Capital Bar & Grill Chef's Blog

Finale with Saurkraut

  Well not quite the finale, but the finished plates starring the Saurkraut.  These are the plates that I promised a shot of ,along with, a written description.  The Reuban needs no introduction.  This is our (almost) entirely made on premise Reuban sandwich.  The only thing we don't make is the cheddar cheese melted onto it.  They make the cheese somewhat better than we can so we leave it to them.  The Cornbeef and the Saurkraut are both made in the CBG kitchen.  The Saurkraut which you saw in a previous posting, and the Cornbeef that we brine with spices and curing salts sits in the brine for three weeks.  So its not possible to let it slip behind in the rotation, so we have to stay on top of the production.  The Rye bread is made in the bakeshop by our baker Matt Lowman.  He's reasonably new to the baking scene, but he does a great job with our bread department.

The smoked sausage with saurkraut is an old favorite.  Another old world inspired dish, I first learned of the meat and kraut dish by way of the Alsation culture in the north of France.  The more I learn about it the more I learn about how its all over the Northern parts of Western Europe.  They are all basically the same.  They all showcase off the meats of the area and all have their Saurkraut with potatoes.  This one is served with Thuringer, a smoked German style sausage from and area called Thruringia.  The saurkraut is sauteed with Guanciale (cured pork jowl), onions, duck fat, juniper berries, caraway and white wine.  The potates are poached with garlic, fresh thyme and bay leaves.  Its also a must to serve it with Dijon mustard and a big beer.     

Ooozing excitement

It takes a special kind of passion to maintain this amount of stamina.

Capital Bar and Grill Mortadella

This is our first run a the traditional Italian style sausage called Mortadella.  Mortadella is large emulsified fresh sausage.  Emulsified in this case meaning using a food processor to puree the lean meat and fat together until they form one paste, and then folding in diced fat and pistachios. It originated in the area of Italy called Bologna.  Which is what americans refer to Mortadella but only without the nuts and fat garnishment.  It actually has PGI or Protected Geographical Indication, like wine, cheese and other traditional artisan food products which just shows you how passionate Italians are about their bologny. This is a meat being replicated throughout the worldm, most often for sandwiches.  The southern most points in South America i.e. Argentina, Uraguay and Brazil are known to have this meat on their sandwhiches thanks to all of the Italian immigration.  Other country's include Spain, and parts of the middle east. These countries could of course substitute other meats such as beef, lamb and turkey. The recipes that I read on Mortadella call for stuffing the forcemeat into a Spleen,  I didn't happen to have any spleens on hand so I used a beef casing large enough; 4 1/2-5" in diameter.  Stuff the meat let it hang overnight, to let the meat relax, and poach it the next day.  The poaching is very slow and low, about 160-170 degrees for about two hours or until it has an internal tempurature of 150.  Shock it in an ice bath and let it hang overnight.  It can be sliced to add to a sandwhich or a meat platter or Italians supposedly like to cube it and eat it this way.