Authors: Victoria Wise
Sausage (10 page)
To make the dipping sauce, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir to mix. Use right away or set aside at room temperature for up to several hours. (The sauce is best used without refrigerating and is perkiest if used the same day it is made.)
Prepare a medium-hot grill, or film the bottom of a large sauté pan with oil and place over medium-high heat. If grilling, soak 12 to 16 small bamboo skewers in water to cover while the grill heats.
If cooking on a grill, drain the skewers and thread 2 or 3 sausage balls onto each one. Place them on the grill rack directly over the heat source. If sautéing, place as many meatballs as will fit without crowding in the pan. Cook, turning the balls frequently, until brown all around and no longer pink in the center but still moist, 8 to 10 minutes, by either method.
To serve, arrange the lettuce leaves, slightly overlapping, on a platter. Transfer the meatballs to the platter as they are cooked, setting them atop the lettuce. Sprinkle the mint over the meatballs. Divide the dipping sauce among a few small bowls and set the bowls around the table so the sauce is within easy reach of all the diners. Each diner lifts a lettuce leaf, enfolding 1 or 2 of the meatballs, and dips the leaf package into the sauce.
BEEF SAUSAGES MAKE UP
a smaller menu than the extensive one for pork sausages. It seems that people prefer the large cuts when it comes to beef: roasts, steaks, or chunks stewed, braised, or skewered. But where’s the beef sausage? For this chapter, I ferreted out a roundabout of traditional ways with beef sausages, and added some of my own devising in keeping with typical culinary ingredients of a certain place. I begin with meat loaf and hamburger at home, the land of vast cattle herds and more beef than almost anyone can imagine. From there I travel to cuisines where beef is available, albeit in small amounts. The sausages included are quite different, one from the other, but altogether they show the ingenious ways cooks everywhere go about making a dish with small bits of meat along with plenty of vegetables and grains, to provide a meal no one will find lacking in taste or sumptuousness.
American Meat Loaf Somewhat Frenchified, with a California Twist
My House Hamburger with Pickled Red Onions, Dijon Mayonnaise, and Shredded Romaine in a Ciabatta Bun
Skillet Tamale Pie with Mexican Beef Sausage in Jalapeño and Cheese Corn Bread Crust
South African Sausage with Collard Greens, Ethiopian Spiced Butter, and Cashew Rice
Beef Polpette with a Cheese Center
Italian American Spaghetti and Meatballs in Red Sauce
Beef and Eggplant Sausage in Eggplant Shell Casings
Swedish Potato and Beef Sausage with Roasted Beets and Sour Cream
Savory Bread Pudding with English Sausage, Wilted Leeks, and Dried Pears
East European Caraway Beef and Rice Sausage
Hungarian Meatballs in Paprika Sour Cream with Hungarian Green Bean Salad
Hmong-Style Asian Greens Soup with Beef Meatballs and Slab Bacon
Vietnamese-Style Beef Sausage and Vegetable Spring Rolls with Mint Dipping Sauce
In a cross-continental sausage loaf reminiscent of French pâtés, beef, pork, and veal are combined in equal amounts with bread crumbs to make a more pillowy loaf. The California twist is replacing the traditional ketchup “icing” with pavers of sun-dried tomato across the top. You can serve it warm for dinner, American style, with a side of mashed potatoes, or French style, chilled until firm enough to slice thin for an hors d’oeuvre plate. The cooking vessel can be as ordinary as a standard aluminum loaf pan or, if you are serving it warm, a more table-worthy clay pot or round soufflé dish.
SERVES 6 TO 8
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground veal
1 cup
fresh bread crumbs
1 cup finely chopped yellow or white onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
⅔ cup white wine
2 large eggs
12 unseasoned oil-packed sun-dried tomato halves
2 ounces salt pork, unsmoked bacon, or pancetta, very thinly sliced
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Place all the ingredients except the sun-dried tomatoes and salt pork in a large bowl, and knead with your hands until thoroughly blended and no longer wet.
Transfer the mixture to a 9-by-5-by-2¾-inch loaf pan or other suitable baking dish. Pat the mixture to even it across the top and fill all the way to the corners. Arrange the tomatoes over the loaf without overlapping them. Arrange the salt pork in stripes, without touching one another, over the tomatoes. Cover the pan with aluminum foil, pinching around the pan rim to seal loosely.
Bake until the juices are bubbling up clear, not pink, and the meat is no longer pink in the center, about 2 hours. Remove from the oven, uncover, and let stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour to allow the juices to settle and the loaf to firm.
Cut the meat loaf into slices as thick as you like and serve warm. Or, refrigerate overnight and serve cold.
Pickled Red Onions,
Dijon Mayonnaise, and Shredded Romaine in a Ciabatta Bun
Hamburgers reign supreme in the annals of American food, indeed in the annals of fast food around the world. Establishments that proffer them have made incursions into seemingly unlikely places to the extent that it is hardly surprising to see hamburgers on menus almost anywhere from Paris to Beijing. In fact, the humble beef patties have become such big business that there’s just no stopping them.
