Dateline: December 30, 2020 Brats and Cabbage

I ground and stuffed a bunch of brats on Tuesday, and they were ready to eat.  I decided to poach them in a liquid of a bottle of white wine, a handful of sliced onions, a couple of pepper corns, a crushed clove of garlic, water, 1.5 c turkey stock, and some salt.  I also threw in some of the preserved mandarins that I had made a couple of days ago.  They were still very sweet, and not too salty, time will heal that.

I had a head of cabbage that I cleaned up, split in half, and then cut one half into quarters.  I removed the core and thinly sliced the cabbage.  I cut 1/2 an onion into thin half moons, chopped up 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 orange sweet pepper,  and the rest of the preserved mandarin.  I held .5 c of turkey stock in reserve if needed with the cabbage.

I swirled a bit of garlic oil in a flat bottomed wok and softened the onions and garlic.  When the onions were translucent, I add the cabbage, peppers, and mandarin.  I stirred that around a bit to distribute the wilting to the whole pan.  I added the .5 c stock and lidded the pan.

When the poaching sausages reached and internal temperature of 155-160°F, I added them to the cabbage and mixed everything together nicely.

A very satisfying meal for a chilly evening.  Bill said the texture was perfect for the sausages as was the flavor.  Yeah Me!

Here are the brats in the pan with the cabbage.  I liked the bright citrus blast that the mandarins gave, Bill not so much.  He picked them out of his plate.  Sigh.

Here is my plate with cabbage and brats.  Note the mandarin in the 10 spot on the plate.  I really liked it.  

We finished the meal with some mulled wine that a friend had given us for the holidays.  It was really tasty.  A perfect ending to a midweek meal.

At the end of the YouTube video of Joshua Weissman's Sausage Treatise, there are 3 recipes for sausages.  I made the brats and merguez.  Both recipes are quite good and as I scaled down the recipe, I used his 0.02% salt to total weight of meat and fat to determine the amount of salt I needed to use.  I was happy with how both turned out.  Go ahead, make some sausage!  You can purchase casings on line from The Sausage Maker or on Amazon.  You might also be able to buy some from a good butcher.  I have only worked with salt-packed casings.  They last forever in the fridge.  If you have a stand mixer with a grinder attachment, you are all set with respect to equipment....no more excuses, do it!  Remember, at the rate the vaccine is getting into arms, we will be in lock down for 10 years!

Dateline: December 23, 2020 Meatloaf, Sprouts, Cabbage, and Crispy Taters

I decided to try the FD meatloaf mix based on a recommendation from my friend Jen.  It comes seasoned and ready to load into a loaf pan.  I added a topping that I was hoping would be somewhat spicy, but it turned out to be on the sweetish side instead!  A bit surprising given that the ingredients were Worcestershire sauce, cocktail sauce, Italian hot peppers, ketchup, oyster sauce, and dry mustard.  Strange indeed.

I also made my friend Lyn's Brussel Sprouts with butter and Vegemite.  Bill hates sprouts.  I love them.  He said over dinner, "if you didn't tell me these were sprouts, I would never have known."   High praise for the recipe!  

Sprouts with Butter and Vegemite

Trim and halve sprouts

1 -2 T butter

2-3 t Vegemite or Marmite

water/stock/wine

1.  Heat pan and lightly char sprouts in a dry pan.  This can take a while to get them on both sides.

2.  Pan will get bits of brown in it, this is good.  Use about 2 oz of water, stock, wine to deglaze and steam sprouts for a bit.  When liquid have evaporated, add butter and vegemite/marmite and cook to coat the sprouts.  Add water or stock as necessary to soften the sprouts to your level of doneness.

Braised Napa Cabbage 

1 small head napa cabbage

1 small onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

water/stock/wine

1.  Cut the bottom 1 in off of the cabbage.  Make a cut in the base of the cabbage about 1-2 inches long, as if you were going to cut it in half lengthwise, but only go those 1-2 inches.  Grasp both halves and gentle pull the cabbage apart, tearing toward the tips of the leaves.  This splits the cabbage without lots of shredded leaves flying about.  Split each halve again the same way and perhaps again depending on the circumference of your head of cabbage.

2.  Cut the stem portions into about 1/2 inch slices and keep separate from the chopped leaves.  Cut the leaves into about 1/2 inch slices as well.

3.  Heat a pan, and add some olive oil.  When hot, add the onion and saute until softened, add in the garlic and some salt and pepper.  Saute until the garlic starts to soften.  Add the cabbage stem pieces and a sprinkle or two of salt and pepper, and saute until wilted a bit, then add the rest of the leaves.  

4.  Coat the contents of the pan with all of the onion and garlic mixture and allow the leaves to begin to get bright green.  Add about 2 oz of water/stock/wine and bring to a simmer.  Taste and adjust.  Reduce the liquid by 1/2.

Crispy Taters

8-10 new red potatoes, small ones, scrubbed 

salt and pepper

olive oil

1.  Coat a pan with cooking spray and add dried potatoes season with salt and pepper.  Put in a 350° F oven for about 30 minutes, or until taters are somewhat soft.

2.  Smash the taters with a fork so that they split open, add olive oil and put back in oven, but raise temp to 400° F for 15-20 minutes.  The should be crisped on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Drank a lovely Barolo with dinner.  Happy, happy camper!