Sausage Stuffing

MMMmmmm sausage. Focus! I disagree with the amount of broth in the original recipe, and maybe that's because I used dried bread instead of fresh, but it could also be a taste preference. I guess that's what happens when you shop for bread on Thursday morning and yet refuse to pay $3 or more a loaf - you buy dried bread cubes.

I like stuffing really moist, like a custard. I'd add at least 2 cups of broth and maybe more. You can always add liquid and rebake if it's not the right consistency for you.

Darn flashy cranberries, always stealing the show! This stuffing recipe made three times the amount seen in the above photo. I hope you love stuffing.

Receipe Time: Sausage Stuffing
adapted from Chow site
serves 10-12

2 pounds of dried bread cubes
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped celery (about 4 large stalks)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped yellow onion (about 1 large)
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
medium garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 teaspoons dried thyme
3/4 cup (if stuffing a turkey) or 1 1/2 cups (if baking separately) low-sodium chicken broth

1. Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle.
2. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat until hot, about 2 minutes.
3. Add the sausage and break it into pea-size pieces. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it’s no longer pink, about 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to a medium bowl.
4. Set the pan with the sausage drippings back over medium-high heat and add the butter.
5. Once melted, add the celery, onions, and paprika. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are softened, about 6 minutes.
6. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
7. Add the reserved sausage and the herbs and stir to combine.
8. Add 3/4 cup of the broth and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to release any browned bits.
9. Transfer the sausage mixture to a bowl with the bread cubes and stir to combine. Let sit for 10 minutes. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper as needed.
10. If you’re using the stuffing in a turkey, let it cool to room temperature before proceeding (do not add the remaining 3/4 cup broth—the stuffing will moisten as it cooks inside the turkey).
11. If you’re baking it separately, add just enough broth to moisten the mixture (you may not need the entire remaining 3/4 cup). Taste and season with more salt and pepper as needed.
12. Transfer to a 4-quart baking dish, cover with a lid or foil, and bake 20 minutes. Uncover and bake until dry to the touch and golden brown on top, about 20 minutes more.

Spicy Moroccan Stewed Fish with Couscous

Stew in the summer! Are you crazy? No, just lazy. We made this in February and I'm just now posting about it. This spicy (or not, depends on your taste or what you forget) stewed fish recipe is quick and adaptable, which is good because I wanted to use food that was already in the house and when I went to the store to buy ingredients I forgot the shrimp. So now there's no shrimp. But it's not called spicy stewed shrimp now is it? Oh, it's called spicy...and I don't have a hot chili, well fine*, I'll substitute a nice red bell pepper and call my dish Moroccan Stewed Fish with Couscous. Mmmmm good. Don't worry I added some special olives and pickled lemons to make up for my forgetfulness.

The pepper* and the lemons. Let me tell you about these lemons. I bought them in an international grocery in St. Louis near the Crown Candy Kitchen. CCK is awesome, so awesome and sugar overloading that it made me forget the name of the lemon store. I love these lemons and they make almost every dish better, but alas I can't find them here and as you can see the jar is almost empty!

Recipe Time: Spicy Moroccan Stewed Fish with Couscous
adapted from Cooking Light January/February 2010
which was adapted from Jamie's Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver
serves 4

1 Cup uncooked couscous
2 Tbs olive oil
3 Tbs lemon juice
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 Cups fat-free chicken broth
20 oz uncooked white fish, cut into large pieces
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp diced garlic
1 bell pepper, diced (*okay, it should be 1 fresh hot chili, thinly sliced)
14 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup frozen green peas
6 large olives stuffed with feta
1/4 medium-sized pickled lemon

1. Place couscous in a medium bowl or sauce pan (basically anything with a lid); add 2 Tbs lemon juice, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp pepper. 
2. Pour boiling chicken stock over couscous; cover and let stand for at least 5 minutes. 
3. Fluff couscous with fork before serving.
4. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper over fish. 
5. In a large skillet, warm 2 Tbs oil over medium heat. 
6. Add remaning lemon juice, cumin powder, cinnamon, garlic, and *bell pepper. Cook for 2 minutes.
7. Then layer the fish and tomatoes. Cook for 5 min.
8. Add peas and cook for 5 more min.
9. Serve the stew over couscous, garnish with pickled lemons and olives.

