New Kitchen Toys And Homemade Sausage Too

taken from the interwebs

For May's Charcutepalooza challenge we were to make some homemade bulk sausage. This means that you make the sausage but you don't have to put it into casings. Let me begin by stating my excitement. First of all, I love sausage. I cook with it probably more than any other meat. Second, this challenge required no curing times or smoking, so it required less planning on my part. Third, since I didn't have a meat grinder I was *forced* to go and buy one for this challenge. I ran out and picked up a meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid. I am a big fan of things that don't take up a lot of space, and while the romantic in me had images of a counter top meat grinder, the fact is I need space to store the new toys, ummm tools, that I tote into my kitchen. So in the end the KitchenAid attachment just made more sense.

For the bulk sausage I decided to make some merguez sausage. Merguez is a North African sausage made of lamb or beef, and is traditionally seasoned with harissa. You can think of harissa as a sort of North African chili powder; this spice mixture gives the sausage a red color. There are other spices and herbs in the sausage to give it more flavor, and those vary from recipe to recipe.

I called up my butcher and tried to put in an order for a few pounds of lamb shoulder, since that's what the recipe I was using called for. Unfortunately that was not something he carried. After discussing what my plans for the meat were we decided on some nice lamb trim that he had received just that morning from a local farm. I found several recipes for merguez that called for lamb trim, so I felt confident that the different cut would work out.

When I got the meat, I was surprised at how beautiful it was. It was marbled throughout and easy to cut. Following the recipe from Ruhlman and Polcyn's book Charcuterie The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing I pulled out all of my ingredients and set to work.

After making the sausage mix, I let it chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Then I pulled out my new grinding attachment, my faithful KitchenAid and set to work.

You see that there? Yup, that's the good stuff. I got it all done in about an hour and a half. The result was five pounds of some of the most amazing sausage I've ever had. I portioned it into five bags each with one pound of sausage and froze what I wasn't going to use in the next couple of days.

Then came the fun part...the recipes. There isn't some great story to include here about how I helped my Grandmother crank out sausages in the old country. But there is a reason why I chose to make this particular sausage.

When this year started out, I set a challenge for myself - to come up with at least one new recipe a month. I love creating things; it's my outlet and I need it terribly. My creative outlet used to be art; ever since I started having kids, that's been limited because it involves mediums that have toxic elements. Also because there isn't the time for me to sit for hours and work away at something. I don't regret it for a second, I love my family, but I miss it.

What I have found is that even though I'm tied up with laundry, snotty tissues, and foot prints across the clean floors, my creative side is still alive and thriving. It is finding new ways to come out and play. One of the main places I am finding it useful is in the kitchen. So, I set this personal challenge of coming up with a new recipe every month in the hopes that within the next couple of years I will be able to put together a cookbook. Even if only a few copies end up getting made that are given out at Christmas to my close friends and family, I think it would be really cool to have a whole book of original recipes that I made up. So the reason I chose the merguez sausage was simple: I'd never had it before, and it would immediately challenge me to come up with some original ideas.

After researching North African cuisine online and jotting down the most common ingredients I sat down and came up with a few good contenders. What I've decided to share with you was not the easiest of ideas, but absolutely the best.

North African Ravioli

(Serves 10)

Ingredients for the ravioli filling (This made about 50 ravioli):

• Fresh pasta (I used this recipe from allrecipes. It made enough for the ravioli.)
• 1 lb. merguez sausage.
• 7oz. ricotta cheese (This amounts to about a cup.)
• 1 Tbs. fresh mint; finely chopped
• 1/2 cup of dates; finely chopped
• 3-4 shallots; finely chopped (You want to end up with somewhere between 1/4- 1/3 of a cup.)
• 1 tsp. harissa ( I got this spice blend from World Spice Merchants. I have a friend that used to make this as a business but she doesn't do it anymore *sigh* so I was on my own here.)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• One egg
• 1 Tbs. water

Directions:

