Leftover Dinner: Kraut and Brats, with Polenta Spaetzle

Since I’m starting from zero here, I decided to begin with something I know. Food! Not, admittedly, food that appears in many of the English huswifery books…or at least, any I’ve run across so far. Instead, this meal is going to go traditional German – kraut and brats – with one twist: polenta spaetzle.

This dinner was, as a “leftover dinner,” a bit of a whats-already-around. It began with some bratwursts that had been accidentally left in the fridge when a friend came for dinner. At about five days stay in the refrigerator, they needed using. Fortunately, there was also a half jar of sauerkraut left in there that needed to be used within the month.

From there, the rest of that half of dinner was simple enough.

Kraut and Brats:

1. Two cheap beers leftover from my Halloween party  started out in a pot set on the stove over medium heat (a medium saucepan, with a lid for use later). If you’re replicating this, I imagine practically any domestic will do – I used two cans of Old Milwaukee. Wooo – big spender. I bought it for beer pong, hush.
2. Half of the jar of sauerkraut immediately joined the beer. The jar was originally 28.5 oz – so a smaller jar might also work, if for some reason you don’t keep half jars of kraut around your place.
3. Next, I stripped two brats of their casings (strictly a manner of preference – I think it makes them easier to cut and I don’t care if they crumble a bit). I cut them into 1/2 inch rounds and then they joined the kraut and beers. My brats were already cooked, but since they had been forgotten in the fridge, I still left them in there for the full cook time – which will be plenty of time for uncooked brats to get safely done.
4. Next, I rinsed four Yukon Gold Potatoes and diced them into 1/2 inch cubes – more or less. I practically never peel Yukon Golds, but again – it’s all a matter of preference. Then, into the pot with them!
5. Then, I rinsed four carrots – each about 3/4 in. in diameter and six inches or so long. I gave them a scrub, but didn’t peel them – then, cut each into 1/4 inch rounds. I added the carrots to the pot with a liberal sprinkle of salt and a grinding of pepper.
6. Finally, I sliced half of one small yellow onion into 1/8 in half moons and added that to the top of the pot. And now I put that lid on.
7. Now, everything simmered in the pot for over an hour – so you can see why it would be perfectly safe for sausages to start out raw at the beginning. To test for doneness, poke a fork through the potatoes and carrots – and cut into a sausage round if you started raw!

Next, things got a bit more creative. I wanted a side dish – and I wanted spaetzle. But I also wanted to use up the polenta leftover from a dinner two days previous. So I decided to try my hand at combining the two.

Polenta Spaetzle:

1. I started from refrigerated (still cold) polenta – very firm, and with fair amount of Swiss cheese added to the original batch. If you’re making polenta just for this use, make it firm – and maybe be a bit conservative with the cheese. Make it far enough in advance that you can first refrigerate the batch. I was working with about 3/4 of a cup of leftover polenta – and I tore through it all by myself, so portion accordingly.
2. I started a tablespoon and  half of butter heating over medium in a skillet. If you’re working with more polenta for more people, adjust accordingly – I’d say about a tablespoon of butter for every half cup of polenta you’re using will work out about right.
3. While the butter was heating, I pulled bits of polenta off – just like I would with spaetzle dough – in one inchish bits, some smaller, some bigger.
4. Once the foam subsided from the butter, I added all of the polenta to the skillet and turned the heat to medium low. Make sure you don’t overcrowd the skillet – it’s fine for the skillet to be full, but the polenta bits need to be all in one layer.
5. I let the polenta spaetzle cook for about ten minutes, turning bits individually occasionally.

Spaetzle simmering away in the butter. The herb bits you’re seeing are dried thyme from the original batch of polenta – I can’t say they’d be necessary for this particular use. But then, thyme never hurts, either. There’s never enough thyme. (Shakespeare loved a pun, you know.)

To serve everything, I just poured the spaetzle out of the skillet onto one half of a plate (yes, with the butter and all – never abandon butter) and heaped up the other side with the kraut and brats. And added beer (a Shiner) in an appropriate, iced stein, obviously.

Lovely vinegary kraut and brats, wonderful buttery spaetzle, and lovely, cool beer in an iced stein.

The kraut and brats made enough for lots of leftovers – I’d say it could serve three to four easily, especially with a side dish added. The spaetzle did not make enough for leftovers – because I ate it all immediately.