Link: The best way to cook sausage

Click on the image above to read a post by the great Kenji at Serious Eats about the best way to cook sausage. With my son's birthday party coming up in a week and a half, this couldn't be better timed for me.

-Katy

Tip: Use Naan as pizza crust

I saw an interesting tip in the Publix ad the other week. Next to the picture of Tandoori Naan on sale was the suggestion to use Naan to make pizza. I thought it sounded like an odd mix of cuisines, but I thought it was worth a try. I bought a package of two of the garlic Naan, as well as some fresh mozzarella and sauce. It was delicious, and they were a good size for individual pizzas.

Photo by MoHotta18

 I've made this twice now, and I have a couple of tips I've learned from the experience. You'll want to use less sauce than a pizza made from dough. The sauce doesn't absorb as much, so the sauce is more likely to form a slick under your cheese. Nobody likes to take a bite of their pizza and have all the cheese slide off. Second, put the Naan directly on the rack in the oven or put it on a cooling rack and put that in the oven for easier removal. If you put it on a cookie sheet, the bottom doesn't crisp up and you end up with a pretty floppy pizza. With the bottom unshielded from the heat of the oven, the bottom crisps up nicely without burning and the crust holds up better to the toppings, which makes the pizza easier to eat.


Naan Pizza

Ingredients
2 pieces of garlic Naan
Pasta or pizza sauce
Fresh mozzarella, shredded
Other toppings of your choice (i.e. red pepper flakes, basil, pepperoni, etc.)

Directions
Build your pizza on a peel or cooling rack depending on whether you will cook it on the oven's rack or the cooling rack. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Add desired toppings to Naans and transfer to the center rack of the oven. Rather than timing the pizza, keep an eye on it, and pull it out when the cheese gets to your preferred point of brown and bubbly. (It's nice that you don't have to make sure the crust is cooked.)

- Katy

Hunger Games, indeed

This brilliant person came up with a recipe for Katniss's favorite dish from The Hunger Games, lamb stew with dried plums. It looks absolutely delicious and incredibly rich, just as it should be for a Capitol dish. I can understand why Katniss took a liking to it. There are so many mentions of delicious sounding food in that book; one could write an entire cook book based on the trilogy. (Dear anyone considering doing this, please omit any Greasy Sae dishes.)

After seeing this, I must say I'm a bit inspired. I'm feeling like taking a stab at the chicken and oranges in a cream sauce, myself.

-Katy

I actually made something I pinned!

Indeed, it's the third recipe I pinned that I actually made. I'm so proud of me. I made Pasta with Cauliflower and Sausage from The Kitchn. I loved it, and my husband, who hates cooked cauliflower (but likes it raw, go figure), loved it as well. I made a half recipe, and there were still enough leftovers for both of us to have a meal of leftovers (and for me to cut up a little to give to the little one. He liked the cauliflower. He makes Mama proud.).

Sauteing the cauliflower really brings out the sweetness of it, and it goes really well with the slight spice of the mild italian sausage. I thought the flavors balanced really nicely, and it had a nice sweetness to it without having the over sweet taste you can get from a jarred sauce. Plus, I cannot resist fresh mozzarella. I like to buy the little balls to snack on in lieu of string cheese.

I used onions instead of shallots (because it's what I had around) and parmesan instead of bread crumbs (because I was too lazy to make breadcrumbs). All in all, I'd say it is definitely a repeat.

-Katy

Bierrocks

I really need to get better at taking pictures of what I make at home. If I took pictures of every meal I made, I'd have an endless supply of posts. Maybe if I take a picture of these beautiful bierrocks next time, I can post it at the top of this currently pictureless post and you can go, "Oh my, those look tasty. I must make them now." But for now, you must simply take my word for it that these things are yummy. I make my own dough for these, but by all means, feel free to use frozen dinner roll dough. The operative word here being dough, as in uncooked. I made the mistake of not carefully reading the label of frozen dinner rolls and ended up purchasing the "heat and eat" variety instead of the uncooked stuff. I've also made these with crescent rolls from the tube. If you do that, use two triangles and pinch together the perforated parts. (It just now struck me that perforated bread dough is very strange.)

