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Sweet and Smokey Pork Rub

15 Feb

sweet and smokey pork rub

A sweet and smoky pork rub the perfect way to season a local pork roast or ribs.

This rub pairs perfectly with your favorite barbecue sauce.

But I think this sweet and smoky pork rub is so delicious that you can skip the sauce if you want to!

I love that the superfood spices turmeric and ginger are included in the ingredients.

Sweet And Smokey Pork Rub

Ingredients

  • 2 or 3 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1/2 to 3/4 tsp smoked salt
  • 2 pinches ground cloves
  • 1/2 cup balsamic or apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup

Directions

Mix garlic powder, thyme, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, smoked salt and cloves in a small bowl.

Rub the spices into the pork.

Prepare the pan, crockpot, pressure cooker or other cooking vessel you’ve selected to cook the pork in by adding any necessary water, cooking racks, etc.

Arrange pork in your pan or crock, then pour the vinegar slowly over the top.

Drizzle with maple syrup.

Cook pork until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 to 160 ° F

Cooking Times

Our family likes to enjoy this sweet and spicy pork rub on fresh ham, pork loin or pork shoulder cooked in the crock pot and on ribs prepared in the pressure cooker.

Cooking times vary according to the cooking method you’ve selected, the cut of pork you’re using and how much it weighs.

The pulled pork in the photo at the top of this post was a 4 or 5 pound pork shoulder cooked on low in the crockpot for about 10 hours.

When we use this rub on ribs, we pressure cook them for 15 to 20 minutes at 15 psi.

Check out the links below for pork cooking times. I’ve organized them by cooking method. 

Click here and here for two handy pork cooking charts if your roasting, baking or braising your pork.

Click here and here for crock pot cooking times.

Click here for a pressure cooking chart. Please note, this chart is for regular, old fashioned, stove top pressure cookers. If you have an electric pressure cooker, such as an instant pot, please refer to your owners manual.

I hope you enjoy this sweet and smokey pork rub as much as we do! 

 

Sweet and Smokey Pork Rub
Print
Author: Real Food Southeastern Indiana- Amanda Smith
A sweet and smokey pork rub is the perfect way to season pulled pork or ribs.
Ingredients
  • 2 or 3 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ¾ tsp ground ginger
  • ¾ tsp ground turmeric
  • ½ to ¾ tsp smoked salt
  • 2 pinches ground cloves
  • ½ cup balsamic or apple cider vinegar
  • ½ cup maple syrup
Instructions
  1. Mix garlic powder, thyme, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, smoked salt and cloves in a small bowl.
  2. Rub the spices into the pork.
  3. Prepare the pan, crockpot, pressure cooker or other cooking vessel you've selected to cook the pork in by adding any necessary water, cooking racks, etc.
  4. Arrange pork in your pan or crock, then pour the vinegar slowly over the top.
  5. Drizzle with maple syrup.
  6. Cook pork until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 to 160 ° F
Notes
Cooking times vary based the cooking method you've selected, the cut of pork you're preparing and how much it weighs. Suggested Cooking Methods: 1. Cook a large pork shoulder in a crockpot for 9 to 10 hours on low. 2.Pressure cook ribs at 15 psi for 15 to 20 minutes.
3.5.3208

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Tags:
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Fermented Cranberry Apple Orange Relish

13 Nov

fermented cranberry apple orange relish

Fermented Cranberry Apple Orange Relish is a delicious twist on a Thanksgiving favorite. I’ve been making it for about three years now and it’s always a hit!

But, I find it’s sometimes best to delay mentioning it’s fermented until after dinner. Some guests may suffer from a case of fermented food fears that could prevent them from trying it. Simply call it Cranberry Apple Orange Relish just in case 😉

Fermented Cranberry Apple Orange Relish 

1 and 1/2 cups of cranberries
2 local apples
2 oranges
1 or 2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup cane sugar or turbinado sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt or canning salt
1/4 cup of starter such as whey or water kefir- optional

 Instructions

Wash cranberries and pulse them in your food processor. Don’t puree them, you want a coarse chop.

Wash, peel, core and quarter two apples. Pulse them in your food processor. Again you want a coarse chop.

Peel 2 oranges. If they have seeds, remove them. I recommend purchasing seed free oranges because removing the seeds is tedious. Then pulse the oranges in your food processor until they are are almost pureed.

