So we finally had a beautiful weekend, and just in time. This weekend was the first farm event, of the season, for our new CSA. After not joining a CSA for the last few years we decided to get involved again and chose Good Earth Farm, in Oakfield, WI as our new CSA. The event, this past weekend, gave us a chance to meet Nicole, one of the owners, along with a couple of people working for a share. While not much is happening in the fields yet, except for garlic, the greenhouse was in full swing, and by the looks of things, there were plenty of plants just waiting for the first nice week to be planted outside. I won’t dwell too much on our CSA today as I’m sure there will be plenty of posts about Good Earth Farm once the produce starts rolling in.

This weekend we were also able to finally get the deck together, getting the canvas on the “gazebo” and the table and chairs out. I even had a chance to take full advantage of the set up and spent an hour relaxing and reading on the deck. Oh yeah, I also got the first mowing of the season in. This year I was able to get it done before the grass grew knee high!

The nice weather also brought out the neighbors and it was great to reaquaint ourselves with them after the long, cold winter during which we don’t see much of each other. Overall, a great weekend!

I was in a “Latin” mood today so I thought I’d surprise my wife with homemade empanadas. Empanadas come in all shapes and sizes, and with many different fillings and crusts. Some are baked while others are fried. I have a whole arsenal of different empanada doughs, but I also often just use my tried and true pie dough recipe. It makes a great, light and flaky empanada pastry, especially if you are baking them. I will even admit to occasionally using store bought pie dough if I am pressed for time, although I try not to do that too often.

I still have plenty of chorizo, sitting in my freezer, from my foray into sausage making so I figured I would base my filling on that. Add a few potatoes and a little onion and you have the makings of a great filling. The chorizo is spicy enough and complex enough that you don’t need much else.

Chorizo Empandas
makes 16 empanadas enough to serve 4-5 people

2 batches pie dough for a double crust (your favorite recipe)
1 pound Mexican chorizo
1 1/2 pounds waxy potatoes (something like a red bliss or Yukon Gold)
1 medium onion

Divide the pie dough evenly into 16 pieces, roll into balls and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Peel the potatoes and cut into a 1/4-1/2″ dice. Place in cold, salted water, bring to a boil and cook for 8-10 minutes, just until al dente. Rinse under cold water. Remove casings from the chorizo and cook in a skillet over high heat along with the diced up onion. When cooked through add the potatoes and cook for 10 minutes longer. Taste for seasoning and add salt, if necessary. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. As chorizo mixture is cooling remove pie dough from fridge and allow to soften slightly. Working with 1 dough ball at a time, roll out dough into a 5″ circle. Brush edge with water and place 2 Tbs. of the filling in the center. Fold the edges together and crimp, with a fork to seal. Place on a greased sheet tray. Repeat with remaining dough. You will have leftover filling, but it makes a great mix in for scrambled eggs the next morning for a mexican inspired breakfast. Bake in a preheated oven, at 350°F for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is lightly golden brown. While empanadas are baking make the Avocado Cream.

Avocado Cream
makes approximately 2 1/2 cups

1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 jalapeno, with seeds, roughly chopped
1/4 cup half and half
2 avocados
salt

Place sour cream, lemon juice, half and half, and jalapeno in a blender and blend until smooth. Peel, pit, and dice the avocado and add to the blender. Blend until smooth, adding more half and half only if necessary to keep the contents blending. It should be thick like thick mayonnaise. Season with salt. To store, wrap tightly with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic down, onto the surface of the avocado cream.

Serve the empanadas with a few dollops of the avocado cream and garnish with pico de gallo or diced tomato and cilantro.

When I was first introduced to Mexican Chorizo I was very confused. What I knew as “Chorizo” came from Spain and it was a dried sausage, so the first time I ordered Chorizo and Eggs I was perlexed by what I received. My consternation didn’t last long, however, after taking my first bite. I immediately fell in love with this new (well at least new to me) form of sausage. And I’ve been in love ever since.

Chorizo is a great way to add a little spice and Southwest flair to just about any meat dish that calls for ground meat. I often like to add it to chili, use it to fill tacos and burritos, add some into fried potatoes, or a pot of refried beans, and, of course, in the ever popular Chorizo and Eggs, for breakfast. But one of my favorite things to do with chorizo is to make my Southwestern Chorizo Burgers. It’s a combination of chorizo and ground beef and it makes one of the best nontraditional burgers around. You can find the recipe on my blog here.

