Dateline: February 16, 2021 Chorizo, Rice, and Black Beans

I needed to clear up some space in the freezer, so out came the homemade chorizo and then I had to figure out what to do with it.

As I didn't think about dinner until late afternoon, I pulled out the instant pot and decided to make some kind of stew-ish thing.  

Ingredients

1 lb chorizo, hopefully, homemade, broken into chunks

2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes, undrained

2 14 oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped 

1 c basmati rice

1 c water

2 T chili powder

1 t cumin powder

1 T smoked paprika

1 t mexican oregano

saffron threads, optional

2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced with extra T of the sauce

1 chopped red finger pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Method

1.  Heat Instant Pot and briefly saute the sausage to render some of its fat.  If the sausage was lean, which mine was, there is no need to drain out the fat.  Otherwise, remove as much fat as you can.  Add in onions, garlic, finger pepper, and a bit of salt and pepper.  Stir to combine and cook until onions are translucent.

2.  Add in chipotle peppers and extra sauce, canned tomatoes, beans, chili powder, paprika, cumin, saffron, oregano, and option saffron, if using.  Stir to combine.  

3.  Adjust Instant Pot to pressure cook on high for 20 minutes.  Allow to reduce pressure naturally for 5-8 minutes, then quick release.  Taste for seasoning.  Add rice and water and close the lid and adjust time for another 5 minutes of high pressure.  Allow to release naturally.  If you get a burn message, add more water and stir well.  The rice should absorb almost all of the liquid in the pot.

This was almost like a jambalaya, which was fitting as it was Fat Tuesday!

This was very spicy and addictive at that!  We both were blowing our noses but kept reaching for more.... the power of spice.  If your chorizo is not very spicy, add some more chipotle peppers to build the heat!

Dateline: February 1, 2021 Potluck Sausage Chili, or Freezer Diving

I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner.  I did know that I needed to make room in the freezer for more sausage, what else does one do during a snow storm.

I found a pound of loose sausage, turned out to be sage breakfast sausage, but never mind, and I found a container of Chili Colorado sauce saved from a previous meal.  

Perfect!  Dinner is a sausage chili stew with chickpeas and left over veggies from the sheet pan dinner the other night!

In the instant pot, I browned the sausage and then added in the frozen colorado sauce.  I opened a can of chickpeas and threw them in, liquid and all and closed the lid.  I set the pot to pressure cook for 8 minutes.  When time was up, I used quick release, and checked in on the contents.  I found some kale and collards in the fridge and added that to the pot along with the veggies from a previous meal.  Set the pot to slow cook and left a glass lid on it ajar to help thicken it up a bit.  

Finished product was far better than I thought it would be!  Yeah me!  Finished up the meal with some brown basmati rice, and Ta-Dah!  Speaking of finishing up, I drained the beautiful Barbaresco from an earlier dinner.  Delightful!

 

Dateline: January 30, 2021 First foray into sheetpan dinner

I had a ton of veg that needed to be used in some creative way.  I decided that I would attempt a sheetpan dinner using some homemade brats and the vegetation that was in the fridge.

Veg and Brats

Ingredients 

1/2 butternut squash, cubed

1 bell pepper, seeded and cut into large chunks

4 sunchokes, washed and halved, if necessary

5-6 small white potatoes, washed and cut in half

1 large sweet potato, washed and cut into rounds

2 small red onions, cut into wedges thru the root end

2 shallots, cut into wedges thru the root end

handful of baby carrots

1 large parsnip, peeled and chunked up

1 serrano pepper, cut into rounds

1 green chili, seeded and cut into chunks

Olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 1 lb bag of halved brussel sprouts in a seal and steam bag

1 large preserved lemon, cut into small pieces

6-7 brats, preferably homemade

Method

1.  Heat oven to 450°F.  Chop vegetables, except brussel sprouts, and add to a bowl.  Add olive oil and salt and pepper and mix well to coat veggies.

2.  Dump veggies onto a sheet pan and arrange them in an even layer.  Put into oven for 30 minutes.

3.  Cook brussel sprouts in microwave for 3 minutes and empty bag into bowl that held the veggies.  Add some oil, salt and pepper to coat.  Hold aside.

