Spicy Lamb Sausage and Egg Skillet

So did ya’ll run into the kitchen to make spicy lamb sausage? No? Well maybe if I show you what you can do with it, you’ll feel more inspired to try it??



What is it you ask? Why, it's a skillet with lamb sausage, sauteed red peppers and onions in a wonderfully spiced tomato sauce topped with eggs that are poached in the sauce. In a word, it's delicious. It's also fast to prepare; you could do it in about 30 minutes. And it's the perfect communal meal. Just put the skillet on the table along with a plate of naan-like flatbread and let everyone take a share.

I won’t be disappointed if you don’t make your own merguez and I know it’s hard to find. Here’s a tip, you can substitute fresh chorizo (not the funky Mexican variety in the plastic casing and not the fully cured Spanish variety used in paella) and you’ll still have a tasty dinner on the table.


Spicy Lamb Sausage and Egg Skillet
Feeds 4

• ½ pound merguez
  
• 1 tbs ghee* (see note)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 3-inch sticks cinnamon
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes (recommend fire-roasted)
• 4 eggs
• 1-2 tbs chopped Italian parsley for garnish (cilantro will work as well)
• Salt and pepper to taste

*Note: Ghee is just clarified butter. It gives a wonderful buttery taste to dishes and can be purchased at Indian specialty stores. Or you can do like I did and make it yourself. I haven't used it as body oil (nor do I plan to), but you are welcome to try if you want to smell like buttered popcorn. Click here to see how it’s done. Theoretically, ghee doesn't need to be stored in the fridge, but I prefer to for my own peace of mind. If you don’t want to use ghee for this recipe, just use your favorite oil.

Form the sausage into small balls. Using an ovenproof skillet, melt the ghee and when hot, fry the sausage until brown (doesn’t need to be cooked through at this point). Remove and set aside.

In the same skillet add the cumin seeds and cinnamon and fry for about 10 to 15 seconds then add the onion and bell pepper. Sautee until soft and starting to brown, about 10 minutes. Return the sausage and any accumulated juices back to the pan then add the diced tomatoes (I like to puree the tomatoes before adding so they aren’t so chunky). Cook until the sausage is cooked through and the sauce has thickened slightly, maybe 5 minutes. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. I also like to add a pinch of sugar to cut the acidity when I use canned tomatoes.

Once the seasonings are to your liking, carefully crack the eggs into the skillet. Place the skillet under the broiler just until the egg whites are set, about 3 to 5 minutes. The yolks should still be soft. Sprinkle the eggs with salt and pepper and garnish with the chopped parsley. Serve with flatbread or any other crusty bread of your choice.

Spicy Lamb Sausage

I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of making my own sausages. Fresh sausages, such as Jimmy Dean-style breakfast sausage, are pretty easy to make but I’ve been wanting to experiment with using cures and such. I’d love to make my own pancetta or Spanish chorizo, but the fear of botulism poisoning has kinda been holding me back. Well, I think I’m finally ready to face that fear.

Kind of.

Before turning my basement into a curing facility, I thought I’d try some easy fresh sausages first. Armed with my newly purchased book, Ruhlman and Polcyn’s Charcuterie (thanks Meatchip for the recommendation!), I decided to try my hand at making a lamb sausage. Ruhlman gives a recipe for merguez, which is a delicious fresh North African lamb sausage. Using their recipe as a starting point, I played around with it little and the result was a tasty fresh sausage that is somewhere between merguez and chorizo (mergizo??). The garlic and smoked paprika really came through, as did the sweetness from the roasted red peppers. Now I’m on the hunt for more sausage making ideas, so if you’ve got any, let me know!

I would have taken pictures of the cute little patties I fried up, but they were gobbled up before I had a chance. You'll just have to enjoy the snapshot of 4 pounds of sausage.

If you are at all interested in making your own sausages or cured meats, you must pick up Charcuterie. It really is so informative. And it’s so much more than sausages. They discuss smoking and brining and give recipes for accompaniments.