Making Mexican Chorizo is a pretty simple process, especially so since I find no need to stuff it into casings. The vast majority of uses requires it to be crumbled and browned so there is no need to bother with the hassle of stuffing. To be honest, as much as I love chorizo, it is a pretty spicy product and I’m not sure that I’d enjoy eating it as a link.

Mexican Chorizo

4 pounds pork butt
2 Tbs. paprika
1 1/2 Tbs. ancho powder*
1 Tbs. chipotle powder**
1/4 tsp. ground clove
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1 tsp. ground black pepper
5 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/3 cup cider vinegar

Cut the pork butt into 1 inch pieces, making sure to remove any glands you might come across (for a description is my post on making Italian Sausage). In a nonoreactive bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix into the pork.

Add the vinegar and mix well. Cover and place in the refrigerator for, at least 2 hours, or overnight. Before grinding place all grinder parts in the freezer to chill. Grind once using the coarsest die.

Mix the sausage to help distribute the seasonings even more then grind, again, through one of the smaller dies. Make a small patty and cook it up. Taste and check for seasoning. Adjust seasoning to your taste. This recipe makes a full flavored sausage with just a bit of heat. You can up the ancho and chipotle, or even add a bit of cayenne if you want more. I usually then package it into 1/2-1 pound packages that I freeze until needed. While this sausage is ready to go after grinding, I find giving it another day, for the flavors to meld, improves it even more.

*If you can’t find Ancho powder, take a couple of ancho chiles (the dried form of the poblano pepper) and roast them in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes. Allow them to cool completely, remove the stem and seeds (you can leave the seeds in if you want it hotter), crumble it up and grind in a spice grinder.

**If you don’t have Chipotle powder puree 1-2 chipotles en adobo as a substitute. You can find these in most Hispanic sections at the grocery store nowadays.

My last post was on making Italian sausage, so I figured I should follow it up with, at least, one post offering up a suggestion for using it. I have to admit, my favorite way of eating Italian sausages is to grill them until about half way done, finish them in a thick tomato sauce bursting with onions and peppers and then stuff them into a chewy sub roll and eat the whole thing accompanied by a root beer. But that is something that most people do anyway so I wanted to come up with something a little different. I remembered coming across a recipe for Portuguese Sausage and Kale Soup, not long ago and with “Italian” food on my mind thought a mash up between Portuguese Sausage and Kale Soup and Italian Wedding Soup would work perfectly. Since one of the main ingredients in Italian Wedding Soup is greens (usually spinach or escarole) I figured changing it over to kale wouldn’t be a big deal. And since Italian Wedding Soup also contains meatballs, usually beef or a mix of beef and pork, I figured I could make the meatballs out of sausage. Sure Portuguese Sausage and Kale Soup is usually made with Linguica or Chorizo, but I figured I could take a little artistic license.

Kale is an often underutilized green in this country. I’m as guilty as everyone else, but making this soup reminded me of how good kale can be, and the best part is that it is quite a bit cheaper than fresh spinach or many other fresh greens.

For most dishes that I make, that include meat, I usually brown the meat. It provides color and added flavor to the dish, but this time I decided to forgo that set. First off, in most Italian Wedding Soups that I have seen, the meatballs have been pale. Secondly, I like the light simplicity of this soup as is, and think that browning the meatballs would just muddle up the flavors a bit. Of course, if you prefer to brown the meatballs then go ahead. The soup will still turn out great, though different.

Other than making up the meatballs, this soup is pretty simple to make and pays off with a lot of flavor. While great eaten the day it is made, like most soups this one is even better the next day or the next. Luckily it makes enough that you are guarenteed leftovers, unless you are feeding an army.

Italian Meatball & Kale Soup

Meatball
1 pound Italian sausage (either hot or sweet)
1 large egg
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Soup
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs. olive oil
12 cups chicken stock
1 pound kale, stems & thick center vein removed and chopped
2 pounds, waxy potatoes peeled and diced 1/4-1/2″ (I used Yukon Golds)
salt
pepper
Parmesan cheese, grated

For the meatballs: combine all the ingredients and mix well. Form into small meatballs, about the size of marbles, and set aside. You should end up with about 60 meatballs.

