Apple Chicken Sausage with Roasted Butternut Squash and couscous

When chicken sausage goes on sale, I scoop it up.  You've seen the spicy, Italian and garlic options, but have you ever seen Al Fresco's Sweet Apple Chicken Sausage and thought to yourself, "what on earth would I do with that?!"  Cooking with apples always makes me think of fall and all its wonderful flavors -- so why not put them all into one dish?  I also had apples and a butternut squash on hand, so I took it from there.

Fondue 2008

It’s time for our yearly installment of melted cheese - our Valentine's Day tradition. Last year, we said we were going to try smoked gouda for this year's cheese selection, but we got sidetracked. Michael was in Milton trying to find some Kirsch - we had run out last year and our local package stores didn’t carry the firewater.

Across the street from a liquor store, he spied a cute little wine and cheese shop called Esprit du Vin, so he thought he’d check it out. After explaining to the cheese purveyor what our plan was, she said no no no, you must try Comté along with your Gruyere. Comté is a French Gruyere that is very mild in flavor, very reminiscent of a baby swiss, it’s light and fairly neutral thereby balancing out the stronger Swiss Gruyere.

So that’s what we went with this year folks – you can find exact recipes in some of our old posts. And as per usual, we dunked steamed broccoli, grilled kielbasa, Fuji apples, French bread and some raw red peppers. Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash

I have to make this dish at least once a year, not only because it's yummy, but the presentation is really cool. Acorn squash are very easy to find even in your local market. They are a "winter squash" that has an orange flesh, and is aptly named since they do resemble acorns. You can simply cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, sprinkle with brown sugar and some butter and then bake them!



I had made marinara sauce a day before since I had the time to simmer it for a long time -- I froze half and set aside the rest in the fridge for the squash the next night. The first thing to do is pre-heat your oven to 375. Wash the squash (2 of them), and then cut it in half lengthwise (not around the equator) and scoop out the seeds. Place the squash in a 9 x 13 glass baking dish flesh side up. Put a little bit of water in the dish and cover with foil. Bake for 40-55 minutes or until the squash is just fork tender (not mushy!)



While the squash was baking, I sauteed up some spicy turkey sausage (a little over a pound), and then added my sauce to the pan to reheat. While that was simmering away, I cooked up some whole wheat rigatoni just al dente. When the squash were done, I removed them from the dish, dumped out the water and then returned them to the dish. In went some rigatoni (extra pasta went around the squash). Then came the sausage/sauce mixture, and to top it all off, some mozzarella cheese. Back into the oven at 400 for 20 minutes or until the cheese is starting to brown on top.



The spicy sausage pairs well with the sweetness of the acorn squash -- another fall delight! Oh, and this would serve 4 if served with a side salad!

Turkey Sausage & Kale Soup

It has cooled back down this week in Boston, giving me the need to have something to warm my bones. I don't know about you, but the easiest way to warm me up is a nice bowl of soup. I had some sweet turkey sausage on hand and some frozen kale, so I knew I had what I needed as the base of the recipe.



The sweet Italian sausage was in links, so I browned them whole in the Dutch oven until all sides had crisped up. After removing from the pan, I added some olive oil with thinly sliced onion a celery (3 ribs) and 2 cloves-worth of chopped garlic. After cooking down for 10 minutes, I deglazed with a little white wine, threw in 2 bay leaves, salt, black pepper, a tsp of dried thyme and a 1/2 tsp of ground chipolte. I then added 8 cups of chicken stock, the now sliced sausage, 32 oz of rinsed chickpeas and 1 cup of small diced rutabega. After bringing that up to a simmer, I added 2 cups of thawed kale and let the somewhat thick soup simmer for another 30 minutes. In less than 1 hour, I had some great tasting soup that will fill my belly for days.



Although fresh greens like spinach and kale are best, you can't knock the versatility of having the frozen versions on hand. yum!

Cheese = Love

Lots of couples dine out on Valentine’s Day, relishing in the dimly lit, romantic atmosphere of that cute little bistro that just opened up. M and I used to partake in this ritual when we were first dating, and we certianly loved it. But everyone does it, and maybe someday we’ll go back to that old standard, but for now we’ve invented our own Valentine’s Day tradition – fondue.

This is our 4th installment of V-Day fondue, and this time we thought we would try something a bit different. In the past, we usually make our fondue with Emmentaler, Gruyere and Kirsch Brandy which is a dry clear (very potent!) liquor distilled from black cherries! Unfortunately, this year we ran out and none of the liquor stores in the area carried it! What to do?? We saw some fondue recipes on the internet that used cognac instead (and a bit of Dijon!), so I brought home some Hennessey as a substitute.

We rub a warm pan with a garlic clove and then added a cup or so of chardonnay to a simmer and then slowly added our chopped up cheese (this year we went with Gruyere and Gouda…next year we’ll try Emmentaler and smoked Gouda) that we had coated with some corn starch. When the cheese is all melted, we add in some cognac and a tbsp of Dijon. Wisk away until you have a good melted consistency – add more wine if it’s too thick. We then transfer the cheese to a mini crockpot that we can set at the table.



