Andouille style sausage

Now it's time for sausage again. This time I had help from my friend Tomasz and his electric kitchen assistant.

The recipe is a variation of Andouille, a sausage that is popular in Louisiana and is used in other recipes like gumbo or jambalaya. Ideally, it should be smoked lightly, but my possibilities of smoking sausage is currently nonexistent. Which is a bit disappointing.

Andouille ready to be cooked.

Even though the thought was to use some leaner meat and some extra fat this time I used the same piece as the last time, it was very cheap in my local store. And until I find a better name for it I think that I will call it collar in English.

Chunks of pig

Before I found the cheap boneless collar, I had been looking up a butcher where I bought pork fat as I thought I would use a leaner pork. Once I had it, I thought it was good to try and use a little anyway. The boneless collar looked a bit leaner than last time.

Pieces of pig fat

Last time I used my manual mill. This time we tried a kitchen assistant and it was easier but since the grinder was a little narrow it took about the same amount of time.

Mince without cranking.

The last thing we did was to grind the pork fat

Minced pig, meat and fat.

Ingredients to the andouille sausage:

• 1000 g of Pork
• 16 g of Salt
• 6 g of crushed black pepper
• 4 g of Cayenne Pepper
• 16 g of garlic chopped / crushed
• 2 g of Thyme, dried
• 2 dl Water
• 2 dl Bread crumbs

As usual, I deviated a little from the basic recipe. First, I had a little more meat, about 2200 g of pork neck, and I chose to use a little pork fat, about 200 grams. Which meant that I had a little more seasoning, bread crumbs and water.

The picture below shows everything except the bread crumbs and water.

Mince and spices.

Mix everything together thoroughly and ensure that there are no pockets of spices or meat parts without spices.

Ready-mixed sausage batter.

Make a small meatball and fry it or put it in a microwave oven to taste the spice mix and dampen your hunger a bit.

The small piece for the chef.

If the seasoning is good, it is time to fill the sausage batter in the sausage casings. Below it is already done and some sausages are already tied.

Finished andouille in the bowl. 

Notes 

Being out at the last minute can be bad. In this case, it meant that I had to buy beef casings because they did not have any hog casings. It worked, but only just. The sausage became a bit thick.
To grind the meat with kitchen assistant was quite good but to stuff the sausage through it was a different matter. The mill is placed so high up that it almost has to be a job for two people. Hence no pictures of the stuffing this time either.

Mushy Peas With Chili

It has been some time since I ate a tasty portion of mushy peas here in Sweden. Which means that I had to try to make my own version.

Mushy peas with chili

The ingredients are simple:

• Green peas
• Chili, I used red, but if you use green, you can hide it better
• Cream
• Juice from lemon
• Garlic
• Salt and pepper
• Butter

The ingredients, except butter.

Boil the peas, mine was frozen so I added a few minutes compared to if they had been thawed. I also chose to add the garlic so it was boiled. I took it away before I started mashing the peas. Another choice is to crush the garlic and add it at the mushing.

Bathing peas, chili and garlic.

Drain and remove the garlic clove. Add the butter, cream, salt and pepper, then mash it all together to the consistency you want. I like it when it is not completely smooth.

Mash the peas with some butter and cream.

Serve everything nicely or directly on a plate along with some fish and chips.

A bowl of candy.

Notes

As we look at the last picture, we can see that I probably was a bit generous with the cream, but it was tasty anyway.
The reason I cooked the garlic clove was a whim from a recipe I saw somewhere. I do not think it made a direct difference so next time I probably will crush it and add it along the salt and pepper.

Cupcakes with rosewater frosting

The other day I went through our freezer because it was crammed. We only have a small freezer and because we have a hole shoulder of lamb in there, which takes up a whole tray, it isn't that much space left. Then I found some vanilla cupcakes that I made some week ago. I had some cream cheese at home and therefore I hade to make some cupcakes with frosting. I never mind eating cupcakes and if I also can get a little more space in the freezer i'm not the one who says no.

Cupcakes:

½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup granulated white sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1½ cups all prupose flour

1½ teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup milk

a pinch of salt

How to:

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla white and very fluffy. Melt butter, add the milk and mix it with the egg mixture. Mix flour, baking powder and salt and carefully mix it into the batter. Place muffin tins on a baking sheet and fill them 2/3 full with batter. Bake in center of oven for about 15 minutes.

Rosewater frosting

50 g creme cheese

2 tsp rosewater

Icing sugar, until the consistency is firm

5 drops red food coloring

Mix together!

Plum Jam with Whisky

In return for a jar of my previous plum jam, my partner and I got to pick plums from my cousin's garden. Nice ripe plums with yellow flesh.

Since I have already made a plum jam with dark rum this year, I had to try something different with these plums. 