For the soup: in a large stock pot heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, without browning until onions become translucent. Add the stock and bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Add the kale and cook for 10 minutes then add the diced potatoes.

Cook 5 minutes longer then gently add in the raw meatballs. Cover and cook for 20 minutes more, or until the meatballs are cooked all the way through. Season with salt and pepper. Ladel into bowls and top with a sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese.

This past September my wife and I bought 1/2 a hog and I had promised to write about some of the things I did with the meat. Well, as usual for me, I did a few things, like make bacon, which you can read about here, but then didn’t write much about it after that. It’s not that we haven’t used any of the pork we got, it’s more the fact that I was too lazy to write about it, or didn’t think that the simple roasts we did were worth writing about. This past week I was determined to change that so Sunday was “Sausage Making Day” at the Martin household. With just under 10 pounds of pork trim, I figured that I would make 2 of my favorite fresh sausages, Spicy Italian and Mexican Chorizo. Someday I would like to do some dry cured sausage and salami, but in our current house that probably won’t happen unless I can convince my wife of the need for another refrigerator; one that holds beer in the summer and curing sausages in fall. I’m not going to hold my breath though.

I’ll give you the recipe for the Chorizo in an upcoming post, so that leaves the Italian sausage for today. Sausage making is not difficult, although people seem to think that it is. The only hard part is stuffing the casings, but that is always optional. You can easily make sausage and leave as bulk pack, ready to be turned into sausage patties, meat balls, pizza topping, or crumbled up and used loose. At its most basic, sausage is nothing more than seasoned meat, most often pork although just about any meat can be turned into sausage, that has been run through a meat grinder, or finely chopped. That’s it…nothing more.

Of course, we can refine that a bit to get a better end product. Sausage relies heavily on its fat content. This not only brings moisture and and flavor to the sausage, but also helps to bind the sausage and adds to its mouth feel. Most sausages work on a ratio of 2 parts meat to 1 part fat. This is a rough estimation and your sausage won’t suffer if this ratio is not dead on, as long as it is in the ball park. Now you could get really anal about this and weigh out your lean meat and fat, making sure you have the exact right proportions or you can do it the easy way and just buy an untrimmed pork butt. This cut of meat naturally comes with just about the right proportions.

At one time sausage making was a way to preserve meat for a longer period of time, before the advent of refrigeration. Hogs were butchered in the fall not only because they were at their fattest then, but because the cool weather helped keep the meat longer. Salting and curing meats also helped stave off decay, allowing for longer storage. Today’s fresh sausages don’t really require so much salt as modern refrigeration takes over the role of preservation, but as with bacon, we have come to enjoy the saltiness of a good sausage so salt still plays a major role in flavoring. Beyond salt, flavoring options are virtually endless. Almost all herbs and spices are used in sausage making somewhere in the world, although garlic seems to play a prominent role in the vast majority of them.

One final word about sausage making. If you plan on stuffing sausages, please buy real casings. Some people might cringe at the thought of working with natural casings, but they really do provide the best texture and mouth feel. They are a little less forgiving than artifical casings but, in the end they aren’t that hard to work with.

Spicy Italian Sausage
makes approximately 16 4oz links

4 pounds Pork butt (or pork trim if you are doing your own butchering or cutting) about 70% lean and 30% fat
4 cloves garlic
4 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbs. black pepper, coarse ground
2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. sugar
2 Tbs. fennel seed
1 cup red wine

Lightly crack the fennel seeds, using either a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. Don’t grind it into a powder, but just slightly crack the fennel. Combine the fennel with the sugar, red pepper flakes, black pepper and salt. Set aside. Cut the pork into 1 inch pieces, removing any heavy connective tissue or silverskin. Also as you are cutting through the large veins of fat look for, and remove, any glands. You can tell its a gland because it will be a dark tan color surrounded by the white of the fat. It also will have a slightly gelatinous look and texture to it. Remove any that you find as they can lend an off flavor to your sausage. Finely mince the garlic then mash it into a coarse paste with the side of your knife blade. Place pork in a large, nonreactive bowl then add the spices and the red wine. Mix well to evenly distribute the seasonings.

