Cook's Country

♪♪ -"Cook's Country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table.

We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.

We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook, and we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.

We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.

This is "Cook's Country."

♪♪ Today on "Cook's Country," Bryan visits Olympia Provisions in Portland, Oregon, and makes choucroute garnie, Jack explores the world of European-style sausages, I share the Belgian origins of the endive, and then Ashley makes a beautiful endive salad with oranges and blue cheese.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

♪♪ -Portland, Oregon, is a city that's known for doing things differently, which makes it the perfect place for a committed artisan working to perfect their craft.

-Portland has that energy, you know.

They support an artisan.

They support somebody trying to do it right.

-I'm here to meet one of these artisans, Eli Cairo, and to learn more about his craft of charcuterie.

-We started making handmade salamis and sausages, and the town showed up and supported me.

Forever thankful.

-Eli is the owner of Olympia Provisions, an American charcuterie company that operates a 38,000-square-foot meat plant in addition to multiple restaurants in Portland.

-Here at Olympia Provisions, we think it's real important to make everything in-house.

We make sausages, salami, bacon, or pâtés.

It's kind of a fascinating mix.

-This dedication to old-world craftsmanship was instilled in Eli at a young age.

-Some of my first memories of -- of any of this was, like, either a neighbor had shot a deer or my father had shot a deer or we killed a lamb.

And my father used to make lucanica, which is a dried Greek salami, essentially.

-His father moved to the United States from Greece in the 1960s and taught his children how to live off the land.

-We had like a small farm where we raised our animals, grew all of our own vegetables.

We had about a half acre in strictly garlic.

I mean, that's as Greek as you can get.

So it's like garlic, garlic, garlic.

And I can just remember just, like, my mom peeling just endless amount of garlic.

I said, "I know how to cook Greek food.

Done it with you my whole life.

I want to be fancy.

I want to be the next Thomas Keller."

-So Eli set off to Europe in search of culinary enlightenment.

He landed in the Swiss Alps, where he learned meat making as an apprentice under a master chef at a premier hotel restaurant.

-The owner of the hotel was a jaegermeister, which means the hunter master of the valley, kind of like the game warden, if you will.

So if you shot an animal in the valley, you brought it to us, and we would process it.

He had a fine-dining restaurant, a casual ski and hiking restaurant all on the same property, a bakery.

And I walked in there and I was like, "I found my version of Utopia."

-Eli absorbed all the knowledge he could from the people there... -Get your textures right, get your seasoning right, and that's it.

You no longer have to, like, measure and count, like, put a timer on.

That's when it becomes real cooking.

-...and returned home to the States with a renewed appreciation for the old-world art of charcuterie.

-Forgotten art in the sausage world in America.

Paul formulates these recipes every single day.

All real spices.

I'm one of the only people that use live molded salamis.

Most salami producers in America cover them up with milk powder or rice flour to make it look like salami.

-After suiting up...

Doctor.

-Doctor, welcome to the meat plant.

-...touring the sprawling meat processing facility... -This is a game-changing experience.

-...and eating my fair share of expertly made sausage... -A hot dog right out of the smokehouses are remarkable.

-That's incredible.

...it was time to put it all together in the ultimate expression of Swiss cuisine -- choucroute garnie.

-Choucroute garnie, of course, "sauerkraut garnished" is what that means.

-It's a meat lover's dream -- bacon, bratwurst, frankfurter, kielbasa, and cured ham.

-Big, sour, fermented, delicious kraut, tons of sausages, potatoes.

It's not the fanciest cooking you've ever done, but it's sometimes the most delicious cooking you've ever done.

You'd eat that, right?

-Looks amazing.

Oh.

-Right?

-It's a whole lot of sausage.

-It's a whole lot of sausage.

In my world, it's very nostalgic.

And I think that there's a flavor in nostalgia for me, 'cause at every butcher shop or sausage shop or the restaurants that I worked with, you would have it one to three times a week.

It just takes me instantly back to, like, some of my favorite lunches I've ever had in my life, so... -And every bite of perfectly seasoned and cured sausage transports me to the Swiss Alps, where Eli worked to perfect his craft all those years ago.

I can tell right now it's already perfect.

Mmm.

-Good?

-So good, man.

-Happy?

-I'm very happy.

-Keep my job?

I can keep making sausage?

-You can stay, you can stay.

-Cool.

-Everybody else, leave.