4.  After 30 minutes, remove pan from oven and lower temp to 400°F.  Add sprouts to pan and place sausages on top evenly spaced out on the pan.  Prick each sausage a few time on each side.  Return pan to oven and cook for 15 minutes.  Turn sausages and cook for another 15 minutes.  Serve.

Pre sausage veggies

Post sausage cooking

This was an excellent and very simple meal.  Even Bill could do it, if I walked him through the steps.  Do you hear that Alan!!!!!

The sausages were perfectly cooked, and delicious, if I do say.  And the assortment of colors in the veggies added a lot of interest and different vitamins into the mix.

The preserved lemon added a bit of acid and some tartness.  If you didn't have preserved lemons, you could easily add a spritz or two of the vinegar of your choice at the end of the cooking.

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: Ocotober 15, 2020 Jambalaya with the Spellbergs and Kia

We just arrived in Rehoboth Beach for Claire and Jon's wedding.  Phil, Dianne, and Kia looked exhausted, so I cooked dinner, using the kielbasa that I brought down, along with bell peppers, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes, chicken thighs, and assorted spices.  It was finished up with mixing in left over rice.   

Photo is too close up, but you can see the chicken and sausage along with the vegetation.  

For Dianne 

Method

1.  Heat up the instant pot on saute and high heat.

2.  When hot, add oil and sausages and chicken to brown a bit

3.  Add aromatics and any hot pepper flakes, if using.

4.  Add veggies and tomatoes.  Mix together well.  Rinse tomato can with some wine and add to pot.

5.  Cancel saute.

6.  Press pressure cook on high pressure and set time for 25 minutes.

7.  Close lid, made sure valve is in the sealing position.

8.  When time is up, let pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then quick release any remaining pressure.

9.  Open lid stir well and mix in rice.

Dateline: September 30, 2020 Shrimp, Scallop, Sausage GUMBO

I had some shrimp and scallops coming from FD, and was going to do a seared thing, but found the okra in the freezer and bingo, GUMBO!

I used NYT recipe by David Tanis with a twist supplied by a review.  Made a dark roux to start.  There is something meditative about making and watching a roux come to color.  Starts out pale yellow ochre-ish and ends up a deep caramel color.  Once it hits the caramel stage, be very attentive, it can go to black in a nano-second.  

I used 1 lb of shrimp and 1/2 lb dry scallops.  Used chicken stock instead of shrimp stock as the shrimp were already peeled and deveined and frozen okra.  Added a glug of white wine as well.

On the left, mid way.  On the right, finished roux.  Probably took 20 minutes or so to get there, chop veggies during the early stage and stir occasionally, as it darkens, it needs your full attention.

Trinity plus garlic on right, and veggies softening in the roux on left.

Reducing and thickening before seafood and okra on left, on right, everybody into the pool

Dateline: September 7, 2020 Boar Sweet Italian Sausage and Gazpacho

Today was the day that I am making boar sausage.  I used a conglomeration of recipes so I will provide links and details below.

I ordered the boar from D'artagnan and got 2 shoulder roasts each about 3 lbs.  I cut them up into 1 inch cubes and I also added 1.5 lbs of salt pork for the fat.  This was an experiment in terms of using the salt pork rather than the fat back.  Why I wanted to save the fat back is a mystery to me at this moment!

I had 2 very fatty packages of salt pork and decided that they would be the best.  I soaked them for about an hour to cancel some of the salinity.  I cut a thin piece and fried it up to gauge the salt level, and it was about the same as bacon, maybe even less.  I cut the salt back by half until I tasted a patty.  It needed the rest of the salt.  In it went in the emulsifying stage, along with chopped parsley and sage.

Sweet Italian Sausage, from Hank Shaw, was the major recipe of choice, and I used a bit of cure #1 because I am going to smoke them.

My additions to his excellent recipe was the chopped sage leaves, 1 tsp instacure #1, only used a coarse grind, and about 1 cup of chilled white wine.