Combine cranberries, apples and orange in a medium sized bowl. Add sugar, cinnamon and whey or water kefir (if you’re using it) and stir to combine.

Transfer the mixture to an appropriately sized fermentation vessel with a lid.

relish3

If your using a starter culture: Ferment on your counter top for one to three days, stirring well once or twice a day. Then transfer to cold storage.

If your fermenting without a starter culture: Ferment on your counter top for two to five days, stirring well twice each day. Then transfer to cold storage.

Fermented Cranberry Apple Orange Relish should keep in your refrigerator for several months. You’ll know it’s not good anymore when it molds or you no longer like the taste, whichever comes first.

Recipe Notes

The warmer your house, the faster your relish will ferment. If your house is really warm (above 72 degrees) it may only need to ferment for one day with a starter culture or two days without a starter culture before you transfer it to cold storage. Taste it each day and stop fermenting it when you like the flavor.

Like all fruit ferments, if you ferment your relish too long, it can become a little bit alcoholic. Don’t worry, if that happens you will be able to taste it. Some people like it that way. I don’t. To reduce the chances of your Fermented Cranberry Apple Orange Relish turning alcoholic, ferment in a cool place and for the shortest time possible.

For an added zing, add teaspoons or two of finely grated fresh ginger to the relish.

If you like nuts in your cranberry relish, add them just prior to serving.

 

 

 

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Goat Cheese Pumpkin Cheesecake {with a pecan crust}

26 Oct

Goat Cheese Pumpkin Cheesecake

Before I share the Goat Cheese Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe, I’d like to tell you about the Indiana Farm Family that hand crafted the Artisan Goat Cheese that I used to make it.

Risin’ Creek Creamery

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting the owners of Risin’ Creek Creamery, a new Indiana Goat Creamery!

risin creek2

Photo first published on Risin’ Creek Creamery’s Facebook Page

Owners Tim and Sheena Vanzantz , along with their young son Cole, ended up at the same Local Wine Festival I did. They were selling their Fresh Chevre Goat Cheese and Goat Milk Caramel Sauce and I was selling hair accessories. Our booths ended up right next to eachother.

It was so much fun being next to them and watching people as they sampled the many flavors of Goat Cheese and Caramel Sauce Tim and Sheena had brought with them.

Lots of the people were trying goat milk products for the first time and it was fun to watch their reactions. The adventurous samplers heartily dug in and the timid folks acted like they were almost afraid to try it. But no matter which type of sampeler they were, almost all of the first timers faces would light up with delight after their first bite of Risin’ Creek’s products.

I bought a tub of garlic and herb flavored goat cheese and enjoyed it for dinner on top of a bunless hamburger and some sauerkraut I purchased at the Winery’s concession stand.

cheesecake7

The cheese was great! It made the cheap frozen burgers the winery was serving (for $9 each!!) palatable.

I chatted with the Vanzant’s between customers and learned that Sheena milks about 40 of their almost 80 goats every day on their Martinsville farm property that has been in her husband’s family for more than 30 years.

Currently, they sell their Goat Cheese and Goat Milk Caramel Sauce directly to their customers at Farmers Markets. Their young son Cole often accompanies them to the markets and he sells eggs from his chickens.

On Wednesdays, you’ll find them in downtown Indianapolis at The Original Farmers Market on Market Street. And on Saturdays they’re at the Bloomington Indiana Farmers Market.

They plan to do a winter market too.

This husband and wife team are working hard at growing their business. They hope to offer their products in local stores and to supply restaurants in the future. They’re also looking into a couple of online outlets to sell their award winning goat milk products through.

Yes, I said award winning! Risin’ Creek Creamery’s Roasted Garlic and Herb Chevre and Vanilla Bean Caramel Sauce both took first place in the 2015 National American Dairy Goat Association’s Championship for commercial entries. It’s that good folks!

If you’d like to check out all of the cheese and caramel sauce flavors they offer and learn more about their goats head over to their website. And if you use Facebook, hop over to their fan page and give it a like to show your support for this small Indiana farm!

You Should Also Know

They’re not just farmers and award winning food artisans, they’re very kind people too!

Out of the pure kindness of their of hearts, Tim and Sheena gave another vendor at the wine festival and I two tubs of delicious Risin’ Creek Creamery Chevre that they had leftover.

I received one tub each of plain and Herbs de Provence.

