Sausage Fest

No, this is not a post about a party where only dudes are in attendance.  It's about our experience making Italian sausage with venison and British bangers with pork.  Jim has made a variety of types of sausage from deer and goose (no kidding), but it was Peta's first time.  Last year's three types of sausage were a bit too much work, so we cut it down to two versatile types.

We made the sausages a month ago, but our inspiration to blog about it was a viewing of River Cottage's "Pig In A Day".   It's tough to find episodes of River Cottage online and we haven't gotten around to purchasing the series from the BBC, so we were well pleased to stumble across this video.

According to these experts, we made some mistakes along the way such as not frying off a small portion of the recipe to ensure that the seasonings are correct.   But the most amazing thing was Hugh's partner in crime's ability to tie up the sausages.  Granted, he's a butcher, but we'll do the two sausage tie-up next time rather than our twist technique (fail).  On the positive side, we did pass the meat through the large-holed plate once, added the seasoning and then passed it through again.  The Kitchen-Aid grinder attachment works a treat, but it fails as a sausage stuffer.  Additionally, there was a bit of grease from the worm-gear that we saw on some of the meat.  We didn't die from it last year, so whateryagonnado?  Also, we let the sausages hang for a few days to dry off.

For both of the recipes, we used recipes from a site called 3men.com  We half expected a real "sausage-fest" to pop up, but these guys are legit and we have re-posted the recipes here.  We did not add the MSG to the Italian links and they taste great, but the bangers were not salty enough (see above: frying off).  All of the sausages were made with natural casings.

Hot-Sweet Italian

This favorite pizza topping is a coarse pork sausage, generally sold in plump links. Italian sausage is usually flavored with garlic and fennel seed or anise seed. It comes in two styles: hot (flavored with hot, red peppers) and sweet (without the added heat). It must be well cooked before serving, and is suitable for frying, grilling or braising. The recipe below is a hybrid of hot and sweet.

• 15 pounds boned pork butts
• 2 ¾ cups very cold red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon works nicely)
• 7 tablespoons kosher salt
• 7 tablespoons fennel
• 6 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 3 teaspoons red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1½ teaspoons garlic powder
• 1½ teaspoons sugar
• 1½ teaspoons caraway seed
• 1 teaspoon MSG

Grind all of the pork butts through a one-quarter inch or three-eighths inch plate. Refrigerate the ground pork until well chilled - ideally 32 to 34 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the meat is chilled, thoroughly mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl. In a large bowl or lug, thoroughly mix the wine and spice mixture with the ground pork. Immediately stuff into 32mm to 35mm hog casings. Hang the stuffed sausage in a cool place until the casings are dry to the touch. Refrigerate or freeze immediately after drying.

If you do not have a sausage stuffer, you can store the sausage in patties or in bulk. Refrigerate or freeze as desired.

English Bangers

Banger Seasoning

• 5 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 2 1/2 teaspoon mace
• 2 1/4 teaspoon salt [note: this should be more]
• 2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Sausage

• 2 1/2 lb. boneless lean pork shoulder or loin cut in cubes
• 1 lb. fresh pork fat in cubes
• 1 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 3 1/2 teaspoon Banger seasoning

Grind pork and fat together using plate of meat grinder.
Add Banger Seasoning and mix well.
Grind again.
Stuff mixture into casings and tie in 4-5 inch lengths.
This mixture will be too fine to form into patties.

Bake or sauté as you prefer.

The first time we sautéed the bangers, the casings stuck to the pan, we didn't prick them and they exploded.  Then the second time, we poached them first, but didn't prick them, so half of them exploded.  The third time was the charm though!  Success.  We prick the bangers with a fork, poach them in simmering water for 10 minutes, remove the water, dry the pan and sauté until a nice brown color is achieved.

To complete the dish, Peta removes the bangers, adds onions and sautées them, adds a bit of olive oil if the pan is dry and adds a tablespoon of flour.  She cooks it to remove the raw flavor and to prevent lumps then adds whatever beer we have on hand to make the gravy.  Serve it with some mashed potatoes and some green vegetable.

Yours Sausagely,

Jim and Peta

Mmm... Folic Acid... (Part One)

Tricked you into clicking on to a post that is a paean to the humble beet!  You just got Beet-Rolled!  Ahahaha!