Spicy lamb Sausage

• 3.5 pounds boneless lamb shoulder or leg, diced
• 1 pound fat (no skin!) from salt pork*(see note), diced
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 whole heads garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 large roasted red pepper, diced
• 1 ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbs smoked paprika
• 1 tbs dried oregano
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• up to 1 tbs red pepper flakes (optional)
• ½ cup very cold water
• kosher salt, to taste

*Note: regular old pork fat will work just fine. Just make sure it has no skin on it. I only used salt pork because my local store didn’t have any pork fat available at the time and I didn’t feel like running around town looking for it. If you use regular pork fat, you’ll need to add more salt. I discuss this below.

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients (except the water and salt) and mix well. Put the bowl in the freezer for an hour to chill the meat and fat well. This will make grinding so much easier, trust me.

When the meat mixture is almost frozen, run it through a grinder using the coarse die. If you want a finer texture and more compact sausage, use the fine die. Make sure to catch the ground meat in a large bowl that is being chilled on ice. It took me about 20 minutes to get through the entire lot. In that amount of time the temperature of the meat could increase a lot, so you can see how imperative it is that the meat be nearly frozen to start. The blades also work better on colder meat and fat. Once the meat mixture is all ground up, add the water and mix well. It’s so easy if you have a KitchenAid set up because you can catch right into the metal bowl and then mix it up using the paddle attachment. No worries if you don’t have a KitchenAid. Just put some elbow grease into it. When everything is mixed well and uniform, put it all back into the fridge to get very cold if you are going to stuff it.

While it’s chilling, take a small bit and cook it up to taste if it has got enough salt. The salt pork already contributes quite a bit of salt, so you may not feel it needs more. I ended up putting in a little more (about 1 tbs for the entire lot). If you used regular pork fat, then you definitely need to add salt. According to Ruhlman’s guidelines, 4.5 pounds of meat could use about 1 to 1 ¼ oz kosher salt.

At this point, you can stuff the sausage into casings or just use it loose. Obviously (or maybe not), if you are going to stuff you should have some type of stuffing system. I really do not recommend trying to stuff by hand, especially if you are new to this. You’ll end up with loose sausages that resemble penises with tumors. (Yes, I said penises with tumors because that’s exactly how the lumpy sausages will look.) I do have the stuffing attachment for my KitchenAid, but I didn’t bother with casings and just froze usable portions. If you go the casing route, make sure you soak them for at least 30 minutes in cool water and them rinse them well before using to get rid of the brine. Once you’ve stuffed, you're ready to cook. Whatever you can’t eat in 2 to 3 days should be frozen. Wrap them well in plastic wrap then throw them into a Ziploc bag. It would be a shame if you take them out of the freezer and find they are all freezer burnt!

Wondering what this lamb sausage is good for? Try using it in any dish that calls for sausage. It's a great flavor base for soups. I'm simple; I like it fried and served with eggs and sauteed onions and bell peppers.

Mint and Lemongrass Green Tea Ice Cream

In case you forgot, it's St. Patrick's Day!

I was reminded when I was driving Sonny to school (not that I really forgot; I mean, who forgets a “holiday” centered around drinking beer?). Sonny also caught the radio DJ saying something about it. I heard his sad voice from the backseat, “You forgot to tell me to wear green and I will be the only one at school not wearing green.” He sounded so heartbroken, which in turn broke my heart. I assured him not everyone would be wearing green. Then I pointed out that his scarf has green and his pillow and blanket are green. But he didn’t look like he was really buying it, and it was too late to run back home. And sure enough, when we walked into class, everybody was wearing something green. Man, did I feel like a jerk. Luckily, one of the teachers saved the day by suggesting Sonny cut out a large green shamrock to pin to his shirt. But I still felt like a jerk. As soon as I got home, I started on a batch of mint and lemongrass green tea ice cream. Yes, I’m the type of mother who shows love through food. And yes, I know what current conventional parenting wisdom says about that, with childhood obesity and all, but I really don’t care.



The first time I tried making ice cream with my new ice cream maker, I used a recipe that made like 3 or 4 quarts. Not only was it a logistical nightmare because I only have one freezer bowl, but the texture was not smooth and creamy enough. Subsequent attempts with different recipes turned out alright flavorwise, but they left me searching for better texture. I think my search is finally over.

