Chickpea, Sausage, and Kale Pasta

I was skeptical of this dish at first - it seemed like it might be chalky or dry given the chickpeas mixed with pasta.  But using dried chickpeas instead of canned gives this a wealth of surprisingly fresh flavor, and the mixture of cheese and a snap of lemon juice really gives this dish a lot of energy to complement the inherent deliciousness that is spicy Italian sausage.  I felt like I had done something productive with my night after eating this, and didn't slip into the usual food coma.

Digging around online, I found a very similar recipe to this one from Martha Stewart by Mark Bittman, who instead of Italian sausage uses chorizo, and instead of pasta uses bread crumbs.  He cooks the chickpeas for a more significant amount of time, more like 10 minutes instead of 3.  I might try this variant next time, plus this dish would probably be equally delicious just substituting chorizo for Italian sausage.

Let me implore you to use dried chickpeas in this dish.  Canned chickpeas taste like a whole lot of nothing now that we've tried both fresh and dried, which are staggeringly close to each other in flavor after the dried peas have been soaked overnight.  They're cheaper than canned, they're easy to find almost anywhere (check the latin or Indian section of your store), they have less salt, and they're generally superior.  At the very least, buy a test bag and soak a few overnight, then eat them raw.  If you don't switch over after eating one, I will be amazed.

Sausage and Rice Stuffed Peppers

It's been 100 recipes, and I'm still alive.  And hopefully, you are too, and maybe even better off for checking in here from time to time.  So for this one, I'm not going to present anything too extreme, just something delicious, healthy, and fairly easy to make.  And for a change of pace, I didn't even use a recipe for this one - just threw some things together from memory in a way that I thought would work out well, and it turned out that it did.

Today we contemplate the stuffed pepper.  Who would ever think to take a large, cavernous vegetable, hollow it out, cram it full of goodness, and then roast it and treat it like an edible bowl?  Well, I don't know, but let's hope that he was given a thousand virgins and quite a few goats for his discovery.  You could do this with tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant or squash if you really knew what you were doing.  But as an easy start, let's focus on the most forgiving of all of these from a cooking and structural integrity standpoint - the pepper.  If you don't like bell peppers, then I have nothing for you.  But consider that you may only dislike green bell peppers, which are slightly less sweet, and consider giving this a try.

Bell Peppers Stuffed with Sausage and Rice
by me

• 2 large red bell peppers
• 1/2 lb Italian sweet or hot sausage, removed from casings if present
• 1 small zucchini, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 rib celery, diced
• 1 green onion, sliced thinly
• 1/2 c coarse breadcrumbs
• 2 oz firm aged cheese, such as Parmesan or Asiago, grated
• 1.5 c cooked brown (or white) rice
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• tomato sauce or aged balsamic vinegar, for plating
• 1 tbsp parsley, minced, for plating

The peppers loaf about lazily on the countertop, unaware of their fate.

Preheat your oven to 400 deg F.

Begin by halving the peppers lengthwise, removing the core and seeds, and cutting away as much of the white membrance as you can (this is bitter, and also takes up space).  Now, in a large saute pan over high heat, brown the sausage in 1 tbsp olive oil, breaking up with your spoon into small pieces.  When browned, remove from pan and drain on a paper towel, and saute zucchini, garlic, onion, celery, and green onion in the next 1 tbsp of olive oil.  Remove to a large bowl.

In the meantime, take a small frying pan and heat the last 1 tbsp of olive oil.  Toast the breadcrumbs if they're not already toasty, and set aside.

Now, the rest is fairly straightforward.  Take everything you've got except the peppers themselves and the breadcrumbs, and stir them together in a big bowl.  Taste, and season as needed with salt and pepper.  Try not to just stop here and eat the whole thing, because you will probably want to.  But we must forge ahead - now stuff this into the pepper halves, packing in the filling somewhat densely and mounding up slightly.  Don't get so crazy that it's spilling out, because next you have to sprinkle on the toasted breadcrumbs.

The filling, resting before an epic journey in a hollowed out pepper through the fires of Mt. Ofen.

The peppers, packed and ready to go.

In a reasonably sized glass baking dish, brush a few drops of olive oil onto the bottom and situate the pepper halves.  Toss in the oven for about 30 minutes, until peppers are soft and starting to brown at the edges, and bread crumbs are brown on top.