So to thank them, I wanted to write about them and their business out of the kindness of my heart. This is not a sponsored post.

I mixed the Herbs de Provence flavored chevre with plain yogurt and baked it inside of some green peppers, jalapenos and banana peppers from my garden. It was really good! I liked it in the jalapenos best.

PicMonkey Collage

And now… on to the cheesecake recipe!

Goat Cheese Pumpkin Cheesecake

goat cheese pumpkin cheesecake 2

Makes two cheesecakes

Ingredients

For the Crust

2 ½ cups of pecans
¼ cup organic cane sugar
4 Tablespoons of butter

For the cheesecake

16 ounces of cream cheese
5 ounces of plain goat cheese
1 cup plain yogurt
4 eggs
2 cups of pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 to 1 ½ tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 ½ cups of honey or sweetener of your choice

Directions

For the crust

Preheat your oven to 325° F

Pour the pecans into your food processor and pulse them 10 or 15 times to break the nuts up into assorted sizes.

cheesecake4

In a medium sized bowl, mix the chopped pecans with the sugar.

Melt 4 tablespoons of butter, pour it into the bowl of pecans and sugar and stir to evenly coat the nuts.

Evenly divide the pecan, sugar, butter mixture between two pie plates.

cheesecake5

Press the mixture into the bottom of the plates with clean hands or the back of a spoon.

Bake for 20 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.

For the cheesecake

Preheat your oven to 325° F

Allow the eggs, cream cheese, yogurt and eggs to warm up to room temperature.

Mix all of the cheesecake ingredients together in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until they are thoroughly combined.

cheesecake6

Pour ½ of the mixture into each fully cooled, prepared pie crust.

Fill a small pan about half full with water and place it in the bottom of your oven. This creates some steam and helps to keep your cheesecake from cracking.

Bake for one hour.

Recipe Notes

This recipe works just as well in a graham cracker crust. I did the pecan crust because I love pecans and I wanted to make it gluten free.

I thought the sweetness of this recipe was just right, but my husband and son thought it needed a bit more. They regularly consume sweets and I don’t. They topped their slices of goat cheese pumpkin cheesecake with a bit of local maple syrup to sweeten it up just a bit more. Adjust the amount of sweetener up or down to suit your taste preferences or top it with some local maple syrup like my family did.

If you have access to an abundance of goat cheese, you can do a 50/50 mix of goat cheese to cream cheese. Which works out to about 10.5 ounces of each.

If you don’t have any goat cheese, you can use all cream cheese. But you will be missing out!

Are you a local food lover or a proud Hoosier?

Or Both?

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Pumpkin Butter- Crock Pot Recipe

25 Sep

One of the many things I love about fall is pumpkins! I love pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cheesecake and especially pumpkin butter.

pumpkin butter

Pumpkin butter is similar to apple butter. It can be spread on toast, mixed it into oatmeal, given as gifts and used to make a real pumpkin pie spice latte. As opposed to an overpriced artificially flavored pumpkin pie spice latte from a fancy coffee joint or belch…a gas station.

I’ve always wanted to use pumpkin butter in baking recipes too, like muffins or something. But I have never gotten around to trying it. Which is probably just as well, because when I bake it I eat it and I really don’t need it.

Normally, I make pumpkin butter from sugar pumpkins or pie pumpkins, but the first batch I made this year was from a German heirloom pumpkin.

Isn’t it beautiful sitting next to that cushaw squash? A cushaw squash, by the way, can be used to make a pumpkin tasting butter or pie too.

pumpkin butter- crock pot recipe2

It was difficult to cut it up it’s so pretty!

I picked this beauty up at a local farmer’s market a few weeks ago. The farmer told me that he got the seeds from a neighbor, who brought them over from Germany. Her family had been growing this variety for years. He said she told him they made great pies, though his family had never tried making a pie with this variety themselves. For two bucks, I was willing to take the chance and I discovered his neighbor was right, this is a great pie or pumpkin butter pumpkin.

If you know the name of the variety of pumpkin pictured above, I’d love to know.

Pumpkin Butter- Crock Pot Recipe

Ingredients

2 or 3 sugar pumpkins (or one medium sized German pumpkin)
Apple cider or apple juice
¾ to 1 cup maple syrup ( you could also use honey or a mixture of white and brown sugar)
2 to 2 ½ tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice

Directions

Wash, peel and cut the pumpkins into similar sized chunks. Smaller chunks cook a little faster.

pumpkin

Save the seeds for roasting or for next year’s crop.

