You are here: Home / Archives for Recipes / Meat

Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork and Carnitas Rice Bowls | Make Ahead Mondays

March 12, 2012 by 13 Comments

Let me tell you about last week. It was busy. Oh, it was biz-ay. B to the HOLY-COW-HOW-WILL-I-GET-ALL-THIS-DONE to the U-S-Y, man. Or wo-man. Woah, man.

I was hauling my rear (and a bunch of children to boot) all over this stretch of God’s country in my big ugly purple van. I drove people here. I drove people there. I dropped people off. I picked people up. In fact, I went one place with my five boys and came home with seven, only three of whom I had birthed. I balanced brooms in the kitchen to show off the awesome wackiness of the solar flares. I spent the entire week wondering how we could possibly make it to all of our commitments.

On the subject of solar flares, I’d just like to say one word. WEIRD.

Okay, I have a couple more words. Did you balance your broom? I’m not even kidding. Did you know that during solar flares you can take a broom –even a raggedy old angled one like mine- and balance it with no support? Go on. Test it. All the cool kids are doing it. You know you want to. (As a homeschooling mom, I have to practice my peer pressure skills so my kids don’t have to miss out on all the good stuff.)

I’m still not entirely sure how we did it, but we did manage to get to everything we had on the schedule and threw in a big family get together on Saturday for good measure. The biggest yeehah of them all, though,  the icing on the cake, was when the entire family (including those who had come to visit earlier in the day) went to watch a battle of the bands in which my fourteen year old bass-playing eldest son and my eight year old “Animal” drummer participated. It started at eight o’clock at night.

Did you catch that?

As in the same night as the time change. In other words, my  husband and I and our fourteen, twelve, ten, eight and six year olds were in a large auditorium full of big, loud, boomy amplifiers and microphones and screaming rock guitars (and some screaming vocalists) along with my sister, her husband and their eight, six and two year olds, and my mother. Nana was banging her head. At least I’m fairly certain she meant to and wasn’t being thrown back against the wall by the sub-woofer.

This brings me to another point. Can I talk about how much I despise this time change? They are taking an hour from me! Who decided that was a good idea? Do they not know how much I’m trying to cram into a day?

When we were in the process of moving to where we live now, I joked with friends that in order to buy the home, we had to convert to the Amish faith. Since moving here, I’ve gotten to know many Amish and one of the most fascinating things I learned was that they don’t  “do” the time change. Well, hallelujah. I think I’ll convert after all.

Solar flares, time changes, extra kids, battles of the bands, and go, go, GO! I hit my freezer food bank pretty hard this week. And on the subject of a stash of food…

You all know I love me some pulled pork. In fact, one of the all-time most popular posts ever here on Foodie With Family is my Cuban Pulled Pork recipe. It tastes wonderful and it makes enough to stash away three or four meals worth of food (even for a family our size!) It is so good. So good, in fact, that for a very long time (longer than I care to admit), I didn’t make pork shoulder in any other way. Why?

Because IT WAS SO GOOD!

You know what? It’s still that good, but I realized something really crucial. Expanding the pork shoulder repertoire does not mean I love the Cuban Pork any less. It just means I have more opportunities for eating pork!

Pork shoulder is the busy person’s best friend. You wouldn’t think it to look at that massive cut of meat, would you? You look at the marbled hunk of meat with that bone down the center and think, “All that work! Who has time?” You do! I promise. It is one of the most economical cuts of meat and requires so little hands-on time that it’s almost criminal not to take advantage of it.

For this Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork, we begin with the same method used in the Cuban Pork recipe; cook overnight in the slow-cooker, chill during the day, shred the pork, reduce the pan juices, and pour it over the pork. Instead of our well loved Cuban spices and juices, we add cola, onions and chipotles in adobo. Rawr. Then we diverge a bit more… Instead of baking the pork, we press a goodly amount of the shredded pork into a super hot pan until it’s crispy brown around the edges. Flip it over, make it crispier and then? And then. Oh, then.

This, my friends, is the stuff of dreams. Crispy pork carnitas.
We can serve that crispity yet juicy, delectable, slightly spicy and sweet, flavour-packed pork on tostadas, pizza, in tacos, or like we’re doing today on Carnitas Rice Bowls. You cannot possibly imagine a meal that is this easy to throw together can taste this incredible.

This is good enough to bump itself into the rotation with my beloved Cuban Pork.

And much like Cuban Pork, it makes enough to feed a massive crowd ~or~ sock away several meals worth of already cooked meat. With that in the freezer, like all of our other Make Ahead Mondays recipes, dinner is just minutes away.

Print
Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork and Carnitas Rice Bowls | Make Ahead Mondays

Rating: 51

Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork and Carnitas Rice Bowls | Make Ahead Mondays

Slightly spicy, smoky and a little sweet, this slow-cooker cola pulled pork is so easy to make you'll be shocked and is so good that you'll be thankful it yields enough for several meals-worth to be stored in the freezer. One of our favourite ways to use it is on Carnitas Rice Bowls; hot cooked rice piled with the crispy "little meats" and a variety of flavourful toppings. Go wild and really pile it high. This meal pleases all ages and is easy on the wallet.

Ingredients

    For the Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork:
  • 3 large onions
  • 6-9 pound bone-in pork shoulder or pork butt
  • 2 small cans of chipotles in adobo
  • 2 (12 ounce) bottles or cans of your preferred cola (I like Mexican Coca-Cola.)
    • For Each Serving of Carnitas Rice Bowls:
  • ½-3/4 cup slow-cooker cola pulled pork
  • 1 teaspoon canola, peanut or vegetable oil
  • 1 to 1 ½ cups hot, cooked rice
    • Optional, but oh-so-tasty:
  • salsa
  • shredded pepper jack or Cheddar cheese
  • Smoked Paprika and Chipotle Sauce
  • sour cream
  • sliced or diced avocado
  • finely diced red onion
  • chopped cilantro or parsley
  • lime wedges

Instructions

To Make the Slow-Cooker Cola Pulled Pork:

Cut the stem and root-ends from the onions, cut the onions in half and remove the peels. Arrange the halved onions over the base of the slow-cooker. Position the pork roast –fat layer facing up- on top of the onion halves. Pour the cans of chipotles in adobo (with all the sauce) over the pork shoulder then pour the colas over the chipotles. Cover the slow-cooker and cook on ‘LOW’ for 8-9 hours.

Cool the pork roast (still in its juices in the slow-cooker insert) completely until the pork fat congeals around the roast on top of the cooking juices. Scrape away and discard the fat. Transfer the pork roast to a cutting board and pour the remaining contents of the slow-cooker into a sieve positioned over a saucepan. Push the contents of the sieve with a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Set the saucepan over medium high heat and bring it to a boil. Let it boil and reduce until it is about ¼ of the original volume.