Here they are resting to dry the casings a bit.  The 5.5 lbs of meat and 1.5 lbs of fat yielded 24 nice sausages.

They smoked up beautifully.  They actually smell more like kielbasa than italian sweets!  They are on the menu tonight!

Grilled it up last night.  Delicious.  A wonderful cross pollination between kielbasa and sweet italian.  The texture was very coarse and crumbly.  I think that was because I didn't have enough fat, or didn't emulsify it long enough by hand.  The flavor was good, it was the texture that was ok, but was looking for something less crumbly.  It is a learning process.

Served it with crispy grilled okra and a fantastic gazpacho.  This is truly a fabulous recipe.  I did make some alterations, of course!  I used some bread soaked in the vinegar, as per a suggestion from another user, added a handful of mixed herbs, parsley, chives, basil, and did not strain.  Used the vitamix and the texture was like a mousse, velvety and smooth without a trace of any fibrous bits.  Garnished with some chopped veggies, a lovely end of summer slice of heaven this meal was.

Dateline: August 30, 2020 CHORIZO

As per usual, I had a delivery from FreshDirect and I had a big ole pork shoulder coming.  I had been thinking about making chorizo and decided Friday was the day.  

Mexican Chorizo Recipe  click on link for recipe from Serious Eats

I made a few changes to grind size and number of grinds, but other than that, it was a written.  I ground the meat through a large plate, added the cold vinegar, and then ground thru a medium plate before stuffing into casings.

Another change I made was to cube the meat and fat up add the spices and let rest over night in fridge before grinding on Saturday.  Sure made the house smell good.  After filling the casings, I left them on a rack over a pan to air dry over night.  Sure made the fridge smell good.  I cut them apart, and portioned them into bags to be shared with neighbors.  I only made 3 lbs of chorizo, now thinking back, that seems stupid!

The over night rest really help set the deep reddish brown color associated with chorizo.  Good enough to eat raw!  Well, perhaps not.

Beautiful color, no?

Just before sealing them up!

Happy Sausaging!

 

Dateline: August 29, 2020 Almost Vegetarian Mexican-ish Stew

I had a hankering for a Mexican Style stew and thought of beans, peppers, corn, and tomatillos...All available in fridge or pantry.  I also had about 7 ounces of uncased chorizo which would add some flavor to the party as well.

Mexican-ish Bean and Chorizo Stew

Ingredients

3/4 cup each of three different type dried beans, I used greek white beans, caballero, and cranberry

6-7 ounces uncased chorizo

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

1 Fresno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 large onion, minced

3-4 large tomatillos, chopped

salt and pepper

1 T Mexican oregano

1-2 T dark chili powder

1.5 t chipotle chili powder

1 t ground cumin

1/2 t ground coriander

sprinkle of adobo seasoning

28 oz tomato sauce, marinara type or one 28 oz can crushed tomatoes 

2-3 c water

3 ears of corn stripped of kernels

Method

1.  Either soak the beans overnight, or using a pressure cooker, cover with 3 inches of water and bring to a boil.  Boil 2 minutes and remove and let rest for 1 hour.  (I used an InstantPot for this entire recipe).  After 1 hour drain and rinse the beans.

2.  Heat the InstantPot on saute, medium heat, and when hot add chorizo.  Cook until most of the fat has been rendered, and remove to a small dish.

3.  In the rendered fat, add the onions, tomatillos, and hot peppers and saute until softened.  Add beans, tomato sauce, chili powders, cumin, coriander, oregano, adobo and salt and pepper.  You may need to add about 1 or 2 cups of water here.  You don't want to get the burn message!  Change the setting to pressure cook, high, for 23 minutes.  

4.  When time is up, allow 10 minutes of natural release and quick release the rest.  Stir well to keep things from getting too thick at the bottom.  Taste the sauce, and check the beans.  Take 1 of each type of bean that you used out and cut in half.  If there is ANY white regions in the beans, add corn kernels and return to pressure cook for another 10 minutes.  Natural release for 10 minutes again, and check the beans again.  

