Polish Saurkraut and Kielbasa

Yesterday was New Year’s Day. It started with Jim hand washing and drying 60 wine glasses. Personally I would have thrown them in the dishwasher. We have millions of wine glasses and preserving them is not on my agenda. I started gathering up Christmas china and paraphernalia from different rooms into the dining area to prepare for today’s dismantling.
Traditionally I serve sauerkraut and polish sausage on NYD. While shopping as I put the ingredients in the cart, Jim looked disheartened and said, “I suppose we are having that on NYD.” I can’t understand why he can’t love sauerkraut. Instead of my usual recipe from the German, Time Life Series, I decided to use the Frugal Gourmet’s recipe called Polish Sauerkraut. I am not sure where the recipe from my youth came from. My mother was not polish, so I assume it came from what my father remembered from his mother. This one was very different, and I had to add some things that have to be in my sauerkraut.
Ingredients:
1 oz dried mushrooms, soaked for ½ hour in ½ C warm water. (reserve the water)
3T butter
1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 med tomato, chopped (I drained a can of diced tomatoes)
2# sauerkraut in plastic or bottled rinsed and drained well (After I rinse it, I soak it in water and then drain and squeeze out all the moisture)
1C dry white wine
½ C Beef stock
1/8 t black pepper
2 T all-purpose flour (I skipped this)
Pinch of sugar (optional) (I skipped this also but added salt)
My additional Ingredients:
1 bay leaf
2 t caraway seed
2 potatoes peeled and cut in chunks
Polish sausage (Kielbasa) (I use the Turkey Hill turkey kielbasa as it has a stronger flavor than the regular that you get around here. If you live around Chicago, you can use the regular Kielbasa)
Directions:
1. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking water. Pour water through a fine strainer and set aside.
2. Coarsely chop the mushrooms and sauté them in the butter.
3. Add the onion and tomato; sauté until the onion is clear
4. Add the sauerkraut, wine, beef stock, reserved mushroom water, pepper and salt. Stir well and add the potatoes trying to bury them in the kraut.
5. Lay the Kielbasa on top and simmer covered for 1 hour. (FG says 30 minutes)
Jim liked the mushrooms in the sauerkraut, probably as a relief from the kraut. I liked this recipe and did not notice much of a difference from what I usually make that does not have the mushrooms and the tomato in it.
I made a double recipe because this morning I wanted to have my favorite breakfast, Sauerkraut with Scrambled Eggs. We always had this the morning after with the leftover kraut when I was young. Directions:
1. Cut up the leftover kielbasa and put in a 12” frying pan to warm up and render some fat.
2. Slice all remaining potato chunks and add to the pan.
3. After all is warmed through add the kraut and make sure all is hot before adding the eggs. I used 4 eggs. Stir until eggs are cooked.
Well, Jim suffered through breakfast and was thrilled (not) when I announced that I have enough leftover sauerkraut to make Pierogi with sauerkraut and mushroom filling.