The Open Pantry: July 2011

Friday, July 15, 2011

German Sauerkraut Soup

This soup tastes like Germany in a bowl! Lots of bold flavors that warm you down to your toes! I love it! I love sauerkraut, brats and spicy mustard . . . I know that not everyone is too keen on sauerkraut so this soup is a good of way easing into it. I especially love adding a dollop of horseradish to it when serving! Mmm-mmm!!!

German Sauerkraut SoupRecipe by: Emily

7-8 Medium Red Potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
4-5 Bratwurst
1 Large Onion, chopped
6 cups Beef Broth
2 cups Sauerkraut, with juices
3 Tbsp Sugar
1/2 cup Water
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
2-3 Tbsp Spicy Mustard
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
2 Tbsp chopped Parsley
Salt
Pepper

1. Cook the bratwurst in a large soup pot according to package directions. Remove and set aside. Raise the pot heat to medium high and add the chopped onion and 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Once the onions start to caramelize lower the heat to medium-low and continue cooking until softened and golden brown.

2. Add 1/2 cup of water and deglaze the pan. Add the beef broth, mustard's, sauerkraut and potatoes and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently for 15- 20 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

3. Cut the cooked bratwurst into bite sized pieces and add to the pot along with 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and chopped parsley. Simmer for 5 minutes more. Check seasonings and add additional salt, pepper, sugar or vinegar if needed. Serve with horseradish, fried onions, and or croutons to garnish. Enjoy!

Tips:
-Rinse the sauerkraut before adding to the pot if you want a milder flavor.
-Crumble rye bread over the top before serving.
-You can also add 1/2 tsp caraway seed to the soup while cooking the onions if you like caraway.

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By:Emily
I am thankful for the times when our dinner table is surrounded by familiar faces, where extra chairs are brought in and the place settings vary due to the great number gathered. I am grateful for the stories reminisced and the examples set for posterity. I marvel at the spread before us and smile knowing that it was made with love from recipes shared and passed around for generations. It is moments like this where the sound of laughter bouncing off the walls and excited voices ringing throughout the room make me most thankful for what I have and who I am.

I don't think our kids know what an apron is.
The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.
It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.
And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be along time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

In an authentic Chinese meal, the last course is soup because it allows the roast duck entree to "swim" toward digestion.
When a source of Vitamin C (orange, lemon, grapefruit, strawberry, tomato, potato, etc.) is eaten with meat or cooked dry beans, the body makes better use of the iron in the protein food.
Within 2 hours of standing in daylight, milk loses between half and two-thirds of its vitamin B content
In the United States, a pound of potato chips costs two hundred times more than a pound of potatoes.
The largest living organism ever found is a honey mushroom, Armillaria ostoyae. It covers 3.4 square miles of land in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, and it's still growing.
The dye used to stamp the grade on meat is edible. It's made from grape skins.
The colour of a chilli is no indication of its spiciness, but size usually is - the smaller the pepper, the hotter it is.
Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.
Eating an apple will wake you up better and give you more energy than caffine will.
Each American eats approximately 22 pounds of tomatoes yearly. Over ½ of the tomato consumption is in the form of catsup and tomato sauce.
We are eating 900% more broccoli than we did 20 years ago . . .In 1970, consumption of broccoli was only a half a pound per person. Today, the average person in the United States eats four and one half pounds a year.
Pumpkins are fruits, not vegetables and were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites! Also In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling.
Pasta made its way to the New World through the English who found it while traveling through Italy. The English made pasta by cooking it for about a half an hour and then smothering it with cream sauce and cheese. This was the beginning of Macaroni and Cheese!
Frankfurter sausages were first created in China
In total there have been 37 different kinds of animals in animal crackers since 1902. The current crackers are tiger, cougar, camel, rhinoceros, kangaroo, hippopotamus, bison, lion, hyena, zebra, elephant, sheep, bear, gorilla, monkey, seal and giraffe.
Bananas are about 99.5% fat free and the inside of a banana is a berry.
The first strawberries were discovered in Virginia.
Apples are a member of the rose family and there are 7,500 apple varieties grown in the world.
There are about 600 kernels on each ear of corn and a cob of corn ALWAYS has an even number of rows on it. Each tassel on a corn plant releases as many as 5 million grains of pollen.
The average person in the United States eats 140 pounds of potatoes every year. Bet you didn't realize that the potato was the first vegetable to be grown in space!
The Average Person Eats Almost 1500 Pounds Of Food A Year!
It has been traditional to serve fish with a slice of lemon since the Middle Ages, when people believed that the fruit's juice would dissolve any bones accidentally swallowed
Bakers used to be fined if their loaves were under weight, so they used to add an extra loaf to every dozen, just in case -- hence, the expression "baker's dozen"
A portion of the water you drink has already been drunk by someone else, maybe several times over
There are about 100,000 bacteria in one litre of drinking water
Peanuts are used in the manufacture of dynamite
In France, people eat approximately 500,000,000 snails each year
Did you know that cream is lighter than milk and that it takes about 10 lbs of milk to make 1 lb of cheese. Also straight from the cow, the temperature of cow's milk is about 97 degrees Fahrenheit.
Your more likely to be hungry if you are cold.