If your beans were completely cooked, then add corn kernels and put InstantPot on stew for 20 minutes.

Taste for seasonings.  Serve with steamed rice.

Dateline: August 14-15, 2020 Chicken Brats! Yeah, Baby

A while ago, I had deboned and froze a bunch of chicken dark and white meat with skin to make chicken brats.  Friday was the day.  I took the meat out of the freezer along with some reserved beef fat and diced it up to make sausage.  

Ingredients

5 lbs chicken meat, both white and dark with skin, diced into 1 inch cubes                                                    1 lb beef fat, diced into 1 inch cubes                                                                                                               4 t kosher salt                                                                                                                                                     2 t ground white pepper                                                                                                                                     1.5 t caraway seeds                                                                                                                                           1.5 t dried marjoram                                                                                                                                           1.5 t ground allspice

Sheep or hog casing, soaked and flushed

Method

1.  Grind chicken through fine disk of a meat grinder

2.  In a large bowl, combine chicken, salt, pepper, caraway, marjoram, and allspice, mix well using your hands.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes, along with parts of your grinder.

3.  Grind mixture through the fine disk again.

4.  Stuff mixture into prepped casings.  Twist into lengths of your choice and prick any air pockets with sterilized sausage pricker.

5.  Place links on a wire rack in the refrigerator uncovered over night.

6.  Cut links apart and either keep wrapped tightly in plastic in fridge for up to 3 days, or vacuum seal and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw in fridge prior to use.

7.  Cook as desired to internal temp of 165°F.  Suggested is pan fried or grilled.

I tasted a patty prior to stuffing, and boy, oh, boy, were these tasty.

Dateline: August 2-4, 2020 Merguez Sausage

I bought 2 small lamb shoulder roasts, about 2 lbs each, from FreshDirect to make lamb merguez sausage.

The recipe was from Home Sausage Making, Cathy Barrow's merguez recipe.  I can't export the recipe to this blog, but I will type it up.

Ingredients

20 ft lamb casing, or 10 ft medium hog casing

4 lbs boneless lamb shoulder

1 lb pork fat (I used beef fat)

8 cloves of garlic, minced

3 T kosher salt

2 T paprika

1 T dried oregano

2 t ground coriander

2 t ground cumin

2 t anise seed

2 t ground cinnamon

2 t cayenne pepper

1.5 t ground black pepper

1/4 c red wine (I used white with a splash of red wine vinegar)

1/4 c water

Method

1.  Prepare the casings by soaking in warm water with a splash of vinegar and rinsing.

2.  Cube up lamb and fat in 1 in. cubes and sprinkle with all spices except wine and water.  Mix well and refrigerate for minimum 2 hours, or preferably overnight.

3.  Grind through small disk.

4.  Add water and wine and mix well with your clean hands until it is a little sticky.  (This is developing the bind.)

5.  Stuff into your casings.  You can make 10 in lengths, or like I did, large coils.  Tie off the ends, and prick any air bubbles.

6.  Place sausage on a rack in a baking pan and refrigerate uncovered overnight.

7.  If you made links, but them apart.  The sausage can be refrigerated for 2 - 3 days, or frozen for up to 3 months.  Thaw in refrigerator overnight before using frozen sausage.

8.  Cook using the method of your choice, to an internal temperature of 160° F

Ground meat ready to be cased

Lamb merguez waiting to cure in fridge overnight

Full disclosure, I forgot to put in the garlic.  Even without the vampire repelling ingredient, these were excellent sausages.  I will definitely make them again and again!

How did I use the sausages

I could not grill them because the remnants of Isaias were barreling through Brooklyn.  So I pulled out the instant pot, 2 cans of garbanzo beans and some collards and this is what I came up with.