To serve, either place on a bed of homemade marinara sauce, or drizzle with balsamic vinegar, as I have done.  I tried this both ways and preferred the tomato sauce version, but both are going to impress people.  Sprinkle with minced parsley, and serve.

Exhausted from their journey, the peppers lie unsuspectingly before hungry predators.

At last, the stuffed pepper has come to its final resting place

Wild Mushroom, Barley, and Spicy Sausage Stew

After a bit of a pause, I am back to start posting again.  Wanted to start with a real winner - one of those that everyone who has tried it has had rave reviews on.  A soup that caters to the gluten-free without sacrificing anything.  It's spicy, rich, filling, somewhat simple, and just plain delicious.

I adapted the recipe from Cooking Light: Soups, a book I highly recommend that is a collection of their most popular soup recipes.  Everything in there is golden.  The main changes are the mushroom type and the grain, for which I present an alternative (brown rice) for dietary restrictions.  Barley is slightly preferred for a bit more bite, but only slightly.  Some pictures are for the barley version, and some for the brown rice, but only because they follow almost an identical cooking process, and I have made this multiple times with progressively better photography skills.

A forgiving recipe packed with flavor, great for a cold night

Wild Mushroom, Barley, and Spicy Sausage Stew
adapted slightly from Cooking Light

• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• 2 cups thinly sliced onion
• 8 ounces spicy Italian sausage (turkey or pork)
• 1 cup chopped celery, about 2 stalks
• 1 cup sliced carrot
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cups dried wild mushrooms, or 5 cups fresh
• 1 1/2 cups chopped portobello mushroom
• 3/4 cup uncooked brown rice, or 1/2 cup uncooked pearl barley
• 42 ounces low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons brandy
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley

Quite a few ingredients to prep, but the cooking is completely linear and almost idiot proof.

Prep the ingredients.  If using dried mushrooms, reconstitute in boiling water for up to 20 minutes.  Drain, and chop into coarse bits.  Slice onions thinly, remove sausage from casings.

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add onion, and cook for 5 minutes or until slightly soft.  Add sausage to the pan, cooking 8 minutes or until sausage is browned and stirring to crumble.  Break up with the edge of a spoon, but don't break up too finely or you'll destroy some of the body from large pieces of cooked sausage.  Add celery, carrot, garlic, and bay leaf; cook 10 minutes or until onions are golden brown, stirring frequently.  Stir in the mushrooms and cook 10 minutes or until mushrooms release moisture.

Make sure to brown the sausage, but you have a healthy error margin on this recipe.  Just keep cooking until things start to develop caramel flavors, then add broth and cook for an hour.

Once all vegetables and fungi are incorporated, stir in the barley or brown rice, chicken broth, brandy, salt, and pepper.  Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour or until barley is tender, or 40 minutes for the brown rice version.

Discard the bay leaf.  Sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve immediately with crusty bread and a salad.

Tomato Sausage Risotto in Portobello Caps

Coming off of my last successful risotto experience, I wanted to try another flavorful risotto recipe.  While I love the consistency, I have the same problem with risotto that I do with pizza - too much starch, not enough diversity of flavor.  So rather than making one of the essential risottos - mushroom, or cheese, or lemon - I went with a slightly different take - a tomato-based risotto, promising a somewhat unconventional experience.

Your average risotto is made by slowly cooking the rice in hot broth as it is stirred, unfolding the starchy web on the outer layer of the rice so that it can dissolve into the cooking liquid.  Chicken broth is very commonly used for this.  But I was intrigued by the idea of using canned tomatoes instead of broth, just for the variety.  It turns out that this is an amazing twist on your average risotto, transforming a meaty, savoury dish into a lighter, more aromatic dish.  The meat still finds its way in by way of some Italian sausage, but it's a different backbone that was eye-opening and delicious.

Tomato and Sausage Risotto
Modified from Martha Stewart Everyday Food

• 1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes in juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3/4 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 cup Arborio or Carnaroli rice
• 1/2 cup dry white wine, or dry Vermouth
• 10 leaves basil, chiffonaded
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving (optional)
• 2 tablespoons butter

In a small saucepan, combine tomatoes (with their juice) and 3 cups water. Bring just to a simmer; keep warm over low heat.

In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium. Add sausage and onion; season with salt and pepper. Cook, breaking up sausage with a spoon, until sausage is opaque and onion has softened, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add rice; cook, stirring until well coated, 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine; cook, stirring until absorbed, about 1 minute.