-[ Laughs ] Get out.

♪♪ -I love meals like that -- a whole different selection of items going into a pot, and it's never the same each time you make it.

But, Bryan, it looks like you are well-prepared to give me a very similar experience.

-I brought the meats with me.

-Yeah, you did.

-That was such a cool experience.

Eli was a wonderful host, and he walked me through his choucroute garnie.

And now I'm ready to duplicate it here for you.

-Fantastic.

-As Eli told me, "choucroute garnie" means sauerkraut that's been garnished.

And one of our first garnishes for our sauerkraut is going to be potatoes.

-Fantastic.

-So we have 1 1/4 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes here that we've cut into 1 1/4-, 1 1/2-inch pieces.

We'll drop those into our pot.

Okay, we're gonna cook our potatoes in sauerkraut brine.

So this is 2 pounds of sauerkraut we have drained off here.

I'm gonna add the brine from the sauerkraut right to the pot.

Now, this is about 1 1/2 cups or so of brine, and that will change, you know, depending on what brand of sauerkraut that you buy.

But that's okay that there's some variability, because we're gonna make up the difference with water.

-Okay.

-Okay?

We're gonna add 2 teaspoons of table salt, and then we're gonna add water to cover the potatoes by about one inch.

So that's anywhere between 4 and 5 cups of water, typically.

So we're gonna set that over high heat and bring it to a boil.

So, we want a variety of sausages and meat in our choucroute.

So we're gonna add bratwurst, some frankfurters, which will add a nice smokiness, and this big, decadent, fatty kielbasa that'll add a lot of richness and also a little bit of smoke.

-Now, those frankfurters don't look like they came from the refrigerator section at my supermarket.

-All this meat is from Olympia Provisions.

These are some of the best frankfurters I've ever had in my life.

So we're gonna cut the kielbasa into quarters.

We're gonna score the sausage about 1/8 inch deep, about 1/2 inch apart all the way across.

What this does is it helps render off some of the -- the fat from inside, actually gives this casing, which is a natural casing, a nice snap when you eat it.

So we'll just score.

For our frankfurters, we're gonna just cut these right in half.

And again, we'll score all these.

We're using about 12 ounces of each one of these sausages, the bratwurst, kielbasa, and the frankfurters.

-Okay.

-And these bratwurst we're just gonna leave whole and just give them a score.

All right, there's our bratwurst.

So all of our sausages are scored.

This is one of the sweetheart hams that they make at Olympia Provisions.

We're gonna take a couple of 1/2-inch-thick slices.

I'll probably just cut the end piece off here.

-Beautiful.

-I think about two 1/2-inch-thick slices will give us about 8 ounces on this.

Yeah, this is a really nice ham.

It doesn't contain as much water as some of those other ham steaks that you might find in the grocery store.

-Right.

-If you do want to use one of those ham steaks, you want to pat it dry before you start cooking it because it contains a lot of water.

-Ton of water.

-It tends to splatter when we sear it.

-Right.

-So we'll just cut these in half, create little half moons.

All right, so now we are going to sear all of our sausages.

We have a tablespoon of vegetable oil here in our nonstick skillet.

Our oil is nice and hot, and you can see it's just giving off wisps of smoke.

And we're gonna add about 2/3 of our sausage here.

And then we're gonna sear the sausages.

So what this is gonna do is give it a nice browning and help that exterior casing crisp up really nicely.

It takes about two to three minutes per side to get it nicely browned.

[ Sizzling ] All right, so our potatoes are coming to a boil while our sausage is searing.

We're gonna reduce the heat on those to medium-low and let those go for 10 minutes until they can be easily pierced with the tip of the paring knife.

We're not trying to cook them all the way through because they're gonna get cooked later on.

We're just trying to take them out of the realm of al dente.

All right, so this is the kind of browning we're looking for... -Oh, yeah.

-...on our sausage.

Nicely browned and crispy.

Let's let that go for another two to three minutes on the second side.

-Okay.

-Okay, so our sausages are done on the second side.

Again, nicely browned.

-Yes.

-We just transfer them to our sheet pan.

And with the ham, we're just trying to go for some light browning.

It doesn't have to be as intense as the sausage.

-Okay.

-All right.

So just another couple minutes, and we should be good to go.

-Okay.

-Okay, and our second batch of sausage is done.

All right.

Our potatoes have been simmering for a good 10 minutes now.

We can test them.

