Bratwurst

I’m on a homemade charcuterie kick lately. Today’s project was bratwurst. This time I used a pre-packaged mix. Bass Pro Shop carries meat curing supplies. I picked up a bratwurst spice mix there for this first experiment. Next time I’ll do the whole thing from scratch.

The brats came out great.  Add spicy sweet mustard and the kraut stuffed peppers on top and you have one awesome brat. This is definitely a “do over”.

Ingredients:
5 lbs pork butt
Hog casings
1 package bratwurst spice mix

Directions:
1. Rinse and soak the casings.
 

2. Cut meat into 2 inch cubes.
 

3. Coarsely grind the meat.
 

4. Mix in the spice mixture.
 

5. Rinse casings and thread onto tube.

6. Stuff the casings. Don’t over stuff. You need enough room to twist into links.
 

7. Cut into links. Mix a bottle of beer with enough water to cover the brats. Bring the beer and brat mixture to a simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
 

8. Fire up the grill with hickory wood for extra flavor. Cook the brats for about 5-10 minutes per side until nice and reddish brown.
 

9. Prepare the brats on a bun with mustard, peppers, and kraut. Enjoy.

Sloppy Joes

Somebody brought Sloppy Joes to lunch today and reheated them in the office. I’ve been craving them ever since. Then just like the rest of my cooking, things had to become complicated.

I wanted to do homemade Sloppy Joes, not the canned variety. The recipe has a few prepared ingredients, but for the most part it is from scratch. The recipes is super easy. Almost no work.

My complication came in making the cole slaw. No mayonnaise. So I had to make it. Normal people would borrow some from the neighbor. A couple of egg yolks and a cup of oil later and I was in business.

Sloppy Joes with cole slaw on top. Beautiful.

Ingredeints:
1.25 lbs ground beef
1/2 medium onion
1 rib celery
1 banana pepper
1 twelve ounce can diced tomato
1/4 cup kethcup
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp BBQ sauce
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp powdered mustard
1/2 tsp paprika

Yields 6 sandwiches

Directions:
1. Dice onion, celery and pepper (known in Louisiana as “the Trinity”). Mince garlic.
 
2. Preheat a large pan over medium high heat. Add beef, onions, celery, pepper and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain.
 

3. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer. Reduce to low heat. Cook for 35 minutes.
 

4. Assemble sandwiches with Sloppy Joes and cole slaw. Enjoy.

Italian Beef Sandwich

Whenever you move to a new part of the country (or world), you need to learn the food culture. Each place is different. Chicago has sports food. Hot dogs and Italian beefs. We tried a place this weekend called Zippy’s. They’ve sold “millions”. Kim liked the “hot cheesy beef”. Hot giardinera laced with melted provolone on top.

The sandwich was good, but we both felt it lacked any real “bang!”. It could have been better, the giardinera (another Chicago thing: peppers, olives and celery in seasoned oil) added all of the flavor.

That inspired a mission for the weekend: make a better Italian beef.

We missed the mark in attempt #1. The meat was too dry (not sure what happened here) and the flavor just wan’t what we were expecting. We decided to try one more thing, we took the leftovers, sliced them and marinated in hot giardinera juice overnight. Reheated the meat in the microwave for 45 seconds. Perfecto, Italian beef beauty.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Ingredients:
1 eye of round roast (1-2 lbs)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion sliced thin
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 cup mixed fresh herbs (parsley, rosemary, thyme)
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup water
grated cheddar cheese to taste
hot giardinera to taste
soft sandwich rolls

Directions:
1. Set meat out to bring to room temperature and chop vegetables.
 

2. Season meat with salt and pepper. Heat oil in pressure cooker. Brown meat for 2-3 minutes per side.
 

3. Add vegetables, herbs, water, and wine. Bring top boil. Close pressure cooker and bring to pressure. Cook for 1 hour.
 

4. Reduce pressure and remove meat from pressure cooker. Slice thinly.

5. If you can’t wait, assemble sandwich with meat, cheese and giardinera.

6. Save the leftovers. Pour 1/4 cup of giardinera juice/bits in the container to marinate the meat overnight.

7. Reheat the meat and assemble sandwiches. I would recommend mild giardinera as the meat is pretty spicy at this point.