Pull the cooled pork roast apart and scrape excess fat from the meat. Use your hands or two forks to shred the pork. To get smaller pieces of pork, you can chop through the pile of shredded pork with a large knife a couple of times. Put the pulled pork into a large mixing bowl, pour the reduced pan juices over the top and toss until the juices are evenly distributed.

To Freeze to Serve Later:

Divide the pulled pork between zipper top bags in meal-sized portions. Try to squeeze as much excess air from the bag as possible before sealing. Try to flatten the bag so that it takes up less room in the freezer. Freeze for up to 8 months.

To Serve from Fresh:

Put a heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat and add the oil to the pan. Swirl to coat, then pile the pulled-pork in the center of the pan. Use a spatula to press the pork into the pan. Fry until the pork is brown around the edges. Use a spatula to flip the pork until crisp on the other side.

To Serve From Frozen:

Thaw the pulled pork in the refrigerator or in the microwave. Put a heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat and add the oil to the pan. Swirl to coat, then pile the pulled-pork in the center of the pan. Use a spatula to press the pork into the pan. Fry until the pork is brown around the edges. Use a spatula to flip the pork until crisp on the other side.

To Assemble the Carnitas:

Put the hot, cooked rice in a bowl, use a spatula to place the crispy pork on top. Pile any or all of the toppings on the crispy pork.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/03/12/slow-cooker-cola-pulled-pork-and-carnitas-rice-bowls-make-ahead-mondays/

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Comfort Food, Component Foods, Freezer Pleaser, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Main Dish, Make Ahead Mondays, Meat, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes | Make Ahead Mondays

February 20, 2012 by 19 Comments

WARNING: Downton Abbey Spoiler Alert! I’m  putting this on in an excess of caution, but given that last night was the season finale here in the US, I just want to be certain that you have a chance to see it before reading. I don’t actually give anything away, but I don’t want you to draw conclusions and then hate me forever.

This Sunday was a memorable one. Two of my boys had their first ever band practice. I stood in the kitchen listening to the guys jam, sneaking glances as often as I could without looking like a nutty backstage mom. I walked by and took as many surreptitious photos as I possibly could and tried desperately not to cry lest they think I didn’t like it.

Now, if you have a house full of teenaged boys, it doesn’t matter how distracted or otherwise occupied they appear, you’d best get some food going. Thank heavens I practice what I preach with Make Ahead Mondays. I had a freezer full of last minute options. I went with the easiest of the clean up options for dinners.

Why?

Lately, on Sunday nights, I’ve done the world’s fastest tucking-in of the kids. We’re talking smooch, pray, blankies-yanked-up-to-the-neck, find lost stuffed animals, pat the head and then a soothing and sincere, “If you come downstairs and interrupt Downton Abbey I will be crankier than Voldemort.”

Then I run back downstairs -wild horses aren’t in it, people… I fly-  to make a pot of tea and plant my backside firmly on the couch, remote-in-hand. Mercifully, DVRs exist, because I am quite clearly not an effective deliverer of threats. Either that, or my children are not good receivers of threats. Because they descend the stairs more often than the staff of Downton.

Forget the Superbowl. I sit here watching Downton Abbey saying things like,

“SHUT UP, THOMAS!”

“NO, Mr. Bates! NO!”

“I really like Anna’s hat.”

“Poor William.”

“Poor Daisy.”

“The Dowager Countess is my favourite person in the whole world.”

“Well, you did it NOW, didn’t you, Thomas?”

“Oh, Anna!”

“YES! Matthew socked him!”

But most importantly, and most frequently I scream, “SIR RICHARD IS A JERK!”

Can I get an amen?

Or a subdued, “Very well.”

In fact, I’m so devoted to Downton Abbey, I believe that The Dowager Countess (THREE CHEERS FOR VIOLET!) has a quote for just about everything, including Make Ahead Mondays.

“Oh, is her cooking so precisely timed? You couldn’t tell.”

Okay, so maybe I stretched that quote just a bit. But this last one comes from me talking to Lady Grantham about Make Ahead Mondays:

Lady Grantham: “You are quite wonderful the way you see room for improvement wherever you look. I never knew such reforming zeal.”
Rebecca: “I take that as a compliment.”
Lady Grantham: “I must’ve said it wrong.”

Well, alright, that wasn’t quite right, either.  I’m sorry. I’m just so obsessed.

Here’s the point, though…

I got a meal for ten on the table in thirty minutes and cleaned up in just thirty more. The sloppy joes in the freezer made it possible. And that in turn made it possible for me to clap like a seal and start singing, “Mary and Matthew sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G.”

Let this be a lesson to you. Cousin Violet loves sloppy joes.

Er.

Or something.

~~

You’ve never really had sloppy joes until you’ve had homemade sloppy joes. Go on, didn’t some of you curl your lips a bit when you saw “sloppy joes” in the title? Don’t go there! This might be “below the stairs” food, but it’s darned good! When you make them from scratch, they’re an entirely different story! When you take browned beef, luscious tangy sauce, loads upon loads of vegetables and simmer them for hours upon hours their flavours mingle and marry. Kind of like Sybil and Branson. Sigh. Pile that onto soft homemade rolls and you are in heaven. Make no mistake. They are sloppy. You’re going to want a goodly pile of napkins nearby. Or a footman with finger bowls. The choice is yours.

Either way, this stash in your freezer makes dinner a breeze.

A while back, I ran this recipe as a classic Foodie With Family Record-Eagle column. I hope you enjoy this printable version!

Print
Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes | Make Ahead Mondays

Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes | Make Ahead Mondays

You've never had a sloppy joe until you've had a sloppy joe made from scratch. Crammed full of veggies, big on flavour and huge on comfort, these sloppy joes are a great way to get your daily vegetable servings into picky eaters. As if they weren't wonderful enough, they're kind to the wallet and half-your-brain-tied-behind-your-back easy.

If you're feeding a big family, I highly recommend doubling or tripling this recipe (most slow-cookers can handle the upsize with no difficulty) and freezing the extras for last-minute meals.

Ingredients

  • 3 lbs. lean ground beef or turkey
  • 2 large onions, finely chopped
  • 1 large red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
  • 2 large ribs celery, finely chopped
  • 1 small carrot, peeled and finely chopped or grated
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 3 6-oz. cans tomato paste
  • 1/3 c. cider vinegar, plus extra for adjusting flavor after cooking
  • 1/3 c. firmly packed light brown sugar, plus extra for adjusting flavor after cooking
  • 3 t. paprika
  • 2 t. dry mustard
  • 2 t. salt
  • 2 t. chili powder, more or less, to taste
  • 1 t. fresh ground black pepper, more or less, to taste
  • ½ t. hot pepper sauce

Instructions

In a large skillet over medium high heat, cook the beef with the onions, bell pepper, celery, carrot, and garlic, breaking up meat with a fork or wooden spoon until meat is lightly browned. Drain meat mixture and remove to a slow cooker, adding remaining ingredients. Stir until thoroughly combined, cover and cook on low for six to seven hours. Adjust flavor by adding additional brown sugar and vinegar to taste, if desired.

