Tag: European
The Best Italian Sausage Meat Sauce
The Best Italian Sausage Meat Sauce
I love me a good meat sauce; whether it’s ground beef or in this case, Italian sausage. Once you try this sauce, there will be no reason to buy jarred pasta sauce again. This meat sauce is obviously great over any pasta of your liking; mine being linguine; but is also a great base for lasagna and even pizza.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb pork Italian sausage
- 1 small yellow onion
- 1 head garlic minced
- 8 oz crimini mushrooms sliced; optional
- 1/2 cup tomato paste
- 2 lbs roma tomatoes diced
- 1/4 cup fresh oregano chopped
- 1/2 cup Italian basil chopped
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp crushed red pepper optional
- 1 lb linguine prepared according to box directions
- parmesan cheese shredded
Instructions
- Brown your Italian sausage in olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat for 8 minutes. Remove the Italian sausage from the pan.
- Add in the onions, garlic, and optional mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add in the diced tomatoes, oregano, basil, salt, and optional crushed red pepper. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the Italian sausage.
- Cover and simmer over medium low heat for 10 minutes.
Steak Frites with Maitre D Butter
Put a tbsp of the maitre d butter on the steak and serve with your favorite fries.
Croque Madame
Croque Madame
I’ve been waiting a lifetime to try this sandwich. I recently went to Paris for a week and this was the first thing I ate at a small cafe when I got there. The Croque Madame is a decadent, classic French sandwich consisting of ham, gruyere, and Mornay sauce(which is a cream sauce made with gruyere), topped with a fried egg. Without the fried egg, the sandwich is called a Croque Monsieur. It was everything that I expected. Rich, creamy, cheesy, and artery clogging. Seriously one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever eaten, period.
Ingredients
Mornay Sauce
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp flour
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup gruyere cheese grated
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- salt and pepper to taste
Sandwich
- 2 tbsp butter divided
- 2 slices French loaf bread
- 1/4 cup gruyere cheese grated
- 2 slices ham
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp chives finely chopped
Instructions
- Over medium heat in a small pot, whisk together the butter and flour. Cook for 1 minute.
- Pour in the milk. Whisk over low heat for 3 minutes until thickened.
- Take off the heat and whisk in the gruyere, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Set aside.
- Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a skillet. Toast only 1 side of the slices of bread for 4 minutes.
- Take out the bread for assembly. Spread the dijon must on one piece of the bread; the other with half of the Mornay sauce.
- Place half of the gruyere on the Mornay sauce, followed by the slices of ham.
- Put the slice of bread with the dijon on top of the ham; mustard side down. Spread the rest of the Mornay sauce on top of the bread, along with the rest of the gruyere.
- Bake on a baking pan in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and gooey.
- While the sandwich is in the oven, melt 1 tbsp of butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Crack and egg and cook sunny side up force minutes until the whites are cooked through.
Top with the fried egg and chopped chives.
Homemade Corned Beef
Homemade Corned Beef
Corned beef is one of my favorites. But I’m sick of low quality corned beef that you get at the grocery store. It is very expensive; the way the briskets are cut are shitty; and they’re overly salty. I’m also sick of seeing people boil corned beef. I know that’s one way to prepare it, but it’s very underwhelming. So I decided to brine my own and smoke it.I purchased a whole untrimmed brisket that was about 15lbs. I trimmed it down to about 8lbs. The brine is simply salt, sugar, curing salts, and pickling spices. For a piece of meat this size, it will need to brine for 10 days to penetrate the center of the brisket. Once brined, the brisket will need to dry out in the refrigerator for a day.Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. Allow the brisket to sit at room temp for an hour. Place the brisket in the smoker and wait…and wait…and some more waiting. Depending on the size of your brisket, it will take 8-12 hours to reach an internal temperature of 200 degrees. I started mine at 6AM and it was done at 6PM.
Equipment
- large bin for brining
- Electric Smoker
- Probe Thermometer
Ingredients
- 1 flat cut beef brisket 5-10 lbs
- 1 gallon water
- 1 cup salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp pink curing salt
- 8 garlic cloves smashed
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp allspice berries
- 1 tbsp whole cloves
- 4 bay leaves
Wood Chips
- hickory
Instructions
- Mix all of the brining ingredients together.
- Put the brisket in a large bin. Pour the brine over the brisket. Weigh the brisket down with a plate to keep it completely submerged. Brine for 10 days.
- Take the brisket out of the brine. Pat dry and allow the brisket to dry out in the refrigerator on a rack for 1 day. When ready to smoke, allow the brisket to sit at room temperature for an hour.
- Preheat your smoker at 250 degrees. Place the brisket in the smoker.
- Smoke until the internal temperature reaches 200 degrees. This can take anywhere from 8-12 hours.
- Allow the corned beef to rest for 30 minutes before slicing.