For the accoutrements, we had steamed broccoli and asparagus, red bell pepper, apples, bread and some grilled kielbasa. Another traditional heart day down!

Sausage and Bean Soup

Autumn is finally here - as of 12:03 Eastern time this morning, the exact time of the autumn equinox. The two equinoxes every year (autumn and spring) are the times at which the sun is directly over the equator and - theoretically, at least - day and night share equal time of 12 hours in both the northern and southern hemispheres of the Earth.

In the northern hemisphere the nights are longer going forward and, particularily in New England, you'll certainly start feeling a chill in the air. We brought our first pumpkin home yesterday to celebrate our favorite time of year and - after a wet and chilly day walking around to the annual yard sales around Ashmont, Dorchester - we decided we wanted comfort food in the form of soup...

But, what kind of soup? Good old standby chicken and dumpling stew (which we surprisingly haven't blogged on yet, but I assure you we will), a meatball sort of soup or possibly something new. We went with the something new as long as that something new included sausage! Looking around the web, we saw a few recipes that caught our eye... we took aspects from many recipes and came up with our own for sausage and bean soup.

We put our soup pot on and started getting 12 cups of chicken broth boiling with 1 chopped onion and 4 cloves of garlic. In the meantime, we chunked up 1.5 lbs of turkey kielbasa and threw in the sausage along with almost a whole 32oz can of diced tomatoes, 2 cups thawed chopped spinach, 2 bay leaves, ground fennel, salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes.

After returning to a slow boil, add in a 19oz can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and a 16oz can of white kidney beans. Slow boil this pot of loving good yumminess for at least 30 minutes more, but, hey, the longer you have time to cook this, the better it will be! Sprinkle with a little parmesean cheese right before serving.

Came out DELICOUSLY - a real nice, spicy kick from the sausage and pepper (perfect for chilly weather!), wonderful, flavorful broth, and lovely green spinach and beans and kielbasa chunks in every bite! Excellent leftovers, too...

Paella

A few years ago, we were shopping for a set of pots-n-pans to help with our burgeoning cooking habit, and we ended up going with a non-stick calphalon set from Williams and Sonoma. It was on sale that week and we had some gift certs, so we'd be getting a nice set for not much money. Over the past 3 or 4 years since that purchase, the set has served us well - we've used the sauce pan and big saute pan maybe hundreds of times, those two pieces are up for replacement.

When the box containing the set was brought up to the register and our gift cards were strewn all over the counter, we noticed an auxillary box was with our set. "We didn't want to buy that thing," we noted. "Oh, that comes with this set for this week only," came the reply. So we looked at the long, wide, flat box and read what it contained: 16" Paella Pan. And we thought.... "hmmmm... paella!??!?!"

The pan ended up being a great introduction to paella for us - we now make it pretty regularily. We also use the pan for sautéing big orders, like browning 8 or more chicken pieces and large-quantity stuff like that. This is a BIG non-stick pan with a BIG lid...


Paella is one of those dishes that is (relatively) easy to make - yet looks, smells, and tastes like a culinary masterpiece. It is a one-pan show, yet includes chicken, veggies, rice, shrimp, and a wonderful browned/burnt crust called Soccorat (spelling?). Originally, paella was the name of the pan that the dish was made in, now they've renamed the pan and left the name paella for the dish!

We procured a variety pack of cut up chicken - 3 wings, 3 drumsticks, 3 thighs - that we salt and peppered and sprinked with a little paprika. When your big pan (paella pan or just the biggest one you got!) is hot, add some olive oil and then add the seasoned chicken and brown on both sides, then remove.

Next, in goes 1/2 a big green pepper and 1/2 a big red pepper chopped up. Get those going for a couple minutes then add a large onion chopped.

Go, veggies, go!


While those are getting cooked - 4 or 5 minutes - slice up some chorizo sausage which is going to add most of the flavor. We use two big links... nicely chopped/shredded. Throw in the chopped chorizo and brown and stir together with the veggies.

Since we use brown rice that takes longer than recommended rice, we started that in chicken stock a side pot and let that have about 20 minutes start on it's own. When the veggies and chorizo are browned, add the rice with the stock into the big pan, nestle the chicken back down in there, cover and cook for about 1/2 hour.

After that 1/2 hour, add about a cup of frozen peas and stir them in, then add in your shrimp in and make sure they are pressed down into the liquid... See how much liquid you have left, if you've got none, add a little. If you have too much, try and use a baster or a ladel to remove some.


Now, turn up the heat a little and remove the cover to finish. The shrimp will cook in the liquid and the heat will give the rice at the bottom that crusty "soccorat" finish which comes out so carmelized and delicious.

Try to use a big spatula to serve "slices" of the whole mixture, it will come off kind of intact if you have a nice toasted bottom...

