On a [Sausage] Roll

Today we're making a Grandma recipe, from Scratch!

Sausage Rolls!

Truthfully I didn't like these at all when I was a kid, but now I don't make them often because I just want to eat the whole batch when I do. 

Typically the EASY recipe is:

Sausage Rolls

• 1 lb pack of Italian Sausage, Sweet, Mild or Hot. Get the formless forcemeat, it's easier than cutting it out of casings
• 1 bag of Pizza Crust Dough
• Olive Oil
• Red Pepper Flakes
• Anise or Fennel Seed

1. Preheat the oven to 350F, lightly grease a cookie sheet
2. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, somewhat thin.
3. Rub it down with olive oil.
4. Season it with red pepper flakes and anise or fennel seed if you want.
5. Evenly spread little sausage nuggets across the oiled surface. It's messy.
6. Roll tightly and slice into 1.5" pieces
7. Set onto the cookie sheet, cut sides vertical.
8. Bake for 25 minutes? or until golden brown.
9. Eat em hot or cold!

Or be like me and buy a meat grinder attachment for your KitchenAid. I used the Italian Sausage recipe from The Wurst of Lucky Peach (use link below to help me financially! I'm unemployed!)

I didn't like them :| Tom did, because the sausage wasn't overly-italian-y. It was a good exercise in learning how to grind meat, but in the future I'm going the lazy route and just buying a styrofoam tray of sausage. At least until I get better at homemade sausages.

And if you're a fan of Sausages AND Video Games, check out Stephen's Sausage Roll!

Orange Duck

Woooo another week of experimenting with foods! 

I picked up a couple pretty Muscovy breasts to test my new sous vide on, but there's going to be a shipping delay, so I was left with pan frying. Oh well!

For the breast I scored the skin and fat, and rubbed it with Chinese 5 Spice. You want to cook it skin side down first, on medium heat, for about 10 minutes. Then you flip it and continue for another 5-7 minutes, then rest it. I kept mine on the heat a smidge too long, but they still came out quite nicely. 

For the sauce I just mushed together a few a l'Orange recipes I found online, adjusting it as I went along. I think a coulis with the orange segments would have been nicer than just throwing them on a plate. Thoughts for next time I suppose!

Finally the carrot puree was made from carrots, ginger, garlic and onion. 

A++ would make again. Maybe with more veggies. 

Good news if you're a fan of my illustrations! I have a little shop on Redbubble now, so if you want the above design on a shirt, or a notebook, or as a print, head on over! I'll be adding other illustrations as I see fit, so stay tuned!

It's Always Beets

Today's illustration & title were inspired by the bit from Portlandia in which people are dialing 911 because of the vividness beets provide one's bowel movements.

It's a quick recipe, but quite delicious and nutritious. 

Beet & Pickled Shallot Salad

Serves 2 as main course, 4 as side

Ingredients:

• 6-8 Small Beets
• 4-6 Cups Arugula or other lettuces
• 4 Shallots
• 2 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 Cup Walnuts
• Goat Cheese
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper

1. Slice shallots and cover with vinegar in a bell jar or something of the sort. It's more of a quick pickle, less of a long term solution, so I kept the pickling prep down. Place the vinegar and shallots in the fridge. The longer they sit, the better they get, but I found after a week they get a bit, odd. Still edible, just odd. For this recipe, you can make them the day before, or even an hour before.
2. Wash the beets and cut them into 1/2" chunks. You could skin them first, but I don't mind them that much so I just scrub them well.  
3. Preheat the oven to 350F. Toss the beets with some olive oil and salt and pepper. Spread on a parchment lined sheet and bake until fork tender, about 30-45 minutes.
4. Over medium heat, toast some walnuts in a pan until golden brown and fragrant.
5. Assemble the salad. On a base of Arugula, layer beets, pickled shallots, crumbled goat cheese, and walnuts. Drizzle some olive oil and vinegar on top, season with S&P. 

Super easy!  I realized that, although I know how long beets should cook, I don't have total times for prep and cooking on my original recipes. I'll try and make that a goal for next time!

She put Corned Beef in the oven, you'll never guess what happened next!

It cooked!

I go a bit crazy during March. A madness, perhaps. A madness for corned beef! It's so darn cheap! Alongside turkey, I firmly believe that corned beef should be had outside of its designated holiday. But a brisket is pricier than I'd like for regular consumption. Therefore when it's March and everyone wants to be Irish, I stock up! I have 3 beautiful slabs of corned beef in my freezer, around 3.5 lbs each. They keep very well so I can eat them all year round. Plus they were pretty cheap, about $6 each! 

