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Across the Kitchen Table:
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Make Your Own Sausages to Grill
While You’re At It, Grill Some Chowder (really!)
Homemade Yog-Sicles
Lemon Pie
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Make Your Own Sausages: It’s Easy!
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| Sausage is basically meatloaf (only better, most people say). The tricky part is stuffing the meat mixture into the little casings — a job made infinitely smoother if your meat grinder or food processor has a sausage-stuffing funnel attachment. Assuming it does, you are home free.
Here is how to make fresh Italian-style sausage (sweet or hot) ideal for grilling. If you don’t want to go the whole nine yards and stuff the sausage into casings, you can shape the meat into patties, like hamburgers, and cook them that way, either on the grill or in a frying pan.
Italian Sausage (sweet or hot)
2 pounds pork butt or shoulder, cut into 1" cubes
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon dried basil (or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil)
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme)
1 to 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes, to taste, for hot sausage (omit for sweet sausage)
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients, mixing well with your hands. Put the mixture through the fine blade of a meat grinder, or whirl it briefly in a food processor (you want to grind and mix it, not make a paste).
To make sausage patties, simply shape the mixture as desired and chill the patties on a platter in the refrigerator for about 2 hours, so the meat firms up and the flavors blend.
To stuff the sausages, you will need about 4 feet of medium hog casings (available from sausage-supply houses, such as www.sausagesource.com, or www.stuffers.com). While you are mixing the meat and seasonings, rinse and soak the casings as directed on the package. Chill the meat mixture for at least an hour to make it easier to handle.
Gather the casings onto the straight end of the sausage funnel, tie off the end, and slowly push the meat mixture through the funnel and into the casings. Fill the casings until they are firm but not to the bursting point, using up all of the meat. Starting at the far end, give the casing a double twist every five inches or so to form links. Tie off the end of the casing at the last sausage. With a sharp knife, cut the links apart. Place them on a platter and chill them in the refrigerator for about 2 hours (or overnight) to blend the flavors and firm up the sausage. The sausages will keep for up to 3 days in your refrigerator, or you can freeze them for later use.
Grill your little beauties, pop them into buns or rolls (sautéed onions and peppers on top won’t hurt), and enjoy your homemade feast. Makes 10 to12 sausages or sausage patties.
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Grilled Chowder, You Say?
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Just when you think you’ve grilled everything —ribs and swordfish and whole turkeys and chicken perched on beer cans and portabella mushrooms and shrimp kebabs and what not — along comes a recipe for grilled chowder. Admittedly, you don’t actually grill the soupy part. (What a relief!) But grilling the component vegetables beforehand lends the chowder a rich, smoky taste that speaks of summer and beach picnics at sunset. Here’s how.
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Grilled Corn Chowder
(Inspired by grillmaster Steven Raichlen)
6 ears of fresh sweet corn, shucked
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
1 sweet red pepper, quartered
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup half-and-half cream
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Light your grill and let the coals burn until they are covered with a light gray ash. In a large bowl, combine sweet corn, quartered onion, quartered pepper, quartered potatoes, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Toss until all vegetables are coated with the oil. Place the vegetables on the hot grill and cook until golden brown on all sides, turning frequently. (Use a perforated grill pan if your grill’s wires are too far apart.)
Cut the kernels off the corn and dice the onion, pepper, and potatoes. In a heavy soup pot, heat the 2 teaspoons olive oil; sauté the vegetables for a few minutes and then add the chicken broth. Add water so that the liquid just covers the vegetables. Simmer, covered, until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
Stir in cream and warm through. Add chopped parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Makes about 6 servings.
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| Kids are guaranteed to love making and eating this frozen purple treat. |
Homemade Yog-Sicles
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You can mold the Popsicles in those little yogurt containers piled in the cupboard (see, it was good to save them) or in plastic molds made for the job. For more kid-friendly recipes that use yogurt, go to www.stonyfield.com. Makes 6 yog-sicles.
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1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup frozen grape-juice concentrate, thawed
Mix the yogurt and juice concentrate. Scoop the mixture into 6 Popsicle molds or 6 small recycled yogurt cups. Insert Popsicle sticks and freeze until solid. Makes 6.
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Lemon Pie, How Sweet It Is
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In the May 2001 issue of this newsletter we offered a recipe for Blanche’s Lemon Meringue Pie, the recipe we turn to first when we want to make this classic summer pie.
We’ve discovered an alternative that is just as good, but simpler to make. If you’re not feeling up to solving the mysteries of meringues, or just don’t want to tackle a complicated pie, try this mouth-watering alternative from Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts, a book every cook should own.
Lemon pie, the author explains, is found in some of our oldest cookbooks. Lemons were first brought to the West about 2000 years ago from India, and for centuries they were considered a great luxury. People were apt to use them for cosmetic and medicinal purposes (bleaching freckles, soothing sore throats) rather than "waste" them in cooking. But by the 17th century, lemon marmalade, candied lemon, and lemon tarts had become popular. The first lemon pies (meringue and otherwise) appeared in American cookbooks in the 1840s. And then there is . . .
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Grandmother’s Soufléed Lemon Pie
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1 unbaked pie shell for a 9" pie pan
6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
Grated zest and juice of 1 large lemon
3 large egg whites
Heat the oven to 350°F. Flute the edge of the pie shell, prick it gently with a fork, chill it while the oven heats, then bake it for about 15 minutes, until golden and baked through. Prick any air bubbles that pop up. Cool shell on a wire rack, and leave oven turned on.
In the top of a double boiler, over simmering water, whisk the egg yolks until foamy. Whisk in the sugar a little at a time; then whisk in the lemon juice and zest. Cook, whisking constantly, until the filling thickens, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.
With an electric mixer, beat the three egg whites until nearly stiff but not dry. Gently fold them into the lemon filling, just until blended. Gently pour the filling into the baked pie shell. Bake in the 350°F oven until the filling is puffed and set, about 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and serve when pie is barely warm. Makes 6 to 8 servings.
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