As I was lamenting the other day when I was checking out my favorite blogger, Saucisson Mac with the fact that he hasn't updated his postings in over a year. He's usually making and posting about the stuff I love the most…. Meat & Sausage. The sad fact is that I couldn't really get too upset since I have fallen into the same category…. The Non-Blogging Blogger. 

As I look at mine, I lament at the fact that mine hasn't been updated in over 2 YEARS. This is not to say that I haven't been busy in the kitchen, I have just failed to get it on my blog. 

Not sure how many people follow my blog but it's fun to get my culinary adventures online to share with everyone. 

My next obsession that I've been looking at is traditional German sausage. I have a dear friend of mine living in Munich and loved the food I had there in Austria & Germany when I visited her years and years ago. Here in the US, we have a very limited choice when it comes to these wonderfully wrapped treats…. basically it boils down to Italian, Polish, brat or tasteless hotdog. 

Please stay tuned as I start a new journey. 

I know... I know.... I've been really bad about updating my blog. This is a post that should have been written months ago. Better late than never.

Now that's winter as set in, I can't help but think about this pass summer. I framed my garden in the spring, got some great dirt from the Duke of Dirt and proceeded to have a fantastic crop. For a couple of weeks, I was pulling about 10 lbs of Roma tomatoes off of 4 plants!

Now what to do with so many tomatoes? The first thing I decided to make was Strattu. Not sure where I found out about Strattu but sounded interesting and was a great way to get rid of a whole lot of tomatoes.

Essentially Strattu is a really thick clay like tomato paste that is made in Italy. In the heat of late summer, Roma tomatoes are processed through a fine screen food mill, placed into shallow trays and left to dry in the sun. Since the Chicago area doesn't have the summer heat of Southern Italy, I had to turn to the oven.

Strattu is something that takes 2 days to make. It's best to start on a Saturday so that it can be finished on Sunday. It's easy but time consuming. I found the method for making Strattu here.

First thing to do is to quarter as many Roma tomatoes as you can and place them into a stock pot. You need to use meaty tomatoes like Romas since there is less water in them. Salt and then heat until the tomatoes give up their water to fill the stock pot half way. This should take about 15 min. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and let the tomatoes sit for 30 to 40 minutes. This ensures that the tomatoes are soft enough to go through a food mill. Now the messy fun begins!

Using the smallest screen size you have, start processing those soften tomatoes through a food mill. This will get rid of all the skins and seeds leaving you with just the tomato meat... very liquidy meat.

Scoop the tomatoes into the processor and start turning... turning..... and turning. You will have to clean out the food mill discarding the skins and seeds. Keep processing until all the tomatoes have gone through the mill.

Once you have processed all the tomatoes, place the juice on to shallow pans.  I had enough to fill 2 large pans. Heat your oven to 250º. This next part I was very hesitant to do. I've always been told that tomato leaves are poisonous and should never be used but adding leaves will enhance the tomato flavor.  Taking caution aside, I added about 5 or 6 leaves per tray. Upon further reading, I found that tomato are poisonous but you would have to eat so much of it to feel it's deadly effect.

I know have 2 large trays with my tomatoes and leaves placing them in to the oven. Every couple of hours I would go and stir the tomatoes up. After about 6 or 8 hours in the oven, I turned the heat down to 200º leaving it on for 4 more hours. After being in the oven for about 12 to 13 hours, I turned off he oven, removed the tomato leave and left the trays in over night. By this time the juice should be thickening up very nicely.

The next morning, I turned the oven back on to 200º. I think for me at this time,  enough moisture was removed to combine both trays into one. During the second day, the Strattu needs to be stir once every hour for 6 to 8 hours. Towards the end of the second day, the Strattu will need to be folded every 30 minutes. By now it will become a very very thick paste... almost like clay and with a beautiful deep red color. This is when you know it's done.

Out of about 20 lbs of tomatoes and 2 days of cooking, this is what I have. I deep red jar of summer with a unbelievable flavor.

Yea, I finally got my latest Saveur magazine. As I was digging in, I saw a little blurb about a place in England that makes traditional cordials. Apparently they were originally started because all the men were drinking too much and was a way get them them to stop. Then there was a little recipe for a Ginger Cordial. I had to try it thinking it would make a great kiddie cocktail.

Ginger Cordial
2 cups sugar
1 water
4 inch piece of ginger chopped
Mince rind from 1 lemon
1 cup fresh lemon juice (I just used the juice from 2 lemons)

In a pot, add the sugar, water, ginger and lemon rind. Heat to a boil until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon juice and boil for 1 more minute. Strain into a glass jar and let cool.

Of course with the carnival going on in my head, I had to wonder how else I could change it. I ended up adding a handful of chopped mint to the boiling brew. Strained. Mixed it with club soda and let my official taster try.

I guess I'll be making this again

One of the blogs I follow is from a person on the South Side of Chicago. He recently posted about his sausage week and Oktoberfest. I thought that would be a cool tradition to start too. Well... the first annual Sausagefest got off to a slow start but still had fun. Tried to get several of my friends over but only one could make it.