1 lb merguez sausages

2 Cans garbanzo beans

1 bunch collard greens, stripped off of stem and julienned

3 scallions, sliced thin, held aside

1 red onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped

2 roma tomatoes, halved, seeds squeezed out and diced

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 t ground cumin

1/2 t ground coriander

1/4 t ground cinnamon

1/4 ground cloves

1/4 t tumeric

1 t chili pepper of your choice, I used alleppo

1 large handful mint, chopped 

1 large handful parsley, chopped

1/2 lime, juiced

1 t ground sumac berries

1.5 t kosher salt

avocado oil

flaky salt to finish

~1 T oil sausages were cooked in to finish

Method

1.  Drain and rinse chick peas.

2.  Heat InstantPot on saute on medium heat level.  When hot, add avocado oil, red onion and garlic.  Saute until fragrant.

3.  Add cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, and tumeric and saute to bloom the spices.  Add beans and chicken stock mix well.  Add collard greens.  Mix well.

4.  Add kosher salt, chili pepper, and chopped tomatoes.  Mix well, taste and correct seasonings, if necessary.

5.  When collards are softened and cooked, add parsley, and lime juice.  Mix well, taste and correct seasonings, if necessary.

6.   Heat a large pan with lid that can hold the sausages in one layer over high heat.  Add small amount of oil of your choice.  When the oil shimmers, add sausages, reduce temperature, and cover with a lid.  When sausages are browned on one side, carefully turn over and brown other side.  You can add a couple of ounces of water to steam the sausages after flipping.  Cook until water has evaporated and second side is nicely browned.  Use an instant thermometer to check that temp is at least 160 F.  

7.  Remove sausages, add some of the oil to the beans.  Mix well.  Taste and finish with flaky salt, reserved scallions, mint, and sumac.

Even without garlic, these were excellent sausages

 

This was far better than you would think.  The beans and collards blended together perfectly and the "sauce" clung to everything.  The mint added a nice brightness, but got overshadowed by spices after a while.

Dateline: July 25, 2020 Kielbasa, Cheese, Grilled Salmon, Asparagus, Broccoli, Salad, Fruit Salad, and Guacamole

So, sometimes things are just too darn weird for words.  I got an order from FreshDirect this morning, Bill went down to fetch it.  When he came back into the house, he said, "wow that's sure is a lot of avocados!"  I respond, "I didn't order any avocados".  I checked my order, and yup, that was true.  I did not order any.  I have accidentally added items before, and been surprised to see 15 jars of oil pack tuna.  However, this was not the case.  There were over 50 2-pack boxes of avocados, ready to eat just sitting in their own FD bag.  I assumed that they were meant for a restaurant or other business.  That was about $250 worth of alligator pears!

I called customer service, and said what was sitting on my kitchen floor, after the rep stopped laughing, she said, "let me check to make sure you weren't charged."  I was not.  She asked me to hold while she was trying to figure out where they should have been delivered.  Humming quietly to myself.  She came back on and said, "where are the avocados now?"  "In my apt", I respond.  "Oh, throw them away.  We can not take them back, they have gone inside.  If you were on the street, we could have had the truck come and pick them up.  But because they have been inside your building, we can not accept them.  Eat them, give them away, throw them out, you can do what ever you want with them."

So, 47 boxes of avocados went downstairs to the staff, and any neighbors who want them, and I kept 3 boxes.  This is why we are having guac!

You can't make this stuff up!

Everything for dinner will be grilled, except cheeses, salads, and guac.  I have prepped all the veggies, salads, and solids that go in the guac already.  So when Servet gets here, we can get down to the serious business of deciding what to drink and enjoying the glorious weather on the deck.  When we decide we want to eat, out come the fixings, and voila, stuff is ready to throw on the grill, or throw into a bowl, etc.

I kind of like having everything prepped and ready to roll.  Allows me to relax and enjoy the rest of the day.

With everything prepped, cooking went one-two-three and done, however, I forgot to take any photos.  Sigh, one margarita with a muddle of mint and salt and I can't remember what to do!

I seasoned the salmon with only salt and pepper on all sides and some cooking spray.  The grill was screaming hot after cooking the veggies, so the fish and kielbasa cooked quickly.  The fish was quite tasty, skin nicely crisped up and a beautiful medium doneness.  