Serve filling loosely piled on rolls with choice of toppings.

To Freeze:

Cool the leftovers completely, scoop into a pre-labeled (with contents and date) resealable zipper bags in one-meal-portions. Close the zipper partway and squeeze as much air from the bag as you can without spilling the contents. Finish closing the zipper and lay the bag flat, gently squishing the bag to evenly distribute the sloppy joe filling. Lay the bags on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer until solid.

To Reheat:

Snip the top from the freezer bag and empty the contents into a microwave safe bowl or a heavy-bottomed saucepan with a tight fitting lid. If microwaving, cover bowl with plastic wrap, venting one side. Thaw first, then microwave on high, stirring every 2 minutes or so, until the filling is hot through. If using the stovetop, add 1/4 cup of water, lid tightly, and warm over low heat, stirring every 5 minutes or so, until the filling is hot through and through.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/02/20/slow-cooker-sloppy-joes-make-ahead-mondays/

Filed Under: Comfort Food, Freezer Pleaser, kid food, Main Dish, Make Ahead Mondays, Meat, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , ,

Slow-Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

February 17, 2012 by 86 Comments

Update: Like a goose, I left the onions out of the ingredients list and instructions. I have fixed and updated the recipe. My apologies to those who might have printed it before seeing the correction. I imagine it will still taste marvelous made sans onion, but with onions, it sings!

Everybody wants a unicorn recipe. It’s the kind of dish we all secretly hopes exists but despair of actually finding.  You try recipe after recipe after recipe trying to find something, ANYTHING that isn’t a burger (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) or a hot dog (Nothing wrong with that, either, but EGADS, give us some variety, please.) that will make everyone happy. All we want is tasty unicorns.

What would you say if I told you that I have a slow-cooker recipe that requires no more work than chopping an onion and a few garlic cloves and a wee bit of ginger, whisking a few liquids together and pouring it over some boneless skinless chicken thighs in the slow cooker? And then if I were to tell you that you didn’t have to do any pre-browning on that chicken? Wait, then I also said that it was easy on the wallet, too.

But what if I followed all that up by saying that four hours after doing that, you would have a dish that (even out of the slow-cooker) was deep and complex, flavourful and beautiful, and made every single person in my family happy. Would you think I was a liar?

Or would you believe me if I told you this is a unicorn?

Normally something that simple doesn’t yield palatable let alone fabulous. This, however, is fabulous.

Sweet, tangy, spicy, garlicky, gingery with a velvety sauce and tender chicken. It’s just so very good. I first saw this over on my friend Amy’s blog and knew I had to try it. True to Amy’s promise of success, we had no leftovers the first time I made it (and I had doubled her recipe!) And as a testament to the taste of this unicorn, I made it again just under a week later, this time with a few changes that I wanted to try. My husband was on (ANOTHER) business trip, and again, I doubled the amount of meat. And again? No leftovers. I repeat. NO LEFTOVERS. My five sons and I polished off a batch of it that was every bit as large as the batch that my adult male husband helped us consume earlier in the week.

Woah.

A.) These guys eat a lot. Okay. I’m no slouch. But still… I weep for my food budget.

B.) I may have to triple the recipe next time.

C.) Help.

When I told my husband later that night what we’d eaten for dinner as we caught up over the phone, he said, “Oh man. I missed it? That stinks.”

He had gone out to a restaurant that night and was jealous of our dinner. I call that a score for me.

Let me tell you one more thing, though… I’ve mentioned my picky pants gruesome-twosome anti-veg contingent before, right? They sucked this up like hoovers. They didn’t slow down to realize there were itty bitty minced onions in the dish.

Saddle up this unicorn and believe!

 

Print
Slow-Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

Slow-Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

Sweet, tangy, spicy, garlicky, gingery: You never expect something that is this simple to make to taste this deep and complex. With a maximum of 10 minutes of hands-on time required to put this together, you will be thrilled and so will the rest of your family!

Adapted with big thanks from my dear friend, Amy of Very Culinary

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
  • salt and pepper
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup minced onion
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon minced or grated fresh ginger
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 4 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup of water
    • Serve with:
  • Hot cooked rice
  • Sesame seeds
  • Scallions, thinly sliced

Instructions

Very lightly season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and place them in the slow cooker.

Whisk the honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, canola and sesame oils, ginger, garlic and pepper flakes together in a mixing bowl and pour over the chicken thighs. Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 4 hours, or until the chicken is tender and cooked through.

Use tongs or a slotted spoon to transfer the chicken to a rimmed plate or bowl and cover lightly with foil, leaving the pan juices in the slow cooker.

Stir the cornstarch into the water with a fork or small whisk until dissolved. Whisk the mixture into the pan juices in the slow cooker. Re-cover the slow-cooker and turn the heat to high. Let it cook and thicken for 15 minutes.

Carefully transfer the chicken back into the slow-cooker. Serve the pieces of chicken over the hot cooked rice, spoon the sauce over the chicken and garnish with sesame seeds and scallions.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/02/17/slow-cooker-honey-sesame-chicken/

 

Filed Under: Comfort Food, Happy Healthy and Wise, kid food, Main Dish, Meat, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , ,

Make Ahead Meatballs | Baked Meatballs and Polenta (Make Ahead Monday)

February 13, 2012 by 11 Comments

Update: A very astute reader (thank you, Elizabeth!) noticed that I had inserted one of my children’s math problems in the “how to make meatballs without a disher” portion of the recipe. If you had followed the instructions I gave, you’d end having SIX HUNDRED tiny, wee, adorable meatballs and cursing my name. Yeesh.  In case you were wondering, the problem was 30X=600. Solve for x.  Let this be a lesson to you. Don’t write and derive.

I vow not to correct my children’s math homework while finishing a post again. At least until next week.

With a Grandma from Arkansas and a Grandpa from West Virginia and a Mom -their daughter-  who learned to cook from them, I was brought up on good Southern food. The fact that I lived in Kentucky for six years as a child in my formative years helped matters along a little, too… In short, I run on grits.

There are very few things that grits can’t make better. Cold outside? Eat grits. Broken heart? Cheese grits. Nervous about anything? Simple buttered grits with salt and pepper. Feeling celebratory? Shrimp ‘n grits. Hungry? GRITS.

What can’t grits do? Creamy, chewy, soft, and hearty, grits are corn done right. So what does my Ode to Grits have to do with the dish pictured above? That’s polenta. And leaving aside the stoneground cornmeal vs. lye water soaked field corn bit of the discussion, polenta is, as my kids so poetically refer to it, Italian grits. Pronounced, in this case, EYE-tahl-ee-uhn.

We are nothing if we are not classy.

