Sauerbraten with Bread Dumplings and Red Cabbage

We followed this Sauerbraten recipe at the Spring Dinner at our church, which was a great success, it is actually a combination of the other two recipes!

Ingredients:

•  2 – 3 lbs    Sirloin Tip Roast or Bottom Round Roast
•                   Salt & Pepper
•     1 large    Cooking Onion
•     1 stalk    Celery
•             1    Carrot
•    6 slices    Bacon
•     5 cups.   Water
•       ⅓ cup    Vinegar
•         50 g    Sossenkuchen

Marinade:

•      5 cups     Water
•      1 large     Cooking Onion
•              1     Bay Leaf
•            16     Juniper Berries
•              6     Whole Black Peppercorns
•       ½ cup     Vinegar*
•                     Salt and ground White Pepper to taste

* Add more vinegar if you want the meat more sour tasting!

Directions:

Marinating:
In a pot combine all marinade ingredients and season to taste.
Bring to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes.
Cool down completely!
Place meat in a Zip-Loc bag and pour the marinate over the meat.
Close bag, place in a bowl to prevent leakage and refrigerate for at least 3 days, rotating the bag daily.

Cooking:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Clean and slice onion and cut celery and carrots into pieces.
Place 4 of the juniper berries and bay leaf from the marinade in with the vegetables.
In a Dutch Oven fry the bacon until enough grease is released to be able to brown the roast.
Season roast with salt and pepper, add to the Dutch oven with the vegetables, leaving the bacon in with the roast. Brown the roast on all sides, stirring the vegetables frequently so they brown, but do not burn.

Once the roast is browned on all sides add the water with the ⅓ cup vinegar and bring to a boil on top of the stove.
Cover and place in the oven for 2-3 hours. Uncover after 1½ hours and finish cooking. Sauce should be reduced by about ⅓ in this time.

Remove roast and set aside keeping it warm while making the gravy.
Strain the gravy through a sieve, pressing down with a wooden spoon to force as much of the solids through as possible. If you use an immersion blender to liquefy the gravy before straining it through the sieve, remove and discard the bay leaf.
Return the gravy to the Dutch oven and bring to a boil.
Place the Sossenkuchen in a bowl and add some of the hot gravy, mix until it is dissolved and return to the pot, simmer briefly.
If needed add salt, pepper and Sossenkuchen to taste. Add a roux (butter & flour) if a thicker gravy is desired.

Slice the roast and arrange slices on a warm platter with some gravy drizzled over them. Serve the rest of the gravy in a separate bowl.
Generally served with Dumplings or Spätzle, Red Cabbage and Lingonberries (available at some supermarkets or IKEA).