Add about 2 cups hot tomato mixture to rice; simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until absorbed, 4 to 5 minutes. Continue adding tomato mixture, 1 cup at a time, waiting for one cup to be absorbed before adding the next, stirring occasionally, until rice is creamy and just tender, about 25 minutes total (you may not have to use all the liquid).

Here's the process of risotto, armed with a fancy risotto spoon.  Observe how the rice swells and the liquid becomes thicker in these time history photos, taken at the 3 minute mark, the 20 minute mark, and the 26 minute mark.

Remove pan from heat. Stir in basil, Parmesan, and butter; season with salt and pepper. Why the butter?  Because you're "mounting" your sauce.  You heard me.  It's from the French monter au beurre, meaning "build with butter" and pronounced "mount" by the less classy Americans who heard the phrase.  It's the process of adding a cold fat to a hot liquid and getting it to emulsify at temperatures above where it usually breaks down into milk solids, fat, and water.  Restaurants tend to do this to develop a more velvety, bodied sauce, which you have probably simply called "delicious", "rich", or "OMG".  Also, they tend to put in way too much - websites I scanned just called for 1 tbsp butter per 1/2 cup of sauce, so don't get crazy mopping that stuff up with your bread.

These are the finishing ingredients - they only go in at the very end

Now, stand over your dish... and mount it!

Serve immediately, and sprinkle with additional Parmesan, if desired.  For a classy presentation, grill portobello caps and use them as small serving bowls on your plate, as shown above.  A recipe follows.


Grilled Portobello Caps
by me

• 2 medium portobello caps
• 1 tsp coarse dijon mustard
• 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Stir together last four ingredients, and brush onto both sides of mushroom caps.  Cook on a hot grill for 5-6 minutes per side.

30 Minute Cassoulet

I love a good cassoulet - sit me down with that on the menu, and I almost don't care what else the place serves, I'm going to order it.  And what's not to love - a gigantic plate of meat, garlic, some herbs, and white beans, cooked until they're just starting to crisp in a hefty cast iron skillet.  I would love to make this at home, but the problem is that I don't want to sit around making the four or five different cuts of meat that chefs usually nestle into the beans, which is often some infuriating combination of rabbit, duck, Merguez sausage, and other difficult to procure animals or animal bits.

So while nosing through a family cookbook called Fast Food My Way, by Jacques Pepin based on his PBS TV series, I stopped cold when I saw a recipe called "30 Minute Cassoulet".  I almost didn't care what meats were in it, though I was pleasantly surprised.  A recipe that promised all of the flavors of a French bistro dish in less time than it takes to get service from a snotty French waiter?  Check, please.

The last time I saw this much meat in one place... [insert joke here]

30 Minute Cassoulet
from Fast Food My Way, by Jacques Pepin

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 pound daisy ham, tough outer skin removed (stand by for description)
• 3/4 pound mild Italian sausages, cut into 3" pieces
• 4 bratwurst sausages, cut into thirds
• 1 cup diced whole button mushrooms (3 oz)
• 3/4 cup diced (1/2") onion
• 2 tbsp crushed garlic (4 cloves)
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 15.5 oz cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 3/4 cup diced (1") tomato (1 large tomato's worth)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 3 tbsp chopped parsley

Okay, the ingredients.  First and foremost, what the heck is daisy ham?  I asked the same thing.  For a first recipe from this book, I wasn't pleased that he called for some obscure meat product that no red-blooded American has ever heard of.  But not to worry, I looked it up and it turns out that this is just a smoked, boneless ham, typically Boston Butt, and individually sealed up.  I found it with no difficulty in the meat section, over by the cooked ham.  Go America.  Next, the other meats.  I went with mild rather than hot Italian sausage, which I think was the right choice.  And I stayed with the bratwurst called for in the original recipe.

A daisy ham.  This one even had 'daisy' in the brand name.  I cut off the outer skin and then it was just delicious smoked ham.

All kinds of sausage going on here.  Recipe calls for cutting up the Italian and keeping the bratwurst whole

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and add the ham and Italian sausage.  Do NOT add the bratwurst, that gets steamed / poached in the next step.  Cover and cook over high heat for 7-8 minutes, turning occasionally.  This gets good browning but helps cook everything through, and slows the drippings from burning to the pan.