I used to cook my corned beef in a CrockPot, but I like the texture of braising more, with less water than is used in most slow cooker recipes. I set the temperature  to 250F, liberally apply pickling spice to both sides of the corned beef brisket (that packet they include is much too small) and place it fat side up in my dutch oven. I'll add water to about halfway up the meat, cover it and cook it for around 50 minutes a pound, or until it's hella tender.

Rather than boil vegetables, roasting them in the oven with olive oil and salt and pepper makes for a much tastier side. 

For cabbage, I still love steaming quarters and dousing them with malt vinegar, as my Moogie always did, but I like to switch it up sometimes. This year I did a simplified version of Linda Bastianich's Braised Red Cabbage, and I added extra vinegar.

Sláinte!

12 Carrot Soup

We're in the middle of a cold spell. The Polar Vortex is wooshing in and making it quite hard to illustrate or type. I'm wearing a fleece tunic and a knit hat and I'm terribly cold still. 

So it's time to make soup!

Carrot Soup is probably one of the simplest soups, but it's warm and delicious, and sometimes you're just too cold for elaborate recipes. 

Carrot Soup

• 1-1.5 lb carrots
• a medium to large white potato
• 4-6 cups of your prefered broth
• an onion
• thyme
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Peel your potato and carrots, and cut into even pieces, about an inch or so.
2. Dice your onion, then saute it in a big pot with olive oil on medium heat.
3. When the onion starts to soften, add the thyme.
4. When the thyme becomes aromatic, add the carrots and potato, and a little more olive oil.
5. Let everything sweat out for 5 minutes, or don't if you're in a hurry.
6. Cover with the broth and turn the heat up to Medium High. Cook until fork tender.
7. An immersion blender is clutch for this, but you can blend everything in a regular blender as long as you do small batches, holding the lid on with a towel. Or just stick your immersion blender in the pot and blitz til smooth. Add more broth if you want it thinner.
8. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with grilled sandwiches or a good crusty bread.

You can take this super basic recipe and build on it. Instead of Thyme, use a tablespoon of curry, with a spot of coconut milk. Or a thumb's worth of lemongrass and an inch of fresh ginger. Or keep it basic and feed it to someone who has had their wisdom teeth extracted. 

I am, of course, speaking from experience with that last idea...

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Superb Owl Shrimp Tacos

Sometimes I buy proteins to keep on hand in the fridge, only to promptly forget about them. I HAVE SHRIMPS?! I also have a habit of not knowing what I plan on cooking for the blog until the night before, or morning of. I'm really good at that. By which I mean I'm terrible. 

After the realization last night that we had SHRIMPS, I decided to make tacos. Even though I'm having pork tacos with my sister in two days. Can't have too many, right?

I would put this on a list of stuff to make prior to a game of sports television program. You can easily prep everything before the first pitch, and cook and assemble during half-time. 

Superb Owl Shrimp Tacos

YOU NEED:

• Enough raw shrimp. I did 4 per taco. I also got the deveined/peeled kind BC I AINT GOT TIME.
• An avocado, or a 8-10oz thing of plain Guac because all the avocados were unripe and you didn't plan ahead to ripen them yourself. SOME OF US DON'T LIVE IN CALIFORNIA, GRANDMA.
• 1 Cup of Sour Cream. REAL FAT NOT THAT LOW/NONFAT BS.
• A Lime
• Cilantro
• Large Lettuce leaves or Corn Tortillas
• Cabbage
• Onion
• Green Chile Peppers, or Jarred Jalapenos or whatever suits your fancy
• Olive Oil
• 1 ts Garlic Powder
• 1 Tb Cumin
• 1/2 ts Cayenne
• Salt and Pepper
• Cholula Hot Sauce (I prefer the Chipotle kind)
• Cotija or Queso Fresco (neither of which I could find because I plan poorly)

Instructions!

1. Make a marinade of olive oil, cumin, cayenne, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and the juice from half a lime or so. Give a few good turns of salt and pepper, and a couple dashes of the Cholula. Mix in your shrimpies that are cleaned and peeled, and refrigerate whilst you prep the rest of the meal, or for as long as the first half of the game takes.
2. Using a Blender type tool, blend the sour cream, guac/avocado, juice of half a lime and a good handful of cilantro. Season with salt as needed. 
3. Shred the cabbage, chop some onions for garnish, ready your chiles.
4. When you're ready to eat, start warming your tortillas as instructed, or prep your lettuce alternatives. Throw the shrimp onto a pan on Medium High heat, cooking for 2-3 minutes on each side until it's opaque and pink.
5. Serve with the Avocado sauce, cabbage, chiles, cheese, more hot sauce ETC. 
6. Make a huge mess.
7. GO TEAM THAT'S APPROPRIATE FOR THE SEASON!