Now, about the ice cream: it’s basically a vanilla ice cream infused with tea. The vanilla ice cream comes from Maida Heatter’s Cakes. There are two things I like about this recipe: the texture is right on, and the final amount is about 1 ½ pints, which happens to be the perfect amount for 3 or 4 people. For the tea, you can choose any good cream and sugar tea. The tea I chose has a hint of lemongrass and mint. I used 5 tea bags so the ice cream is sufficiently flavored of green tea, but I only wish the lemongrass and mint were a little more prevalent. Next time I’ll trying infusing with an extra stalk of lemongrass and crushed, fresh mint. Still, an excellent result that was a hit all around.

Green Tea Ice Cream
makes about 1 1/2 pints

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 5 green tea bags (Thai tea also works very well)
• 4 egg yolks
• ½ granulated sugar
• seeds scraped from one vanilla pod (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

In a medium saucepan, heat 1 cup of the cream with the vanilla seeds just to a boil (if you’re using extract, add it at the end of cooking). Add the 5 tea bags, cover and remove from heat to steep for about 5 to 10 minutes.

In the meantime, in a large mixing bowl beat the egg yolks with an electric mixer until pale and thick, about 5 minutes or so. Gradually add in the sugar and beat for another 2 or 3 minutes on high, until the sugar is well incorporated into the egg. With all this beating, make sure to scrape down the sides occasionally to ensure everything is well incorporated and you don't lose half the stuff on the sides of the bowl.

Remove the tea bags from the cream and discard them. Be sure to squeeze out all the liquid from the bags. Slowly add the cream to the eggs while mixing vigorously. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and return to medium heat. Cook the custard until a candy thermometer reaches about 175˚. Make sure you are stirring frequently and scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula, especially as it reaches the target. If you don’t have a thermometer, you’ll know it’s done when it gets thick and coats the back of your utensil without dripping off. (If the custard starts to stick to the bottom like it’s about to scramble, you’ve overshot, and it's definitely done. But don’t throw in the towel just yet. You may be able to salvage it if you haven’t grossly overshot.)

Once you remove the custard from the heat, add the remaining cup of cream (and vanilla extract, if using) while mixing well. Pour the mixture through a sieve into a large, clean bowl. Don’t press the debris through the sieve. Anything that doesn’t go through by gravity is not meant to go in the ice cream. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours (longer is better) before churning. I have a Cuisinart ice cream maker (model ICE-BC; thanks Bedstemor and Bedstefar!) and it took about 25 minutes to get it to be the consistency of soft serve. I froze it for an additional 3 hours before serving. Follow your manufacturer’s instructions for churning and freezing.

If this ice cream has piqued your interest, may I suggest trying Thai tea crème brulee? It’s delicious and creamy-smooth. I promise you’ll love it.

Homemade Falafel Rules

Hey, if you want good falafel, go to Denmark. Just kidding...but really not. There's actually a robust population of people from Turkey, Greece and the Middle East and it seemed like just about every street in our little city had a falafel/sharwarma joint. My favorite place was just a rinky-dink establishment with 2 tables and 4 chairs and the owner was the cook. We visited at least once a week until one day we popped in and saw it was closed down. No forewarning; nothing! Oh, the disappointment!

Here in Portland, there aren't any falafel stands located close to me so I end up making my own. The first couple of times I tried it, I used Molly Katzen’s recipe from her Moosewood Cookbook. The flavors were fine, but I never liked the texture because it was too mushy. I experimented with a couple of other recipes, one of which was a complete disaster because the patties didn’t hold together. Then I came across this recipe. It's a great recipe, but I felt it needed a little more flavor (1 tsp of salt is not going to cut it for a pound of chickpeas!). After a little tweaking, I finally have something that I’m happy with. Using soaked (but uncooked) chickpeas is the key. It really makes all the difference in the texture.