Cover with plastic wrap and all to marinate for, at least 2 hours, or overnight. About 1 hour before you are ready to grind your sausage, place all your grinding attachments into the freezer to chill. At this time you will also want to soak about 12-15 feet of natural casings. They usually come salt cured so we need to remove the salt and rehydrate them. Rinse the casings in fresh cold water for about 5 minutes then allow to sit, in fresh cold water, for about 30 minutes. Finally, just before using, open up one end of the casings, place over the faucet and run cold water through them. They are now ready to use. Set up your grinder using the coarse die. Oftentimes sausage is ground twice, once through a coarse die and then again through a smaller die. For this sausage which I like a little more rustic I only grind it once through the coarse die. Working with a handful of pork at a time, push the meat through the grinder, letting it fall into a bowl below.

Once the sausage has been ground gently mix it by hand to ensure that everything is evenly distributed. The sausage is now done and can be used as is, or you can continue on to stuffing.

Set up your stuffer, per the manufacturer’s directions. While I would love to have a stand alone stuffer, that’s not going to happen anytime soon so I use my Kitchenaid and the sausage stuffer attachments. Lightly oil the stuffer tube then slip the casing over the tube, feeding it on until only about 2 inches are hanging off. Many recipes will then tell you to tie a knot in the end, but I find I get a large air bubble so I leave it open for now. With one hand, feed the sausage into the hopper. With the other hand gently guide the sausage as it is being extruded into the casing.

This process can be a little tricky so it may help to have a second person; one to feed the hopper and the other to guide the casing. Eventually, it becomes easier and I usually do it by myself. As the sausage is extruded and starts fill the casings, you want to guide the casing off of the stuffer. The sausage should fill out the casing, but not tightly. If you stuff the sausage too tightly you won’t have room to twist the links and the casings will explode. You also want to avoid any large air bubbles. Continue stuffing the casings until you have used up all of the sausage. Once that it done, tie a knot in one end of the casing, tight against the meat. Measure out about 5 inches of sausage then gently pinch and twist, making 2 rotations towards you. Measure another 4-5 inches and repeat, this time twisting away from you. Continue doing this, alternating between twisting towards and away from you. Once you get to the end, tie another knot again tight against the meat. Don’t worry, if you rupture the casing as you are making your links. Just remove some meat, cut the casing and tie it off at the point, starting again where you left off. I have made a good amount of sausage and still, rupture a casing now and then.

Put the sausage into the fridge, uncovered for about 2-3 hours to dry out the casings slightly, then package and either freeze for future use or use up in the next 4-5 days.

This country is facing a huge problem. Yes, I know, we are facing a lot of problems; the financial crisis, the housing crisis, looming oil prices and its impact on the environment, Scott Walker and the union busters. The list goes on, but I’m not talking about these front page issues that take up most of our time. I’m talking about something more insidious. An issue that has seemed to have slipped past the media’s attention and yet no one noteworthy has taken up its cause. Yes, I’m talking about the fact that it is getting harder and harder to find a good plate of Biscuits and Gravy anywhere in this country, even in the Deep South. One day, America is going to wake up, craving a warm comforting bowl of lumpy liquid love, and it won’t be there. And the sad thing is we have no one to blame but ourselves. Even when you find it on menus, what you get get, most often, is a pile of pasty,white “gravy” that is graced with the occasional nugget of sausage, or, my personal favorite, the pasty, white “gravy” with slices of breakfast links tossed into it at the last minute.

You’ll notice that I put the word gravy in quotations. That’s because I don’t consider white sauce, fresh out of the can, or made from mix, to be the real thing. It’s sad, because sausage gravy, besides being a thing of beauty, is also quite simple to make, and doesn’t take much longer than most breakfast dishes.

So, I am arming my readers against that day when Biscuits and Gravy finally disappears from restaurant menus altogether. For it is you that will carry on the tradition so that your children can experience the comforting, artery clogging goodness that is sausage gravy.

Sausage Gravy
serves 4

1 pound breakfast sausage, bulk not links
1/2 cup all purpose flour
4 cups whole milk
1 Tbsp. fresh sage, minced
2 Tbsp. freshly brewed coffee
salt
pepper

In a large skillet brown the sausage.

Once browned sprinkle in the flour. This is one of the biggest mistakes that people make when making sausage gravy. They pour out the sausage grease, but then make a roux on the side consisting of butter and flour. It seems to me you are throwing a lot of the good sausage flavor away, only to introduce more fat, in the form of butter, when you add the roux. So don’t drain the grease off of your sausage, just add the flour and make your roux right in the pan with the sausage.