Italian grits bridge an argument that my dear, sweet, deluded husband and I have been having for years. Concisely, he likes his pasta gross. Seriously. He likes fine pastas (angel hair, thin spaghetti, etc…) and he likes it cooked past tender. As in mushy. I like substantial pasta (buccatini, shaped pastas, linguine) and I like it al dente. How have we ever made this work? By chucking most pasta dishes and agreeing on polenta. We both prefer polenta under meatballs and sauce, beef stew, and other various saucy morsels of goodness.

So while other couples make like Lady and the Tramp this Valentine’s Day, my sweetheart and I will be sharing a bowl of Italian grits topped with sumptuous baked meatballs and trying to eat faster so we can get the last spoonful.

In addition to being classy, we’re competitive. This makes us doubly fun on game night.

This meal is a fast one when you use a Make Ahead Monday advantage. I have to say that I’ve tried quite a few meatballs in my day, and these come in at the top for taste, ease and versatility. Yes, this recipe makes a lot (referring to both the frozen meatballs and today’s baked meatball recipe) but the uses are many.

The frozen meatballs can be baked up in a pan full of sauce like I did here, but they’re also divine in sweet and sour meatballs, tossed in barbecue sauce and kept warm in a slow-cooker for a party, or tossed in a cream sauce for a non-traditional (since it lacks pork) but incredibly delicious Swedish meatball dish. And if you find yourself with half a pan of baked meatballs in sauce leftover, you could do much, much, VASTLY worse things than meatball subs or a meatball pizza. When I tell you that those make boys happy, I speak empirical truth. All the minions back me up on this one.

For just one minute, I’m going to do something I don’t often do. I want to address two separate groups of people. First…

To Those Cooking for Three or Fewer People Per Meal:

Don’t panic when you see the quantity of meat called for in this recipe. Once these meatballs are made and “flash-frozen” then stashed in the freezer, you can take out and warm as few as one meatball or as many as you’d like if you’re serving guests. The meatballs are good for eight months, properly wrapped in the freezer. Since the recipe yields sixty meatballs, a person cooking for one would only have to consume approximately three meatballs every other week to go through these in time. That is totally do-able. Yes? In other words, I wouldn’t reduce this recipe. You never know when my family might show up at your door hungry. And what would you do then? Hmmm???

To Those Cooking for Four or More People Per Meal:

Don’t, under any circumstances, reduce this recipe. In fact, you wouldn’t be crazy if you doubled it. And if you’re cooking for six or more people? Triple it. If you have teenage kids? Quadruple it. I think you get my point, right? This is hard-core kid-pleasing food. You might be surprised how often you rely on your stash of meatballs.

~~~

Why not just buy frozen meatballs at the store? Because they’re gross. Every frozen meatball I’ve ever purchased (from store brand to boutique brand) has tasted waterlogged and bland (WHERE, I ask you WHERE are the herbs? Garlic? Spices? Flavours?). And even when they were on sale and I had a coupon, the expense was not justified by the product. My thoughts about commercially available meatballs can be summed up with a resounding, “Blech!”

Homemade frozen meatballs are most emphatically not blech! They great, are a massive convenience, and can be made when meat is on big sale at the store or butcher’s.

This leads me to a final word about the choice of meat in these meatballs. Most recipes for meatballs and meatloaf call for a blend of beef, pork, and veal in order to keep them tender and moist. I buck tradition here and not only call for all beef, but also for lean beef at that. Crazy? Well, it might not be what most recipes call for, but for me, it is the perfect meatball. It holds together, it’s moist, it’s flavourful, it’s like Mary Poppins: practically perfect in every way. If you’d prefer to use a blend, feel free -by all means- but this is my favourite version by far, and after this many years in the kitchen, I no longer feel like I have to do things “the right way” all the time.

 

Print
Make Ahead Meatballs | Baked Meatballs In Sauce and Polenta (Make Ahead Monday)

Make Ahead Meatballs | Baked Meatballs In Sauce and Polenta (Make Ahead Monday)

There is no dish more comforting than a bowl of creamy polenta topped with piping hot perfect meatballs in garlicky red sauce with a generous handful of grated cheese on top.

...And when the meatballs are waiting for you in the freezer, this dinner comes together in mere moments. Make Ahead Mondays save the day! These versatile meatballs are also great in barbecue sauce, in sweet and sour meatballs, in soups and on sandwiches and pizzas.

Ingredients

    For the Make Ahead Meatballs:
  • 4 1/2 pounds of lean ground beef
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs
  • 1 cup onion, minced super fine (I use the food processor to obliterate them to placate the anti-visible veg crowd)
  • 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and very finely minced or pressed
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped (or substitute 3 tablespoons dried parsley flakes)
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (preferably freshly ground)
    • For the Baked Meatballs in Sauce:
  • 25-30 frozen meatballs, directly from the freezer
  • 5 cups of your favourite red sauce (Marinara, ragu, etc...)
  • 2 anchovy fillets,finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup shredded Romano, Parmesano or Asiago cheese
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • nonstick cooking spray or olive oil to grease the pan
    • For the Creamy Polenta:
  • 5 cups chicken stock (or water)
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup coarsely ground cornmeal (polenta grains)
  • 1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese (substitute Parmesan cheese if you don't like bleu cheese!)
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • coarsely ground black pepper to taste
    • Additional Optional Garnish:
  • Freshly grated Parmesano, Romano or Asiago cheese
  • Minced fresh parsley

Instructions

To Make the Make Ahead Meatballs:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line 2 rimmed half-sheet pans (13-inch x18-inch) with parchment paper and set aside.

Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and use your hands to mix it gently until all ingredients are evenly distributed. Use a medium sized disher* to scoop equal sized amounts of the meat mixture onto the prepared pans leaving about 1/4-inch of space between the meatballs. If the shapes are shaggy, you can go back through and lightly roll each one between your hands to even out the shape a bit.

*No disher? No problem. Cover your work surface with waxed paper and turn the meat mixture out onto it. Gently pat it out into a large rectangle. Use a pizza cutter or knife to mark the mixture into 10 evenly sized columns on the long side of the rectangle and 6 evenly sized rows on the short side. This will give you 60 equally sized amounts. Roll each one into a meatball, placing them on the parchment lined sheets as directed above.

Bake the meatballs for 30 minutes. Transfer the meatballs to a platter, cover lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely cool. Place the platter in the freezer until the meatballs are frozen through. When they're completely hard, transfer them to a resealable plastic bag, squeezing as much air from the bag as possible before sealing. Label the bag and freezer for up to 8 months.

To Make Baked Meatballs in Sauce:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a 9-inch by 13-inch pan with non-stick cooking spray or brush with olive oil. Arrange the frozen meatballs evenly in the pan

In a mixing bowl, stir the sauce, chopped anchovy fillets, and shredded Romano, Parmesano or Asiago cheese together. Pour the mixture over the meatballs, then sprinkle the mozzarella cheese over the top.

Bake, uncovered for 30-40 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly, the cheese is slightly browned and the meatballs are heated through.

To Make the Creamy Polenta:

Bring the stock or water to a boil over high heat in a medium, heavy-bottomed pot. Add the salt, lower the heat to medium and then whisk in the cornmeal, a little at a time, until it is all in and the cornmeal begins to swell and stay suspended in the liquid. Drop the heat to low and let simmer, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until the polenta is quite thick, the grains are all swollen and tender and the liquid is absorbed.

Turn off the heat, add in the butter and crumbled or grated cheese, and stir until both are completely melted and incorporated.

To Serve:

Ladle the polenta into serving bowls and top with 3-6 meatballs, depending on how hungry you are! Garnish the bowls with additional grated Parmesano, Romano or Asiago cheese and minced fresh parsley if you'd like.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/02/13/make-ahead-meatballs-baked-meatballs-and-polenta-make-ahead-monday/

 

Filed Under: Component Foods, Main Dish, Meat, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , ,

Waffle-Iron Ham and Cheese Paninis

January 24, 2012 by 12 Comments

We all know how I feel about ham and cheese. It’s no secret that I love it truly, madly, deeply…

The world’s simplest ham and cheese is good enough, no doubt, but everyone knows a toasted ham and cheese is even better.

And when you compress that sandwich while it’s toasting -á la panini- you get some serious hubba hubba working.

Now, I’ll be honest, as much as I love kitchen gadgets, I’ve never been able to justify buying a panini maker. There’s no panini maker big enough (that I’m aware of) to make a large amount of sandwiches simultaneously, and since I’m making meals for seven at a time, paying big kitchen gadget bucks to stand there pressing and grilling one sandwich at a time just doesn’t sound like my idea of good money management. Plus, it’s another thing on the shelves taking up space. On the other hand, pressed and grilled sandwiches… Sigh.

I’ve tried every trick out there for pressed sandwiches. Wrapping a brick in foil and heating it in the oven worked well, but dangit! I had to wrap a brick in foil and preheat it. I don’t always think that far in advance of my desperate need for a sandwich.

I tried heating up two cast iron skillets at the same time and laying one on top of the other, but then you get to scrape toasted cheese off of the bottom of an otherwise clean cast iron skillet. Since I’m firmly in the no-soap-on-cast-iron camp, that, too, was a pain in the rear.

I even bought a slimline cast-iron panini “lid” thingie. Cute, yes. But it was yet another “heat up the second component” thing and darned if it didn’t fall out of the cabinets onto my toe. That hurt enough that the item got its very own special trip to the thrift store.

One day last week, while I was cleaning and putting away my beloved waffle maker, the proverbial light bulb over my head flickered and went BING! Big, fat, hairy DUH! How had I not thought of this before? My waffle maker could be my panini maker, too! Granted, I was still only going to be able to turn two sandwiches out at a time but hey! We’re talking about two extraordinary sandwiches, no extra gadgetry on the shelves and multi-tasking. If there’s anything I love almost as much as pressed, toasted sandwiches, it’s multi-tasking: delicious, nutritious, cheapola multi-tasking.

A word about waffle makers before I go any further; I adore my waffle maker. This is my waffle maker.

What the picture doesn’t show is that the lid is “free-floating”. In other words, it can rise or fall depending on the bulk of what you have in it. This makes it the perfect ad hoc panini press. (The fact that it turns out the best waffles I’ve ever had in my life is nothing to sniff at either. Oh! And you want one that cleans up beautifully? This is the one for you. The waffle/grill plates snap out and the housing is stainless steel. Yes, it gets hot to the touch, but it doesn’t melt. What? You, unlike me, can manage not to melt the cool-touch waffle makers? So, it’s just me who melts plastic waffle makers? Huh. Who knew?)