Bierrocks

Ingredients:
for the dough
2 c flour
1 tsp instant yeast (approx half a packet)
2 T sugar
1/4 t salt
1/2 c milk
2 T butter
1 egg, beaten

for the filling
1/2 lb ground beef
1/4 to 1/2 of a head of green cabbage, shredded
1/2 of an onion, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
cheddar cheese, to taste, optional

Method:
1) Melt the butter in the microwave, then add sugar, salt, milk, and the egg. Whisk to combine. Heat the milk mixture until warm, not hot. Water over about 120 degrees will kill the yeast.
2) Add the ingredients to a large bowl (preferably the work bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on it) in this order: 1 c of flour, yeast, milk mixture, 1 c of flour. Stir with the paddle of your mixer or a hefty spoon until it forms a ball. If it will not form a ball, add more flour.
3) If you have a dough hook for your stand mixer, spray it with non-stick spray and run it on your mixer on a slow setting for about 10-15 minutes. If you do not have a mixer, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it. (Stretch it out by pushing it against the surface, fold, turn, repeat.) At the end of either method, you should be able to stretch a small piece of dough until you can see light through it. This means you have developed enough gluten to make the dough strong and elastic, which will give you a nice chewy texture.
4) Put a little bit of oil in a large bowl and toss your ball of dough in it. Leaving the dough in the bowl, cover it loosely with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in size - about an hour.
5) If you started with ready-made dough, start here. While your dough is rising, brown the ground beef over medium-high heat. Once there is no pink left in the beef, add the shredded cabbage, onion, and salt and pepper. Stir to combine. At this point, you can deglaze the pan if you want. Turn the heat to low, cover, and simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The cabbage should be completely wilted and the onions soft.
6) Once you reach this point, you can stir in the cheddar and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
7) Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces, and flatten the pieces into squares that are about 3"x3".
8) Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of each square of dough. Gather up the corners of the square and pinch the dough together to seal.
9) Place the roll, seal side down, in the cup of a standard-sized muffin tin. There is no need to grease it.
10) Once the muffin tin is full of rolls, place the tin in the oven and bake (at 375) for 15-20 minutes. The rolls should be golden brown on top and should spring back when you poke them.


-Katy

Recipe: Bison Chili

This one doesn't get a picture because--let's face it--chili is ugly. It's just a lumpy mass of brown, but man, is it tasty. Chili is one of those dishes that's incredibly versatile. Beans, no beans, tomatoes, no tomatoes, ground meat, cubed meat, beef, lamb, pork, or any combination, chili powder, fresh chiles, any or all of the above. I like to use bison because it's lower in fat and cholesterol than beef, and I also find that the flavor of the meat shines through better than a lean ground beef.

Ingredients
1 lb ground bison
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
3/4 cup black beans
3/4 cup kidney beans
1/2 cup salsa - your choice of heat level
1 chipotle pepper - dried or in adobo sauce
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 pinch cumin
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 (12 oz) bottle or can of beer - I like lager or wheat beer best - if it's too stout, the beer flavor will overpower the other ingredients
3 cups stock and/or water
1 small can tomato paste

Method
1) Turn crock pot on low heat.
2) Brown bison over medium-high heat. Drain and add to crock pot.
3) Add all ingredients except tomato paste to the crock pot and stir to combine.
4) Cover and cook for at least 4 hours. This is good to start before you leave for work so you have dinner ready when you get home. Well, almost. There's one more step.
5) Stir in the tomato paste before serving.

-Katy

Recipe: Fried Rice

Most people think of fried rice as a side dish, but I am here to present an argument for its inclusion as a main dish. If you add meat to it, you have all the elements of a meal all rolled into one: protein, grains, and vegetables. And even if you don't have the meat, you still have eggs for your protein. And if you're a vegetarian, you can always use tofu. See? It's not just a main dish. It's a whole meal!