Pour 2 inches of apple cider or apple juice into the bottom of a large crock pot, then add in the peeled pumpkin chunks.

Cook Covered for 3 to 5 hours on high or 8 to 10 hours on low, until the pumpkin is very tender.

pumpkin2

Puree the pumpkin with an immersion blender. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a regular blender, a food mill or a food processor to get the job done.

Stir in 2 to 2 ½ tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice. Start with less and adjust to your tastes.

pumpkin3

Mix in the maple syrup. And just like the spices, start with less and adjust to your tastes.

Cook the pumpkin butter, loosely covered, for about 2 hours on low, stirring occasionally.

pumpkin 4

Pumpkin butter will keep in your refrigerator for about 10 days.

For long term storage, freeze the extras in freezer safe jars or plastic containers, leaving 1 ½ inches of headspace.

pumpkin butter

Safety Alert! 

It’s not safe to can pumpkin butter. I know folks who do it. I know a very sweet lady that does it and sells it, but it’s not safe and it just isn’t worth the risk. This is coming from a lady who drinks raw milk and eats bacteria filled food on purpose.  Please don’t do it. Just freeze it. source 1 source 2 source 3

 

Pumpkin Butter- Crock Pot Recipe
Print
Author: Amanda Smith
Pumpkin Butter is similar to apple butter. It's great on toast or mixed into oatmeal and it makes a great gift too.
Ingredients
  • 2 or 3 sugar pumpkins (or one medium sized German pumpkin)
  • Apple cider or apple juice
  • ¾ to 1 cup maple syrup ( you could also use honey or a mixture of white and brown sugar)
  • 2 to 2 ½ tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
  1. Wash, peel and cut the pumpkins into similar sized chunks.
  2. Pour 2 inches of apple cider or apple juice into the bottom of a large crock pot, then add in the peeled pumpkin chunks.
  3. Cook Covered for 3 to 5 hours on high or 8 to 10 hours on low, until the pumpkin is very tender.
  4. Puree the pumpkin with an immersion blender, regular blender, food mill or food processor.
  5. Stir in 2 to 2 ½ tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice. Start with less and adjust to your tastes.
  6. Mix in the maple syrup. Just like the spices, start with less and adjust to your tastes.
  7. Cook the pumpkin butter, loosely covered, for about 2 hours on low, stirring occasionally.
  8. Pumpkin butter will keep in your refrigerator for about 10 days.For long term storage, freeze the extras in freezer safe jars or plastic containers, leaving 1 ½ inches of headspace.
Notes
It's not safe to can pumpkin butter. I know folks who do it. I know a very sweet lady that does it and sells it, but it’s not safe and it just isn't worth the risk. This is coming from a lady who drinks raw milk and eats bacteria filled food on purpose. Please don't do it. Just freeze it.
3.4.3177

 

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Or Both?

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Half Sour Pickles

14 Sep

half sour pickles

Half sour pickles are common fare in New York City. Every corner deli you walk past there ferments their own. But in Southeastern Indiana, not so much.

If you’re from this corner of the state, chances are good that you’ve never heard of (little alone tasted) a delicious, tangy half sour pickle.

Vinegar preserved pickles are more common in this neck of the woods. Jars of them line the shelves of every grocery store in the area. And home canners make batch after hot, time consuming batch of them every summer. Well, most of them do. I don’t because mine always turned out too soft and too vinegary.

I’ll bet you have at least one jar of vinegar preserved pickles in  your refrigerator right now. But a fermented half sour pickle in Southeastern Indiana? Good luck finding some. I haven’t. And I’ve looked. A lot.

But that’s OK. Because fermented half sour pickles are quick and easy to make yourself at home. Much easier than vinegar preserved pickles. And you don’t have to heat up your kitchen to do it!

They aren’t just easy to make, I think fermented half sour pickles taste better too. And they contain gut friendly probiotics, which is something vinegar preserved pickles lack.  

Half Sour Pickles Recipe

I hesitate to call this a recipe. It’s more of a guideline really. 

Before I decided to share this ‘recipe’ online I had never measured anything except the saltwater brine concentration when making half sour pickles. I just eyeballed the spices and followed my nose. But this time, I measured just for you.