Delicious! The tastes of the chorizo and dark-meat chicken and shrimp (next time we're adding clams, too!) mixed with the rice and veggies - so good! Easy but still fantastic!

Sausage & Rotini Stuffed Acorn Squash

What is better than a meal served in a vegetable? Eating the bowl your dinner comes in is a wonderful treat. This recipe also gives us an opportunity to take our fabulous meat sauce in a totally different direction. We’ve made this several times, initially taking a cue from a recipe by Emeril on foodtv.com... "Baked Acorn Squash Filled with Italian Sausage and Rigatoni Pasta"

Start your basic sausage meat sauce. When you’re all set to put the sauce on simmer, cut 2 acorn squash in half, seed them and place flesh side up in a glass baking dish. Cover the bottom with water and cover the dish with foil. Bake at 375°F for ~ 45’ until just tender. In the meantime, cook up your favorite wheat pasta cutting your portion in half since this is not the main focus of the dish.

Remove squash from oven and drain the water out of the dish. Season the squash with S&P and place about a ½ cup cooked pasta in each squash half and mound with your sausage sauce overflowing the sauce a bit. Top with some shredded mozzarella and return to the hot oven for 15-20’ until cheese has melted and browned a bit. Half a squash is plenty for one serving, so can you say delicious leftovers?!!?!?!? We can!!!

Our Meat Sauce

There is really no other name for it - tomato-based (pasta) sauce with sausage, bacon, onions, garlic, squash, mushrooms, and fennel and other spices... Ragu, Red Sauce, Meat Sauce, whatever! You get it together and you cook it a while and you take it and pour it over the object of your desire - making pasta, bread, even lawn clippings taste fantastic! (Don't eat grass.) Let's do this - photoblog style!

Meat:
* Hot Italian Sausage (we got Perri) stripped of it's casing
* Bacon cut into one-inch pieces, we had some extra lying around that woulda gone bad before the weekend. Let's use it for the fat (and smokey flavor) in this sauce

Veggies:
onion in little 3/4 inch pieces, diced garlic, yellow summer squash in 1/4 round cubes, sliced mushrooms

Tomatoes:
two cans diced tomoatoes, two small cans tomato sauce

Spices:
freshly ground fennel, salt, pepper, oregano, basil

Pasta:
whole wheat Penne and Rigatoni to fill out the amount we need.

Liquid:
Red wine (cabernet sauvignon) to deglaze (about 1/3 cup)

LET'S GO!

Bacon goes in first to start rendering the fat, while this is going on take the sausage out of it's casing - just make a long, shallow slice lengthwise and turn that sucker out.



Also, get that water going for your pasta!

Add the sausage to the bacon/bacon fat and brown. As it cooks be sure to break it up along the way. As you can see here, we use a splatter screen to - what else? - try and minimize splatter all over the cooktop.



Browned and removed, drain most of the fat, leaving the burny bits from the sausage and bacon at the bottom. Refresh with a little olive oil if you wish and get the onions going. After a minute or so, add the garlic. After a few more minutes the yellow squash is ready to go in. Not long after that, the sliced mushrooms go in.


This is a good time to deglaze, although we could have (should have?) done it sooner, too. Add red wine and scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to incorporate the burny stuff at the bottom.

Allow the red wine to get nice and bubblin' to burn off the alcohol and really pull the flavors out of the Cabernet (use whatever you like!)

Cook and gently stir all this for maybe 4 or 5 minutes. With that veggie mixture in place, let's season:

We like adding freshly ground fennel seeds that go great with the sausage. We got this great grinder for our wedding from our friends Trish and Brooks - just throw the seeds in and twist. Voila! Ground fennel. We added fresh ground black pepper, coarse sea salt, and dried oregano and basil. (The tomoatoes we're about to add aren't seasoned at all.)

Spice Grinder w/Fennel:



Mix that together and we're ready to...

Add the tomatoes - throw them all in. Because we're not adding alot of liquid, the sauce will provide that liquidy texture and allow some time to cook all the flavors together. Once the tomatoes are up to temperature, go ahead and add the meat back in and combine. Set to low, cover with splatter screen, take a deep breath, and simmer.

At this point, a glass of that same cabernet is in order. After as long as you can take - 10-20 minutes, you're ready to go.


Drop your pasta in when you are about 10 minutes away from being ready. We use whole wheat penne and rigatoni tonight, as we had the ends of those two boxes. Boiling, salted water - 10 minutes til al dente!

The final product after some grated parmesan. That is a BIG plate... plenty of leftovers from this dish. We only boil enough pasta for one night, for leftovers we'll boil new pasta and reheat this sauce in the microwave and combine.


SCORE:
* Pasta Sauce Dinner - 9 out of 10. - Gold star - Super Duper - Grade A - Splendid!
The smokey flavor from the bacon and the fennel-y sausage and deglazed veggies are fantastic. We forgot the green pepper - maybe that woulda gave it that last point!

DELICIOUS! See you next time!

The Boston Chef