Tag: main course
Merguez Sausage
Merguez Sausage
Merguez sausage is the most popular type of sausage in North African countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. The sausage is a combination of various ratios of lamb and beef, stuffed into lamb casings. This particular recipe uses 3 parts leg of lamb, 1 part beef fat. It is seasoned with freshly toasted whole cumin, coriander, and fennel seeds, paprika, cayenne, and Tunisian harissa paste.Merguez are typically grilled, but obviously can be pan fried. They will take about 5-6 minutes a side to cook through. If pan frying, you won’t need to add any oil. There is enough fat in the sausages that will render out to fry in. Serve the merguez with herbed couscous.
Equipment
- Spice grinder
- meat grinder
- sausage stuffer
Ingredients
- 3 lbs boneless leg of lamb cubed
- 1 lb beef fat
- 2 tbsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp paprika
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 1/3 cup harissa
- 1/3 cup ice water
- lamb casings
Instructions
- Dry toast the cumin, coriander, and fennel seeds in a small skillet over medium heat for 3 minutes. Let cool. Grind to a powder in a spice grinder.
- Mix all of the spices together.
- Grind the lamb and beef fat once through a meat grinder with a medium ground plate.
- Add all of the ingredients to the ground lamb. Mix thoroughly.
- Place in the refrigerator and allow the ingredients to commingle for an hour before stuffing.
- Stuff the sausage into the lamb casings. Twist to 6” in length.
- Allow to rest in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before cutting the links apart. Wrap whatever you don’t plan to use in the next 3 days freezer paper.
- Heat up a skillet over medium high heat. Add the sausages to the skillet.
- Cook for 5-6 minutes a side. These sausages can also be grilled for the same amount of time.
Pork and Potatoes
Pork and Potatoes
One of my favorite Chinese takeout restaurants, Bing’s, closed over 25 years ago. They were known for giant egg rolls, giant egg foo yung, plus standard Cantonese dishes that you’ll find on most menus prepared significantly better than other Chinese restaurants. But my favorite thing on the menu was their pork and potatoes. I’ve had it from many other restaurants, and it’s all been garbage in comparison to Bing’s. So what made Bing’s so much better? A couple things. While most potatoes used in this dish are cubed, Bing’s sliced them thinly on a mandolin. It creates a wider surface area when frying the potatoes, allowing them to get crispier than cubed. Most places just use oyster sauce. Bing’s added both light and dark soy sauces to enhance the flavor and give it a darker color. Also, their char siu was second to none.
Equipment
- mandolin
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 lb potatoes peeled
- 1/4 red onion sliced
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1/2 cup char siu roast pork diced
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- white pepper to taste
Garnish
- green onions finely chopped
Instructions
- Slice the potatoes on a mandolin about 1/4” thick. Soak in cold water for 30 minutes. Pat dry.
- Heat up cooking oil in a sauté pan or wok over medium high heat. Fry the potatoes in a single layer in 2 batches.
- Fry for 3 minutes a side until lightly crispy. Remove from the pan.
- Add in the onions and pork. Sauté for 3 minutes.
- Add the potatoes back into the pan.
- Pour in the soy sauces, oyster sauce, and sesame oil. Make sure that all of the potatoes are coated.
- Pour in the water. Simmer for 5 minutes until all of the liquid has evaporated.
- Season with white pepper.
Brisket Tacos
Brisket Tacos
Continuing from where I left off on the Pecan/Oak Smoked Brisket recipe; I followed the cheeba, and this is where it lead me to: brisket tacos. Outside of my homies at Neza Tacos food truck, there are no tacos better. I sautéed up some chopped brisket. I cooked the tortillas in the residual brisket fat left over and assembled the tacos on the griddle. My brisket tacos are topped with thinly sliced anaheim chilies, pickled red onions, cilantro, and horseradish sour cream. The results are that of perfection. Follow the cheeba.
Ingredients
- smoked beef brisket chopped
- blue corn tortillas
- anaheim chilies thinly sliced
- pickled red onions
- cilantro chopped
- horseradish sour cream 2 tbsp sour cream + 1 tsp prepared horseradish
Instructions
- Sauté the chopped brisket on a griddle over medium high heat for 6 minutes. Remove from the griddle.
- Add 4 corn tortillas to the griddle. Cook for 30 seconds on the first side.
- Flip the tortillas. Top with some brisket as the tortillas continue to cook.
- Top with sliced anaheim chilies and pickled red onions. Remove from the griddle.