The fruit salad didn't get eaten for dessert as we were too full from the guac and ezme that Servet made.  Ohhhh that was delicious.  He is going to send me the recipe.  Ezme is a Turkish finely chopped spicy vegetable salad.  I order it from a local Turkish take out and love it.  It's the freshness of the veggies and the spiciness of the added condiment that is addictive.  I learned last night that Turkish spice paste is not the same as harissa.  It can be faked by using tomato paste and a "handful" of Alleppo pepper (Servet's measuring phrase).

 

Dateline: July 22-23, 2020 Perfecting Kielbasa

I had a very large pork shoulder in the freezer that I took out on the morning of July 22.  By that evening, I had completed making kielbasa minus the smoking.  As I started to cut the shoulder up, I found out that it was NOT boned!  I had to cut around the bone in a half frozen hunk of meat and take care not to cut my fingers off with the boning knife.  No accidents!  

After freeing up the bone, I cut up the pork belly.  It came with skin on, which it never has done before, so after thinking about it, I decided to take the skin off.  Why you ask?  Because pork skin unless shatteringly crisp is awful to chew on.  And in an otherwise tender sausage, a gnarly bit of chewy is not very appetizing.  So off came the skin on the belly as well as the skin on the shoulder.  I saved the skin in case some day I have a big vat of hot oil that is begging for chicharones to be made.  

I used the same recipe as before, Homemade Polish Kielbasa, by Hank Shaw.  I did a few things differently than I did on the first go round.  I let the sausages sit in the fridge over night on a rack to allow the casings to fully adhere to the filling.  I also added about 2 teaspoons of yellow mustard seeds to the spice mix.  I did not have the abundance of pork fat that I had in the first go, so I added some beef fat from brisket trimmings that I had in the freezer along with about a pound of pork belly.  In all I had about 10-11 lbs of sausage that needed to be stuffed.

I did have a couple of blow outs while stuffing.  It was one casing that blew out 2 times.  It was responsible for the short guy in the center of the top picture below.  

This was the output from Wednesday night.  As you can see, there is quite a bit of sausage here.  About half will be given away, if I can do it when Bill is not looking!

This morning, I got up and set up the smoker.  And put these bad girls in there.

It is critical that the sausages do not touch each other because that will result in a spot that the smoke will not get to.  This means a "white" spot in an otherwise reddish sausage.  

Here are the finished ones:  

You can clearly see the color change, and I think that is a result of overnight resting and proper smoke coverage.  The last batch were much paler.  The proof will be in the tasting.  When Bill and I sampled some of the sausage pre-stuffing, we were both happy with the flavors.  The overnight sit only will enhance those flavors and the smoke will provide them another layer of flavor.

Every batch is a learning experience.  I learned that being totally prepared ahead of your start is essential as is prepping your equipment.  The tedious part is the cutting up of the meat and grinding it.  

I have a bunch of chicken in the fridge that I was thinking of turning into sausage this weekend.  What I learned from the turkey sausage is that fat is a necessary element.  I have both white and dark meat with skin on and if I think there is not enough fat, that I will grind up a duck breast along with the chicken to help out the lean-ness problem.

Tasting Notes:  

This sausage was delicious!  I know, I know, I say that about everything I cook, but in this case it is not hyperbole!  I like the texture of the coarse grind, the snap of the casing, and the flavor.  We ate a good deal of a very big ring last night, and Bill finished off the remains for breakfast!

Dateline: July 14, 2020 Homemade Turkey Sausage and what to do with it?

I ordered from FD some turkey breast and tenderloins, to which I added another tenderloin package from the freezer, this gave me 5 lbs of lean turkey to make sausage with.  

Smoked Sicilian-Style Turkey Sausage 

Makes 5 pounds 

Sicilian sausages rely principally upon fennel seeds for their distinctive taste. Here, the hot smoking cooks the sausage and adds its own inimitable flavor. 

