Lots of dishes with a little sausage

My boyfriend's family never bought the sage-heavy or sweet "breakfast sausages" when he was growing up. When his mother cooked sausage for breakfast, it was a link of Italian sausage, cut in half and butterflied open to provide lots of brown crispy surface.  He made this sausage and eggs for me and then taught me how to butterfly.

Since our favorite brand of sausage is sold in packages of 4 links (which total 1 to 1.2 lbs), whenever I cook a new package I end up with 8 butterflied pieces.  Sometimes when we find a manager's special, I cook 3 packages up, and toss big bags of butterflied, cooked sausage in the freezer.  Thaw it in the microwave, slice it up into half-rounds and it turns into a dozen different dishes.  OK, they all taste strongly of our favorite Italian sausage, but you can still mix it up.

Today we sausage, browned with a little olive oil.  Then I stirred in 2 chopped tomatoes that were a little too hard to be appealing raw, and sprinkled in a little salt and pepper.  When the tomatoes had softened and given up their juice, I cracked into two eggs, sprinkled an ounce of crumbled feta and the leaves from one sprig of fresh oregano over them, and covered the pan until the eggs were set on top.  We had this for lunch with toast.

Sometimes the chopped sausage goes into a big pot of sauce for pasta, or gets sauteed with zucchini and eggplant and then tossed with pasta. It seasons hash browns, or adds some chew and spice to a veggie frittata.

A butterflied section can thaw and brown in the skillet for sausage and eggs when we're camping, or go on the grill with oiled vegetables for dinner.  When we have a lot in the freezer, I might use 8 oz. to make a big pot of bean soup.

We eat a lot of sausage, but only a little bit at a time.

Sausage Mustgo Soup

Odds and ends go into a pot and are magically converted into soup. While the vegetables soften, the sausages lend their spice to the broth and some beans dissolve to give the soup body.

BEFORE

1 link hot Italian sausage (4~5 oz)

1 link mild Italian sausage (4-5 oz)

8 oz smoked kielbasa

1 medium onion (~2 cups), chopped

3-4 stalks celery, sliced 1/4" thick (~ 1 cup)

1 large (approximately 16 oz.) red skinned yam, peeled and diced into 1/2" chunks

1 quart chicken broth

3 cups cooked small white beans

black pepper, to taste

5 oz. baby spinach

Squeeze the Italian sausage out of the casing into a Dutch Oven over medium heat.  Stir occasionally, breaking the meat into small clumps.  

Slice the kielbasa 1/4 inch thick, and cut the pieces into half-moon shapes.  Chop the onions.  When the sausage is cooked through, stir in the kielbasa and onions, and continue to cook until everything is starting to brown.

Stir in sweet potato and celery.  Add chicken broth and beans.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Skim any scum that has risen to the surface, cover and cook until sweet potatoes are tender.  Taste the broth and add pepper to taste.

Gather the spinach into clumps, and roughly chop.  Stir the spinach into the soup and cook until wilted (less than 2 minutes.)

Chocolate Cereal Treats (Gluten-Free)

Crunchy-chewy marshmallow treats aren't just for Rice Krispies anymore.  This batch used a combination of two gluten-free cereals that have great crunch and more fiber than Rice Krispies or Rice Chex.  If you can eat gluten, regular CheeriOs are also great in marshmallow treats.


3 Tbsp butter, plus a little extra for pan
1 oz. Baker's semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (or 1 oz. chocolate chips)
10 oz. miniature marshmallows
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 oz. Enjoy Life Crunchy Flax cereal
9 oz. Nature's Path Organic Whole O's cereal

Butter a 9 inch square pan.
Melt 3 Tbsp of butter and the semi-sweet chocolate in a Dutch oven or a large non-stick stir-fry pan over medium heat.  When the chocolate is fully melted, stir in the marshmallows.  Continue to heat, stirring occasionally, until the marshmallows melt.  Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the vanilla and cereals.
When the cereal is evenly coated, pour into the buttered pan and smooth the top, pressing down.  I find that it won't stick to my fingers if my hand is wet.

Allow the mixture to cool completely, and cut into chunks.

