sausage

Does its size really matter…

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

One would have to wonder about the above question as it has been debated for years and I guess it all depends on what “it” is. I know for a fact that I would have a difficult time  using giant size utensils to eat my regular meals or, to use a contra example, very, very small ones for the same purpose. I guess we will have to answer this question with, “it all depends on what and the situation”,of course.

Sorry, I have not posted in a while but job searching, fleeing the homestead and hurricane Matthew clean up and repair took precedence.  Most of that silliness is done except for the finding of a job part.  However, on a positive note, it has given me more time to dream about food and think of different flavor combinations and recipes. This particular recipe was one I thought of while cruising the vegetable aisle at my local food store and noticing that the zucchini from the local farmers were HUGE!  Wow! I thought, one of these could feed a small country. Deciding against the idea of feeding a small country because the zucchini would most likely not still be fresh when it arrived , I wanted to do a stuffed version as a dinner. (saves on vegetable pans and clean up you know) I know what you are thinking, “this has been done a million times” but for me it was less about being original and more about doing a great dinner and maybe coming up with a stuffing that could be used in different ways.  This stuffing mixture has already led me to a new idea of stuffing yet another type of cabbage, red. (the final frontier of cabbages for me) Details on this idea are still in the works but will coming shortly to a computer near you.

Without further adieu, the stuffing did turn out, as Borat says, “Very Nice” and I will most likely use it in home-made ravioli or possibly add it to my marinara sauce to make a sort of bolognese for fresh pasta noodles. For now tough, here is the recipe.

Z-Size Matters

(Sausage stuffed zucchini) (Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

4 – Zucchini, large, washed and halved on the long axis with the seeds scooped out (kind of zucchini canoes, if you will)

1 lb – Ground Italian sausage, (you would also use the ones with the casing but you would have to take that off before cooking) mild, (to spice it up you could also use hot sausage)

1/3 cup – Sweet onion, chopped

1/3 cup – Mushrooms, fine chopped, I used Baby Bella mushrooms (baby portabellas)

1/3 cup – Green Bell pepper, finely chopped

1/3 cup – Red Bell pepper, finely chopped

3 oz – Chopped black olives

1/2 tsp – Kosher salt

1 tsp – Coarse ground black pepper

1 tsp – Red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp – Dried Oregano

1 tbsp – Dried Basil

2 cloves – Garlic, fine chopped

2 tbs (more or less) – Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 to 6 ozs – mixed shaved Italian cheeses (this becomes the topping)

Preparation – First, take the sausage and brown in a large skillet over medium heat. When the sausage is done, remove with a slotted spoon and place on the side in a large bowl. Using the rendered fat from the sausage and a little bit of olive oil, bring the skillet back up to low medium temperature and first sauté the garlic (make sure that this does not turn dark brown because it will become bitter), onions, green and red bell peppers. Next, lower the heat and add in the chopped mushrooms, black olives and season the entire mixture with salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, oregano and basil. Keep the mixture on the heat until the mushrooms soften and the onions are translucent. Remove from the heat and add this to the cooked sausage in the bowl and mix until all of the ingredients are evenly distributed.

Construction Instruction – Arrange your zucchini “boats” in a 9 X 12 baking dish (or one that fits the zucchini so they will not fall over during baking) with the scooped side up. Using a large spoon, stuff each of the zucchini with the mixture. Note: It is okay to mound the mixture, as it does not need to be level with the top of the opening. Once all of the stuffing is in the zucchinis, take the mixed cheeses and lightly cover the top of each. Place in a pre-heated, 350 degree oven and bake uncovered for 35 to 45 minutes where the cheese will slightly brown.

This was served with slices of rosemary/olive oil Italian bread.

Enjoy!

