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	Tarte flambée (Alsatian Onion Tart)                              ***  Sauerkraut with meat (choucroute garnie)                             ***                      The Kouglof
Cookware
	- 2 hotplates - small saucepan - medium saucepan - 1 cast iron pot or 1 wide stewpot	- roasting plate - wide bowls - 1 cake tin

Ingredients for 6 serves

*For the pastry :
-400g flour
-1 pinch of salt
-10g baker’s yeast
-5 tablespoons peanut oil
-20cl water

*For the garnish :
-2 medium sized onions
-2 tablespoons peanut oil
-10g butter
-200g smoked bacon
-20cl crème fraîche (heavy cream)

Preparation

Preparation 30 min ; Leave the pastry to rest : 1h ; cooking 15min

1-Preparation of the bread dough. Mix the salt, the flour and the yeast. Make a well in the centre and pour in the oil and the water, then mix stirring
Little by little the flour towards the centre.
Knead the pastry for several minutes until it is well blended. It must be supple and come unstuck easily from the bowl.
Cover with a cloth and leave to rest refrigerated for 1 hour.

2-Peel the onions and slice them thinly. Fry them in a hot pan with the oil until they have browned. Then add the butter and keep cooking.
After having removed the rind from the bacon, cut it into small dices. Put them into cold water, bring to the boil, then drain them.

3-Preheat oven to 240e C
Divide the dough in 2 parts. Roll out in 2 discs as thin as possible
Prick each rolled-out pastry, spread the cream on it and then put the seasoned onions and bacon pieces.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

4-Can be served with a small salad with sage leaves and vinaigrette, with vinegar and white wine.

If you want to cook a genuine « choucroute », it will be hard for you to get sausages from Montbéliard or Morteau (Alsacian cities). However, you can use big and fat free sausages as a substitute, or also Spanish chorizo slightly dried and sweet. Mince them in large pieces.

Ingredients

1,5 kg raw sauerkraut
2 onions
5 coriander seeds
2 cloves
10 juniper berries
2 shins of pork
400g smoked bacon
3 cloves of garlic
80g goose fat
2 bay leaves
50cl white wine (riesling or pinot noir)
6 medium potatoes
6 frankfurter and the Strasbourg sausages
3 smoked Montbéliard sausages
1 bouquet garni (mixed herbs)
salt and pepper

Preparation

Preparation 30min ; cooking 1h30mn

1- Wash the sauerkraut several times in a large amount of cold water. Drain well and squeeze it in your hands so as to extract all the water from it. Peel and mince the onions and the garlic.
Wrap the spices (without the juniper berries) in a small square of cheesecloth in order to be able to remove them easily when you serve the dish.

2- Cook the pieces of meat in water in a large saucepan with the mixed herbs.
First put the shin in cold water and bring it to the boil. Simmer gently for 30 to 40 minutes, then add the smoked bacon. Wait 30 minutes then add the large smoked sausages.
Let it cook still for 30 minutes. Then reserve without removing the meat from the stove, and add the frankfurters and the Strasbourg sausages.

3- Preheat oven to 180 C.
Brown the onions and the garlic in the goose fat in a large cast iron pot. Add the sauerkraut, the juniper berries, the bay leaves and the spices.
Pour the white wine over the meat while cooking. Add salt and pepper and start cooking on the stove for 10 minutes.
Cover and bake for 1 hour adding liquid from time to time if the evaporation is too fast.

4-Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in their skins in hot and salted water for 20 to 30 minutes according to their size.
Remove them from the stove while keeping them in the water.
20 minutes before the end of the cooking time, place the meats and the sausages on top of the sauerkraut and stir slightly. Put the sausages in only 5 minutes before serving because they may burst.
Put the cast iron pot again in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes.

5-Take the casserole out of the oven, peel the potatoes and put them in the casserole. Cut the sausages. Do not forget to place the thin sausage on top of he sauerkraut first.

6-Serve in a dish or keep it in the cast iron pot. Furthermore, you can use an Alsatian mustard which is lighter than the Dijon one and is moderately sweet.

Ingredients for 6 to 8 serves

-100g raisins
-200g candied cherries
-100g slivered almonds
-3 tablespoons rum
-25g baker’s yeast
-20cl milk
-500g flour
-2 eggs
-100g caster sugar
-1 large pinch of table salt
-150g softened butter
-Icing sugar

For the sauce :
-250g dark chocolate 75%
-2,5dl fluid cream

Preparation

1- Cut up half the cherries finely. Soak them in a bowl with the raisins and the rum.
Prepare the leavening. Mix the yeast with half the warm milk. Add 50g of flour, blend well and leave to rest at room temperature until the mixture has risen the double of its original volume.

2- Sift the remaining flour into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the stiffly beaten eggs, the rest of the milk, the sugar and the salt.
Blend well and knead the dough for 15 minutes.
Blend in the butter and work the dough again until it comes unstuck from your fingers.
Add the soaked fruit and half the almonds. Mix well.
Cover with a cloth and leave it to rest for 1 hour.

3-Preheat oven to 180C. Butter generously a Kouglof mould. Press the almonds into the grooves of the fluting.
Knead the dough again, then place it into the mould and leave to rise in a warm place.
Bake for about 45 minutes. You may have to cover with an aluminium sheet if the surface browns too fast.
Remove from oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. Turn the cake out from the tin then sprinkle generously with icing sugar.

4-Prepare the sauce, bring the cream to the boil, then away from the stove, put the chocolate cut in pieces into the cream and stir until it is quite smooth.
Just before serving add the rest of the cherries.
You can also serve the Kougelhopf with custard or caramel sauce with rum.