I'm going batty here, up to my ears in grading, and the grading's fixing to get even worse. My classes are a nightmare --- half my students are great, absolutely brilliant --- and then, there are the others: resistant, disruptive, bored --- deadwood. And lately, I've been leaving work feeling as if I've spent the entire day trying to drag their deadwood bodies straight up a mountain.
Just as bad, I have two-three weeks to finish tree planting, garden bed preparing, bulb burying. I have grapes, redbuds, pin oaks, red oaks, red maples, catalpa, small hickories, forsythia, caryopteris, and more to get in the ground, and fast.
Needless to say, my house looks like a fur/paper bomb exploded --- there are dogs and papers and books and fur everywhere. And I have to go out of town two weekends out of the next three. ::whimper::
The Road to Chaurice
Not only has it been total chaos at Chez Cookiebear (like that's anything new?), cooler weather has unearthed my lust for hot foods, and I've been a sausage making fool for days now. I don't want to grade. I don't want to prepare lectures. All I want to do is plant trees, bury bulbs and make cold weather goodies.
So my first sausage making efforts were with ground turkey. This was very, very nice stuff --- free range, sans antibiotics, etc. --- and it tasted fabulous.
I made some great breakfast sausages with it, using lots of homegrown sage, fresh sweet marjoram, some nutmeg and freshly ground black pepper. Very, very easy.
Basic Breakfast Sausage: Grade A
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 tsp sage - I used a handful of almost dry homegrown
1/3 tsp sweet marjoram OR summer savory - I used around 3 tsps fresh thyme
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/3 tsp freshly ground black pepper - I used a bit more
coarse salt, to taste
I did a lot of variations on this theme, including adding fennel, dried red pepper, grated onion (tastes good but much too much moisture), substituting cinnamon for nutmeg (that was a good sausage!), etc. All were good.
The sausage is best after it's sat for several hours, so the flavors can meld with the meat. And ... don't have a grinder? No problem! Sausage making is doable even if, like me, YOU CAN'T FIND YOUR GRINDER!!! But it will be better if you can grind the meat, add seasonings, then grind again.
So that worked out well. The problem: it's pricey --- $5 for around half a pound.
So I began playing with ground buffalo a week or so ago, because I can get it for $4.40 a pound on Wednesdays, and because I really like it. It's certified, meaning grass fed, free range and not a single injection or addition of weird stuff. And it's local --- raised about 60 miles south of me.
Making buffalo sausage does present some challenges, though, the biggest being that buffalo has much less fat than other meats. And given the conventional wisdom that sausage should be 2/3rds meat and 1/3rd fat, this is a problem .
But I chose to ignore that - and my first round was very dry and tough. So I adjusted cooking temp, making it much lower, and that helped. Some. Not enough, but some.
I also read that you can add various things to make it "seem" more fatty --- Julia Child, I think, suggests cream cheese or bread --- but that makes sausage into a meatball, imo. And, if I wanted meatballs, I'd make meatballs.
However, in one of my earlier experiments, I'd added grated sweet yellow onion. That added too much moisture but pointed me to a solution --- veggies. In particular: onion. Which just so happen to be a part of many good recipes for a Chaurice, or Creole sausage.
So, I switched from breakfast sausages (easy as pie!) and began the hunt for good Chaurice recipes.
But Don't You Mean Chorizo?
No. Chaurice is a kind of first cousin --- or niece, perhaps, maybe nephew --- of chorizo. I've had both, and it's my opinion the two are distinctly different, although I'd be hard pressed to explain exactly how. I do know chorizo is often quite red, as a result of lots of paprika and other seasonings, and usually has coriander and cumin. The Chaurice I've had lacks the extreme redness of most chorizo and has a more delicate (if hot!) savoriness.
Back to Chaurice
To figure this puppy out, I dove into my cookbooks. And I hit paydirt with Craig Claiborne. I just love him. His recipes are wonderfully old fashioned, and usually foolproof. Besides, his Southern Cooking cookbook has the best blackeyed pea recipe I've ever seen.
So I tried it:
Chaurice Recipe 1: Grade C+
1 1/2 pounds lean pork trimmed of fat
2/3 lb fatback or hardest pork fat available
1 c finely chopped onion
1/2 c finely chopped parsley
1 1/2 tbsp finely minced garlic
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh hot red chile, or 1 tsp dried hot red pepper flakes
2 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp saltpeter (!!!)
5-6 sausage casings
1. Grind pork and pork fat in meat grinder
2. Add onion, parsley, garlic, chile, cayenne, black pepper, thyme, allspice, salt and saltpeter. Blend well.
3. Test by cooking a small patty, and adjust seasonings accordingly.
4. Put through grinder again.
Needless to say, I substituted buffalo and didn't add the extra fat. And it's pretty good . Good heat. But not enough flavor. I was surprised, given how on target Claiborne usually is.