The Well Fed Cyclist

Gary Bechard

 

 

 

 

“Mighty Rad Gumbo”…

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

Or so sang “Little Feat” in this song about gumbo and his mamma being in the “Seafood Hall of Fame” because of her cooking. It was this song that was my original inspiration to create a gumbo recipe. If you have ever read this blog, you will know that I am no stranger to driving, a LOT, whether it was my epic 4 hour round trip to commute to my last job or the months I had to drive north to western Pennsylvania before we moved there. Along those same lines, I recently completed a move to North Myrtle Beach and, as can be imagined, there was a great deal of driving involved as we shuttled items from western Pennsylvania to the beach. When the weather is nice and people aren’t driving while sitting on their shoulders, I listen to my iPod and when this song came up my mind went into overdrive!  I had never done a gumbo, sure there were stews and soups and such but gumbo?  In my head, it was kind of exotic.  You know the stuff that chefs in New Orleans (Neawleans as pronounced) do with their voodoo spices and tantric cooking practices. So, I did not want to do a “safe” regular gumbo but wanted to do something that brought together a whole host of other flavors (kind of a combination creole-gumbo, a “cre-umbo”, if you will) and since I was cooking for a large group, I wanted it to make a decent quantity so you may have to trim down the amount of the individual ingredients if you are making for fewer than 8. You may notice that there is no added salt or an excess of seasonings as all of the flavor comes from the Andouille sausage with which you start the recipe. This recipe is the result of all that time in the car. I loved it and so did the folks who were eating it (one had it for breakfast the next morning).  As you may, or may not, know the first to taste a new recipe has the honor of creating the name.  My niece Caroline (the southern one), because of the Olympics in Rio gave the recipe its name, “Brazilian Blowout Gumbo”.  (special note: next up is a honey mustard, tarragon glazed chicken but that will be later this week)

Brazilian Blowout Gumbo

(Makes 6 – 8 servings)

Gary Bechard – The Well Fed Cyclist

Ingredients:

3 – Boneless-skinless chicken breasts, cubed

14 ounces – Andouille sausage, sliced crosswise

16 ounces – Cooked tail off shrimp, defrosted, 51 to 70 count

1 cup – Fresh okra sliced

1/3 – Medium sweet onion, rough diced

1/3 – Red bell pepper, diced

1/3 – Yellow bell pepper, diced

1/3 – Green bell pepper, diced

1 ½ stalks – Celery, diced

1 – 28 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes

1 – 28 ounce can of tomato sauce

1 – 28 ounce can of diced fire roasted tomatoes

2 – 15 ounce cans of fire roasted corn

1 handful (about 3/4ths cup) – Fresh Parsley leaves, finely chopped

3 – Cloves garlic, finely chopped

8 ounces – Chicken stock (or vegetable stock if the spirit moves you)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I say this amount but it should only be enough to swirl around the bottom of the pot a couple of times during the cooking process)

1 tbsp – Coarse ground black pepper

2 tsp – Thyme (I used dried ground)

A brief note before the construction instructions: I normally chop my vegetables and meat ingredients ahead of time because it makes for easier cooking and cleaning.

Construction Instructions:

In a big stockpot, pour a nice “figure 8” of olive oil on the bottom. Turn the heat to mid range (5 or 6 on most electric ranges) and bring the oil up to temperature remembering that olive oil has a low smoke point and does not withstand high heat very well without breaking down. When the oil is hot, add Andouille sausage slices and cook them until they are done and they have rendered their fatty goodness on the bottom of the pan. Remove the slices from the pot with a slotted spoon, set aside and add a little bit more olive oil and bring the oil back up to temperature. Next add the chicken cubes and cook them until they are done and repeat the process of removing the cubed chicken and setting aside. Once again, drizzle a little bit of oil in the pot and with a wooden spoon scrape some of the tasty bits off the bottom and add your garlic sautéing this until the garlic softens making sure that you do not allow the garlic to turn brown. Lower the heat to low medium and then, add the onions, peppers and celery sautéing these until they soften. With all of that goodness going on in the pot, add the okra slices and pour in the chicken stock covering the vegetables. Cook the okra until it is tender then add back the chicken and the sausage. Once this is done, add each of the cans of tomatoes, tomato sauce and the fire roasted corn (water and all) and stir all of these together allowing the ingredients to get acquainted. Next add the parsley and the thyme, re-stir, to distribute the herbs evenly. Lower the heat so that the mixture is at a low simmer (the liquid will lightly bubble and not be a rolling boil) and make sure that you are constantly stirring to make sure the heat stays even throughout the mixture and to start breaking down the whole tomatoes. You can aid in breaking down the tomatoes by cutting them through with the edge of the wooden spoon with which you are using to stir. The process will take about 30 to 40 minutes and you should notice that your liquids cooking down a bit. In the last 10 minutes, after the whole tomatoes have broken down, add the shrimp and cook for another 10 minutes until they are heated thoroughly.