Now, the sandwiches.

My all-time favourite sandwich filling is, as I’ve said, ham and cheese, but I have sandwich related Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Yes, it’s surprising, I know, because I am so very moderate in everything else in my life. Ahem. Anyway…

Here’s my idea of the perfect sandwich construction layer-by-layer.

  1. Soft but sturdy bread spread with mayonnaise and Dijon mustard.
  2. Three or four very thin slices of ham (depending on the size of the bread) draped and not laid flat. This comes from my time working at a deli. I like a pretty sandwich. I swear I can feel the difference between a pretty sandwich and a sad, depressed, flat sandwich blindfolded. But really, no, I am sane!
  3. One thin piece of cheese. You can rip the cheese to cover the meat and reach the edges of the bread, if you’d like. And I do.
  4. Baby or tender arugula or leaf lettuce.  If you put a sandwich in front of me with iceberg on it, I’ll eat it -don’t misunderstand- because I love sandwiches of all kinds. But if I’m talking perfect world sandwich, which is rather the point here, iceberg has no business being in the mix.
  5. Paper thin slices of sweet onion, preferably Vidalia. And since I’ve already gone down the high-maintenance sandwich preference road, I’m going to say another thing here. For cryin’ out loud (onion joke), please make the onion slices in half moons. That way, when you take a bite, you’re not going to pull an entire slab-o-onion off the sandwich when you pull away with a mouthful.
  6. More arugula!
  7. More cheese!
  8. More ham! Still draped! (Don’t make me come fix your sandwich to prove it!)
  9. One more piece of bread with mayonnaise and Dijon mustard.
  10. Cut it in half, for the love of all that is good in the world. I realize that’s not technically a layer, but to me, it’s part of the enjoyment of the sandwich, so don’t skip it!

And when you butter the outside of both ends of that sandwich and shove it in a waffle iron or panini maker you get the most heavenly, shatteringly crunchy exterior to a toasted ham and cheese you’ve ever seen. Golden-brown, crisped bread that is still tender inside with gooey cheese, salty ham, peppery arugula, sweet onion, pungent Dijon mustard and smooth mayonnaise; this sandwich is everything a sandwich aspires to be. Whether you serve these as part of a meal or as part of your game day party food, you are sure to score big.

Print
Waffle-Iron Ham and Cheese Paninis

Waffle-Iron Ham and Cheese Paninis

Golden-brown, crisped bread that is still tender inside with gooey cheese, salty ham, peppery arugula, sweet onion, pungent Dijon mustard and smooth mayonnaise; this sandwich is everything a sandwich aspires to be. Whether you serve these as part of a meal or as part of your game day party food, you are sure to score big.

Ingredients

    Per Sandwich:
  • 2 slices (about 1/2-inch thick each) soft but sturdy bread. (Like this. )
  • 1 tablespoon, approximately, softened butter
  • 6 very thin slices deli ham (Black Forest or Virginia Style, preferably)
  • 2 thin slices provolone cheese
  • 1 fistful baby or tender arugula
  • paper thin slices sweet onion, to taste
  • Dijon mustard, to taste
  • mayonnaise, to taste

Instructions

Preheat your waffle iron or panini maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

Spread the top of one piece of bread with mayonnaise and Dijon. Arrange 3 pieces of the ham on the bread, top with 1 piece of the provolone cheese, half of the arugula, the onions, the other half of the arugula, last piece of cheese, and the remaining 3 slices of cheese. Finally, spread the remaining piece of bread with more Dijon and mayonnaise and put that side down on top of the sandwich. Generously butter the top of the bread.

Open the waffle iron, hold the sandwich together and carefully invert it so the buttered top is facing down on the waffle iron. Quickly butter the piece of bread that is now on the top and close the waffle iron. You may need to weight the top of the waffle iron down until the sandwich begins to compress. A heavy pan or can of something that will not be damaged by heat is a good bet.

Toast until the sandwich is compressed and the outside is a crispy, deep golden brown. In my waffle maker, set on high, that took about 5 minutes.

Use tongs or a spatula to carefully remove the sandwich from the waffle iron and transfer it to a cutting board. Cut in half (or quarters) and serve hot.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/01/24/waffle-iron-ham-and-cheese-paninis/

What are you favourite sandwich fillings? Are you a cold or hot sandwich person or not a *GASP* sandwich person at all?

 

Filed Under: Comfort Food, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Main Dish, Meat, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: , , , ,

One Pot Tex Mex Pasta Toss

November 22, 2011 by 2 Comments

Yesterday, I banged the drum for playing with your food and above is my proof of why that is a virtuous kitchen activity. You are looking at a creamy tomato pasta with chorizo, black olives, cilantro, sour cream and candied jalapenos. …And scene.

No. It doesn’t really end there, although since we are two days away from Thanksgiving, I will keep this short and sweet.

If no one ever played with their food there would be no such things as Buffalo wings, nachos, baked potatoes, lentil soup, pickles, jam or olives (among other things.) Seriously. Have you ever tasted an unbrined olive? Big, fat, alum-laden ew. The point is, someone did it.

Someone has to do it.

You don’t have to go whole hog and start developing recipes from the ground up. Just tinker. Substitute one herb for another, try shallots instead of onions or vice versa, use Greek yogurt in place of sour cream… Look at what’s similar. What makes it similar? Is it texture, flavour, smell? Think of cooking as a puzzle where you’re fitting different things together in the best possible way. But here’s where it’s better than a puzzle. A puzzle can only be put together in one way. Foods have a nearly limitless number of combinations. Isn’t that a great thought? There is a perfect dish out there for everyone. It’s just up to us to find it!

This dish was borne of playing with the dish I posted yesterday. If you make them both you’ll see that while they are two dishes that use the same method and have textural similarities, that they are two completely different meals!

… Now before I share this with you and scoot off to make pies and whatnot I want to lay a little homegrown truth on you. I appreciate each and every one of you who visits here on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis. Your presence and feedback makes Foodie With Family such a rewarding project for me that I can’t imagine what I’d do without you all. For each of you, I am grateful. Thank you for making this so fun for me. May your Thanksgiving Day be as wonderful as you hope!

With love,

Rebecca

 

Print
One Pot Tex Mex Pasta Toss

Ingredients

  • 1 pound Mexican style chorizo
  • 1 onion, peeled and diced
  • 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced or pressed
  • 1 dried arbol chili pepper, whole
  • 1 can (14-ish ounces) tomatoes (You can use diced, crushed or puree.) ~or~ 1 1/2 cups chopped, diced or crushed tomatoes
  • 1 cilantro stem, whole
  • 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 5 cups chicken stock
  • 1 pound uncooked dry shaped pasta (I used Campanelle. Other good choices would be small shells, cellentani, fiori and rotini, or any other pasta with hollows to hold sauce and meat.)
  • 1/4 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
  • 4 ounces (half of an 8 ounce brick) cream cheese or neufchatel cheese, cut into squares
    • Optional for garnish:
  • Minced fresh cilantro
  • halved or chopped black olives
  • chopped sweet onions
  • sour cream
  • candied jalapenos

Instructions

Break up the chorizo into a stockpot over medium heat, stirring and breaking up further with a sturdy spoon. Cook until chorizo is cooked through (browning is not necessary... just cook it through!), then use a slotted spoon to move the chorizo to a plate. If you are using a homemade, lean chorizo, you will need a little additional fat for the next step. If you are using a fattier chorizo, you can use the drippings in the next step.

Drain all but about 1 tablespoon of the drippings from the pan (if using lean chorizo, add 1 tablespoon of peanut oil or canola oil) and return the pan to the heat, dropping the temperature to low. Add the onion and garlic and whole arbol chili and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and soft.

Pour in the chicken stock and tomatoes then raise heat to medium high, bringing the mixture to a boil. When it is fully boiling, stir well, then add in the noodles and half of the reserved chorizo and the cilantro stem, oregano and cumin, using tongs to toss it until the noodles soften enough to be submerged. Add the lid, drop the heat to low again, cover tightly, and simmer for about 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the noodles are al dente (cooked mostly through with just some resistance in the center when bit.) Remove the pan from the heat.

Stir in the grated cheese and the cubed cream or neufchatel cheese, cover again and let stand for 5 minutes. When the 5 minutes are up, toss the noodles in the sauce until the cream cheese is melted and the sauce is thickened.