Ingredients 

5 feet small hog or sheep casing 

5 pounds boneless, skin-on turkey (mixture of dark and light meat) 

2 tablespoons kosher salt 

2 teaspoons crushed fennel seeds 

2 teaspoons whole fennel seeds 

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper 

2 teaspoons crushed red pepper (optional) 

2 garlic cloves, minced 

Instructions 

1. Prepare the casing​. 

2. Cut the turkey into 1-inch cubes. Freeze for 30 minutes. 

3. Grind the turkey through the fine disk of a meat grinder. 

4. In a large bowl, combine the turkey, salt, crushed and whole fennel seeds, black pepper, crushed red pepper (if using), and garlic. Freeze for 30 minutes. 

5. Grind the mixture through the fine disk of the grinder. 

6. Stuff the mixture into the prepared casing, prick air pockets, and twist off into 3-inch links. 

7. Place the sausage on a baking sheet fitted with a wire rack and refrigerate, uncovered, for 1 day. 

8. Hot-smoke the sausages at 180 to 190ºF (73 to 88ºC) for 2 to 4 hours, until an instant-read thermometer shows an internal temperature of 165ºF (74ºC). 

9. Cut the links apart. Refrigerate, wrapped in plastic, for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 2 months; thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

Reavis, Charles G.. Home Sausage Making, 4th Edition: From Fresh and Cooked to Smoked, Dried, and Cured: 100 Specialty Recipes . Storey Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition. 

My modifications to this recipe:

I used collagen casings.  I had some and had never tried them.  They are going to be used only when I need to make sure that there are no pork products in what I am making.  They do not hold a twist well and they are not as strong as natural casings.  

I used only lean white meat and supplemented with 80g of duck fat from making confit.  Going forward I would use what was specified in the recipe, a mix of meats with skin (and probably some duck fat as well)

These are the smoked and grilled links.  After smoking I gave them a soak in ice water to prevent the casing from shrinking away from the meat.  

Now the big question was what to do with these links?

I wanted pasta, so I created a sauce of veggies cooked in the instant pot.

Ingredients

1 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

3-4 anchovy fillets

red pepper flakes

3/4 red bell pepper, diced

2 small zucchini, diced

handful of fresh parsley, chopped

1 stalk celery, diced

1 qt homemade chicken stock

1 oz half and half

1/2 c dry white wine

salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and thyme to taste

1/2 lb long pasta, broken in half.  (I used bucatini)

4 links Italian Turkey Sausage, sliced into rounds

any diced cooked vegetables of your choice (clean out the fridge of those tiny containers of left-over veggies)

grated cheese of your choice

Method

1.  Heat Instant Pot on saute.  When hot, add olive oil, onions, garlic, anchovies, and red pepper flakes.  Cook until softened.

2.  Add raw vegetables, parsley, dried spices, salt and pepper and cook until they start to soften.  Add wine to deglaze and then add the stock.  Taste and adjust seasonings

this is just before pressure cooking

3.  Cancel saute, and set up for Pressure Cook 11-12 minutes.  

4.  When Pressure Cook is finished quick release the pressure and puree with a stick blender to your desired degree of smoothness.  Add half and half and stir.

5.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  (I found that it needed salt)

6.  Add in sausage, cooked veggies and broken pasta.  Set pressure on high for 5 minutes.

chopped cooked veggies

sliced sausages

7.  When Pressure Cook is finished, quick release and stir.  Let sit for a couple of minutes to help the starches from the pasta thicken the sauce a bit.  Add some of the cheese to help in that process.  Taste again, and adjust seasonings.

8.  Serve and pass the cheese!

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but here is what was left in the pot!  

This was really delicious and I know my husband had no idea about the anchovies and zucchini!  

Dateline: July 4, 2020 Can you say KIELBASA -- Homemade

I was looking to do something interesting today and decided to check out what was left of my "sausage stash".  I had about 2200 g of pork and 1100 g pork fat.  Bingo, we have a luscious sausage in the offing.

I searched the web looking at recipes and decided on this one, and will, no doubt, tweak it in the future if it is any good.  How could it not be!  Kielbasa is a fav of my husband unit, so I am hoping that this turns out ok.  I have made kielbasa in the past, but it turned out that I ground it too fine.  I used the coarsest disc I had at the time, and subsequently, have invested in a coarser one that I used today.