I served this over whole grain brown rice with jalapeno-cheese bread slices.

Enjoy!

The Well Fed Cyclist

Il cavolo nero idea vita!!!!! (Translation…The Tuscan cabbage idea lives!)

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

I told everyone yesterday that I had some ideas rolling around in the old noggin on how to use the Tuscan cabbage and well, it just happened. I found at least one way to incorporate the cabbage/kale into a recipe.  I really thought it was going to take me a lot longer to come up with something but sometimes, when the wind is right and the planets are aligned, it happens, so I went with it.  Cruising through the memory banks while building a small table for the basement fridge, I went through a bunch of recipes in my head where I incorporated cabbage. At first I thought of using the leaves for stuffing, like my shrimp stuffed Bok Choy recipe (I may still figure out something to stuff them with but I digress) and remembered a stir fry recipe where I used shredded brussel sprouts in addition to the vegetables to add kind of a smoky flavor.  Having tasted the Tuscan cabbage and knowing it had a similar but not as bitter flavor profile as brussel sprouts, I thought that it might go well with sweet Italian sausage.  Originally, I thought of just doing the vegetables and cabbage with the sausage and serving the mixture over rice or pasta but not wanting to dirty more than one pan, I decided to make this a “One Skillet Wonder” (the name of another recipe which will be posted at a future date).  The one skillet idea led to the addition of the potatoes. I hope you try this and let me know how it turns out.

The Well Fed Cyclist

Gary Bechard

Sweet Tuscan Stir fry

One skillet sweet sausage with Tuscan Kale

(makes 3-4 servings)

5 – Sweet Italian sausages (cut into slices)

1/3 – Sweet or Red onion, sliced (then quarter the slices)

1/2 – Red bell pepper, rough diced

1/2 – Green bell pepper, rough diced

1 – Small zucchini, rough diced

1 – Small yellow squash, rough diced

12 oz – Baby red, yellow or white potatoes quartered (I used a baby potato bag that had yellow, white, red and purple)

1 cup – Cremini Mushrooms, sliced

1 can – Black olives (pitted, 6 ounces dry weight)

5-7 leaves – Tuscan cabbage/kale, washed and rough shredded

1/4 cup – Fresh parsley, chopped fine

6-7 leaves – Basil, chopped

1 tsp – Oregano, dried or fresh (fresh use the leaves of 3 to 4 sprigs)

4-5 cloves – Garlic, fine diced

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – A few good turns around the pan will do

1/4 cup – Vegetable Stock

Coarse Ground black pepper to taste

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – About 1/4 cup more or less

Note: I always dice my vegetables before I start so that I can add them at the appropriate time while cooking.

Construction Instruction:

First, in a large skillet (one that has a cover), do a few good turns on the bottom of pan with olive oil and over low/med heat sauté onion and garlic until they begin to soften. Next, add sausage and stir (hence the name “stir fry”) until the sausage is done. (about 7 to 10 minutes since they are sliced) While still over low- medium heat, add peppers, zucchini, squash and olives and sauté until the vegetables begin to soften. To the pan, add the vegetable stock. Let the mixture warm and then add the potatoes. Fold mixture together until everything is evenly distributed and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Next, add the basil and oregano plus pepper to taste. Lower the heat and cover the skillet. (This will steam cook the potatoes). Stir the mixture occasionally until the potatoes are fork tender. When the potatoes are done, add the shredded Tuscan cabbage, re-cover the skillet and allow the cabbage to soften slightly. (about 5 to 7 minutes)

Since this meal is a “one skillet wonder” serve with nice, rustic, crusty bread.

Enjoy!