Fried rice is a pretty versatile dish, so it's perfect for using up leftovers. In fact, it actually works better with leftover rice than with fresh rice (though I rarely make it with leftover rice because the only other ways we eat rice is in etouffee or red beans and rice). I usually use onions, carrots, and peas for the veggies, but just about any combination would work, and I would encourage you to experiment. Now, onto the recipe.

Ingredients:
canola oil
2 cloves garlic
1 small to medium onion, diced
1 medium to large carrot, quartered and sliced (1/8" thick)
3 cups cooked long grain white rice
sesame oil
2 eggs
1 t ginger
frozen peas
soy sauce

Method:
1) Saute garlic, onion, and carrot over medium to medium-high heat in a little bit of canola oil (just enough to coat the pan) until nearly tender, about 6-8 minutes.
2) Add rice and stir to incorporate. You're not trying to put color on the rice, just heating it up and getting it mixed in with the vegetables.
3) Make a well in the rice. Pour sesame oil and then eggs into the well. Stir the eggs until they are partly scrambled, and then incorporate them into the rice.
4) Add ginger and frozen peas and stir until the peas are heated through.
5) Add soy sauce to taste.

-Katy

Recipe: Red Beans and Rice

Let's start this out with a little lesson in Creole cooking, of which red beans and rice is a part. Apparently, it is not Cajun. Personally, I find Cajun and Creole nearly indistinguishable since they share very similar flavor profiles. Does that make me a bad
southerner? Perhaps. I can, however, tell you a bit about the history of the two cuisines. Cajuns - or Acadians - came from Canada. They have French roots, and therefore Cajun cooking is French cooking
adapted to locally available ingredients. Hence you have the ubiquitous presence of roux (a thickening agent based on flour and butter or oil), stock, and their adaptation of mirepoix called the
holy trinity. Mirepoix consists of two parts onion, one part celery, and one part carrot. The holy trinity simply replaces the carrot with bell pepper.

Creole cooking originated in New Orleans. It also uses French techniques, but blends other European, African, and American influences. It also has different origins in that Cajun cooking
originated from peasant food while Creole cooking originated with aristocrats.

Along with roux, chicken stock, shellfish stock, onion, celery, and bell pepper, there are several ingredients you will commonly find in Cajun and/or Creole cooking. These include garlic, green onions, cayenne pepper, bay leaf, shellfish (esp. crawfish (crawfish etoufee
is friggin yummy)), smoked sausage (esp. andouille), and white rice. You can pretty successfully fake a Cajun/Creole dish by including the holy trinity and some of the other ingredients.

Now let me say that I am not an expert on these cuisines. I've learned what I have by looking for recipes to satisfy the tastes of my Southern boy of a husband and talking to my history buff and Louisiana-living father in law.

Now that the background is over, let's get to the cooking.

Traditionally, the beans, rice, and sausage are cooked separately and combined at the dinner table, but I don't do that. I mean, why dirty up three pots when you can dirty up just one? So I throw it all in the Crock Pot. This is also often made with a pork bone or ham hock, but I don't do that either. I find the andouille sausage imparts plenty of meaty flavor to the beans. If you are a vegetarian, I would suggest adding some liquid smoke or smoked meat substitute as the
smoky flavor of the sausage is very important to the dish. This makes a ton, and it's even better as leftovers, so freeze it for later.

Ingredients:
1 c diced onion
1/2 c diced celery
1/2 c diced bell pepper (color doesn't really matter, I use green
because it's cheap)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
2 c kidney beans
2 links of andouille sausage, quartered and cut in 1/2 inch slices (I
want to say that's 4 oz)
1 q chicken stock
2-4 c water
salt and pepper, to taste
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 c uncooked long grain white rice

Method:
1. Rinse the beans and pick out any non-bean matter. I find that
there is no need to soak them since they will be cooking for so long.
2. Toss everything but the rice into a slow cooker. Stir, cover, and
cook on low all day.
3. About 30 minutes before serving, stir in the rice.
4. Remove the bay leaf before serving. Offer hot sauce at the table.

