Notes regarding Michael and Kraut

Okay, one of the most difficult things to get Michael to eat is any kind of sauerkraut. On the other hand, I make a lot of collard kraut. I love collard kraut, but Michael, not so much. Not this year, but next year, there will be all kinds of Kraut — kale Kraut, turnip Kraut, cabbage Kraut, mixed Brassica Kraut — and I have to figure out ways to get Michael to eat it.

This is what I made tonight, and Michael ate it happily.

Open and drain a jar of Kraut. Add the drained Kraut to a pan containing a pound of fresh Polish sausage and water enough to boil it all. Cook this until the Polish sausage is properly parboiled. Remove the sausages and finish preparing them as you desire; tonight, I cut them in half longwise and lightly fried said to give them crispy outsides. Chop a whole onion, sauté it in a combination of butter and olive oil. Again, drain the Kraut, and add it to the sautéed onions. Continue sautéing until the mixture is lightly coated with olive oil and butter in the onions tender. Spice it in a way that will be compatible with the Polish sausage seasoning; I used pepper and a balti spice blend. Since the Kraut will still be slightly salty even after this cooking, don't add salt. If the individuals eating this feel it needs more salt best to let them add their own.

Michael enjoyed this quite a lot he chopped up his sausage into little bits mixed it all into the Kraut and onion side dish and when I asked him if I should remember how I did this, he said yes.

Obviously he said yes. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing this, right?

Just some quick notes

Jelly made with herbs, wine, and apple juice

Notes to myself on the above jellies:

A) Low Sugar Apple Mint: A standard low sugar apple jelly recipe, but juice infused with mint.

1. Organic apple juice from Aldi
2. Probably 3 cups of mint from my garden
3. sugar
4. lemon juice
5. pectin, low sugar type
6. smidge of unsalted butter

... and the jelly tastes good, but it did not set the first time. I followed the instructions here and was able to eventually achieve a soft set. It tastes good, waaaay minty, and there is a lot of it, because I followed a standard apple jelly recipe. It is also a little grainy, which I think results from the additional pectin that had to be used.

Next time, just use a regular sugar recipe. 

B) Apple Sage Jelly: based on the instructions for herb jelly found at the U of Oregon extension, here. 

1. 2 Cups Organic Apple Juice
2. 1 Cup rhine wine
3. sage, more than a cup
4. sugar
5. lemon juice
6. pectin
7. smidge of unsalted butter

C) Borage Tarragon

1. Rhine wine
2. lemon juice
3. borage leaves
4. tarragon leaves
5. sugar
6. pectin
7. smidge of butter

The borage leaves were completely overwhelmed by the taste of the white wine; if I want to do that, I will have to use water. Anyway, I re-infused the jelly with the tarragon, which was able to stand up to the wine.

D) Lemon Verbena

1. Lemon verbena leaves
2. lemon juice
3. Rhine wine
4. pectin
5. sugar

This is a very nice one, and both C and D are based on a recipe from the NYT, here. 

It's scrambled again.

TEMPEH SCRAMBLE: as the tempeh gets older, stronger flavors develop, and I don't always enjoy them. I have found that marinating the tempeh in a combination of lemon juice and soy sauce is enough balance to counteract the aged tempeh flavor. Aged tempeh may be a delicacy in Indonesia, but I'm a Norwegian living in Wisconsin. I'm pretty sure that some of my "native" delicacies might not find favor with the Indonesians. It's a fair trade, don't you think?

Anyway, this is what this particular scramble consists of:

Tempeh marinated in soy sauce and lemon juice.
A whole yellow onion
A generous amount of olive oil
About a cup and a half of previously steamed mustard and beet greens

The night before (or a couple of days before, if you like) slice tempeh into strips and marinate it with  a soy sauce and lemon juice mixture. Cover and place in the refrigerator. When you're ready to eat, pour a generous amount of olive oil into your wok and let it start to heat while you chop up the onion. Put the onion into the oil and give it a good stir. Cut or break the tempeh up into small pieces, then toss it in with the onions and cook to your preferred level of doneness; I like the onions to be translucent and the tempeh slightly browned. Add the mixed greens and stir long enough to incorporate the green throughout the rest of the dish and heat the greens through.

Like pretty much everything else I cook, tempeh scramble is really more of a process than a recipe. The only thing sure is the tempeh. Given that I like my tempeh scramble with lots of greens in it you can usually assume that there will be some, but you can't always be sure. Sometimes I like to make it with carrot and broccoli and hot peppers. Sometimes I like just Swiss chard and almonds, and seasoning the tempeh/nut/Swiss chard mixture with Worchestershire sauce and nutritional yeast and garlic. Today's scramble didn't need any seasoning; the combination of mustard greens and marinated tempeh was fabulous on its own.

And yes, I did make that strawberry jam! I used the low sugar recipe available in the .pdf from the Wisconsin extension, here.