Brown the ham and Italian sausage with a lid on - not what I would have expected, but it worked

Add the bratwurst, mushrooms, onion, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf.  Mix well and cook for 5-6 minutes.

The next round of additions is the mushrooms, aromatics, and the bratwurst

Getting a bit crowded in the pan, I wondered if maybe I should switch pans.  But I like a challenge.

Add the beans, tomato, water, and pepper, bring back to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and boil gently for 5-10 minutes.

Add the chopped tomato and rinsed white beans

This is when I knew the pan was too small.  Oh well.

Give everything a stir to incorporate, cover, and cook on low for just a few minutes!

 

10 minutes of this, and you're good to go.  And if you end up doing other things and letting this cook longer, it's only going to make it better.  At serving time, discard the bay leaf, cut the ham into slices and slice sausage pieces in half, and arrange meat on platter with beans.  Sprinkle with parsley, and serve with Tabasco and Dijon mustard.

Cassoulet, served in 30 minutes or more.

Stuffed Apricot-Glazed Chicken Thighs

I've been sitting on this recipe for 10 years, and never wanted to make it because it looked complicated and time consuming.  Oh Emeril, why must you make food that looks delicious but has such a long ingredient list?  Plus, the last thing I wanted to do was de-bone a bunch of chicken quarters.  But when it was proposed that I just stuff the filling into regular bone-in chicken quarters, I gave it a shot.  And it was awesome.  Didn't hurt that I had help making the stuffing either, which was good enough that it could be eaten almost as its own meal.

The stuffed quarters, just before serving

Sausage and Rice-Stuffed Dark Chicken Quarters with Apricot Glaze
Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2002

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 pound sweet Italian sausage, removed from casings
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onions
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped carrots
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped celery
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon minced orange zest
• 1/2 cup long-grain white rice
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 2 tablespoons toasted almond slivers
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 cups apricot jam
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup fresh orange juice
• 8 boned (except for the knuckle or joint at the bottom of the drumstick) dark chicken quarters, the thigh and the drumstick all in 1 piece
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the onions, carrots, and celery and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of orange zest and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the rice and stir until it turns opaque, about 3 minutes. Stir in the raisins, almonds, parsley, thyme, cinnamon, and salt. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Stir, reduce the heat to low, cover and cook until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Remove the rice from the heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and spread on a baking sheet to cool.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
 

Meanwhile, in a saucepan make the glaze by combining the jam, remaining 1/2 teaspoon orange zest, sugar, and orange juice. Whisk to combine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until reduced by half, 8 to 10 minutes. You can test when this is done by dipping in a wooden spoon, holding it vertically, and running your finger across the glaze.  If it doesn't drip down across where you dragged your finger, it's thick enough.  If it's still runny, reduce it some more.  Set aside to cool.

The apricot jam before it became a glaze.

Stuff a good 3-4 tablespoons into each cavity and seal with a few skewers

Season the chicken legs lightly with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and divide the stuffing between the legs, about 1/4 to 1/3 cup each. Be careful not to tear the skin, or to leave stuffing hanging out on the baking sheet.  Pull the skin up around the filling and secure shut with a toothpick (I used trussing needles).

Because these were bone-in, I partially cooked them for a while, then applied the sugar glaze to prevent even more burning than I ended up with

If you went to the trouble to de-bone the chicken, you can apply the glaze and cook directly - the sugars won't burn for the short time that this is in the oven.  Coat with the apricot glaze and bake until the chicken is tender and cooked through, 25 to 30 minutes, re-applying the glaze twice. If, however, you used bone-in chicken, you have to add about 20 minutes of cooking time to this.  So bake without the glaze for 20 minutes, then remove from oven and apply the glaze, then bake for another 25 to 30 minutes, re-applying the glaze as above.  Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Roasted chestnut and sausage stuffing

Call it dressing, call it stuffing, call it whatever you want - it's all the same when you eat it.  And after years of making different stuffing recipes, I've come to appreciate the value in an easy one that tastes really good.  Unless, of course, you consider roasting chestnuts to be difficult.  Which you probably should.

This is the recipe we've used for the past three years running at Thanksgiving, because it doesn't involve sitting around chopping vegetables for 20 minutes before you even start the cooking.  Plus, we used pre-roasted chestnuts this year, which saved a ton of time and frustration.  Still, there's no experience quite like cursing at a chestnut that won't open correctly; chestnuts are like honey badgers - they're crazy, and they don't care about you or your priorities.  But home-roasted chestnuts can be quite delicious, so it's something to consider when you make this dish.