Stir the flour in until it has absorbed all the grease and cook for 2 minutes. Slowly add the cold milk stirring constantly. Add the sage and bring to a boil to allow the flour to thicken. Stir constantly, scraping the bottom to avoid scoring the milk. Season with salt and pepper. How much will depend on both your taste the the sausage you are using. Finally, add the 2 Tbsp. of coffee. Yes, I know it sounds strange, but you won’t taste it in the final product and the acidity helps to both brighten and deepen the flavor. Serve over split biscuits, enjoy, and know that you are doing your part to keep a bit of American culinary history alive!!!

It occurs to me that I write often about the foods and drinks of New Orleans. I’m not sure why the city and its food has left such an indelible on me. I only spent about 6 months living there, while doing a culinary internship, but there is something about the food of that city that has made a lasting impression. The city is proud of its culinary heritage, a meld of Old World and New. The cuisine is a true American invention, a blend of cuisines from France, Spain, Africa, and the Caribbean along with the bounty of New World food stuffs. I think this is what has captured…and kept my interest for so long. I know of no other cuisine that draws from so many diverse cultures, blends those influences together, and creates something that is so wholly new, yet still reminiscent of each cuisine it has drawn from.

One of my favorite dishes, from New Orleans and Cajun folk who settled in the area, is Gumbo. A combination of European and African technique, along with the foods of Africa and the New World, this soup is the apex of that melding of so many cuisines and cultures, in my opinion. In fact, the word gumbo, itself comes from Africa and is an African word for okra, a traditional thickener used in the soup.

Gumbos come in a wide variety of styles, some containing only seafood for the protein, some containing chicken and andouille (sausage), while others contain all three, and some, eaten during lent are completely meatless. Some contain tomatoes while others do not. The creole versions tend to use a lightly browned roux, while Cajun versions use a very dark roux that adds an incredible depth of flavor to the dish. Traditionally okra or file powder (ground sassafras leaves) were used as the main thickener, though traditionally cooks always used one or the other, never both. Seafood gumbos were usually thickened with okra while chicken and sausage gumbos were thickened with file. This had more to do with timing than any great culinary revelation. Okra was available during the summer when one could go crabbing and shrimping. In winter, when okra was not available file was used, a time when chicken and sausages were easier to come by then seafood.

The version I offer up below, is a Cajun style gumbo using shrimp, chicken and andouille sausage. It’s a rich,and hearty soup but not overly thick so while it will warm you up in winter it is not too heavy to enjoy in summer. In other words it makes a great meal year round. Ladle it into a bowl as is, or spoon it over rice for a more “stick to your ribs” meal.

Gumbo
serves 4-6

1 pound shrimp (2 pounds if you can get head on shrimp)
8 cups water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups flour
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
1 pound chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, diced
1 pound andouille sausage (if you can’t find andouille a spicy smoked sausage such as kielbasa will do)
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. granulated garlic
hot sauce
salt
1/2 pound okra, sliced

Peel the shrimp, removing the tails also. Place the shells, tail, and heads (if you got head on shrimp) into a pot and cover with the water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the flour to make a roux. Stirring almost constantly cook the roux until it is dark brown.

Do not allow the roux to burn or the gumbo will taste bitter and burnt. Also, they don’t call dark roux “Cajun napalm” for no reason. This stuff is HOT and it sticks like crazy. Getting this stuff on you burns like crazy so be careful! Once you have achieved the color above add the vegetables and cook 5 minutes longer.

Strain the shrimp shells from the stock you just made and add the stock to the pot, discarding the shells. Add the chicken, sausage and seasonings, adding salt to taste. Bring gumbo to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Add the okra and cook 15 minutes longer. If the shrimp are large cut them into bite sized pieces, if they are small just add them as is along with the hot sauce to taste (gumbo should have a little kick to it, but it shouldn’t be overly spicy). Allow to cook a few minutes longer, just until the shrimp are cooked through, then serve

