Bratwurst, Sauerkraut and Rakott krumpli (by G)

I had a bit of a cabbage situation last weekend that required drastic action. I decided to turn my huge cabbage surplus into a more modest sauerkraut supply.

It's a pretty easy process to make sauerkraut - finely chop some cabbage, add salt, bash it about a bit, add caraway seeds, put it in a jar, wait for it to get fizzy (as the fermentation process begins), weigh it down for a few days, close the lid of the jar then forget about it.

There are some essential proteins required to correctly appreciate sauerkraut and, happily, sausages are one of them - I went with bratwursts. These were simmered in hot water for about 10 minutes then fried low and slow to prevent them bursting.

I was watching Hungarian Food Safari the other day and saw rakott krumpli made right in front of my eyes. It seemed pretty easy and likely tasty so I did a version of it tonight. First I par-boiled some potato slices, boiled some eggs and fried some red onion - mixed the onion through some sour cream then layered all these things in a small pan, sprinkled with a little paprika and oven baked it. The real krumpli also has some smoked sausage and bread crumbs but I left these out.

Dinner was most excellent though the sauerkraut was a bit salty - my blood pressure has not be this high since I first saw the film clip for Jennifer Love Hewitt's Bare Naked.