Serve the noodles garnished with the remaining chorizo, and chopped fresh cilantro, black olives, sweet onions, sour cream and candied jalapenos, if desired.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/11/22/one-pot-tex-mex-pasta-toss/

Filed Under: Comfort Food, Comfort Food, kid food, Main Dish, Meat, Pasta, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

Ham and Swiss Twisted Sandwiches

October 26, 2011 by 13 Comments

 

Hey. My oven’s fixed.

Can you tell?

Is it obvious?

And I want to talk about the way it got fixed, because I have a little serious bragging to do.  But first, let’s all of us hearken back to last Friday.  It was a lovely day. We all got out of bed on the right side. The boys, of their own volition, had declared the day to be computer and computer game free. It was nice-ish fall weather.

I was cooking down apples and canning applesauce like nobody’s business.

We had friends over to visit; one mama and her four little ones. Good folks. Great friends. The kids were all playing outside in a light mist, running laps, yelling, trying to catch swirling leaves and growing increasingly hungry. We had plans, folks. We were building up to a pizza and movie evening where the kids would collapse on the couches with hot slices of gooey homemade pizza in hand while watching something very Wallace and Gromit-y.

The kids kept coming into the kitchen asking when pizza would be ready. I told all four hundred thousand of them (because I’m fairly certain that’s how many times I was asked and children don’t ask more than once, right?) that I was waiting for the pizza dough to rise and I also wanted to finish the mega batch of applesauce I was processing.

The applesauce was finished and the dough was perfect, so I turned around and hit preheat on the oven and bumped the temperature up to 475°F then walked away to assemble other ingredients. The gathering together of other ingredients took about half an hour because there were eleventy thousand interruptions. (But not by children, because children don’t interrupt, right?) When I got back into the kitchen I noticed that the oven temperature display still read ’100°F’ and cold dread crept into my happy little heart because I knew exactly what that meant.

That meant I had blown through yet another baking ignitor  (See this post for more information) and I was about to disappoint a grand total of four hundred thousand children (because that’s about how many more had come into the kitchen to ask when the pizza would be ready.) I called the Evil Genius down from his lair (upstairs office) to give the oven the once over, confirm my diagnosis, and say a few well-chosen words over the oven all of which he did obligingly before retreating from the ravening hordes of 1.8 million starving children.

I went into damage control mode, rolled out the pizza dough, pan-fried an infinite amount of dough rounds, threw indecent amounts of cheese into the sauce and heated that up for ultra-cheesy dunking sauce, and served bread wedges with sauce to the all of the children of the world who had somehow managed to fit themselves into my den. Crisis was kind of averted. But if you’re expecting pizza and you’re given bread wedges (even if they are fried) and cheesy dunking sauce (even if it does have my weight in cheese) are you a happy camper? Yeah. No. They weren’t either.

When our long-suffering friends headed for home, and after I dropped my clearly under-nourished eldest son off at a birthday party where he fervently hoped there would be food, I went home to order (yet another) replacement bake ignitor. That’s where the second blow came. The price on these little fast-burning-out beasties had doubled since the last time we had replaced one. Let’s just say they wanted to charge more than a puppy at an animal rescue for the part. Not that I need another puppy…

I did a little more researching on the part and found a forum where some wonderfulblessedfabuloussweetkindadorablelovely person wrote that most horizontal bake ignitors (which was what I needed) were interchangeable provided you had someone handy who knew how to splice wires. My husband’s middle name is SpliceWires. With that piece of information on hand, I found a part for under twenty dollars (after springing for expedited shipping) that would do the job. I ordered. It arrived Tuesday morning. I dropped the package in my working-from-home-husband’s lap and begged him to use his lunch break to fix it. He -again- obliged. Having married a brilliant man makes me feel brilliant by proxy. I patted him on the back. Then I patted myself on the back. And then I made these.

What are these you ask?

Ham and Swiss Twisted Sandwiches, I say.

These were a favourite of ours for picnic lunches toward the end of farmers’ market season around here. They’re gorgeous brown, sesame-dusted-for-crunch, soft bread encased salty ham and nutty Swiss cheese sandwiches. You can make these a month in advance, wrap in foil, freeze and reheat for a fast hot meal. Or do like we did- wrap in foil or parchment, refrigerate and pack in a picnic lunch with a bottle of honey or horseradish mustard, a crunchy apple and a thermos of hot cider. Can you even imagine something more perfect than that lunch on a blanket in crisp air under technicolor trees?

The answer is no and not forty-two, in case you were wondering.

So, unless your baking ignitor is kaput and you’re waiting for your cheapola replacement to come, you really ought to bake yourself a tray of these before the snow brings down the rest of those perfect and vibrant leaves and get yourself out on a picnic blanket STAT.

P.S. The reason two of the sandwiches were glaringly not-twisty is because two of the children eating them are of the No-Swiss-cheese variety. There’s no fun in force-feeding disliked cheese on a picnic, so I left them un-twisted so we’d know at a glance which sandwich went to whom!

Print
Ham and Swiss Twisted Sandwiches

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ham and Swiss Twisted Sandwiches

Make lunch exciting with these golden-brown sandwich twists stuffed with salty deli ham and nutty Swiss cheese. Pack in a lunch or picnic box along with a squeeze bottle of your favourite mustard, an apple and a thermos of hot cider for a delicious, filling and far-from-ordinary meal.

Ingredients

    For the dough:
  • 2 pounds of soft, white bread dough ( This link is to is my preferred dough for these sandwiches ~or~ you can use thawed, previously frozen homemade or purchased dough.)
    • For the Filling:
  • 24 very thin slices deli ham (I like Virginia-style baked or honey-baked)
  • 12 slices deli Swiss cheese
    • For the Topping:
  • 1 egg, beaten with a fork
  • 3 tablespoons sesame seeds

Instructions

Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Cover 5 pieces with a tea towel.

Divide the 6th piece of dough into two equal pieces and flatten the two pieces into 6 to 8 inch long rectangles.

Tear or cut two slices of Swiss cheese into strips. Arrange half of the cheese strips down the long edge of one rectangle and repeat with the remaining cheese and other rectangle.

Stack 2 pieces of ham and roll up into a tight tube, lay that on top of the cheese on on rectangle then repeat with 2 more pieces of ham and the other rectangle.

Wrap the dough around the ham and cheese, taking care to pinch the ends and seams tightly to seal.

Squeeze the ends of the two tubes together and then twist them around each other, pinching the opposite ends together when you reach them.

Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet.

Repeat with remaining pieces of dough.

Let the sandwich twists rise in a warm, draft-free place covered gently with a tea towel, until puffy, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Carefully remove the tea towel from the twists, brush them with the beaten egg and sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of sesame seeds each one.

Bake for 18-24 minutes, or until a beautiful brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on the tray for 10 minutes.

Eat while warm or transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling before wrapping in foil or parchment and refrigerating or freezing.

To Reheat from Refrigerated:

Place foil or parchment wrapped sandwich twist in a preheated 350°F oven for 15-20 minutes, or until heated through.

To Reheat from Frozen:

Place foil or parchment wrapped sandwich twist in a preheated 350°F oven for 30-40 minutes, or until heated through.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/10/26/ham-and-swiss-twisted-sandwiches/

 

Filed Under: Bread, Comfort Food, Freezer Pleaser, kid food, Meat, Recipes

Homemade Hot Italian Sausage Links

September 6, 2011 by 3 Comments

 

There is a lot of pretty food in the world; Much of it provokes your salivary glands into action when you look at it. But if you lay out a bunch of pictures of beautifully photographed food side by side, the one that’s going to fire me up the most is going to be a perfectly cooked sausage. There is no food that makes me hungrier just to think about it.The snap of biting into it (because a great sausage link always, always, ALWAYS has a snappy casing), the perfectly moist interior, the balance of spices and herbs and the fat.

There’s no getting around it. A sausage needs fat. No fat/low fat sausages = not sausage. It’s true. If there is no or low fat it is simply spiced up ground meat stuffed into a casing. That’s not to say it’s going to be bad, but it is what it is and what it isn’t is a sausage.