Smoked Paprika and Potato Soup

The last day of the farmers' market is a crazy day. Do we really need more produce if we never can or freeze? But there won't be good tomatoes until next year! It's rainy and cold, no one will be there. My life is a barren wasteland without fresh fruit! But every time I buy onions I get a bad batch. And so on ...but you can never go wrong with potatoes. Unless of course you have too many spuds and not enough space.

I wasn't going to post this recipe since it doesn't "come from somewhere," unless you count my desperate state as a destination, but once I tasted the spicy soup I don't regret only taking pictures at the halfway mark. This is a quick recipe and most of the time takes place in the microwave. The soup is also fairly hands-off except for watching the onions in the beginning and watching the knife when you cut the microwave softened potatoes into large chunks.

The flavor comes from a rough-chopped yellow onion cooked in a few teaspoons of olive oil with smoked paprika, dried parsley, dried thyme, salt and black pepper. Just throw it all in the bottom of your soup pot while you microwave eight medium potatoes (or whatever you've got on hand).

When the potatoes are fork tender carefully remove them from the microwave - those little devilspuds are HOT! The eight potatoes magically equals eight cups. How convenient. After the onions become translucent add four cups of chicken stock and the potato chunks. Let it simmer, check your Facebook, stir it around, get a drink, think about serving it, then decided to blend it with an immersion blender.

less creamy

more creamy

I'm always looking for a reason to use the immersion blender, mainly because it is the one kitchen gadget we own. For creamy but not overly smooth texture I removed roughly a cup of the soup before blending and then added that back to the blended portion. You do whatever makes you happy.

Recipe Time: Smoked Paprika and Potato Soup

serves 8

4 cups organic fat free or low-fat chicken broth
1 cup onions
8 cups potato
1 Tbsp parsley
1 Tbsp dried thyme
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp paprika
2 tsp table salt
2 tsp black pepper

1. Microwave the potatoes until they are fork tender.
2. While the potatoes are cooking roughly chop the onion.
3. Cook/sweat the onion in a stock pot with the oil and the seasonings until the onion turns translucent.
4. Add the chicken stock and simmer.
5. Cut the cooked potatoes into large chunks.
6. Add the potatoes to the soup and simmer about 10 minutes.
7. Eat or blend the soup with an immersion blender for a creamy texture.

Boulangère Pommes de Terre (Baker Potatoes)

My two years of French has made me somewhat capable of pronunciation en Français, but my middle-schoolesque humor negates those capabilities. While cooking this adaptable, easy potato recipe my lips said boulangère potatoes but my mind thought Lingerie Potatoes, ha ha! Panty Potatoes!!

I'm not used to weighing ingredients, otherwise I might not have been so amused by my tower of potatoes. That's 1kg placed jenga style on my tiny kitchen scale. Although the recipe ended up requiring two baking dishes and then more sliced potatoes, and then more salt and pepper, and then . . . (vicious cycle). Originally weighed out 1kg.

Before the pan/potato quantity issue I ran into the too lazy to make/buy chicken stock so will use beef stock issue. Because beef stock has a deeper bolder richer pimpier flavor I felt justified in adding 2 oz of water to make the required 500ml of stock. Ultimately, if you have to spread this dish out over multiple pans you might need more stock to cover the potato and onion slices.

So pretty. So tear-inducing. I wish I had a mandoline. The first and prettiest layer in the baking dish. Each subsequent layer seemed to hump up more in the middle. Might be due to my uneven slices.

For one of the baking dishes I remembered to put the dabs of butter on top after pouring the stock, that is not this dish. It doesn't really matter. It's hard to mess up this recipe. We ate this with roasted chicken* and a fresh tomato salad.


Recipe Time
(adapted from the Almost Bourdain site, also an adaptation, so this might be some freaky hybrid)
Serves 8ish

2.5 lbs potatoes
1 large onion
2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley (I used dried parsley which can be stronger than fresh but not in a bad way)
14 oz hot beef stock
2 oz water
2 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Thinly slice the potatoes and onion. Alternate layers of potato and onion in a 8"x8" baking dish (or whatever baking dish you think you can fit multiple layers in), sprinkle parsley, salt and black pepper between each layer. Finish with a layer of potatoes.
3. Pour the hot stock over the top and add dabs of butter.
4. Bake, covered with foil, on the middle shelf of the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the foil. Bake for another 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender and the top golden brown.

*And by "roasted chicken" I mean impulse buy chicken that we ate over the kitchen sink to save on plate washing.