Again, we just want them to be tender when pierced with the tip of a paring knife -- like this, should just kind of fall off -- because these are gonna get cooked again with the sauerkraut and all of our meats.

-Okay.

-So these are good.

So we can shut the heat off.

And rather than drain these, we're just gonna let them sit in the liquid.

-Okay.

-And that's, again, so they continue to soak up that sauerkraut-brine flavor.

So we'll just take them off of our hot burner.

Now, you can make these in advance up to 24 hours.

I would let this cool to room temperature and then still store them in the liquid in the refrigerator until you're ready to make your choucroute.

-Great.

-So, Bridget, I know what you're thinking -- we are dangerously low on meats in this dish.

-I was worried.

-I could see it on your face.

We're gonna add a little bit of bacon.

This is smoked slab bacon here, about 6 ounces of it.

So we're gonna cut this into lardons, about 3/4 inch each.

All right, we'll just throw those into our pot here.

And we're gonna cook those over medium-low heat until the fat renders out and the bacon is nearly crisp.

-Okay.

-It takes about 10 to 12 minutes.

Okay, our lardons are nicely rendered.

-Beautiful.

-And to that, we can now add our sauerkraut that's been drained.

Again, that's 2 pounds of sauerkraut.

And on top of that, we're going to add 1 cup of off-dry Riesling.

The term "off-dry" just means it's simply slightly sweeter than a regular Riesling.

-Okay.

-Okay?

If you can't find off-dry Riesling, you could use a typical regular Riesling.

And now we can add our potatoes that have been sitting in that sauerkraut-brine mixture.

All right.

We'll just stir those in.

So as this is gonna come up to a simmer, we'll increase the heat to medium.

And you can see the bubbles starting to form around the edge of the pot.

-Okay.

-And we're just gonna put a lid on it and let it simmer for a good five minutes.

-Okay.

-All right, so we've been simmering for five minutes.

-Mmm.

Looking good.

-Smells winey.

Smells briny.

-Yes.

-All right, so now we're going to nestle our sausages in there.

We're gonna do our best to get all the sausages buried into the sauerkraut.

All right, we're gonna put the lid on that and let that continue to simmer for another five minutes.

And that's really just to heat the sausage all the way through and finish cooking those potatoes.

-Nice.

-It's been five minutes with our sausage cooking.

-Unbelievable.

-Just get, like, a meat steam bath there.

-Yes!

-All right.

So rather than dump this whole thing right onto the platter, I like to take the meat and set it off to the side so we can pour the sauerkraut and potatoes onto the platter first, and then beautifully and artfully rearrange our meat on top.

So now I'm just going to take this, and I dump it right onto the platter.

And now we can garnish with our happy little kielbasa that lives over here.

-Oh!

-He's got a few bratwurst friends in the neighborhood.

-Look how beautiful.

-All right, so I'm gonna give you a little kielbasa, a little bit of bratwurst -- I expect you to finish all of this -- little frankfurter, and a little piece of ham.

-Petite frank.

-Sauerkraut.

And potatoes.

And a little bit of mustard for you.

I'm curious which one of these is gonna be your favorite.

I've got you some off-dry Riesling there.

-Off-dry, yes.

-Off-dry.

-All right, well, I'm going for whatever you're going for first.

-I'm gonna go with the ham first 'cause that's a good baseline.

-All right.

-Get your mouth ready.

A little bit of smokiness sliding just below the surface on the ham.

All right.

-That is beautiful.

That is not sweet.

-No.

-You know, it's got just a hint of sweetness.

Gorgeous.

-I love that.

This is my favorite frankfurter.

-Mm-hmm!

-You know?

-That's gorgeous.

-Finally, the kielbasa.

A little bit of mustard.

-That kielbasa -- just beautifully balanced flavor.

A little bit of smoke in there.

-Mm-hmm.

Really wonderful sauerkraut.

-Yes.

-These potatoes.

I love how the potatoes have that sauerkraut-briny flavor.

-That joy on your face -- it was absolutely apparent.

And you sold it here.

This is gorgeous.

-I'm so glad you loved it.

-Cheers to you.

Thank you.

-Cheers.

-All right, it's choucroute garnie time for you at home, and you want to make this.

It starts by simmering potatoes and sauerkraut brine, brown kielbasa, franks, and brats with ham, and then braise it all together with Riesling and bacon.

So from "Cook's Country," Olympia Provisions-style choucroute garnie.