My habanero plants have not started to bear fruit yet, so I will have to wait a while to use them as seasoning. Even when I made my gooseberry jam earlier this year, I thought about how it would be to use a rather smoky whisky so that is what I did this time. Although the recipe is very similar, the taste and color is very different.

Yellow Swedish plums and a wee dram of whisky

As usual, I might try to do a little too much jam, but what does it matter. The scale shows almost 1500 grams.

Almost 1500 grams

Ingredients:

• 1500 g of plums, yellow flesh, pretty sweet
• 1000 g of gelling sugar / sugar with pectin
• 2 tbsp of vanilla sugar
• 6 cl of smoky whisky
• 1 dl of water

Ingredients and two of the storage jars.

A big difference from the last plums, which I bought, was that these was much more mature, which is great when eaten fresh. However, it is much more messy when they are peeled.
After peeling I took out the seeds and chopped plums.
Have a little water along with plums so that the risk of them sticking to the pot decreases.

Pealed, pitted, and chopped plums in a splash of water.

Cook the plums for 10 minutes or until they are the consistency being sought. The time will depend on how finely chopped they are and how big pieces the jam should have. I usually use my spoon to crush the pieces to the edge as I stir.
When you are satisfied, pour in the sugar.

After boiling the plums, add the gelling sugar and the vanilla sugar.

Let the sugar melt, stir a little in the meantime. Then boil everything for 5 minutes, then add the whisky.
Pour everything into clean glass jars. For this amount of marmalade, I needed two 0.5-liter bottles, a 2 deciliters jar and six small one deciliters cans. Shown in the picture below.
I also placed a jar from the previous plum jam I made to show the contrast in color. The obvious conclusion will be, that not only is it difficult to know and learn what you like best in the form of fruits, consistency and accessories when it comes to jams, there are important nuances of taste and appearance of the same fruit as well.

The result and a wee dram for the chef.

To highlight the differences, I took a close-up picture. Their colors are nice and their flavors are fantastic.

Lovely contrast in color and taste.

Smoky whisky or not smoky whisky. That's a good question.
I, who appreciate a the smoky whisky when the time is right, think it turned out very well with the smoky whisky in the plum jam. But I think right now it might still fit better with a slightly lighter smokiness to the gooseberry jam.

Everyday baguettes

This Sunday went down as a day of eating, a lot! The night before I made this bread that was allowed to ferment overnight, and as it goes pretty fast to do, we had fresh bread for breakfast. Just before we had finished eating breakfast, it was decided that we would go out for brunch with some friends ... It was probably the best brunch I've ever had, although I am not as well-traveled in the world of bunch, but still. And the dessert buffet! One can safely say that I almost rolled from there. But it did not stop there. In the evening we were invited home to some other friends for dinner and they gave us an incredibly good beef steak. Given how much, and how tasty, I ate on Sunday I should probably not eat more this week.

Everyday baguettes

Ingredients

3 peas of yeast

300 g water

1½ tbsp salt

380 g strong bread flour

How to:

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Work in the remaining ingredients. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise overnight or during the day at room temperature, at least 5 hours. Add a pile of flour on the work surface and spread it out a bit. Turn out the dough and fold it again over itself so that both sides are well floured. Pull the dough into a rectangle. Turn lightly into baguettes and place on a baking tray. Let the bread rest until the oven is 275 degrees C. Insert the tray and spray a little water in the oven. Bake the bread for about 14 minutes. Let cool on a rack.

Sourdough bread with spelt

The next bread I made with my sourdough became a bread with spelt. After i made this bread i didn't spent enough time or took enough care of my sourdough, it spends its day in sourdough heaven now ... I heard before, when baking with sourdough was most hyped, there are sourdough hotels, you can submit your sourdough to when you are away for a few days. Wonder if they have different standards of the rooms there? I mean, you don't want your sourdough to have to sleep in a room shared with others or with shared shower and toilet. I'll just start a new sourdough, and I've always got my wild yeast to look forward to use.

Sourdough bread with spelt

Ingredients

I used the same ingredients as in Leilas levain but replaced some of the strong bread flour with spelt flour.

10 g yeast

240 g of lukewarm water

500 g strong bread flour

340 g spelt flour

400 g sourdough

about 25 g salt

How to:

1. Crumble the yeast into a bowl and let it dissolve in the water. Add half of the flour and knead in a machine for about 10 minutes.

2. Add the sourdough, salt and the remaining flour. Knead the dough on low speed in a machine for 20 minutes.

3. Prover the dough in the bowl under a tea towel until doubled in size, in about two hours.

4. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees C.

5. Pour the dough on a floured surface of wood and fold the dough gently into a loaf. Do not work the dough, handle it with care so that no air bubbles lets out. Flour the bread and let it rise under a tea towel until doubled in size in about 1 ½ hours.

