Category: Charcuterie

Breakfast Egg Casserole

7/23/2017

As so many recipes do, this one came to our kitchen from Adam's mom, which came from her friend, Penelope, which may have come from...?

I've been making this recipe for field trips, classes that I teach, and Adam and I for a couple of years. By now, I'm not sure how similar it looks to the recipe origin. What makes this so great is that you too can make it your own.

In this recipe we are using our own pork sausage with a seasoning we adapted from Charcuterie.

Spicy Italian Seasoning

2 tbls fennel seeds (toasted)
1 tbls coriander seeds (toasted)
2 tbls salt
3 tbls smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground Mexican oregano
2 tbls red pepper flakes
2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Toast and then grind fennel and coriander. I like to do this first because it makes the kitchen smell so wonderful.
Mix in the rest of the spices. This is enough to season five pounds of pork sausage. Add 2 tbls to one pound of pork sausage.

Egg Casserole

1 lb Sausage
8 oz sliced mushrooms
18 oz frozen chopped spinach
8 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
3.8 oz can sliced olives
1 or 2 bell peppers, chopped
Halved cherry tomatoes
Scallions, sliced
1/2 tsp salt
10 eggs
Splash of cream
Sour cream for dolloping

Instructions

Cook the sausage, then add mushrooms.
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Defrost spinach in microwave and drain.
Whisk eggs, salt, and cream together.
Assemble:
1. Spinach on bottom
2. Sausage and mushrooms
3. Cheese, green onion, bell peppers, olives, tomatoes
4. Pour in eggs and push ingredients down to help egg distribution. It will look like there is not enough eggs, but there is.
Cook for one hour.
Dollop with sour cream and sliced scallions.

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Thanksgiving

12/8/2013

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Adam and I were really excited to funkify our own Thanksgiving meal. We started planning about two weeks in advance. Early planning would establish that:

Matt would create a brothy mushroom soup to replace the traditional dressing.
There would be sausage.
The mash potatoes would be sweet potatoes.
There would be brussel sprouts.

This story has two parts:

Part 1

In a trial run on the Saturday before, we decided to have a free-style cooking session to learn a few lessons before T-day.

So, we were sitting around the kitchen at the Vogel's house and we started throwing out ideas... Asian was an easy first commitment. Then, some one threw out, "Hot dogs?" ...and it was on.

Mike and Erika made steam buns from scratch.

Adam worked on pork prep, and I whipped up a mixture of herbs and spices to flavor the dogs.

Asian-style hot dog
2 lbs pork
1/2 cup shallots
2-4 chiles
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup cilantro
1 1/2 tbls ginger

White fungus mushroom salad from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet was reminiscent of sauerkraut. Delicious.

Mike and Erika had made it for lunch that day, and we liked it so much we had it again for dinner. It's a must try.

Test-meal conclusions:

We tasted, tested, shifted gears. We even made a delicious Asain style mayonnaise. And the dish wouldn't have been complete without Sirracha.

From this awesome trial-and-error meal we learned a few lessons along the way:

1. Add fat.
2. Don't boil the sausage; they burst.
3. We want to do this more often.

Part 2

Adam tracked down some goose and pheasant to compose a sausage.

T-day

We were small, but mighty… Kathy, Matt, Jason, and Adam and I set out to funkify a holiday.

Luckily, we would have redemption on the actual Thanksgiving, but on this day it was about marching to the beat of our own drum, it was about reinventing everything, it was about gettin' funky.

Arctic sunset

Do you believe in magic?

I do. I do when it comes in the form of this mushroom soup. Matt worked this on the stove the whole day. The alchemy that resulted was a magnificent, earthy, rich yet refreshing soup that was deeply satisfying. I don't know what went into it, and it feels right to leave it a mystery...

Goose and Pheasant Sausage

1 cup Lexington Brewing Co. Kentucky Bourbon Ale
4 tbls kosher salt
5 tbls garlic
3 1/2 tbls pepper
4 tsp dried sage (from Uncle Eddie's garden)
1 1/2 tsp ground dried thyme
1 tsp store-bought sage

The goose had plenty of fat, but the pheasant was much more lean, so we added olive oil to the pheasant sausage.

Sides

Instead of potatoes, I thought a sweet potato and cauliflower puree would be a nice twist. I undercooked them at first, and underestimated how long to cook/how small to cut the cauliflower. So Kathy had a hell of a time, but she was MVP for side dishes that night.

Roasted brussel sprouts

As the sun retreated, we finished the meal.

Adam prepared the sausage in a beer and onion sauté.

We have so much to be grateful for. Blessings abound this year, and I am truly truly thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Salmon Sausage and Beef Jerky

10/12/2013

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Dabbling our way into charcuterie, we decided to whip up some salmon sausage and beef jerky this Saturday evening.

How the sausage is made (disclaimer)

As the idiom warns, you may be wary of this post. You view this at your own risk. It is October, and the tone is getting dark.

Preparation

First of all, one must have libations. Kings Street has canned their IPA, and it is terrific.

Equipment and ingredients

21mm collagen casings

Debone, skin, and cube salmon

Soon all of these ingredients will be combined.You may want to look away for the rest of this post.

Seasoning Recipe

3 lbs Salmon
1 1/2 tbls salt
3 1/2 tbls smoked paprika
2 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp anise seeds
3 tsp ground black pepper
3/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp Insta-cure #1

Making the sausage

Since Adam broke our Kitchen Aid two years ago, we still haven't gotten a new one. Kathy's stand mixer will never be the same. Here is a before and after photo:

By the way, dinner is cooking in the background here. We picked up a porterhouse and let is sous vide during our charcuterie adventures.

More implements of destruction...and reconstruction
These are dark times...

3 lbs of salmon yielded
33 sausage links.

Smoke and poach

We smoked the salmon sausage for 2 1/2 hours with alder. Then, we moved them to a water bath poach at 185 degrees for 11 minutes. Finally, we vacuum sealed and froze them for preservation.

Oh, this post is about beef jerky too. . .

As tested by Heather and Joe, we are using the Salmon Jerky brine to make beef jerky from 11 lbs of London Broil.

Dinner

Sous vide

+

Hot grill

=

Yum

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Breakfast Egg Casserole

Thanksgiving

Part 1

Part 2

Happy Thanksgiving!

Salmon Sausage and Beef Jerky

How the sausage is made (disclaimer)

Preparation

Seasoning Recipe

Making the sausage

Smoke and poach

Oh, this post is about beef jerky too. . .

Dinner

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