Spring Turkey Meatball Soup

I had a 20 oz. package of ground turkey, so I made a big batch of meatball mix.  24 little meatballs made 4-6 servings of soup for lunch, and 20 larger meatballs are in the fridge, waiting to be cooked for dinner.  You could double the soup recipe, and use all the meat balls in it, but I'm going to brown the leftovers and serve them with pasta and tomato sauce.

I used scarified wild rice, which is scratched so it cooks faster than plain wild rice.  It cooked in about the same time as the thinly sliced carrots.  If you want to use regular wild rice or brown rice, give the rice a 20 minute head start before adding the carrots.  I like the aspargus to have a little crunch.  If you like it very tender, cook a little longer at the end.

This recipe did take advantage of two special kitchen toys : a fine microplane, and a Microplane 35009 Medium Ribbon Grater.

For the soup:

1 quart unsalted chicken stock
1 1/2 c. water
1/2 cup scarified wild rice
12-18 green onions
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
4-5 small carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
salt and pepper, to taste
1 bunch of asparagus (~ 1 lb)


For the meatballs:

20 oz of 93% lean ground turkey
1/2 c. golden flax meal
1/2 c. grated Parmesan, Romano, or similar hard cheese
1 c. grated, zucchini (~ 3/4 of a small zucchini grated with the ribbon grater)
1/2 c. grated carrot (1 small carrot grated with the ribbon grater)
1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper
1/2 tsp freshly ground white pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 egg

Pour the chicken broth and rice into a 4 - 5 quart pot.  Place the pot over medium heat while you clean and slice the green onions.  Set aside the green parts of the onion aside, and add the white parts to the pot.  Using a fine microplane grater, grate the garlic into the pot.  Peel the carrots, and slice them thinly.  Add them to the pot.  When the broth begins to simmer reduce heat to medium low and cover.  Snap off the tough bottoms of the asparagus, and slice the stalks into 3/4 inch chunks.   Keep the tips separate -- they cook faster and will be added to the soup last.

Now you have time to make the meatballs.  Put the ground turkey in a medium sized bowl.  Measure the flax meal and cheese into the bowl.   Grate the carrot, and measure 1/2 a cup into the bowl.  Grate the zucchini and measure 1 c. into the bowl.  Discard any extra carrot or zucchini.  Add Aleppo pepper, white pepper, salt and egg.  Have 2 large plates, and scoops or tablespoons ready to hold the meatballs.  Mix all the meatball ingredients until thoroughly combined.   Make 24 one tablespoon meat balls for the soup.  Roll the remaining meatball mixture into whatever size you'd like for the leftovers, and refrigerate.

Wash your hands and taste the rice in the soup.  Depending on how fast you work, it might already be tender.  If not, give it a few more minutes.

When the rice is tender, turn the heat up to medium-high, and carefully place the meatballs in the broth.  Cover the pot, and reduce the heat to medium.   Cook 5-7 minutes until meatballs seem to be cooked through.  Uncover the pot, and add the asparagus stems and green part of the onions.  Cook for 5-7 minutes, and then add the asparagus tips.  Cook 2 minutes, remove from heat and serve.

Homemade Chorizo

I first tasted chorizo at a restaurant in San Diego when I was on vacation.  Well, actually it was "soyrizo", but it was pretty good.  A few of the Mexican restaurants in central Ohio offer chorizo as a taco filling, or use it to amp the flavor, but I haven't been able to find a Mexican style-chorizo in the stores that isn't bland or incredibly fatty. I did find the following recipe for spicing chorizo while googling, so I've been making my own.

For 1 lb of ground pork or ground turkey (85% or 93% lean) add

2 T chili powder (I use Penzey's Regular Chili Powder)
1 T sweet paprika
1 t ground cumin
1 t table salt
1 t garlic powder
1/2 t ground coriander
1/2 t dried oregano, crushed
1/4 t red pepper flakes
1/8 t ground cloves
1/8 t ground black pepper
1/4 c. cider vinegar

Mix everything together, and refrigerate overnight to let the flavors blend.
When you fry this, the meat will fall apart into tiny crumbles.  I think that's the action of the vinegar -- and the secret behind the finely crumbled ground beef in Mexican restaurants.
I usually vacuum seal 4 oz. packages, which are perfect for making breakfast for 2 people.
A whole pound can be used to make great stuffed peppers.  This morning I cooked 5 pounds for a Super Bowl party I'm attending.  I'm going to reheat it in a small crock pot for a nacho bar.