And what is this icon of American enterprise? The answer is simple: it’s ground beef seasoned with salt. In other words, hamburger is quintessential sausage, and people love it. So do I. In fact, hamburgers-for-dinner is one of my default meals. For my house hamburger, I choose organic, pasture-raised beef, which, though slightly more expensive, is definitely tastier and more healthful than average ground beef. I lightly season the meat with salt and chill it for a few hours to let the salt do its work tenderizing the meat and making it more succulent. The Dijon mayo, pickled onions, and crunchy lettuce are fundamental, as are the artisanal buns, my favorite being
ciabatta
buns. Where are the tomatoes? I left them by the wayside in the development of my house hamburger. Their acid element and red color is supplied by the pickled onions. But, sometimes I add sliced heirloom tomatoes if it’s tomato season, or perhaps a splash of ketchup on one side of the bun. A hamburger is, after all, a personal thing, subject to whims of the moment.
SERVES 6
Hamburgers
2½ pounds best-quality ground beef
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
Mayonnaise
1 large egg
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup peanut oil
Pickled Onions
1 large red onion, sliced into thin rounds
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon sugar
Extra virgin olive oil, if cooking in a skillet
6 mini
ciabatta
or other buns, split
3 cups shredded romaine lettuce leaves
Place the beef in a medium bowl, sprinkle with the salt, and lightly mix with your hands until thoroughly blended. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to overnight.
To make the mayonnaise, in a food processor, combine the egg, mustard, lemon juice, and salt and process until thoroughly blended. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the oils to make a thick emulsion. Transfer to a small bowl, cover, and refrigerate until ready to use or for up to 5 days.
To make the pickled onions, toss together the onions and salt in a medium bowl. Combine the vinegar, water, and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour the hot mixture over the onions, stir well, and set aside for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
To cook the burgers, prepare a medium-hot grill or film a large, heavy skillet, preferably cast iron, with oil and place over medium-high heat. Divide the ground beef into 6 equal portions, and form each portion into a patty about ½ inch thick. Place the patties on the grill directly over the heat source or in the hot skillet. Cook, turning 2 or 3 times, until medium-rare, about 9 minutes, by either method, or until as done as you like.
Toast the
ciabatta
, cut sides down, on the grill or cut sides up in a toaster oven for 1 to 2 minutes until beginning to turn golden.
Sandwich a patty between bun halves and serve at once. Pass the mayonnaise, pickled onions, and lettuce on the side to be added as desired.
There’s a certain romance associated with skillet cooking in American cuisine. It conjures campfires or rustic wood-fired ovens, where the cooking vessel must be sturdy enough to withstand the heat. Cast-iron pans fit that bill and more. I routinely use three cast-iron skillets of different sizes to accommodate different types of dishes: a small one for cooking up sausage samples for tasting or for frying up a couple of burgers; a medium size for cooking plate-size pancakes or a fat, juicy steak for two; and a large one for searing meats or fish fillets before finishing them in the oven or for making this skillet tamale pie. Cast-iron skillets offer two more advantages: they are widely available anywhere that carries kitchen equipment, from hardware stores to gourmet cookware shops, and they are modestly priced. The drawback to cast iron is that it is not serviceable for dishes that include tomatoes, wine, spinach, eggplant, or the like, because it turns the ingredient unpleasantly bitter. Romance aside, cooking the tamale pie in a cast-iron skillet offers one more advantage. It saves on pots and dishes: brown the sausage in the skillet on the stove top, spread the corn bread topping over the sausage, pop the skillet in the oven to bake, and then serve directly from the skillet.
The quick, few-ingredient sausage is also good for tacos, topping pizza, Mexican-style spaghetti and meatballs, or in place of chorizo for egg preparations. The corn bread batter can be cooked into a tender, light bread without the sausage; use an 8-inch skillet in this case.
MAKES ONE 9-INCH PIE, SERVES 4 TO 6
Sausage
1 pound ground beef
¼ cup finely chopped yellow or white onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped red or green bell pepper
2 teaspoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons pure chile powder, preferably ancho or New Mexico
⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Crust
1 cup yellow cornmeal
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup milk
1 large egg
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeño chile
½ cup shredded orange Cheddar cheese
Peanut or canola oil, for sautéing the sausage
To make the sausage, place all the ingredients in a medium bowl, and knead with your hands until thoroughly blended. Set aside while you make the crust, or cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
To make the crust, combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl and stir with a fork to mix. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and egg. Add to the cornmeal mixture along with the melted butter, chile, and cheese and whisk to mix.
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
To assemble the pie, add just enough oil to a heavy 9-inch ovenproof skillet, preferably cast iron, to film the bottom and place over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and sauté, stirring to break up the clumps, until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. Spread the crust batter evenly across the top.
Bake until golden around the edges and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand to cool and firm slightly before serving.
South African Sausage with Collard Greens, Ethiopian Spiced Butter, and Cashew Rice