Italian Sausage June 25, 2009

I really wanted to make sausage this week.  So while my sausage stuffer has not yet arrived, I decided to make some by hand.  Admittedly, I cheated just a bit when I bought already ground pork instead of grinding my own, but oh well.  Here we go.

The first thing is to find sausage casings.  Unless you have a really good grocery store, you’re probably going to have to either go to the local meat market (where I found them) or order them online.  There are several different kinds, from natural casings (either hog, sheep or some other animal) to man-made collagen casings.  Go with whatever you can find or whatever you can stomach.  (I went with natural casings).  If you do use natural casings, be sure to rinse them inside and out before using them.

For Italian sausage, here’s the recipe I used:

3/4 t toasted then ground fennel seeds
1 t salt (coarse kosher)
3/4 t black pepper (freshly ground)
1/2 T parsley leaves (fresh would be great, I used dried because I didn’t feel like going to the store just for fresh parsley)
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t paprika
1 lb ground pork

Toast your fennel seeds over medium heat, moving them constantly until they are a light golden brown.  Then allow them to cool and grind them in a mortar and pestle (or in a coffee grinder used for spices – not coffee!).

Combine the fennel seed with the other spices (salt, pepper, parsley, oregano and paprika) and mix them together.

Add this to your ground pork and mix thorougly.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Because I don’t have my sausage stuffer yet, I had to improvise.  My solution: piping bag.  I used a metal rod (the handle to a different utinsel) to thread the casings over the end of the bag (this picture shows the plastic attachement in the bag, but that plan didn’t work, do it without if you do it this way).

Then I stuffed the bag full of sausage, being careful to not trap any air.  Once the sausage began to squeeze out the end, I tied off the casing and began to fill it, being very careful to avoid getting air into the casing.  The end result:

Once you fill your sausage casing, separate it into segments by pinching and twisting (paying attention to which way you twist so you don’t undo your last segment).  Voila!

My next post will be what about what to do next with the sausage.  Stay tuned?

Jambalaya June 22, 2009

Yesterday my brother and I caught and kept 38 nice-sized crawdads.  So today I made a jambalaya with andouille sausage and fresh crawfish.

Before I started, I googled a few jambalaya recipes for inspiration (though I didn’t follow any recipe when I actually made it).  In doing so, I came upon this site:  http://www.jambalaya-recipe.com/

I loved the info they had on the front page.  Rather than a list of recipes with specific ingredients, they simply listed three different ways to make jamalaya (Creole style, Cajun style, and Cheater style) and the differences between them, not only in technique, but also in their ingredient requirements (Creole jamalaya has tomatoes, Cajun does not – I made Creole tonight).  The rest was left up to the cook.  And that made me happy.  (Now, there are some specific recipes on their page, but it’s not the focal point – at least not of the front page).

By the way – supper was delicious.  (Oh, and sorry I don’t have any pictures).

Venison Stew

Okay, I finally got the pictures off my camera (note to self: don’t count on a ziploc bag being leakproof when canoeing the river).  Before I broke my camera, I made some delicious venison stew.  Let’s take a look.

First things first: cut up all your veggies/meat that you desire.  This is a stew.  Be creative.  There’s not a set list of ingredients that you have to put in there.  I used celery, bell peppers, green onions and pearl onions (not seen until later), but you can use whatever you want.  It’s your stew.  I also used venision, but you can use beef or whatever meat you prefer here.  You will generally want to use a cut with a high collagen content – chuck, short plate, etc. (collagen is basically connective tissue – the white stuff.  While you could use a low-collagen cut like loin or round, those cuts are a bit “overkill” if you will, for stew.  And while they’re more tender, they tend to lack the flavor of some of the other cuts).

Now I admit, this may not be the healthiest way to cook a stew, but I’ve found it’s the easiest – and most delicious.

In a large dutch oven or stock pot, heat (on medium-high to high) about 1/2″ of vegetable oil.  We’re going to use this to sear the meat.  Searing is typically thought to “seal in the juices” of a piece of meat, but this is in fact not the case (see here).  Besides, we’re going to stew this meat anyway, so there’s no point in “sealing in the juices.”  So why go to the trouble at all?  Why not just add raw meat to our stew?  Well, searing will do a couple of things.  First, it will provide a little bit of carmelization on the outside of the meat, creating a little bit of texture.  Not much in this case, but enough to make a difference.  Second, searing the meat will help it hold its shape through the stewing process.  Think about it.  When you boil meat (chicken, for example), it falls to pieces.  That’s not what you want.  In a stew, you want “chunks” of meat.  Remember, this is a stew, not a soup.  While using a high-collagen cut will also help keep your meat chunks together, searing adds to that effect.