Please adapt the types and amounts of pickling spices used in this ‘recipe’ to suit your family’s tastes. Unlike canning recipes, it’s safe to make some changes to fermenting recipes without fearing you’ll give your family botulism.  

Ingredients

  • Cucumbers
  • Water
  • Salt
  • Pickling spices
  • Garlic cloves (optional)
  • Leaves that contain tannins

Pickling cucumbers work best but slicing varieties work too.

Directions

Prepare Cucumbers

Wash the cucumbers and remove the blossom end.

Then place them into a bowl or pan of ice water. Let them sit for at least 30 minutes. A couple hours is fine too, just refresh the water with more ice if it starts to get warm.

 hsp2

Mix up Brine

While your cucumbers are taking an ice bath, make a 3.5% saltwater brine. Heat one quart of de-chlorinated tap water or spring water in a pan on your stove and stir in 2 tablespoons of non-iodized salt until it dissolves. Don’t boil the water, just heat and simmer.

If you’re turning a large batch of cucumbers into half sour pickles, you’ll need to double or triple (or more) the amount of brine you make. When deciding how much brine to mix up, keep this in mind: a one quart jar filled with pickles and spices will require about 2 cups (half of a quart) of saltwater brine.

Allow the saltwater brine to cool completely before you use it. You can speed the process up by putting it into your freezer or refrigerator.

Heat can kill some of the helpful bacteria naturally present on the surface of the cucumbers. It can also cook your cucumbers, which will cause them to lose their crunch. 

Select Spices

Add pickling spices to the bottom or your fermentation jar or crock. 

hsp1

Amounts suggested below are based on one quart of finished pickles. Adjust accordingly.

Fresh dill is best, but dried works OK too. If it’s springtime, use two fresh dill fronds per quart. If it’s later in the year and your dill is starting to set seed, use 1 dill head per quart. If you don’t have access to fresh dill, add one teaspoon of dill seed and one teaspoon of dill weed to each quart.

If you’re using garlic, it must be fresh. Add 2 to 4 peeled cloves per quart. FYI if you add fresh garlic cloves to your half sour pickles and the garlic turns turquoise or some other shade of blue after several days, don’t panic. This is totally normal and they are still safe to eat. It’s just  the sulfur compounds reacting with the acidity or minerals in the water.

Whole peppercorns are another popular addition to half sour pickles.  If you’re going to use them, add 6 to 8 whole peppercorns to each quart.

I love to put some whole mustard seeds in my half sour pickles. If you’d like to include some in yours, add about 2 tsp per quart.

To add an interesting kick, add ½ tsp red pepper flakes per quart.

If you want to add bay leaf or coriander seed, you’re on your own. I’ve never included them in my half sour pickles, and have no idea how much to include.

Add Tannins for Crunch

Now it’s time to add leaves that contain tannins. Tannic acids can help to prevent cucumbers from getting soft during fermentation by neutralizing the pectinase enzyme present on the surface of cucumbers.

Temperatures can affect pickle crispness also, see recipe notes. 

Fresh or frozen grape leaves, oak leaves or horseradish leaves are the traditional choice. One leaf per quart should do.

But, if you don’t have access to grape, oak or horseradish leaves, a little pinch of dried black tea per quart will do the trick too.

Pack, Fill and Ferment

Once the brine is cool and ready to use, remove the cucumbers from their cold swimming pool and pack them tightly into the jar or crock you have lined with pickling spices and tannic leaves.

Then pour the completely cooled 3.5% brine over the top.

Next, weigh the cucumbers down under the brine. Read the second half of this post if you need help selecting a proper weight.  

Cover the cucumbers with a lid or several layers of cheesecloth secured with a rubber band. 

Ferment in a cool, dark place for about 10 days. Then transfer to cold storage and enjoy!

Recipe Notes

Clouding of the brine, bubbles, fizzing and white sediment in the bottom of the jar or crock are good things. They’re signs your pickles are happy.  

Fuzzy white or black stuff on the surface of the brine or the cucumbers is not good. That’s mold.

If you’re fermenting in a clear glass jar, put it in a cabinet or throw a towel over top to keep light out.

Warm temperatures speed up the fermentation process. If your house is hot, your pickles may be finished a few days early or they might become a bit soft. For best results, ferment your pickles in a spot that stays around 68 to 70 degrees. 

