Super Bowl Grub: Kimchi and Apple Brats

I have never been one for slow cookers. I understand the appeal and do not deny the results but I typically take little satisfaction from putting all my ingredients  in a crock pot and letting it do all the work. That being said, the Super Bowl is the slow cooker’s — well — Super Bowl. When you have a bunch of friends coming over, nothing is easier than having a portion of the game day eats just simmering away without needing much attention.

And what better to have simmering than sausage? Recently the governors of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin made the typical Super Bowl bet of food/drink from each respective state. Included in Wisconsin’s bet is a selection of bratwurst, cheese and beer. Besides making me want to visit Wisconsin for the first time in my life, it also had me craving some brats. But instead of the typical sauerkraut and brats, I decided to top mine with Korean kimchi, the spicy, funky Korean cabbage dish that is basically what sauerkraut wants to be when it grows up.

Now if you want to make your own kimchi, feel free. There are a ton of variations and of course you can improvise,  but if you’re popping your kimchi cherry, I would stick with a recipe. I particularly like this one I found over at treelight.com.

Kimchi and Apple Brats

Ingredients:
12 Bratwurst
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 apples, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. honey
1 c chicken broth
48 oz. white kimchi

Not much in the way of a recipe here: brown the brats and onions with the vegetable oil in a sautee pan, then toss them and all the remaining ingredients in your slow cooker for a few hours. I set mine for six hours then just kept it on warm until kickoff.

(Photo: toconner1)