So anyway, heat 1/2″ to 3/4″ of oil until it’s about 375°.  Then add your chunks of meat.

At this temperature, it won’t take very long to completley sear the meat.  Literally only a few seconds (another reason for doing it this way rather than browning the meat in a separate pan).  After your meat is seared (and stir it quickly or it will stick to the bottom of the pan!), add the remainder of your vegetables.  Allow these to remain in the hot oil for only a few moments and then add beef stock (or chicken or vegetable stock if you prefer – or, if you absolutely must – water).

At this point, go ahead and add salt, pepper and any other spices you may desire (I really like cumin).  Cover your pot, bring it to a simmer, and let it sit for a few hours, stirring occasionally).

Oh, I mentioned pearl onions, earlier.  With pearl onions, you’re supposed to boil them first to remove the skins.  So while your stew is coming to a simmer, go ahead and boil and peel your pearl onions (if you’re using them) and add them to your pot.

Let it cook for a couple of hours at least, until everything is nice and tender and each flavor has permeated throughout.  Also, once you’ve allowed your stew to cook for a while, you can skim some of that oil off the top of the pot for a slightly healthier dish.

Knives June 3, 2009

Okay, my camera is still having a little trouble, so I don’t have any new cooking/baking posts to bring you.  But today I’m going to talk about knives.  One thing I’ve noticed when dealing with people who don’t cook a lot or aren’t comfortable cooking is a tendency to use the wrong knife for a job.  More often than not, it seems, people are afraid to use a knife big enough for the job they’re trying to do.  I’ve seen lots of people chopping celery with a small serrated knife or trying to slice a 3″ potatoe with a 2 1/2″ paring knife.

As a general rule (note, this doesn’t ALWAYS apply), you want to use as big of a knife as is practical for your needs.  Obviously, you don’t want to use an 8″ chef’s knife for peeling peaches, but generally speaking, bigger is better.  The main reason is that a bigger knife allows your knife hand (the hand in which you are holding the knife) to stay further away from the food which you are cutting/chopping/etc.  By distancing your knife hand from your food and your food hand, you bring less clutter to the area in which you are cutting.  This results not only in a much safer cut, but also allows you to see what you are doing more easily, and thus perform a better cut.  So while many people seem to be afraid of a big knife, in reality, a small knife doing the wrong job is often much more dangerous.

So now we’ll look at a few common types of knives and their uses:

Chef’s Knife

The Chef’s Knife is a “cousin” of the famous “butcher’s knife.”  Butcher’s knives aren’t actually commonplace anymore, as few people truly butcher their own meat.  The chef’s knife, however, is a slightly toned-down version of the butcher knife.  The chef’s knife is more practical than the original butcher’s knife for common tasks.  With it’s long, heavy, slightly curved blade the chef’s knife is perfect for chopping, dicing, and mincing.  Additionally, as it is usually the largest knife in an average kitchen, it is the best suited knife (in most people’s repertoire) for cutting large cuts of meat.

To properly chop/dice/mince with a chef’s knife, the tip of the blade should never leave the cutting surface.  Rather than picking the knife up and chopping straight down to make each cut, leave the tip on the cutting surface and move the knife in a lever-like action, moving the food under the knife (rather than moving the knife to the food) with each cut.  This also is a much safer method than picking the knife up off the cutting board after each cut.  Also, with it’s deep blade (note how the blade is much “higher” than the handle – that is, the cutting surface of the blade is below the handle, not in line with it as on a paring knife), this allows the user to keep a firm grip on the knife with each cut.

Boning Knife

The boning knife should be (but usually isn’t) one of the least used knives in most kitches.  With it’s long, narrow, curved-only-at-the-tip blade, it’s intended for removing bones from poultry and meat.  The narrow blade allows the knife to be turned sharply around bones.  Because of it’s narrow blade, it’s not practical for chopping vegetables because the operator’s hand doesn’t have any clearance when the blade is pressed against the surface.  The boning knife can be used for slicing things such as tomatoes which don’t take well to a true chopping action when a serrated knife is not available.

