Tag Archive for 'sausage'

sausage & maize tacos

sausage & maize tacos

Sometimes the best meals are the ones you have to invent. I haven’t been to the grocery store since well before my trip to Austin and the fridge and pantry were looking a little sparse. I always keep some chicken sausages in the fridge for emergencies like this and I knew I had some corn tortillas, cilantro and frozen maize in the fridge. Once I know I’ve got tortillas and cilantro, I know tacos are on the menu.

Last night, the tacos were stuffed with habanero and green chile chicken sausage that I sauteed with frozen maize kernels. Maize (or Choclo) are pretty much giant, white corn kernels. They’re usually found in Chilean or Peruvian cooking, and are often served with Ceviche. Maize is also used to make hominy by soaking or cooking in lime-water. These kernels are not as sweet as regular corn, and have a starchier texture. I buy mine frozen off the cob (Goya Choclo Desgranado) in the frozen section of my grocery store. If you can’t find them at a Hispanic market, I’d use diced potatoes as a substitute to achieve a similar texture and flavor.

A dollop of plain Greek yogurt, a squeeze of hot sauce and dinner was done. I really loved the play of textures between the sausage and maize kernels and although the meal was unplanned, I can’t wait to make it again.

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valentine’s sausage & chard with farro risotto

sausage kale tomatoes parmesan farro risotto

I’ve never done the Valentine’s Day thing. The big fancy dinner, the flowers, the chocolate. Frankly, I’m just not into it. While I do love going out to dinner and exploring new places, I don’t particularly like crowded and cramped restaurants, prix fixe or valet parking. I do like cooking a new meal, using fine china and dining at our formal table using cloth napkins.

I’ve cooked for Tom almost every Valentine’s day we’ve been together. In fact, the only year I didn’t cook for him, I tend to forget how we celebrated. Our first February 14th, I made him seared tuna steak with a cold noodle salad. It was his first tuna steak and we ate on the floor of my East Village studio because it was the only place to sit comfortably in those 275 square feet.

The second year is the one I really tend to forget. It’s the year he had a Spanish class until late and we went to Otto for pizza on my lunch hour. A cab splashed me with some very dirty melted snow as Tom was walking me back to work.

Last year, I made a pizza with sausage, artichokes and ricotta. Speaking of love, I love pizza.

This year, I sauteed sausage, heirloom tomatoes and swiss chard and spooned it over some Parmesan farro risotto. I served it in my pretty fine china and we had a quiet meal without the tv.

chocolate ice crea,

I had also made some of David Lebovitz’s Easiest chocolate ice cream the night before, which ended up being supremely smooth and delicious. Of course, I made some modifications because I just couldn’t help myself. I subbed vodka for the dark rum because that’s what was in the cabinet, and I sprinkled it with fleur de sel which made the chocolate even more chocolatey and gave it a subtle crunch every few bites. The entire dessert-making process took less than 10 minutes, but tasted like it took 100. Too bad it all kind of melted before I took the photo which makes it look wholly unappetizing. Sigh. Aha! Replaced it with something MUCH better than the melty poo.

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sausage and cheesy polenta rounds

polenta and sausage

I’m still in love with my Crisper. I especially love crisping polenta with cheese on it to make “fries” or as an alternative to starchy sides. If I want to crisp my polenta (instead of making the creamy, mashed-potato kind), I use the store-bought version that comes in a tube, which I’ll either slice into rounds like I did in this recipe or cut into smaller fry-like sticks. Both are equally delicious. The fries go best with fried eggs, sandwiches or a big bowl of homemade chili. The rounds are tastiest when topped with yummy goodness. In this case, caramelized onions and sausage with heirloom tomatoes and arugula. The whole thing came together in about 30 minutes. It was cheesy and spicy, sweet and salty and had a great textural contrast.

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Sausage Bread Pudding

Sausage bread pudding

I spied a savory bread pudding recipe awhile back, and have been dying to make it ever since. It just seemed like too much for two, so I’ve been waiting until I had company over. Also, I’d never made it before and you never try a recipe out when company is over for dinner. What a quandary. Last night I had a small dinner party for my family to celebrate Christmas since Tom and I will be in Michigan on the actual day. Family is the exception to the never make a new recipe rule. My family loved it, Tom took it to work for lunch, and I’m sorry there’s no more left. I love this recipe. The bread is soft and creamy, the veggies add a nice medium texture, and the firmness of the sausage keeps the dish from being too mushy or soggy. Also, who can resist a bunch of browned and melted cheese? No one.

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crispy gnocchi

crispy gnocchi

While browsing through the ever-delicious 101 Cookbooks, I found a recipe for Golden, Crispy Gnocchi. As soon as I saw it, I knew what we’d be having for dinner as soon as possible. As soon as possible actually turned out to be Saturday evening, when the weather was lovely and warm and not yet as windy and rainy as it was on Sunday.

Because of my seeming inability to follow recipes, I used the idea of crispy gnocchi as my starting point, but disregarded the rest of the recipe. Instead of shelled beans, I added sauteed chicken sausage, grape tomatoes, shitake mushrooms, artichoke hearts and dandelion greens. For the gnocchi, I just heated a pan with some olive oil and cooked the gnocchi on each side until crispy and browned. To plate, I served the sauteed chicken and veggies first and topped them with the gnocchi so that they would remain crispy. All this was topped with some freshly grated parmesan cheese for the most delicious meal I’ve had in a long time. This is officially my new favoritest dish, and I can’t wait to try out different meats and veggies with the crispy gnocchi.

crispy gnocchi

We ate our dinner on the balcony with some Snowshoe Pale Ale, finishing everything off with some homemade Strawberry/orange sorbet.

sorbet

Just for fun, here’s a picture of what the kitchen looked like after I had extracted the hearts of 2 artichokes…

artichoke carnage

Recipe after jump…

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breakfast for dinner

frittata

There’s nothing better than having breakfast for dinner. Or, dinner for breakfast. Honestly, what’s better than a cold slice of pizza at 7AM? Do we feel a bit rebellious eating waffles with syrup when we should be eating steamed fish and veggies? I don’t know, but yesterday when the meal I started making quickly went into the garbage (due to some funky sausages), breakfast was the only thing my growling tummy had the patience wait for. (Yes, I am aware that I should not be ending my sentence with a preposition, but there it is.)

Back to breakfast. I had been trying to make potato pancakes, but the attachment on the food processor wasn’t being very cooperative. Mondays are the worst. Seeing as I had already massacred the potatoes, I decided to make my version of patatas bravas, or Spanish-style home fries.

I finished chopping up the potatoes and an onion and threw them into a hot pan with some olive oil. After they had begun to brown, or stick, as the case may be, I added some tomato paste, water, salt, pepper and some read chili flakes. I covered the pot and let them simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the taters were tender.

frittata

In the meantime, I whipped up my frittata. In keeping with my Iberian theme, I used some Linguica sausage, along with some non-Iberian torn basil leaves and ricotta.

recipe after the jump.

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