All right, gotta hurry up and eat this.

-[ Laughs ] ♪♪ -We're talking about European sausages today.

And I have on the table some of the favorites that we use here at "Cook's Country."

We use them both as an ingredient in a soup or stew, or cook them and serve them as the star on the plate.

I'm gonna start down here at the end with the bratwurst.

It's kind of sweet, herbal.

It's got a nice sort of coarse, pebbly texture if you buy the raw bratwurst, which we recommend, rather than the partially cooked.

Next up -- bangers.

These are creamy.

They're a little bready because they've actually got wheat biscuits in along with some pork butt.

They're kind of mild, not my favorite on the table.

Next up, we have the kielbasa.

Think of this as a garlicky hot dog.

It's got a big, bold flavor.

Super versatile.

Andouille -- French via Cajun Country.

It's got a lot of black pepper.

This Louisiana favorite is wonderful in gumbo and jambalaya.

Next up, from Portugal -- linguiça.

So this has got cumin and paprika, but also vinegar.

So it's a little bit tangy.

Two Italian sausages.

So this is hot Italian sausage and sweet Italian sausage.

The dominant flavors here are garlic and fennel, and then, of course, red-pepper flakes in the hot version.

At the end of the table, we've got chorizo.

Now, this is the Spanish-style chorizo.

It's fully cooked.

It's got a lot of smoked-paprika flavor in it, and it's got a jerky, like, almost pepperoni texture.

Next to it is the Mexican chorizo.

So this is a raw, crumbly sausage.

It's got chili powder as well as regular paprika flavor.

So there you have it -- a sausage for every country and for every recipe.

♪♪ -Belgian endive is usually added to green salad sparingly, almost like a garnish, so that you just get little hits of its fresh, slightly bitter flavor.

But today Ashley's gonna put the endive in center stage and build the salad around it.

-You bet I am.

But first, I want to acknowledge there's an elephant in the room right now.

-Uh-oh.

-So I say -- I pronounce it "ahn-deeve."

-Oh, oui, oui.

-Oui.

And it's not because I'm fancy.

I just guess I grew up that way.

-She's fancy.

-[ Laughs ] No.

-Endive comes from the chicory family, so as you can imagine, it is quite bitter.

But it goes really nicely with things like pungent blue cheese or fruit and even nuts.

-Mm-hmm.

-So we came up with this amazing recipe, and I promise you are not gonna be disappointed.

-Okay.

-So we're gonna use a couple oranges.

I'm gonna start by zesting one of the oranges.

So I'm gonna need about 1 1/2 teaspoons total.

All right, so I'm gonna get any of the zest that's left hanging in there.

And, again, we need a teaspoon and a half, which I'd say that's pretty close.

You want to square off the bottom just so you have a nice, flat surface to work with... -Mm-hmm.

-...because what I'm gonna do is I'm going to take off the outer skin of the orange.

You go just to the fruit, just to the inside, without wasting too much.

Now, using a paring knife, what you want to do -- you see these lines... -Mm-hmm.

-...that are running across the orange?

You want to use a paring knife -- a nice, sharp paring knife -- and go under and in between those white marks.

-Mm-hmm.

-And then you kind of run it to the center, pinch it somewhat, just so that you get an orange segment.

So I'm gonna place this in a large bowl, so I'm going to finish this orange, and then I'm also gonna do the second orange as well.

-Okay.

-So I'm looking for about a tablespoon of juice.

-Okay.

-So I'm just gonna squeeze that.

-Looks good.

-Good.

I have a half of a red onion right here.

It's been cut through the root and stem end.

You can kind of use these lines as a guide, similar to the orange.

-Mm-hmm.

-All right, so I'm gonna add the red onion into this bowl.

Now I'm gonna add the vinaigrette components of our dressing, even though we have another dressing down the line.

But this is 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

I'm gonna set this aside for about 30 minutes until the flavors meld, but, really, this step is all about softening that harsh bite that you can get often from red onions.

♪♪ -The Belgian endive is a curious, compact little vegetable with a history to match.

Endive is grown in a field, then replanted indoors and kept in total darkness to control its chlorophyll production.

This process is what produces its signature pale leaves.

Witloof is the Belgian term for endive, and that translates to "white leaf."

In fact, the Witloof Museum in Kampenhout is dedicated to this mighty vegetable.

Some say that the Belgian endive was created by accident.