In the absence of a true filet knife (most people don’t have filet knives) the boning knife is the best option for fileting fish as its generally flat blade (as compared to the chef’s knife) can slide between the skin and meat of a fish with ease.

Paring Knife

A paring knife is a small (usually a 2 1/2″ to 4″ blade), generally straight-bladed knife used for, well, paring…  Of course, while most people know what a paring knife is, they don’t think about what “paring knife” means. To pare means to get rid of an outside, excess, or irregular part.  In other words, this knife is primarily to be used for peeling. The paring knife is the most improperly used knife in most people’s draw (or block).  The paring knife is to be used for jobs when a larger knife simply won’t cut it.  Peeling a potato or cutting the seeds out of a jalapeno are jobs that can only be properly done with a very small, thin-bladed knife.

Too many people, however, use the paring knife for chores much bigger than it was intended to tackle, such as chopping or slicing.  And paring knives don’t handle big jobs well.

Serrated (Bread) Knife

Many people have tried to slice a loaf of bread with a regular knife only to end up squashing the loaf before they can break through the crust.  This is where a serrated knife comes in.  This knife is primarily used for slicing (bread, tomatoes, etc.).  It’s serrated edges are designed for easily breaking through soft (squishable) foods without requiring much force.  Serrated blades are also useful for slciing things such as a ham or a roast.  Serrated blades are not intended to chop with.  I know several people who own almost exclusively serrated blades and use them for every purpose.

Because of their design, serrated blades will dull much more quickly than a straight blade, and are much harder to properly sharpen (which will be a post for another day).  Instead of spreading the pressure evenly across the whole blade, when a serrated blade comes into contact with a hard surface, only a few points (teeth) will touch.  This creates a much higher pressure on each blade, dulling it much faster.  When a serrated blade becomes dull, it becomes even more ill-suited for its designed task than a traditional blade.

The main thing to take away from this is to not be afraid of a knife.  When used for it’s proper purpose, a good knife will make your job much much easier, and therefore much safer.  Using the wrong knife for the wrong task, however, not only makes cooking unsafe, it also makes it more difficult – and less fun.

Coming soon… May 28, 2009

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while…  My camera is a little under the weather.  Coming soon though (assuming I get my camera going again): Made-Up Peanut Butter Cookies, Homemade Rye Bread, Calzones, and more…

Baked Potato Soup (in a sourdough bread bowl) May 20, 2009

What’s the point of making bread bowls if you don’t have anything to put in them?

Ingredients:

Equal parts butter and flour
Milk
Baked Potatoes
Green Onions
Salt
Pepper
Anything else you want to put in there.

First things first, bake your potatoes.  Wrap your potatoes in aluminum foil, poke some holes in them with a fork (on the top side only) and bake at 400° for 45-75 minutes (depending on the size of your potatoes).  Once your potatoes are thoroughly baked (you’ll be able to easily stab through them with a fork), place them in an iceful of sink to cool them off (otherwise you’re going to have to wait an hour before you can slice them).

While your potatoes are cooling, melt some butter (I did a half a stick, which ended up being enough for about 4 people) in a stock pot or dutch oven over medium heat.  When your butter has melted, add an equal amount of flour.

Stir these together and allow them to thicken slightly (like we did when we made biscuits & gravy).

After a few minutes, add some milk (about 3-4 cups).

At this point, go ahead and add your green onions (3-4 onions, finely chopped) , salt, pepper and any other spices you may want.  How much?  Enough to make it taste good.  Bring your soup to a simmer.  While this is happening, go ahead and cut up your potatoes.

Chop your potatoes into 1/2″ to 3/4″ cubes and add them to the soup.  Cover and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.

After 10-15 minutes, add some sour cream and some cheese (cheddar’s typical, but go with whatever you want).

Stir that in, serve, and eat.

No frozen dinners allowed May 13, 2009

I love to cook.  Wait.  Let me ammend that.  I love to create.  Cooking is merely a channel.  (Though it helps that I also love to eat.)  When I cook (which is different from baking) I rarely follow a recipe.  When we view cooking as an opportunity, rather than a chore, it becomes an activity which can unlock from us all kinds of potential.  I want to help you unlock that potential, and tap some of my own along the way.  That’s why I don’t bake cakes from a mix.  That’s why when I have spaghetti, I make the sauce myself (no Ragu here).  It’s creatively delicious.

Not to mention, cooking things yourself can be downright cool.  Homemade marshmallows?  You bet…