A Ruthenian Christmas: A kielbasa story in words and pictures

First of all, let me say that not every post on TrueGrub is about healthful food. Today we're going to talk about some decidedly high-fat, high-sodium stuff that happens to be a traditional holiday favorite in my family.

Second of all, let me say that I'm not Ruthenian. (We'll get to the subject of Ruthenia in a moment.) But my wife's family is Ruthenian, and I'm the cook in my household, so I've had the duty and privilege of preparing some traditional Ruthenian dishes for the holidays.

Now, about Ruthenia... Ruthenia is a place. Or, rather, Ruthenia was a place. Scholars -- and members of my wife's extended family -- don't agree on exactly where it was, but it was clearly somewhere in Eastern Europe. Wikipedia describes it better than I could.

Suffice it to say that my in-laws say their ancestry is Ruthenian, and their holiday tradition includes kielabasa. Kielbasa with brown sauerkraut, to be precise, which I prepared yesterday.

It began with a visit to the Union Pork Store in Union, NJ last weekend. These two photos show just a fraction of the huge assortment of sausages and other products offered there.

 

 

 

I purchased three links of kielbasa, roughly five pounds total. I'm not a kielbasa expert, but I know there's more than one kind, and I know that I usually buy the kind known as krajana, which is coarse-ground. Another customer, who appeared to be an elderly Eastern European lady, tried to talk me into the fine-ground version, which, if I understood her correctly, is called mielona. I was almost persuaded, but in the end I stuck with the familiar krajana.

 

The first thing I did when I got home was to seal the kielbasa tightly in a large plastic bag. If this step isn't taken, the refrigerator and everything in it will reek of garlic!

 

 

 

On Christmas Eve, I liberated the kielbasa from its plastic prison...

 

 

 

...and assembled the other two ingredients for my dish: sauerkraut and slab bacon. The sauerkraut was a couple of two-pound bags or ordinary kraut from the refrigerated section of my local supermarket. The bacon came from the Union Pork Store. The variety and quantity of bacon aren't critical. I had about a third of a pound.

 

I diced the bacon...

 

 

 

...and cooked it in a nonstick pan until slightly crispy.

 

 

 

Then I drained some, but not all of the grease. I drained as much liquid as possible from the sauerkraut and added the kraut to the pan. I cooked it for several minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden. This combination of smoked pork and light caramelization produces the "brown sauerkraut" that's key to the dish.

 

 

 

Next, I sliced the kielbasa. I like to cut half-inch slices on the bias, which provides plenty of surface area to encourage mingling of the juices from the kielbasa and the kraut. You can see the coarse texture that characterizes krajana kielbasa.

 

 

 

Then it was just a matter of combining the brown sauerkraut and the kielbasa slices in a couple of aluminum baking pans.

 

At that point, since I wasn't planning to serve the kielbasa until the next day, I stored the pans in the refrigerator. On Christmas Day, I brought them to my sister-in-law's house (once again safely wrapped in a large plastic bag). She heated the pans in a 350-degree oven for about an hour.

The kielabasa was just one part of a multiethnic holiday meal that included mushroom soup, Italian-style antipasto, ham, pierogies, green beans, carrots and babka. The feast was enjoyed by all, Ruthenians and non-Ruthenians alike.

Happy holidays and good eating!

 

Hanover frozen rice and beans

Can it be? I believe I've found a food product that's tasty, inexpensive, nutritious and convenient.

My local Shoprite stocks Hanover brand frozen Brown Rice, Black Beans, Peppers & Onions in a steam-in-bag.

The ingredients list is just what the name of the product implies: cooked brown rice (water, brown rice), cooked black beans, green and red peppers, onions.

The 10-ounce bag contains two servings, each of which has 160 calories, 1 gram of fat, no saturated fat, 45 mg of sodium, 8 grams of dietary fiber, and one gram of sugar.

Just throw the bag in the microwave, and it's ready in four minutes. With a little salt and pepper, it's quite tasty.

It usually costs about $1.50. This combination of low cost, low fat, low sodium, high fiber, easy preparation and decent flavor is hard to beat!

The only thing I wonder about is whether some of the nutritional benefits of brown rice and black beans are lost when they're pre-cooked and frozen. This Askville post suggests that rice's nutritional qualities do suffer from pre-cooking. This post, on the other hand, suggests that they don't. And here's a video comparing cooked vs. dried beans, although it focuses on canned beans, not frozen. None of these sources seems authoritative.

Readers, if you have information about the nutritional characteristics of pre-cooked frozen rice or beans, please comment.

Skier's sustenance

Greetings from Winter Park, CO, where I'm fortunate to be enjoying a few days of skiing. Needless to say, exercising outdoors when the temperature is 4 degrees can work up an appetite. Also needless to say, ski areas' on-mountain restaurants aren't renowned for the quality of their food. Today's lunch was a pleasant exception.

I grabbed a quick meal at the Club Car restaurant at Winter Park Resort's Mary Jane base area. I chose an item called "The Brat." According to the menu, the bratwurst is locally made and nitrate-free. It was served with sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and a piece of baguette.

The brat wasn't especially salty or garlicky. If I'm not mistaken, the dominant spice was cloves. Really, the sauerkraut was the star of the show. It also was not too salty. It was garnished with paprika, which I found both unusual and delicious. The mashed potatoes and bread weren't anything special, but provided much-needed calories on a ski day.

The larger question is how to find decent food when skiing. Often, the first step is to avoid the cafeteria. Although far from fancy, the Club Car is a table-service restaurant. The prices are higher than in the cafeteria, but not by much. The brat was $11.95. An ice tea set me back another $3.25. With tax and tip, the whole meal cost about $19. Not cheap, but at the same resort, a burger, fries and soda at the cafeteria can cost $17, and the quality is awful.

There's certainly good food, even gourmet food, to be found at ski resorts, but my focus is on something that can be consumed quickly so I can get back on the slopes, for under $20. In that category, the brat hits the spot.