Recipe #42 – sauerkraut with juniper berries and sparkling wine

It was party night at our house last night and my son’s desire to have pork ribs and BBQ  sausages (in the middle of winter mind you) meant that it was a great opportunity to cook Stephanie’s sauerkraut recipe (on page 156 in my edition of the book). Note that means that you buy the sauerkraut and add things to it – not make it from scratch which suited me fine.

Now, the most important thing to know about this recipe is that unless you are having about 50 people over, you probably don’t need to make as much as the recipe says (unless of course your guests really REALLY love their sauerkraut I suppose) but this was not the case with most of the 20 somethings that congregated at our house last night. In those circumstances, the best thing to do would be to buy a half decent bottle of the old methode champenoise, divide the recipe in half and enjoy a sneaky glass or two of the champers that is left over while doing the cooking.

This is not to say that this dish was not delicious. I liked it and so did a whole bunch of other people at the party. It is also easy to make and if you have to cook for crowds then this is probably the perfect accompaniment to porky goodness. We will certainly be having left over sauerkraut with some left over pork sausages for dinner tonight.

Overall ratings from the punters were hard to come by last night but I would say this dish should receive a  “make it again” rating particularly  when you next have a pork laden BBQ feast for 50+ people (or if you have fewer guests, just plan on drinking a half bottle of sparkling wine in the afternoon).