What did I cook this weekend.....

Send a few my way please!

 

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Skirt steak with roasted tomatillo salsa

 

Mmmm. But I see avacados. Where's the salsa?

 

Salsa is underneath everything the steak, onions, and peppers... Spoon spread. Trying to get my Bobby Flay on. My wife wanted avacado so I added some at the last minute. If she would have gave me a heads up, I have some Roma tomatoes so I could have made a guacamole.

 

We're currently in the midst of our first sausage-stuffing escapade. The meats are chillin' for 30 minutes, then it's time to mix in the spice slurry, load up the LEM 5# handcrank sausage stuffer, put the casings on and let 'er rip! All good thoughts appreciated!

If they turn out nicely I'll post a picture. Otherwise, it didn't happen.

 

Good luck!

• When stuffing, if you have a casing that keeps breaking open, toss it and grab another. I guess some hogs have thin skin.
• I freeze the fat solid. My meat grinder will grind frozen fat. Meat needs to be semifrozen, but not a solid block. I usually freeze it solid, then thaw for a while until it's just right. Then I pull the fat out of the freezer, then get my grind on.
• Use a toothpick to prick a hole in the end of the casing just before you start stuffing it so the air will get out.

 

Thanks for the great tips, PassedPawn! Will definitely do the "stick a pin in it" next time to let the air out. Not sure my Kitchenaid grinder attachment will tolerate frozen or nearly frozen meat, but we DID grind it very cold, then refrigerated it 30 minutes before mixing in the spice slurry, which had also been refrigerated 30 minutes.

Had a bit of a learning curve to get the casings onto the stuffing tube though - finally sprayed a bit of coconut oil on the tube and made sure the casing was distended with water and that seemed to help!

So here is the stuffed product. We'll steam or sous vide them tomorrow. Texas Hot Links from the Mastering the Craft of Making Sausage book!

All in all, I'm pleased with the first try at it. We ran out of casings before we ran out of meat so ended up with 5 little patties too. Yum yum!

 

Looks great! (and you can call me Andrew).

What type of sausage did you make. They sorta look like brats, but I think I see chili pepper there, so maybe italian?

 

Awesome

 

Those look great first try or not great job.

 

Wow Temptd !You did great . I've been making sausage for quite awhile and sometimes mine don't look that good.I have dedicated grinder and a seven lb stuffer and those look as good as any I've made.

 

Thanks, happy to call you Andrew, and I am Char! (soft CH like "Cher" not hard CH like "charcoal" - )

Those are Texas Hot Links. The stuff is pretty spicy, I will say - there is cayenne, black pepper, red hot pepper flakes, in there.

Thanks! I appreciate the nice compliment!

 

Damn .I meant A dedicated grinder .2 much home brew?

 

Last weekend I grilled up some BBQ chicken leg quarters. Served 'em up with brussels sprouts & sweet potato fries, but only got a pic of the chicken fresh off the grill. It was late & I was hungry.

 

Wednesday I made roast duck. I roughly followed this recipe for roasting, but didn't make the sauce. http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/duck-a-l-orange
I also cut up an apple & a couple green onions and put those into the cavity, just for some aromatics.

I made my own sauce, roughly chopped the neck & giblets, simmered those in some chicken stock for about an hour. Added a dash of thyme, a pinch of sweet basil, a bay leaf, a couple clove of garlic & a 1/4 stick of butter & some chopped portobello mushrooms I needed to use up. Simmered some more, added a cup of tangerine juice & a little more chicken stock. I let this reduce down till the sugars started to caramelize. Added a splash of limeade & scraped all the toasty goodness from the bottom of the pan; stirred it up & removed the neck pieces, but left the rest of the giblet chunks.

Served the duck up with oven roasted rosemary potatoes, used baby Yukon Golds & followed Rachel Ray's recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/roasted-baby-potatoes-with-rosemary-recipe.html

And oven roasted asparagus. Drizzled with olive oil, a bit of black pepper & coarse ground sea salt. I finished up the leftovers & picked the carcass yesterday, will likely make duck soup later today.
Regards, GF.

 

I think I love your duck.

 

Both the grilled chicken and the duck just look incredible! You rock!

 

Those look great! I picked up the kitchenaid grinder stuffer thing a while back but have yet to give it a try. I sure home my results are as good as your's appear!

 

Fresh capellini over a sausage, veal, and beef ragu with San Marzano and New England late summer, home preserved tomatoes.

 

No pics but last night I put together my first rissoto (crimini and leak) and for the omnivores present I made some garlic shrimp. Hardest part was cleaning 1 1/2 lbs of head on shrimp.

 

tough problem to have...

 

Many years ago, I used to work for Shoney's. I used to have to peel, butterfly, and bread 5 lbs of shrimp per day. On Friday, it was 10 lbs. Then they started to do a Friday seafood buffet and it went to 20 lbs. For 1-1/2 lbs, I would have been like "Stay right there...I'll have these ready for you in about 3 minutes."

 

So much good stuff in here. I didn't do anything this weekend. I WAS going to cook yesterday, but on the way back from Traverse City we drove through the north part of Cadillac and got Chinese take out. I ended up mixing up some marinade for some jerky with the kid and got that and the sliced steak in the fridge so I can get the dehydrator set up tonight.

 

Let me know how it works out! I read mixed reviews on using that stuffer so we ended up buying an LEM 5 pound hand-crank stainless steel sausage stuffer - it worked awesome. We DO use the Kitchenaid to grind the meat though, which is why it's in the background of that picture. And thanks for the nice compliments too!

 

Brined and sous vided a pork loin, seared and make a quick bourbon sauce, oven roasted some potatoes and broccoli with a good bit of garlic and a few plantains because why not?

Edit: forgot the leek, potato and bacon soup, no picture,not much to look at but delicious!

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the plating in this thread is insane.
I usually don't care much for pasta dishes but if it tastes half as good as it looks I'd eat the sh!t outta that.

 

I've only used my Kitchen Aid stuffer a few times but with very good results, really need to make more sausage

 

What are the green strips of vegatable? Basil?

 

School Valentines Day party is Wednesday (school is closed Thursday and Friday for conferences.) Since I may have to travel to CT tomorrow, I had to do the baking tonight. New cupcake I devised since my son is a fanatic for all things cherry - cherry bomb devils food!
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I would like to place my order for two dozen of those cupcakes, please!

 

Yeah, finished with basil and parm cheese.

 

Grilling some chilies for hummus.
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Yes, a red bell pepper is still a chili in my book! Lol

 

Had to post pictures of food on a grill... It's not nice to taunt a Northern gal with pictures when her grill is covered by so much snow it hasn't been seen in what feels like forever. I've got three grills and i can't get to any of them. Ok, heading off for a nice long healing cry.

 

I hear ya. Propane tank isn't even hooked up on my grill. Ran out in the fall and never got it filled. I *Really* need to get the pick and shovel and dig my way to the grill and get it going again. I'm used to grilling whenever I feel like it.

I'm only worried that by doing so I will call forth the wrath of the God of Winter and get dumped on!

 

Did not mean to rub it in.

Did I mention that it will be 77 here today? Gonna grill some pork chops tonight

 

Careful... I'm due a trip to TX soon....

 

Pattied out some burgers for dinner...was thinking of doing "hamburger steak" and brown gravy, but all the talk here has me thinking of grilling, instead. It's been around 37F and raining, but I think the rain has ended...and, at least there isn't any snow covering my grill! And it's hooked up to natural gas, so it won't run out!

 

Go for it!! I grill even in the snow. We had over 3" one evening when I grilled lol

 

They wuz good!