So I continued the hunt ... and found the following at the NOLA Cuisine blog.
Chaurice Recipe 2: Grade B
3 lbs Pork with plenty of fat (I use Boston Butt) cut into 1 inch cubes
1 Medium Spanish Onion, Chopped
3 Tbsp Fresh Garlic, Minced
1 Tbsp Fresh Thyme Leaves, Chopped
4 Tbsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Cayenne
1 tsp Cumin
1 Tbsp Kosher Salt
1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
1 tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper
4 tsp Chili Powder
1/4 tsp Ground Allspice
1 pinch Meat Curing Salt (Optional) (Here is what I use: http://www.butcher-packer.com/...)
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss thoroughly.
Cover and let stand in the refrigerator overnight (this step is optional).
Place all of your grinding equipment in the refrigerator 1 hour before grinding. Using the 1/2â³ die for your meat grinder, grind all of the ingredients. Alternatively you could finely mince the ingredients in a food processor or by hand. Cook a small patty to taste for seasonings, reseason if necessary.
Also pretty good, and even better heat! But still ... not what I'm looking for. Although awfully good!
Then, last night, I found this recipe for Chaurice. I haven't had a chance to make it yet --- but the recipe feels much more like the taste I'm after, although I'll certainly add much more onion that this calls for:
Chaurice Recipe 3: Grade unknown!
1 lb ground pork
1/2 tsp coarse salt
5 tbsp diced onions (use more! use more!)
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/3 tsp thyme (more if using fresh)
3 bay leaves, ground
1 tbsp parsley
1 1/2 cloves garlic, pressed
I'm going to make this one up tomorrow night and see what happens. I'll let you all know.
Bonus Carb Loading
I'm covered from head to toe with dirt, and keep running out of steam for the digging. And one thing I've learned is, when I run out of steam during heavy physical work, I need to pump those carbs up.
Thus: two very simple and healthy carb loading recipes:
Yogurt Shake
A mess of Brown Cow Cream on Top Plain Yogurt
Fruit of your choice (fresh blueberries are the bomb in this!)
1/2 to 1 almost too ripe banana
Some ground flaxseed
A bit of spirulena
Sweetener of your choice
A bit of water
Put everything but the bit of water into the blender. Blend. Add the tiny bit of water to thin. Blend a bit more. Pour and enjoy!
and ...
Carrot Salad
Grated carrots
Grated daikon radish
Grated beets, if you're in the mood for a mess
Grated ginger
Pressed garlic
Sesame dressing OR peanut dressing, recipe of your choice
And, for those seriously in need of glucose now, raisins
Mix. Eat. Feel much better!
What I Didn't Have Time For
I wanted to do a Portuguese stew for this edition of WFD?, but time got away from me. However, I do have a fabulous Portuguese soup recipe for you. In fact, one reason I'm working on figuring out how to make sausage is so I can figure out how to make my own chorizo for this.
Here's the recipe:
Caldo Verde
Lots of sweet yellow onions
1/2 lb kale (about 4 C shredded)
4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4" rounds
Salt, to taste
8 C water
1/4+ C Portuguese olive oil (I use Greek)
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
6 oz chorizo
1. In same pot soup will be cooked in, cook sausage until done. Remove sausage and add onions (finely chopped), cooking in sausage fat until nearly caramelized. Remove onions and set aside.
2. Wash kale thoroughly. Strip leaves from stems and cut into very fine shreds.
3. Add water, potatoes and salt to pot. Bring to a boil and cook until soft (~15 minutes). Remove potatoes from pot and mash with a fork or slotted spoon. Beat olive oil and pepper into potatoes. Stir back into the potato water, and add cooked onions.
4. Slice sausage into thin pieces.
5. Bring potato water, potatoes and onions to a boil. Add kale and boil for 3-4 minutes. Add sausage. Serve!
What I'm Fooling Around With (Besides Sausage)
I'm still working on green chile. I've been making it with chicken, but keeping getting hungry for bean thread and using the stock to make a kind of faux Asian chicken salad (see peanut or sesame dressing recipes in previous WFD?s). Which is very tasty, but is NOT green chile stew.
But I'm getting there!
I've also been working on potato buttermilk biscuits. I posted one recipe last week --- seriously eh --- but I found another one from the Victorian era which looks very promising. Problem: I haven't had time to make the recipe!
So that's what's going on here at the always mayhemish Chez Cookiebear. How about you? What are you having for dinner? And ... how ridiculously busy and swamped with whatevers are you?