For many moons, I’ve made my own bulk sausages (in other words, not in casings) but I’ve had a hankering to stuff sausages for quite some time. This urge, desire, obsession, whatever-you-call it, is the fault of Bell’s Meat Market in Kane, Pennsylvania. When my dad was working at a camp down in the Harrisburg area, Kane was directly on the path between our two homes. En route to or from my house, my dad and stepmom had discovered this little place in this little town that made what had to be the best hand made sausages any of us had ever eaten. Since the drive was well outside of the “I’d drive that far for a craving” range, the idea of making exquisite sausages (not to be confused with the a-okay for every day but not earth-rockingly wondrous variety available at local grocers) firmly rooted itself in my mind.

When Dad and Val moved back to the Upper Peninsula, Kane was no longer on the way to or from and the situation became culinarily urgent.

Then came Charcutepalooza. This “Year of Meat” project brought people from all walks of life together to get all meaty together.  Cooking from scratch? You bet. Canning? Oh sure, everyone has dabbled in that, but preserving your own meat? That was hardcore. And I was all over it. I bought the “manual” for our collective project, “Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing” by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Reading that book made me feel like the heavens had opened and the angels were singing. There was the answer to my sausage conundrum. I had the method, I had the basics, and I was ready.

I recruited my nine year old minion because he is currently infatuated with the Two Fat Ladies and is willing to do anything and everything remotely connected to Jennifer and Clarissa (and he had watched an episode where they made Bangers and Mash the night before our grand project.) With Ty turning the handle on our old school meat grinder/sausage stuffer and me feeding meat into the hopper and then manning the casings (an admittedly off-putting and slightly blush-inducing job),  we managed to turn out a glorious string of Hot Italian Sausage Links.  To say we were proud would be an understatement. We shuffled around like the Tim-Conway-as-the-old-guy-on-Carol-Burnett saying, “Would you like some huh-weenies?”

Those sausages were not going to be admired for long. We popped half of them in the freezer (for later minestrone or Sunday sauce or some other such project) and put the other half straight into a pot to simmer in beer before their ultimate destination… The grill.

We cut peppers and onions into strips to fry up with olive oil and garlic.

Let’s have a word about properly grilling sausages, shall we? If you throw them on a hot grill and ignore them you’re going to, in all likelihood, have three tragic things happen.

  1. You will have unevenly cooked sausages.
  2. Your sausage casings will explode which will cause tragic thing #3.
  3. You will have dry little sausage jerkies because all the juices and fat will leak out on account of the breached casings.

There is no drama like sausage drama, so let’s discuss how to do it the right way, shall we? This applies to all “raw” sausages, not just homemade ones.

  1. Gently par-boil your sausages in something yummy. Beer, apple cider, wine? All good choices. If you want to know what is best to use, consider whether what you’re using for simmering would be tasty served alongside the finished sausage. If the answer is yes, then use it! The goal here is to get heat moving into the sausage, not to cook it completely.
  2. When you move on to grilling, put the sausages over moderate direct heat to start with so you get nice browning on the outside.
  3. When you have some nifty grill marks and tantalizing browning started, move the sausages to indirect heat (in other words, not directly over the flames/coals/what have you, until it is done through. For these sausages, that is 150°F.

When the sausages look like this, make haste in getting them off the grill!

These were crackling crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside. This is a good reminder of why you want the casings to pop open only when you bite them. All that lovely fat and those intense juices from the meat were contained in the casing.  If you do it right, you get to eat all that good stuff. If you do it wrong, it sizzles out onto the grill and is wasted forever and ever amen. Not to put too fine a point on it or anything, but a dry sausage is a sad sausage.

This is not a sad sausage.

Neither were the other two that I ate. I’m just being honest.

Print
Homemade Hot Italian Sausage Links

Prep Time: 1 hour

Heavily seasoned with garlic, Italian herbs and spiced up with crushed red pepper flakes and cayenne, this succulent Hot Italian Sausage is worth every effort involved in making it. You can stuff it into casings to make links, or leave it in the bulk form for browning and adding to sauces. Either way, you won't want to go back to store bought after eating this!

Ingredients gently adapted from Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, but the method is theirs.

Ingredients

  • 4 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder butt, trimmed of sinew (but not fat) and cut into 1 1/2" cubes
  • 8 ounces pork back fat, partially frozen and diced into 1/2" cubes
  • 3 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons white or raw sugar
  • 3 tablespoons fennel seeds, toasted or not
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander (or 1 tablespoon coriander seeds)
  • 3 tablespoons sweet paprika (not hot)
  • 1/2-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (depending on how hot you like it)
  • 4 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves (or 1 1/4 teaspoons dried)
  • 4 tablespoons minced fresh basil leaves (or 1 1/4 teaspoons dried)
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
  • 2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes
  • 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
  • 3/4 cup ice cold water
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, well chilled
    • If you want link sausage you will also need 10 feet natural casings soaked in room temperature water for 30 minutes then rinsed.

Instructions

Combine the pork and the rest of the ingredients (minus the vinegar and water) and toss to evenly distribute the seasonings. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-12 hours before proceeding.

Using a small die or disc on your meat grinder, grind the meat/spice mixture.

Transfer the meat into the work bowl of your stand mixer (or into a very large mixing bowl) and mix the vinegar and water in with the paddle attachment (or a hefty, sturdy spoon) until the liquids are all fully incorporated and the meat is sticky and uniform in appearance. This should take about 1 minute on medium speed.

Pinch off a quarter-sized amount of the sausage and pan fry it to check for seasonings. Adjust if necessary before proceeding.

Thread the casings onto your sausage stuffer and fill, taking care not to overfill but also not to leave air pockets, and twist it into links of your desired size.

Cook immediately with desired method or store tightly wrapped in the freezer.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/09/06/homemade-hot-italian-sausage-links/

 

 

Print
Foodie With Family's Favourite Grilled Italian Sausage with Peppers and Onions

There is nothing quite like a grilled Italian sausage with a hearty dose of yellow mustard and garlicky peppers and onions to make you feel like all is well in the world. I heartily recommend you try our favourite version of this classic!

Ingredients

  • 6 raw hot Italian sausage links
  • 1 can (12 ounces) drinkable quality beer (lager or ale is a good choice here)
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 large onion, sliced into half and then into thin strips
  • 2 large bell peppers, green, red, orange or yellow or a blend, sliced into thin strips
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 6 hearty sausage rolls or Homemade Hot Dog Rolls
  • Lots of yellow mustard!

Instructions

Preheat half of your grill to high (or build a bed of moderately hot coals on one half of the grill.

Place the sausage links in a single layer in a heavy-bottomed skillet and pour the beer over the top. Put the lid on the pan and bring up to a boil, covered tightly, over medium high heat. As soon as it boils, remove the lid, drop the heat to low and simmer for 1 minute only.

Transfer the sausages to the hottest part of the grill. Cook them, turning often, until they start to become golden brown.

Immediately move them to the coolest part of the grill and let them cook , turning frequently, until they are very hot all the way through (150°F on an instant read thermometer).

Move the sausages to a platter and tent loosely with foil while working on the peppers and onions.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium high heat. Add the sliced peppers, onions, and garlic, sprinkle with salt, and stir to coat. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the peppers and onions are tender with just a little bite in the center. Transfer to a bowl.

Serve each sausage on a bun, smeared with yellow mustard and piled with sauteed peppers and onions!

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/09/06/homemade-hot-italian-sausage-links/

Filed Under: Charcuterie, Instructional, kid food, Meat, Rebecca, Recipes
«Older Posts
Newer Posts»