Mosel, Saar, Germany

Samuel Adams Scotch Ale – U.S.A
Yuengling Dark Brewed Porter – U.S.A
Kronenbourg 1664 – Alsace region, France
Meteor Biere d’Alsace – Alsace region, France
Chimay Red – Belgium 
Trappist Achel Blond – Belgium