Wasn't that easy?

I'd say the inspiration is pretty obvious, wouldn't you? I felt so clever when I came up with it. I used a panini press, but you don't really need one. Just make sure you press down well with a spatula and cook it like a grilled cheese. Or you can just go crazy and use two pans like Alton Brown does. Crazy dude. *hearts* I ate the panini with a salad and called it dinner, but they also make for tasty finger food - depending on the bread, of course. Skinny baguette=finger food. Big fat round loaf=meal.


Ingredients:
French bread, sliced diagonally
Olive oil
Provolone cheese, either sliced or shredded
Roast beef
Chicken breast
Sundried tomatoes
Caesar salad dressing

Directions:
Chop up the tomatoes very finely and mix with the caesar dressing.
Brush the bread on one side with olive oil.
Assemble the sandwiches thusly, from bottom to top: bread (oil side down), tomato/dressing concoction, beef, chicken, provolone, bread (oil side up).
Place on a pre-heated panini press or skillet over medium to medium-high heat and cook until bread is toasted and cheese is melted. 3-5 minutes on the panini press.

Recipe: Spaghetti and Italian Sausage

This post is really just an excuse to teach you how to make tomato sauce. Though Italian sausage is certainly a yummy way to augment your tomato sauce. I confess that I do not often make my tomato sauce. I don't know why. You can make it in giant batches for way cheaper, especially if you use herbs from your garden. Unfortunately, a batch large enough to use an entire package of fresh herbs would be ridiculous. Alternatively, you could also use dried herbs, but it won't taste as good. Seriously, plant an herb garden. Basil, oregano, and thyme are great and quite versatile. I could eat basil straight off the plant. Seriously.

Okay, so I don't actually have an herb garden right now. We're moving from an apartment to a house in less than a month, and it would be a serious pain to move it. I want one so bad. :( I got the herbs from my very first CSA box. The basil was so beautiful I could cry.

So, how do you make tomato sauce?

You can make a basic tomato sauce with just olive oil, garlic, onion, and tomatoes. You saute the garlic and onion in the olive oil. (Most recipes require you to sweat the garlic and onions, meaning you cook them slowly until they turn transparent without letting them brown. I like sauting better. Letting the onion get a little bit of color makes it more flavorful.) Then, you add the tomatoes and simmer. You can augment it by adding bell pepper (with the garlic and onions), oregano, thyme, basil, and/or parsley (at the end), and/or crushed red pepper (whenever, pretty much). I put all of these in my tomato sauce, and I am glad to say that my husband said it was his favorite. I use a mixture of diced and crushed tomatoes because I like the consistency of the sauce at the end, but you can use any that you want. Or even fresh ones.



Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:
2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
enough fresh basil, thyme, oregano, and parsley for a handful (about 1/4-1/3 c)
1 t red pepper flakes

Method:
1. Saute the garlic, onion, and bell pepper in the olive oil over medium-low to medium heat until the onions are transparent.
2. Add the tomatoes and simmer over medium-low heat for 20-30 minutes.
3. Just before serving or storing, add the herbs and red pepper flakes. You just want the herbs to wilt before serving, no more, especially if you're storing it to serve later. I freeze tomato sauce in a muffin tin and then transfer the sauce to a ziptop bag.

To make the spaghetti and italian sausage, cut up one link of sweet italian sausage into bite sized pieces (or use bulk sausage). Brown the sausage over medium-high heat (use a little oil or non-stick spray) until cooked. It shouldn't take long, maybe three minutes. Add 1 1/2 c of sauce, and heat through. Meanwhile, boil 1/2 lb of spaghetti in salted water. When the pasta is done, drain and toss with the sauce.