1. Brown the merguez sausage in a ten inch skillet over medium heat, breaking it up with a fork. Once browned, remove to a bowl with a slotted spoon.
2. In the remaining fat cook the shallots, the dates, and the harissa until the shallots have softened. Add this mixture to the sausage.
3. To the sausage and the shallot mixture add the ricotta and the fresh mint. Mix it all together and check it for seasoning. (Mine was salty enough but I did end up adding a little black pepper.)
4. Place ravioli filling into the refrigerator to cool. (This is where you are allowed to start getting excited.)
5. Once the ravioli filling is cooled roll out the fresh pasta dough. Lay the pasta sheets on a lightly floured surface.  Place slightly rounded teaspoon fulls about one inch apart on the rolled out sheets of pasta. I take one sheet of pasta and place the filling centered, on one half of the pasta sheet lengthwise. Brush in between the ravioli and down one edge with the egg wash (the egg and the tablespoon of water mixed together). Then fold the other half of the pasta sheet over the filling side. Gently press out any air pockets. Press firmly around each ravioli to seal and cut them into squares.
6. Place the finished ravioli on a parchment lined baking sheet. At this point you can use them immediately, place them in the refrigerator if you are going to use them shortly, or freeze them for later on.  

Ingredients for the Tomato Sauce:

• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 medium sized onion; finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic; minced
• 3 oz. red wine
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes; 28 oz.
• 1 Tbs. fresh oregano; finely chopped (Or 1 tsp. of dried oregano.)
• 2 tsp. cinnamon (I used ceylon cinnamon that I got from My Spice Sage. Most people use cassia cinnamon. Cassia has a much stronger flavor to it.  If that's what you're using, I would start with just 1 tsp. of cinnamon and adjust it at the end.)
• 1 cup of almond milk (You can buy this in your grocery stores organic section or at any whole foods kind of a store. I made mine following Jennifer Perillo's recipe on her blog Simple Scratch Cooking. It's not very difficult to make and tastes much better than what you will get in the store.)
• 1 tsp. salt
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup pine nuts; toasted
• 4oz. feta cheese; crumbled

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook until the onion is transparent.
2. Add in the oregano and the cinnamon and 1/2 tsp. salt. Cook stirring constantly for one minute.
3. Add in the red wine. Cook until it is reduced by half.
4. Add the crushed tomatoes. Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes, partially covered. Stir the sauce occasionally.
5. When the sauce is done reducing add the almond milk. Test for seasoning. I added in the other 1/2 tsp. of salt at this point as well as some freshly ground black pepper. Do not let the sauce come to a boil after you have added the almond milk.

Putting it all together:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add in the ravioli. I gave each adult 4-5 ravioli. Because they are fresh, they will cook in just a few minutes. Remove them to plates once they are all floating at the top.
2. Ladle sauce over the ravioli.
3. Top with toasted pine nuts and feta cheese crumbles.
4. Serve immediately.

*If you would like a printable version of this recipe you can get it here.

And now for some pictures of the process:

Here is the filling centered on one half of the pasta sheet. It's a little trickier than cutting out squares first,  but it's less time consuming too. So you do what you're comfortable with.

So maybe there is a small story here. I was in the kitchen making the ravioli, when my oldest daughter Naiya poked her head in: "Whatcha doin'?"

Her and I enjoy cooking together. I like teaching her; after all, when I'm older and she's cooking for me it, it will have really paid off.  She asked if she could help, so I stepped to the side and started teaching her the process. This also freed me up to take some pictures.

I began with, "The first thing you need to know about making ravioli is that if you are making it for company and they don't 'Ooh and aah' over it you should never invite them over again. Ravioli is not something you just throw together in a pinch." She smiled and got to learning.

At this point, Naiya is pressing out the air pockets and sealing the pasta around the ravioli.

The finished ravioli. 

Naiya did an awesome job. I can't wait to see what she'll be whipping out when she's in her 20's. When I was her age I was making salad, so she's a little bit ahead of where I was.

It was one of those meals that I couldn't believe I had made. Not only made, but made up. It was an "I  did that?!" kind of a meal. Everyone loved loved loved it. My husband gave me one of those compliments that you wish you could tape and save for a rainy day. He told me that my cooking reminded him of my art work, and he loved watching me grow and be so creative in the kitchen. *sniff*