Click on the link above to get the recipe I used.  I pretty much followed his recipe, but adjusted my seasonings and cure powder #1 according to the weight of the meat and water that I was using.

This is a time consuming enterprise, (see what I did there) plan accordingly.

Suggested Tools

1.  Meat grinder

You will need to cut the meat up into chunks that will fit in the feed tube of your grinder.  I strongly urge you NOT to use your KitchenAid as your grinder.  It is not powerful enough and will smear the fat rather than grind it up.  Also make sure your meat and fat is very cold, even on the verge of freezing.  This will prevent the above mentioned fat smear.  

2.  Stand mixer, or use your impeccably clean hands to mix to bind

3.  Sausage stuffer 

Again, your KitchenAid will heat up the meat and produce less than desirable results.  

If you start out with using your KitchenAid, that's ok, but if you get serious about making sausage and charcuterie then invest in a good grinder.

Soak your casings and don't forget to run water through them to flush out residual salt.  Set aside.

I cut the meat and fat up into about 3/4 inch cubes, which fit easily into the grinder feeder tube.

Prior to grinding add all the spices and cure to the meat cubes to infuse more flavor into the meat.  When I was grinding the meat, I put the "dump" bowl inside another one that was half full of ice to keep the meat cold and prevent fat melt.

I then returned the grind to the fridge and cleaned up, as the article stated.   I used the stand mixer to mix the ice water into the meat.  This was a bit problematic as the meat rose over the top of the bowl and coated all exposed parts of the mixer arm. In the future, I will do it by hand.  The purpose of this mixing is to get the meat "sticky" so that it will hold together in the casing and not be crumbly.

I got out the sausage stuffer and proceeded to stuff 5 lengths of casings.  I had 2 blow outs, so in all it was probably 4, 4-foot lengths that got stuffed.  I have a hand crank stuffer that I really like.  It works well, breaks down for cleaning easily and goes back together quickly,

I let the sausages rest on the counter with the AC cranked for about 40 minutes.  Then onto the smoker they went.  Since they should not touch each other as that interferes with the smoking, so I used a jerky rack that I bought.  Worked like a charm.

They will be hanging out on the smoker for 4 hours.  The internal temp needs to come up to 154-155°F and then they get plunged into an ice bath to quickly cool them down.  Into the fridge and we feast tomorrow!

After 2 hours at 200 degrees, the sausages were up over 155, so off of the smoker they came and into the ice bath they went.

They had nice color, not a deep red, but a nice brownish blush.

Addenda

The proof is definitely in the pudding.  The kielbasas were f*ing fantastic.  They were perfectly spiced, juicy, flavorful, great texture, and with a delightful snap.  Two opposable thumbs up and looking forward to the next time I make them.  All the work and steps were worth it.  

Grilled off a few links.  The flavor was even better and the snap of the casing, sooooo satisfying.  I'm already planning next foray into sausages!

Dateline: May 29, 2020 It's Friday, It's Fish Day

I know, that statement makes me seem to be a devote Catholic, but Friday is Fish Day because that's when my weekly delivery from FreshDirect arrives and I want to eat the fish that I ordered on the day that it is delivered!

I have 2 lovely center cut salmon fillets that I am going to grill.  I also thawed some Italian hot sausages that need to be cooked as well.  And to top that all off are the lovely asparagus.

Easy quick meal.  Fire up the grill, let it get hot, add a grill mat, salt and pepper fish and asparagus, add food, watch for a bit, kick the asparagus around the mat, flip sausages, but don't flip fish.  A pleasant surprise was that the fat from the sausages allowed the skin of the salmon to crisp up beautifully and release from the mat easily.

Just put on the grill

Off the grill, on the table

Note the salmon skin "crackers"  Bill was in heaven!

As per usual, I was panicking that there would not be enough "greenery" with the meal.  So I opted to core a head of cabbage and slice into quarters.  Oiled, salted, and peppered the quarters and put it on the grill after the fish, asparagus and sausages were done. 

After charring the cabbage, I shredded it and added some sweet onion along with sherry vinegar and olive oil to produce the salad below.