The story goes that a soldier returning from war discovered a cellar full of endive.

But other sources point to Frans Brézier, the head gardener at the Brussels Botanic Garden, as the likely creator around 1840.

By that time, the practice of etiolation, or growing plants in the dark, was already being used with asparagus.

So it's likely that Brézier was experimenting with using this same process on endive.

The Belgians consider themselves a resilient people and resonate with the symbolism of new growth emerging from the darkness.

And tying endive to the country's political history makes it a story of national pride, not just a story of a bitter vegetable.

We bring endive into the spotlight at "Cook's Country" in an easy and elegant salad.

♪♪ -Now I'm going to finish the dressing here.

I've got 1 tablespoon of honey.

So, again, that really sweet balance to the bitterness.

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.

I'm just gonna give that a good whisk just to make sure everything is incorporated.

It smells so good.

-Mm-hmm!

-All right, now I have some crumbled blue cheese.

It's 1/2 cup.

Remember I mentioned, you know, the endive holds up really nicely to things like the pungent blue cheese.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

And then I have 1/2 cup of some toasted walnuts, and I went ahead and chopped them coarsely.

Add that right in there, too.

Okay, so I have the topping here.

Now we've got the star of the show.

-Hello!

-Hello.

-Endive, "ahn-deeve"?

-[ Laughing ] Mm-hmm.

We have four heads of endive here.

And they, as you can see, are similar in size.

-Mm-hmm.

-So when shopping for these, you just want to make sure they're not turning brown or tan color.

-Okay.

-So very simple to do.

That's it.

-One leaf at a time.

-One leaf at a time.

-Oh!

Leaving them whole.

-Yep.

-Do you want some help?

-Oh, yes.

Thank you.

-Yeah.

This is kind of fun.

This is my kind of prep work.

-And the last thing we have to do here is add a little bit of salt and pepper.

-Okay.

-So I have 1/4 teaspoon each.

Some salt and some pepper.

And then just, I have got a great large-size bowl here... -Mm-hmm.

-...just to make sure nobody falls out.

And I'm just gonna toss until everything's combined.

With this kind of salad, no matter how you arrange it, it still feels special, looks special, and most importantly, delicious.

And now my favorite part of this salad -- I'm gonna spoon our walnut-blue-cheese mixture... -Mmm!

-...slash dressing on top.

-Ooh!

-Yeah.

-That's beautiful.

-Thank you, yes.

I can smell that orange zest... -Mm-hmm.

-...and the walnuts.

-Gorgeous.

-Thank you.

-That's a looker.

-So I'm gonna use just a serving fork here... -All right.

-...and our spoon just for some support.

-Mmm!

-Mm-hmm.

A little blue cheese.

Hey.

-Beautiful.

I want to try to get a little everything... -Mm-hmm.

-...on this first bite.

Mmm!

That is delicious.

I love how the blue cheese and the walnuts really stand up to the endive and actually bring out its sweeter side... -Yeah.

-...which is hard to do.

-Mm-hmm.

As I said, oftentimes it gets lost in salads.

-Mm-hmm.

-And now not only are we gaining from, you know, the texture of the endive, but really that fresh and just subtle sweetness.

-Yeah.

And the orange -- it's not overpowering, 'cause that was a lot of zest.

-It was.

-It's almost like a mellow background note.

-Yep.

And I'm not a huge raw-red-onion type of girl.

-Mm-hmm.

-But here, I love it.

-Yeah, they're just wilted enough... -Yep.

-...mellowed out a bit.

-Mm-hmm.

-Ashley, this is delicious.

-Oh, I'm so glad you liked it.

-Thank you for showing me how to make endive the star of the show.

-My pleasure.

-If you want to make this elegant endive salad, start by cutting segments from two oranges.

Temper the onion by letting it sit with vinegar and salt.

And pull the leaves off the endive one at a time and leave them whole.

From "Cook's Country," a flavorful and fairly fancy recipe for endive salad with oranges and blue cheese.

You can find this recipe and all the recipes from this season along with select episodes and our product reviews at our website, CooksCountry.com/tv.

-Could you pass the caviar for my endive?

-[ Laughs ] I'm going to dive into this endive salad right now.

-Mm-hmm.

-Let us help with dinner tonight.

Visit our website anytime for fail-proof recipes, full episodes, ingredient advice, and equipment reviews.

CooksCountry.com/tv.

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