Eat the smallest pickles first, because they will have fermented faster than the bigger ones.

Ferment cucumbers  whole. Sliced cucumbers ferment too fast and tend to get soft or even fall apart. If you want sliced pickles, slice them after they’re done fermenting. Likewise, if you want a fermented pickle relish, chop the pickles up and add the other ingredients after the cucumbers are fermented. The only exception to this rules is if you’re using slicing cucumbers and you need to cut one in half so it will fit inside your fermentation vessel. 

What are you waiting for? Get yourself to your local farmers market and buy some cucumbers before they’re gone. Then make a batch or three of half sour pickles and see what you have been missing!

 

Are you a local food lover or a proud Hoosier?

Or Both?

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Tags:
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Warm Apple Sauerkraut

13 Mar

warm apple sauerkraut

Warm Apple Sauerkraut is a great way to use up some of the local apples you’ve been storing over the winter.

If you didn’t store any apples, no worries, some of the local orchards in our area did. Give one near you a call.  I picked up a half bushel from one of them last week. They are still firm and tasty despite the long winters nap they have taken in the orchards cooler.

Local apples taste so much better than the ones you can find in the grocery store. Don’t you just hate that heavy coat of wax they put on them?

To make Warm Apple Sauerkraut, you’re going to need real fermented sauerkraut (green or red will both work).  Avoid the vinegar preserved kind that comes in a tin can. I don’t know how this recipe would turn out if you used the vinegar kind, but I can’t imagine it would taste very good.

If you didn’t make your own sauerkraut from last years cabbage crop, you can pick some up at the grocery store. You want the ingredients on your store bought sauerkraut to be cabbage and water. This type of sauerkraut is usually packaged in a plastic bag and located in the deli case by the smoke sausage and other cured meats. Or if you have an Aldi near by, you can find fermented sauerkraut there in the canned vegetable section. Look for a glass jar with a blue lid.

Warm Apple Sauerkraut

Warm Apple Sauerkraut
Print
Recipe type: Side Dish
Cuisine: German
Author: Amanda Smith
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 1 hour 10 mins
Total time: 1 hour 20 mins
Ingredients
  • 1 tbsp of fat (butter, lard, tallow, bacon drippings)
  • 2 apples
  • 1 small sweet onion
  • ½ cup of liquid (water, apple juice or apple cider)
  • 4 cups of fermented sauerkraut
  • 1 tsp caraway seeds (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 350° F
  2. Grease a casserole dish with 1 tbsp of fat.To save on dishes, the best kind of casserole dish to use for this recipe is a Corningware dish that’s approved for oven and stove top use.
  3. Wash, core and thinly slice two apples. You can peel them if you want to, but it’s not necessary because the skin will soften in the oven.
  4. Peel, wash and thinly slice the onion.
  5. Put the sliced apples, onion and ½ cup of liquid into the casserole dish and cover with a lid or some aluminum foil.
  6. Bake for about an hour, or until the apples and onions are soft. Stir them at 20 minute intervals so they don’t stick to the sides of the casserole dish.
  7. Once the apples and onions are soft, move the casserole dish to the stove top. Add 4 Cups of drained sauerkraut and caraway seeds.
  8. Stir well to combine, then heat on medium heat until the sauerkraut is warmed up , but not hot. Serve immediately.
3.2.2929

Recipe Notes

Warm Apple Sauerkraut pairs well with just about anything. I like to eat it next to pork chops best. Sometimes, if I have some leftover bacon from another meal, I’ll chop up bits of it and add it to this dish. Since I love bacon, that doesn’t happen very often.

To make a one pot meal out of warm apple sauerkraut, you can add sliced, smoked, fully cooked sausages to the bottom of the casserole dish underneath the sliced apples and onions at the beginning of the recipe.

The reason behind adding the sauerkraut last and only heating it up until its warm is because heat kills the probiotics in fermented sauerkraut that are so good for your gut. That is if you are using homemade fermented sauerkraut that hasn’t been water bath or pressure canned. Canning homemade sauerkraut kills most of the probiotics. And FYI, if your using store bought fermented sauerkraut, about 99% of it gets heat treated, rendering it dead. That’s why homemade sauerkraut is best.

 

 

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Comments:
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Categories:
Vegetable Recipes
Tags:
fermentation, recipe, side dish

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