6. Turn out the bread on a baking sheet and set it in the oven. Throw in 1 cup of water on the oven floor to get a nice crust on the bread. Reduce heat to 200 degrees C and bake for 40-50 minutes

Leilas Levain bread

Now I have baked my first sourdough bread in a while, and eaten it. I know I say it every time I talk about sourdough bread, but it's such a big difference! This bread was eaten in just a few days, although the loaf was gigantic!

This Levain can probably be considered a faux version of many, more experienced bread maker than me. In some books, a Levain is prepared for several days, but I was too eager to try my sourdough so I took a faster version.

Leilas Levain bread

Ingredients

10 g yeast

240 g of lukewarm water

840 g strong bread flour

400 g sourdough

about 25 g salt

How to:

1. Crumble the yeast into a bowl and let it dissolve in the water. Add half of the flour and knead in a machine for about 10 minutes.

2. Add the sourdough, salt and the remaining flour. Knead the dough on low speed in a machine for 20 minutes.

3. Prover the dough in the bowl under a tea towel until doubled in size, in about two hours.

4. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees C.

5. Pour the dough on a floured surface of wood and fold the dough gently into a loaf. Do not work the dough, handle it with care so that no air bubbles lets out. Flour the bread and let it rise under a tea towel until doubled in size in about 1 ½ hours.

6. Turn out the bread on a baking sheet and set it in the oven. Throw in 1 cup of water on the oven floor to get a nice crust on the bread. Reduce heat to 200 degrees C and bake for 40-50 minutes.

Plum jam with dark rum

When it's harvest time, there are cheap fruits and vegetables in the stores, making it easy to find things that are nice. As with the pear jam I found cheap plums in a local store.

Plum jam with dark rum.

Because some plums where eaten right away, I weighed up how much I had left.

Almost 1500 grams.

Ingredients for jam:

• 1500 g plum of the variety Black Diamond.
• 1000 g gelling sugar / sugar with pectin.
• 2 tbsp vanilla sugar.
• 6 cl dark rum.
• 1 dl water. 

Ingredients.

I have seen that there are other recipes where the plums should be cooked whole or peeled with their seeds still in them. These feel a bit difficult or complicated, so I peeled and seeded mine before I started cooking them.
The easiest way I know to remove the seed of a plum is take a knife and carefully cut right to the core and then follow the core around the fruit. Once the incision is made, twist the two halves against each other and the seed will be stuck in one half, as shown below.
If it is difficult to remove the seed, repeat the procedure so that there is a seed with a quarter of a plum on much like the little bit at the top of the image.

Peeled and divided plums.

Chop the pitted plums and place them in a pot, add also about 1 dl of water so that they do not get ruined while cooking.

Peeled, pitted and chopped plums.

Cook the plums for about 10 minutes until they have a good texture and add there after the gelling sugar and vanilla sugar.

In goes the gelling sugar and vanilla sugar.

Once the sugar has melted, I let it cook for 5 minutes before I pour in the rum. After stirring it and letting the rum mix I pour everything in sanitized jars.

Result and some of the ingredients.

I was a bit surprised of the color of the jam, but I think that it was a pleasant surprise.

Nice and interesting color.

To mum,

thanks for all the support and contribution to who I am today. 

Cannelloni

Now that I have tried to make homemade pasta in the form of Sagne it is time to try to make cannelloni my own pasta plates.

A finished dinner ready to eat.

Make the pasta as usual and roll it out. But instead of shredding it up as before, now we need square plates. How big they are will be up to you but around 10x10 cm can be a good size that is easy to fill.

Decide how big your pasta plates should be.

Fillings

The first filling is a classic spinach-ricotta mixture.

• 300 g of finely chopped spinach leaves
• 500 g ricotta cheese
• 2 pinches of salt

Spread a dollop of the filling in a line along the pasta plate.

Spread out the filling.

Roll up the plate and blot the lower part of the plate which is overlapped by the other end. The water helps to keep the rolls together.

Some rolled cannellonis.

Since it was a little filling left over from ricotta and walnut dumplings, I took the opportunity to also use it here.

More filling.

The last filling was a pure experiment with things I like. A little bacon in the bottom with mushrooms and grated cheese on top.

Bacon, mushroom and grated cheese.

Rolled cannelloni with bacon, mushroom and grated cheese.

Put everything into a greased owen form, take some time top elaborate how they should be placed. It is better to fit them snugly than spread them out.

Sprinkle some grated cheese and pour the cream on top of it all, so that it almost covers all the rolls, if they fit snugly you will need less cream.

Place them tight and carefully.

Bake everything for 20 minutes at 235 degrees.

Ready to eat.