Here are some of the special tools you should have to make this stuffing:

1. Food processor.  You don't have to chop up vegetables for this recipe.  You just through your mire poix right in the processor and go to town.  So if you don't have a processor, the merits of this dish will be lost on you.
2. Electric bread knife.  You have to tear down a loaf of sourdough bread into cubes for this, and it's a PITA.  If you don't have an electric knife, you at least need a decent serrated bread knife.
3. Paring knife.  If you plan to roast your chestnuts, you need a good paring knife to score them without destroying them.

I found this recipe on Food Network's website after one too many failed stuffing attempts (oysters one year, wild rice another, I think curry found its way in once).  It's really good, and another one of those sides that's overly filling but which we can't live without.  Once nicely roasted, the stuffing gets crispy around the edges and highlights the earthy taste of the chestnuts, the pungent sausage, and the mildly tart kick from the bread, and makes for a really awesome combination of flavors.

Chestnut and Sausage Dressing

By Tyler Florence (unmodified)

• 1 medium carrot, peeled and rough chopped
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
• 1/2 bunch fresh sage
• 1 1/2 pounds loose sweet Italian sausage
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 5 cups cubed sourdough bread, crusts removed
• 1 pound roasted chestnuts
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken stock
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 large egg

The setup - note that we started with pre-roasted chestnuts this year.  No open fires for us.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and butter a 9" x 11" baking dish.  Seriously, butter it up - I forgot to do this once and the bottom got burnt, and it was no fun.  You only need a little, just smear a stick around and then get in the corners with a paper towel to distribute.

In a food processor, puree the carrot, onion, celery (the mire poix) and sage until you have a fine pulp.  Okay, I lied about the no chopping thing - you have to hack the vegetables into pieces small enough to fit in the processor, but that's it!  Cube the sourdough by first removing the crusts, then slicing into about 3/4" rounds, and then cubing that into 3/4" cubes.  Any bigger and the stuffing will come out dry.  Much smaller and it will be mushy.  A little variability in your cuts will help you get any combination of the above consistencies you want.  Roast the chestnuts by scoring an "X" in the convex side of the shells and throwing into a 425 F oven for 30 minutes, until the shells have split open.  Then peel them while they're still warm.  Consult the internet (http://bit.ly/vrwdOo) for further information.

The food processor option is much easier than chopping a bunch of vegetables

This is what the cubed bread should look like.  This would have been vastly expedited with an electric knife

Set a large skillet over medium-high heat and brown the sausage in a little olive oil.  You want to brown this in bite-sized chunks, so throw it in the pan and then break it up with a spoon.  And like I said, you want to BROWN this.  Don't just "grey" your meat - let it get some color on there.  It's called the Maillard reaction, and it's a good thing.  To do this, get the meat broken up into the right sized pieces, then just let it sit for a couple of minutes.  Don't just stir the heck out of it until it's a uniform gross color - let the bottom brown by sitting on the hot pan until the amino acids in the meat start to do their thing, then stir a couple of times to get the other sides similarly browned.

Notice how there is actually some brown coloring on the meat?  You want that - it makes your food taste good.  Stop stirring, and just be patient.

Once you have a nice brown color and the fat has rendered (about 5 minutes), use a slotted spoon to remove the sausage and place in a large mixing bowl.  Add the vegetable pulp to the pan and saute until most of the moisture has evaporated.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add to a large mixing bowl along with the sausage, the bread cubes, and the chestnuts.

Mix together chicken stock, cream and egg.  Pour this wet mixture over the dressing mix. Season and fold everything together.  Now here's a tip - don't press on the stuffing when you put it in the roasting dish; in fact, don't even pour it.  Scoop it out delicately and try to pack into the dish as loosely as possible.  This will ensure that you get good browning and even cooking, and you don't end up with mushy stuffing at the end.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until golden brown on the top (if it gets too brown before the 30 minutes is up, tent with foil).

Light and fluffy before baking, because it wasn't pressed into the pan.  It's like a big delicious cloud of awesomeness.

The finished stuffing, nicely browned and crispy in virtually every bite.

Serve with your favorite fowl, and enjoy!  I find that this doesn't really require any gravy to improve on the flavors, but that doesn't mean it's not still good with gravy.  Besides, what isn't?