It’s just a few days away from the Super Bowl and with the Saints headed to the big game my thoughts have once again turned towards my time in New Orleans and the foods of that town and region. I spent my first culinary internship at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, in the French Quarter. There I experienced a wide range of the foods New Orleans has to offer. At Begue’s, the hotel’s fine dining restaurant I was taught many of the more refined creole dishes from Oysters Bienville and Shrimp Etouffe to modern twists on things such as Shrimp and Grits, Tomato Tasso Bisque, and Souffles. Desire oyster bar, with frontage on Bourbon St., gave me a crash course in all things cajun, from oysters on the half shell to corn meal crusted fried oysters, to jambalaya, gumbo and po boys. It was here, in New Orleans, that my life long love of all foods Southern (from the BBQ and tamales of Texas to Red Eye Gravy to Frogmore Stew of the Low Country) got its start. While Southwestern cuisine may play a more important role in my style of cooking, it is the food of New Orleans though that captivates my heart.

There are so many great foods that come out of the cajun and creole tradition, but my two favorite are gumbo and jambalaya. Of course there are also Muffulettas, one of The Best sandwiches in the world. A true New Orleans tradition, but not cajun or creole, instead coming from the Italian part of New Orleans history.

While all of these deserve a blog post, and believe me, I will get to each one in due time, it is Jambalaya that I had a craving for this week. Jambalaya is New Orleans answer to Spanish Paella. It’s a wonderful rice dish studded with sausage, seafood, vegetables and, oftentimes, chicken. Unlike paella, it doesn’t rely on saffron for it’s flavor, instead relying on the Trinity of cajun and creole cuisine (onions, celery and peppers). A good jambalaya also has a nice amount of heat provided by cayenne, hot sauce or both, though the heat is usually more on the mild side. Jambalaya can either be cooked on the stove top or in the oven like a rice pilaf. I’ve seen many recipes for both, though people will fiercely defend (and oppose) one or the other.

Like so many of the recipes I offer, as is the case with many family style, peasant type foods, there are a million recipes out there, each family having their own, and each family claiming that theirs is the proper way to make the dish. The recipe I offer below is a great all round jambalya recipe. It contains sausage, chicken and shrimp and has a fair amount of heat to it. You can easily tone the heat down by omitting the cayenne and decreasing the amount of hot sauce used, but leave it with a little kick to it or the dish just seems to lack that something.

Jambalaya

2 medium onions, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
12oz. Andouille sausage, large dice
1 pound chicken breast, large dice
1 28oz can diced tomato, with juice
2 1/2 cups rice, long grain
3 cups water
2 Tbsp. hot sauce (New Orleans style such as Tabasco, Crystal, Louisiana, etc.)
1 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves

In large pot over medium heat, heat 2 Tbsp. of oil. Add the vegetables and saute until starting to wilt. Add the sausage and garlic, cooking until the vegetables are tender, but not allow them to brown.

Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes. Add all remaining ingredients.

Season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until the rice is done and all the liquid has been absorbed. Fluff the rice and serve.

It’s been cold up here in Wisconsin the last week or so. I thought I was ready for winter, but this cold snap has taken me by surprise and I’ve found myself taking more time than usual to acclimate to the weather. I hate to think that it is because I am getting older-I turn 40 in just under a month! Whatever the reason, I find myself lying in bed, in the morning, not wanting to get up. Not because I don’t want to go to work, I don’t mind that, but because I am not looking forward to getting into my icy cold car and waiting for it to warm up as I drive to work. I’ve tried to convince the wife to go out and warm up my car for me, but she is being awfully selfish, in my opinion, and not complying with my requests.

When the weather gets like this I search hearty, soul-warming dishes to dine on. There’s just something warming about a big pot of stew, soup or ragu sitting on the stove top, simmering away. I love the way the whole house fills with the aromas of a slow cooked dish, and the way all the windows, in the kitchen, steam up as the heavy, moisture laden air meets the coolness of the glass panes. The weather can rage outside, but while I’m cooking I feel safe and warm.

The other day, I picked up some Italian sausage thinking that I would sear them off and simmer in red sauce to put over pasta. Today, as I looked at them, the whole concept seemed bland, uninspired, and not what I was craving. I was craving something a little more homey and comforting and pasta just didn’t seem to fit the bill tonight, but I had this Italian sausage so my mind kept reeling around that theme, when it dawned on me that I hadn’t made polenta in quite some time.

