Authors: Victoria Wise
Sausage (9 page)
Cucumber-Mint Yogurt Sauce
Pita is a staple flatbread of casual Middle Eastern cuisine. Sometimes the pita has a pocket, which is opened and filled with delicious ingredients. Sometimes it has no pocket, and is merely folded over to contain the ingredients as best it can. The cooling, refreshing cucumber-laced yogurt sauce, called by many names—
tzatziki
in Greek,
jajik
in Armenian,
cacik
in Turkish,
raita
in Hindi—soothes the heat of a dish and the heat of the day. Following the Greek theme suggested by the sausage, I call for pita without a pocket. I shape the sausage into small balls and grill the balls, their aroma recalling the enticing, smoky scent that wafts from spinning souvlakis (gyros) you find in marketplaces throughout Greece.
SERVES 6
Sauce
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup peeled and coarsely chopped cucumber
1 small clove garlic, minced with ½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons shredded fresh mint leaves
Pita Toppings
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons shredded fresh basil leaves
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups arugula leaves
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and cut into paper-thin rounds
1 cup cooked chickpeas
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 pound
Greek Pork and Beef Sausage
, formed into twelve 1¼-inch balls
6 pita breads
To make the sauce, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir to mix. Cover and refrigerate until using, or for up for 2 days.
To prepare the pita toppings, combine the tomatoes, basil, and salt in a small bowl and toss to mix. Combine the arugula, bell pepper, chickpeas, feta, and oil in a medium bowl and toss to mix.
Prepare a medium-hot grill.
Place the sausage balls on the grill rack directly over the heat and grill, turning frequently, until browned all around and no longer pink in the center, 7 to 10 minutes. Just before the sausage balls are ready, lightly char the pita breads on both sides on the grill, about 30 seconds per side. Or, toast them in a toaster oven until beginning to turn golden.
To serve, place 2 sausage balls in the center of each pita. Top with the arugula salad, then the tomatoes, dividing them evenly. Drizzle the yogurt sauce over all, fold, and enjoy.
Water chestnuts are an underwater corm, and as you might imagine if you consider their natural environment, they are plump with water and crunchy. Their taste, on the other hand, is hard to pinpoint: it’s a cross between jicama and sugarcane with a hint of nuttiness, all diluted with water. In other words, it is somewhat bland. They are often used in Chinese and Southeast Asian dishes, mainly in stir-fries, for their snappy bite. That is also what they contribute to this sausage, which features Asian tastes. I use the sausage for stuffing wontons (
see recipe
), for making small balls to top steamed rice, for mixing into udon noodles, or for wrapping in lettuce leaves as the Thai and Laotians do with minced meats (
see recipe
) and the Vietnamese do with savory meatballs (
see recipe
).
Fresh water chestnuts are rarely found in markets, even those geared to an Asian clientele. They are seasonal and as much of a chore to peel as tree chestnuts (not a relative, despite the name). Canned water chestnuts fill that niche. They are available in grocery stores where even only a small amount of space is devoted to Asian ingredients. This sausage recipe calls for much less than what you get in a 6-ounce can, usually the smallest size sold. The remainder can be stored covered with fresh water in the refrigerator and used in homey stir-fries, salads, and slaws.
MAKES ½ POUND
½ pound ground pork
2 heaping tablespoons chopped water chestnuts
1 tablespoon finely chopped scallions, white and light green parts
2 teaspoons peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon dry sherry, such as amontillado
¼ teaspoon Asian sesame oil
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon sugar
Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl, and knead with your hands until thoroughly blended. Leave in bulk and shape and cook as directed in individual recipes. The sausage can be used right away, or it can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. It does not freeze well.
In the annals of folk medicine, watercress soup is said to be good for soothing a dry throat or for when a general system-cleansing tonic is needed. Here, the nip and pep of watercress infuses chicken broth made rich with slivers of shiitake mushroom and plump sausage-filled wontons to produce a new take on wonton soup that is both healthful and delicious.
Hydroponic watercress, meaning watercress grown in water and without soil, closely resembles watercress you might pick alongside a running stream in spring, but it has finer, more delicate stems and far less dirt and sand on its leaves. It is often available year-round in supermarket produce sections.
SERVES 4 TO 6
½ pound
Pork and Water Chestnut Sausage
20 to 22 square wonton wrappers
6 cups
chicken broth
1 large shiitake mushroom (¾ ounce), stemmed and thinly sliced
1 cup packed watercress leaves and tender stems, preferably hydroponic
Kosher salt
To make the wontons, place 1 heaping teaspoon of the sausage in the center of each wonton wrapper. Lightly brush the edges of the wrapper with water, and fold it over corner to corner to make a triangle. Press the edges together with a fork to seal. As the wontons are made, transfer them to a plate. Use right away, or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use, within a few hours.
To make the soup, combine the broth and shiitake slices in a large saucepan and place over medium-high heat. When the broth just begins to boil, drop in as many wontons as will fit without crowding and cook until they rise to the top, 3 to 4 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the wontons to a plate and repeat with the remaining wontons.