The thing about falafel is that it needs to be eaten right after it's made. Don't think you can fry up some extras to take to lunch tomorrow, like I did. They turn out pretty sponge-y gross. This recipe can be doubled, if you need to feed more than 4 hungry adults.

Falafel
Feeds 4 adults

• ½ pound dried chickpeas, soaked in water for 24 hours
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1½ tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1½ tsp kosher salt (even more to taste)
  
• ¼ cup fine bread crumbs (see note below)
• 3 green onions or ¼ of a large sweet onion, minced
• ¼ bunch cilantro, minced
• ¼ bunch parsley, minced
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 egg, beaten
• Oil for deep frying

Note: I like to make my own breadcrumbs using crackers. For this recipe, I like using the sesame water crackers. Pulse the crackers in a food processor until fine.

Drain the soaked beans and put them in a food processor. Run until the beans are finely chopped. You may have to do this in batches, unless you have a huge processor.

In a large bowl, combine the processed beans and all the other ingredients. Mix (easiest to use clean hands) until you get a uniform paste. It may seem a little dry, but have faith! It will hold together. Shape the paste into balls then flatten slightly. The paste will be slightly sticky, but it shouldn’t cake your hands. When the oil is hot enough, deep fry the balls, flipping if they aren’t completely submerged until evenly browned , about 4 minutes. I recommended draining on a rack set over a backing sheet. This allows the oil to drain off more efficiently and it prevents the underside of the food from getting soggy. Serve immediately.

I like to serve it with pita bread or flatbread. The original recipe includes a yogurt sauce you may want to try. Accompanied by a simple salad, it's a filling meal, but it’s also nice to put out hummus, olives and feta, tabouleh, and/or baba ghanoush (eggplant dip).

My Productive Day in the Kitchen

Today I started bright and early making scones with Sonny. To be honest, I was nervous about this activity. We’d been talking about making scones since he had his first one last week. Every morning he’d wake up asking if it was the day to make scones. He was so patient all week and I was worried we’d end up with rock-hard-dry-ass lumps. Fortunately, they turned out great. I used this recipe and followed it exactly (except for the dry fruit part; Sonny wanted chocolate chips so I let him put some on a couple of them). The taste reminded me a little of shortbread, but they weren’t overly sweet and they were buttery without feeling greasy.





After lunch I made a batch of Vietnamese lemongrass chili sauce, the recipe for which I got at Wandering Chopsticks. Holy shit is it good! Even while it was cooking, I could tell it was going to kick ass because the aroma was divine. And it was far easier than I expected. I didn’t bother with canning it. Instead I just poured it into a sterilized jar and put a layer of oil over. I think it should keep for a couple of months in the fridge.



For dinner we had oven-roasted lemongrass chicken with nuoc cham (I add shredded carrot or sometimes jicama to mine) and the lemongrass chili sauce I made. Luckily, I got a quick shot of the chicken because there was none left over to “stage”. I can’t wait until the weather is nice enough to grill. This chicken is good in the oven but it will be downright orgasmic on the grill.



There are a ton of recipes out there for lemongrass chicken, but I just kept it simple. You could certainly add ginger and I’ve even seen recipes that call for sesame oil. It’s your call with the embellishments.

Simple Lemongrass Chicken

• 4 stalks lemongrass, cut into 1-inch segments
• 1 large shallot, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• ¼ cup thin or mushroom soy sauce (but regular old Kikkoman is fine too)
• ¼ cup Thai oyster sauce (Chinese will work too)
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 1 4-lb chicken, cut into pieces (or 6 to 8 hindquarters)

The easiest way to make the marinade is to throw the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until you get a uniform mixture. Sometimes, just for the hell of it, I will pound the herbs in a mortar then mix the paste with the wet ingredients in a bowl. I leave this up to you.

Marinate the chicken overnight. An hour before roasting or grilling, let the chicken sit at room temperature to take the chill off. Transfer the chicken to a rimmed baking sheet and roast in a 375˚ pre-heated oven until done. Keep in mind that the different pieces will cook at different rates. If you decide to grill, do it over indirect heat until done. Serve with nouc cham, steamed rice and sliced cucumber and tomatoes.