I stuck pretty much to the three different versions of sausages I normally make; saucisse de Toulouse, saucisse de Ratatoullie and Lemon & Rosemary sausage. Saucisse de Toulouse is a mild French sausage that you can't find here in the US but is fantastic with green lentils. The last two are ones that we've come up with over the years. About 2 years ago I was making sausage when my daughter wanted to make one too.... that is where saucisse de Ratatouille came from. We were at the Spice House and she had to have the Ratalouille seasoning. The lemon & rosemary sausage was borne out of a failed attempt at something I had no idea what I was trying to create.

saucisse de Ratatouille
4 lbs pork (I normally use the shoulder)
1 1/2 lbs pork back fat
2 tbls of Ratatouille Seasoning from the Spice House
2 tbls salt (I use pickling salt)
1 tbls fennel

Lemon & Rosemary Sausage
4 lbs pork shoulder
1 lbs pork back fat
Graded rind from 1 lemon
2 tbls salt
2 tbls chopped rosemary
1 tsp Cardamon

saucisse de Toulouse recipe is here

Cut both the pork and back fat into 1 inch cubes. Add the ingredients into a bowl and mix. I use the meat grinding attachment for my Kitchen Aid and find it works great. Now start grinding.

Once all the meat is ground, mix it lightly so all the ingredients are spread out evenly but the pork and fat are not mashed together. At this point you will want cook some in a pan to taste making sure of the flavor. It's easier to adjust it at this point.

What I'm stuffing this into are 35mm natural casings from the Sausage Maker. These are preserved in salt and will last forever in the refrigerator. They will have to be soaked in water for about 20 to 30 minutes and then rinsed. I made that mistake the first time and it was a bear! Now comes the fun part of stuffing.

From my understanding, the vertical stuffers are the best to use. If you use the Kitchen Aid stuffer attachment, it will warm up the fat and melt it and that is a no no. This one I picked up at Amazon and works well... not the best but works. Using lots of water to lubricate the casings, feed them on to the stuffing tube. Fill the stuffer with your meat and slowly begin to stuff. You can do it with one person but two is easier and more fun. Have the casings come off the stuffer into a try with water in the bottom. This will help the sausage slide around. When done, twist into the desired length,

Now comes the fun part..... eating with your family and friends! Honey... can you clean up for me?

At least one of our weekend's breakfast usually always includes hash browns. My oldest daughter absolutely loves them.... smothered in ketchup. Of course we would always have the traditional American hash brown.... trudging off to the frozen section of the local supermarket and purchase a box of pre-made hash browns.

One Sunday morning as I was making our "traditional" hash browns, thought to myself that these would not be hard to make. After a little digging around, I found that they aren't. The key to a good crispy hash browns is getting as much moisture out as possible. 

5 to 6 Russet Potatoes (I use what ever I have on hand)

3 to 4 tbls Cornstarch

Oil

Salt to taste

Peel the skin off the potatoes and rinse. Next, shred the potatoes using either a mandolin or food processor. I find the processor makes for a quick job. Place the potatoes in a colander and rinse in cold water until starch has been removed. Shake out as much water as possible and place potatoes on several sheets of paper towels. Over the sink, ring out the potatoes trying to remove as much water as possible. 

Place the potatoes in a bowl and mix in cornstarch. Add oil to a flat skillet and pre heat. When hot, place some of the potatoes in the skillet forming a disk and cooking until golden brown and crispy on both sides. Salt to taste.

What we like to do is add graded parmesan cheese and let that melt into the hash brown topping it off with some fresh chopped oregano or parsley. mmmm.... YUM!

It's been a long time since I've last updated this site but going to make a concerted effort in doing so. Not sure why but always had trouble either finding a good recipe or having a recipe work out for something as simple as Carmel Sauce. Yes, I know I could run to the store to buy some but after reading the ingredients and not being able to pronounce most of them.... I would rather make my own.

I did find a couple of recipes for Carmel Sauce over the years but this one seems to work and taste the best. Still don't remember where but here it is.

Carmel Sauce
1/2 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Water
1/4 cup Cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine the sugar and water under medium heat until sugar dissolves. Turn the heat up and boil until golden brown. Remove from heat right before the desired color since the sugar/water combination will continue to cook when removed. Stir in cream and vanilla, whisk until smooth. Let cool and enjoy.

I do have another recipe that I will continue to experiment with and will post results. This is for Shar! Semper Fi.

Photo by M

This one here has become my favorite breakfasts to make on the weekends. I found it a couple of years ago on Williams Sonoma's site looking for something simple but yummie. The original recipe can be found here but I've recently changed it a little bit. Looking for other recipes for making the crepe, I came across Alton Brown's version which I like better. What I ended up doing is mixing the two together for a wonderful Sunday meal.

Crepes
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 tsp orange zest
3 tbsp melted butter
pinch of salt

Combine all the ingredients in blender and mix well. Place the batter in refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours or you can make it the night before. This allows the bubbles to work their way out.

Cheese Filling
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 tbsp sugar

Combine in a bowl and set aside.

Berries
1 bag of mixed berries or
1 pint each of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries
2 tbsp of sugar

Combine in a separate bowl and let sit for about 30 minutes or while you are making the crepes

Making the crepes
This is the only difficult part and does take a little practice. The best part is that you can still enjoy your "Oops". Using an 8" non-stick skillet (you don't need a crepe pan) coat the bottom with some oil and get the pan nice and hot. Gently pour the batter in the middle of the pan while rolling it back and forth working the batter to the edge. Make sure you keep the crepe thin.... you will use about 1/2 cup of batter. Cook on one side until the top is no longer liquid, flip and cook the other side for another minute.

When the crepes are done, combine the cheese and berry mixture inside. Either roll the crepe or fold into a quarter. Of course you need to put a few berries on top of the crepe. Now Enjoy!