Well, since you're here, why don't you stay and read on?  We will try to make it worth your time; we promise.

We have been picking up bunches of rainbow chard (AKA five-colored silverbeet) at the farmer's market every Saturday for quite some time now as well as a bunch or two of beets.  You might not know it, but you can eat the beet greens (and the finely chopped stems if you braise them) instead of just throwing them into your composter or worm bin.  However, we've been eating so many greens that the beet roots were piling up.  [We'll save what we do with the greens for another day.]

But with chard at $1.50 a bunch and regular beets at $2.00, it's almost as though you get all of the sweet, earthy beet roots for $0.50.  Even if you don't like beets (or think that you don't), how could you pass up Such A Deal?  We've cooked Beets with Horseradish Cream, roasted beets with olive oil and thyme, Beet and Goat Cheese Salad, and many more, but we were getting bored with our beet root recipes.  There just have to be even more ways to cook them that won't remind you of vaguely metallic tasting, tinned, pickled beets, that you were forced to eat as a child, right?  Oh, yes.  Yes, there are.

But first, we've been making a lot of hummus these days.  Our "go to" recipe is from one of our cooking "bibles", the New Best Recipe book.  The ratios are so simple as to be easily memorizable.  Is "memorizable" a word?  Easily committed to memory?  Good enough.  It seems as though we've posted about hummus before, but we can't find the link so here it is again.  Let the memorizing begin!

Hummus -

adapted from The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition

• 1-15 ounce can of chickpeas or equal amount of fresh cooked/defrosted chickpeas
• 1 medium clove of garlic, minced
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 3 tablespoons juice from 1 large lemon
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1/4 extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup water

Put everything in a food processor (or blender) and process until smooth. Chill at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator and serve with warm pita, on bread or crackers, with tortilla chips, as a spread on a sandwich, or any other way that seems enjoyable to you. 

 It takes seven minutes to make a large tub of hummus including cleaning the food processor.  Seven.

Wait, isn't this post about beets?  Yes, yes it is.  Just trying to get you curiouser and curiouser/lure you in.  We have also taken to adding a Moroccan/northern African spice mix called Ras el Hanout to the hummus recipe above.  We made up a batch and can't remember all of the ingredients, but it's one of those mixes like curry powder, "cajun seasoning", garam masala, et cetera that vary from place to place and house to house.  The "usual suspects" are all there but ratios and secret ingredients are up to the eater.  Have fun with it!  The Ras el Hanout really takes the hummus toward the "40 spices" store-bought version that Jim used to love so much, before we realized that it's 25% the cost and takes seven minutes to make.

The beets!!  What about the beets for goodness sake? Oh, right. 

Beet Hummus (Seriously) -

• Wrap four big beets in tin foil and roast in a ~350 oven for ~45 minutes or until they are can be easily pierced with a paring knife.  
• Let cool and peel the skins (they should really just slip off).  
• Substitute the roasted, peeled beets for the chick peas in the recipe above.

That's it.  Sorry for the big build up.  Jim added some extra cumin and is eating it all before Peta gets any.  It's so tasty and good for you and easy and cheap.  And those are a few of our favorites things..

But you said two recipes!  Gluttons for punishment, eh?  Sorry, you'll have to go to Part II (NOTE: in progress) for that recipe since this post is quite long enough (and information-packed and entertaining).  Let's just say that we we're inspired by an episode of River Cottage and the food has five consonants in a row.  (If you haven't checked out River Cottage, it could change your life.  Seriously.)

Jim and Peta

PS: Beets really are high in folic acid though.  True story.  Also," Beetroot is a rich source of potent antioxidants and nutrients, including magnesium, sodium, potassium and vitamin C, and betaine, which is important forcardiovascular health. It functions by acting with other nutrients to reduce the concentration of homocysteine, a homologue of the naturally occurring amino acid cysteine, which can be harmful to blood vessels and thus contribute to the development of heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. Betaine functions in conjunction with S-adenosylmethionine, folic acid, and vitamins B₆ and B₁₂ to carry out this function." (from Wiki)

Disclaimer: If you haven't been a beet-eater and decide to make any beet recipes included herein, please remember that you had beets when you visit your "facilities" rather than freaking out and going to the ER and then blaming us for the bill.  Thanks!