For those of you not familiar with it, polenta is a cornmeal mush served all over Northern Italy. Don’t worry, it tastes a whole lot better than it sounds. I like it because it is heartier and more earthy than pasta, just the perfect thing for a cold winter’s night. It is a wonderfully versatile product that when served soft can be topped in about as many ways as you can top pasta. It can also be chilled, cut into shapes and baked, grilled or fried and then topped with a variety of sauces and garnishes.

If you come across polenta in American supermarkets (at least in areas without a large American-Italian neighborhood) chances are it will be either the precooked stuff that comes in tubes or the Instant variety. Stay way from both of these products. I have yet to taste either type that I can say anything good about. Instead look for cornmeal, in the baking section. If you can, purchase a coarse ground cornmeal or better yet a stone ground cornmeal, but if all they have is the standard fine ground stuff, still use that instead of the instant polenta. Your taste buds will thank you.

Polenta is a time consuming process, taking usually about 45 minutes to cook, sometimes longer. If you all you have is the fine ground cornmeal it will probably be done in about 30 minutes. Don’t rush the process. If you do, you’ll end up with a gritty texture instead of a smooth and creamy texture.

We’ll start with the ragu recipe as it simmers quite a while, and the polenta can then be made while the ragu is cooking. The key to this ragu is a long slow cooking process. That will develop it’s deep, rich flavor.

Sausage Ragu

2 Tbsp. Olive oil
2 each Carrots, peeled, small dice
1 rib Celery, small dice
2 medium Onion, small dice
3 cloves Garlic, minced
1 pound Italian sausage, bulk, or with casings removed (hot or mild-your choice)
1 can (6oz) Tomato paste
1 1/2 cups Red wine
1 cup Water
1/2 cup Half and Half

Heat pot over medium high heat. Add the oil and allow to heat up. Add the carrots, celery and onion, lower heat to medium and cook, slowly until a golden brown (about 20 minutes). Add the garlic and cook 3 minutes longer. Add the sausage and break up, but still leave in bite sized chunks. You don’t want this looking like ground beef. Cook until well browned then add the tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly so that the tomato paste doesn’t burn. Add the wine and water. Bring to a hard simmer, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, adding more water if necessary to keep it like a thick sauce. In the last 1/2 hour of cooking add the half and half. When done check seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper. Keep warm

Creamy Sage Polenta

4 cups Water
1 1/3 cups Corn meal, medium or coarse grind if possible
2 Tbsp. Sage, fresh, chopped
1/2 cup Mascarpone
Salt
Pepper

In a sauce pot, bring water, seasoned with salt and pepper, to a boil. Add cornmeal in a slow, steady stream, whisking the whole while so that the cornmeal doesn’t clump together. Once the polenta has thickened switch to a wooden spoon for stirring. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for 40-45 minutes or until done. You don’t need to stir constantly, but you do need to stir it every few minutes to that it doesn’t burn on the bottom. Polenta is done when it starts to pull away from the sides of the pot when you stir it. With about 5 minutes left, add the sage. When done, stir in the mascarpone and remove from heat.

To serve, place a mound of polenta in the middle of a plate and top with Sausage Ragu. Serves 4

About 3 weeks ago I made my own sauerkraut for the first time. You can find the post about it here. For the last week, I have been checking and tasting it daily to see if it was ready. Today I decided it had fermented enough so I packed it up into smaller containers and refrigerated it. In hindsight, the next time I make sauerkraut I will let it go just a little further and get a touch more sour as I really like sour things, though my wife thought it had just the right amount of sourness. Either way I am very happy with the results. My homemade stuff is so much better than the store bought stuff, and it is so easy to make. I don’t know why it took me so long to attempt to make sauerkraut, but after this experiment I think it will become, at the very least, a yearly thing. Maybe next year I will make a larger batch and attempt to can some when it is done.

Of course, once the sauerkraut was ready I couldn’t wait to cook with it so I threw together one of my favorite dishes, Choucroute. Technically what I prepare is not truly choucroute as I use beer in my dish as opposed to white wine (usually Riesling) and I skip many of the traditional spices such as juniper berries, mace, nutmeg, etc. in favor of caraway seed, but choucroute sounds so much better than Sausages Braised with Sauerkraut. This dish can be made up pretty quickly, but I prefer to cook it slow and low for 1-2 hours as I find this long, slow cooking yields a depth of flavor that quick cooking just can’t achieve. (continue reading…)