When all the wontons are cooked, stir the watercress into the simmering broth and return the wontons to the pan. Reheat gently, then ladle into individual bowls and serve right away.
Porcupine Meatballs with Rice Quills and Hot-Sweet Mustard
These small sausage balls, with their rice “quills” poking outward, are a dream for entertaining. They can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated for up to 2 days before cooking to serve warm. The green tea leaves season the sausage with an exotic savor, and a side plate of hot-sweet mustard, soy sauce, and Asian sesame oil for dipping, all out of a jar or bottle, suffice to complete the dish’s charm. Although the meatballs have a pedigree in Chinese cuisine made with glutinous, or sweet, rice, I prefer to use regular rice.
If you don’t have a bamboo steamer basket, a plate lined with lettuce leaves can substitute. The trick here is to rig up something, such as an empty can in the bottom of the pot, to elevate the plate above the water. Covering the pot will allow enough steam to collect around the plate for the balls to cook.
MAKES ABOUT 30 APPETIZER-SIZE BALLS
Sausage
1 cup short-, medium-, or long-grain white rice
1 teaspoon loose green tea leaves, any kind
1 tablespoon boiling water
1 pound ground pork
¼ cup finely chopped scallions, mostly light green parts
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon peeled and minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
½ teaspoon kosher salt
⅓ cup hot-sweet mustard
2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce
¼ teaspoon Asian sesame oil
To make the sausage, soak the rice in water to cover for 45 minutes. Drain in a colander, shake dry, and spread on a plate.
In a small cup, steep the tea in the boiling water for 3 minutes. When cool, combine the leaves and water with the pork, scallions, soy sauce, ginger, cilantro, white pepper, and salt in a medium bowl, and knead with your hands until thoroughly blended. Form the sausage into small balls, using about 1 tablespoon for each ball. Roll each ball in the rice, pressing the grains into the ball so they adhere. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use, up to 2 days.
To cook the meatballs, line a bamboo steamer basket with lettuce leaves. Set the meatballs, without crowding them, on the lettuce. Select a wok that the steamer basket will fit in or a pot the same diameter as the basket so that the basket will rest firmly on the rim. Pour in water to a depth of 1 inch and bring to a boil over high heat. Set the steamer basket in the wok or on top of the pot, cover the basket or pot, and steam until the meatballs are no longer pink at the center and the rice is tender, about 25 minutes.
To serve, spread the mustard in the center of a small plate. Swirl the soy sauce on one side of the mustard and pool the sesame oil on the other. Serve the meatballs in the bamboo steamer or transfer them to a platter. Offer toothpicks for picking up the meatballs and dipping them into the mustard mixture on the plate.
Lemongrass, a key ingredient in Vietnamese and Thai cooking, contributes a clean, citrusy taste and fragrance to dishes, such as in this Southeast Asian sausage, where it lightens the bold seasoning. Only the pale, tender inside of the bottom part of the lemongrass stalk is used. To prepare lemongrass cut off and discard the long, thin, gray-green leafy tops and trim away the root end. Peel away the stiff, outer leaves down to the tender core. Slice the core into very thin rounds or chop finely.
MAKES 1 POUND
14 ounces ground pork
2 ounces salt pork, fat only, minced
2 small cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
1 tablespoon finely chopped lemongrass
½ teaspoon finely chopped dried small red chile, such as cayenne or japones
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
Kosher salt
Combine all the ingredients except the salt in a medium bowl, and knead with your hands until thoroughly blended. Cook and taste a small sample, then add salt to taste. Leave in bulk and shape as directed in individual recipes or stuff into sheep casing. The sausage can be used right away. (The uncooked sausage will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days; it does not freeze well.)
Sauté or grill, or cook as directed in individual recipes.
Vietnamese Dipping Sauce
What traveler to faraway places with strange-sounding names hasn’t become enamored of the street food found along the way? As much as art, architecture, magnificent landscapes, and the people, the food attracts. Street food requires no formal dress, nor a large bank account. It is simply there for eating, either at the spot or on the move to the next point of interest. In keeping with the street-food theme, grill these sausages if you can. Otherwise, a brisk sauté on the stove top works well.
The dipping sauce,
nuoc cham,
is
the
table sauce in Vietnamese dining, much like a cruet of vinegar and one of oil on an Italian table, a bottle of chile oil and one of soy sauce on a Chinese table, or fresh tomato salsa or
salsa verde
on a Mexican table. It is important to use a good-quality fish sauce, one that is smooth, rather than sharp. I recommend Thai Kitchen brand, generally available in well-stocked supermarkets these days and certainly available in Asian markets.
SERVES 6 TO 8
Vietnamese Dipping Sauce
¼ cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2½ tablespoons Thai fish sauce
¼ cup water
2 teaspoons sugar
5 thin rounds jalapeño or other small chile
1 tablespoon coarsely grated carrot
Peanut or canola oil, if sautéing
1 pound
Southeast Asian Pork and Lemongrass Sausage
, formed into 1-inch balls
24 red-leaf or butter lettuce leaves
¼ cup shredded fresh mint leaves