Chicken ala Waffles

I had been planning to make multigrain waffles for a couple of weeks, and I had some cooked chicken legs in the  freezer.  "Chicken and waffles!"
I know, I know -- the chicken is deep fried and the waffles are sort of a side when you get chicken and waffles in a restaurant.  But Chicken ala King is served over toast points...and my waffle iron makes round waffles that break apart into quarters.  So Chicken ala Waffles it is.

To me, Chicken ala King is sort of an deconstructed pot pie, with chicken and veggies in gravy, poured over puff pastry or a biscuit.  I was surprised to discover that the classic dish is mushrooms and sherry.  No peas & carrots?  The most intriguing thing that turned up was finishing the sauce with one or two egg yolks, tempered and stirred into the chicken gravy.  That sounded worth trying, and it was fabulous.

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 c. chopped onions
1 1/2 c. carrots, peeled and chopped
8 oz of mushrooms, stems removed and sliced thinly

2 Tbsp butter
1/2 t. paprika
1/2 t. white pepper (optional)
3 t. sweet rice flour
2 c. chicken stock
3/4 c. half and half
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 1/2 c. frozen peas
2 c. cooked chicken (I used all dark meat)
2-3 dashes of tabasco (optional)
dash of habenro salt (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a 12" non-stick skillet over medium heat, and add the onions.  Cook, stirring occasionally, while you peel and chop the carrots.  Add the carrots and stir.  Rinse and slice the mushrooms, and add to the skillet.  Cook, stirring occasionally until the onions and the mushrooms are both soft.  Add the butter and wait for it to melt.

Sprinkle paprika, pepper, and sweet rice flour over the skillet, and stir well to coat all the ingredients.  Cook 2-3 minutes so you won't have a raw flour taste.  Pour in about half of the chicken stock and stir to dissolve the flour and fat from the veggies.   Add the rest of the stock, stir, and continue to cook over medium heat until the gravy begins to bubble and thicken.

Stir in the half-and-half, and heat until you see steam coming off the gravy.   Scoop a 1/2 c. of the sauce over the egg yolks, and beat.  (Don't worry if a mushroom or carrot gets in there.)  Add another 1/2 c. of the warm gravy, stir it in and the scrape the egg mixture back into the skillet.  Stir well, and add the chicken and peas.  Reduce the heat to medium low, and cook until everything is heated through and the sauce is thick and silky.  I waited until the mixture was steaming again, and then turned the heat to low.

Taste, and adjust seasonings.  I added 3 shakes of Tabasco and a touch of habenero salt because we like a little heat.

I served about 1 c. of the mixture over two quarters of a waffle, with the other 2 quarters set on the edge of the plate for dipping or gravy mopping.

I made the waffles in advance, so I only had to break them into quarters and reheat in the toaster oven when the chicken was ready.

Sticky Chicken and Cabbage Soup

1 quart unsalted chicken stock
1 15 oz. can chick peas, drained and rinsed well
2 T olive oil *or* 2 T chicken fat saved from Sticky Chicken
1 c. chopped yellow onion
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 a medium cabbage, core removed, cut into 4 wedges and thinly sliced crosswise
10-14 oz cooked chicken, skin and bones removed and chopped (2 leg quarters)
Drippings saved from the bottom of the sticky chicken crock pot
11.5 oz. can of low-sodium V-8
Tabasco sauce, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste

Place the chick peas and chicken stock in a blender.  Blend until the chick peas are liquefied.
Place a Dutch oven over medium heat.  When the pot is hot add the oil or chicken fat.
When the fat is heated, add the onions and cook until translucent and tender.
Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
Add the cabbage and cook until it's tender and starting to brown.
Remove any extra fat from the drippings and add the rest to the pot.Don't worry about any spices that settled to the bottom -- they'll add great flavor to the soup.
Stir in the chopped chicken, blended broth mixture and V-8.  Bring to a simmer, and reduce heat.  Cook for 30 minutes to blend the flavors.
Taste the broth, and season with salt, pepper and Tabasco.