Sauerkraut Slaw

A word of warning, I'm going to get a little crunchy-granola on you for the next few posts. Last fall, when I was getting into fermenting, I made my own Sauerkraut. I've kinda forgotten about it because, mainly I don't really eat it. My mother can't stand the stuff, so I never had it growing up. However, if you are into fermenting, sauerkraut it the holy grail. It basically ferments itsself. You don't have to add any water to pickle it, it makes it's own water. Amazing stuff really.  

Here's my kraut. It's a pretty simple process. You shred a head of cabbage. Add 1 T caraway seeds and 2T salt. Now comes the fun part - take a wooden spoon, turn it upside down and beat the crap out of the cabbage. You could also use a woden mallet or meat pounder, but I don't have those. After your 10 min arm workout, pack the cabbage in your jar and wait. Keep it at room temp for 3 days then transfer to cold storage, ie the fridge. So that's where mine has been for about 4 months now.

So what made me bring out the kraut? Well for one, I found that recipe for Reuben Casserole I made with the St Paddy's left overs. For another, I was reading ShopSmart by Consumer Reports of all things, and there was an idea to use the kraut in a slaw.

Sauerkraut Slaw

1 part sauerkraut

2 parts shredded cabbage

2 carrots, grated

1 apple, grated

apple cider vinegar to taste

olive oil to taste

pepper

The article was more of an aside, so I put in what I thought would be a good ratio of things. The idea is to temper the kraut with fresh cabbage - so I used a 2:1 ratio of fresh to fermented. I think it could have used more apple, but I only had 1. I put everything in a bowel and added a few glugs of vinegar and a few glugs of oil. This is all very scientific, I know.

I actually liked this salad. The vinegar kinda covered the tang of the sauerkraut with tang of vinegar. I think more apple would have been nice, so something to think about for next time...which there will be a next time as I still have a lot of sauerkraut left over - even after the casserole and slaw. Good thing it pretty much lasts forever!!!