Sausage (20 page)
Authors: Victoria Wise
VEG BURGERS, VEG BALLS, VEG ROLLS
—what qualifies them as “sausage”? Well, the word
sausage
comes from the Latin
salsus
, which means “salted.” Sausage also means small bits, often wrapped somehow. So, why not small bits of vegetables and grains seasoned and wrapped or formed into patties? Of course, it’s totally poetic license that accommodates such sidestepping. Here are three recipes in that vein: one for quinoa, one for bulgur, and one for brown rice. They all use an ancient grain as the “meat” of the matter, and they all have the special perk of enticing your vegetarian friends to table.
Quinoa and Tofu Veg Burgers with Red Bell Pepper Sauce
Red Bell Pepper Sauce
Quinoa (keen-wah), though not a cereal grain because it is not a grass plant, is nonetheless a life-sustaining grain native to the Andes Mountains in what is now Peru, Chile, and Bolivia. Although it was a staple food of the Inca, who peopled those high places, somewhere along the way it got shuffled aside for wheat and rice, grain imports from the Old World, and for corn, the New World’s other great grain. There it remained, in the shadows of time, until recently, when health aficionados rediscovered its food value and deliciousness.
Quinoa’s nutrition is unique among the grains of the world. Within each tiny, almost miniscule bit of it, there is complete protein. When cooked, the grains puff up four times their size into a pillowy mass that resembles the cells in a beehive, with each compartment distinct. That means quinoa serves up not only plenty of nutrition but also enough bulk to make a filling meal. Together with tofu, their nutrition pedigree becomes double blue ribbon.
SERVES 6
Burgers
½ cup quinoa
1 cup water
1 cup finely shredded Swiss chard
3 large shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps finely chopped (⅔ cup)
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives
1 teaspoon peeled and minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon grated or minced lemon zest
7 ounces firm tofu, mashed with a fork
1 cup
fresh bread crumbs
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Sauce
2 red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, and seeded
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons butter or extra virgin olive oil
To make the burgers, first rinse and drain the quinoa and place it in a medium saucepan with the water. Bring to a boil over high heat, cover, decrease the heat to maintain a simmer, and cook until the water is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Set aside, covered, to cool.
To prepare the chard, bring a small saucepan filled with water to a boil over high heat. Add the chard and blanch for 1 minute. Drain well and set aside to cool.
Place the cooled quinoa, chard, mushrooms, shallot, chives, ginger, lemon zest, tofu, bread crumbs, eggs, salt, and a few grinds of pepper in a medium bowl, and knead with your hands until the mixture firmly coheres. Divide the mixture into 6 equal portions and form each portion into a burger ¾ inch thick and 3 inches in diameter. Place the patties on a plate, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside in the refrigerator to chill and firm for 15 to 30 minutes.
To make the sauce, combine all the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Use right away, or set aside at room temperature for up to several hours.
To cook the burgers, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until foaming. Add as many burgers as will fit without crowding and fry, turning once, until golden on both sides, about 15 minutes altogether. If necessary, continue with another round.
To serve, top each burger with a dollop of the sauce. Serve the remaining sauce on the side.
You might not think so, but butter is as important to the cooking of much of India, Africa, the Middle East, and all the way north to the Caucasus as it is to French, Swiss, or Scandinavian cooking. So it’s not too surprising to see it surface as a main ingredient in the broth for this traditional Armenian vegetarian bulgur dish. The red bell pepper and paprika tint the bulgur balls a Titian red, while the mustard and butter add a soft yellow hue to the broth.
If there are any leftover balls and broth, chill them together thoroughly, until the broth is thickened to a cheeselike consistency. Then press them together and form the mixture into balls. Drizzle with fruity extra virgin olive and serve with crackers or bread.
SERVES 4 TO 6
Bulgur Balls
½ cup medium-grind bulgur
1 tablespoon finely chopped scallion, light green parts only
¼ cup finely chopped red bell pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
½ teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Broth
1½ cups plain yogurt
¾ cup water
1 large egg
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup finely shredded fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons butter
To make the balls, rinse the bulgur, place it in a medium bowl, and add water just to cover. Set aside to soak for 45 minutes. Drain and return to the bowl. Add the scallion, bell pepper, parsley, paprika, cayenne, and salt and stir to mix. Transfer the mixture to a food processor and process, scraping down the sides of the bowl from time to time, until pasty and slightly moist but no longer wet, about 5 minutes. Cover and refrigerate to firm for about 1 hour.
To form the balls, with wet hands, roll the bulgur mixture into ¾-inch balls. Use right away, or cover and set aside in the refrigerator until ready to cook, up to an hour or so. Do not leave them overnight or they will become dry and crumbly.
To prepare the broth, whisk together the yogurt and water in a small bowl. Whisk together the egg and mustard in a separate small bowl. Set both bowls aside at room temperature. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Stir in the mint, remove from the heat, and set aside.
To sauté the balls, melt the butter in a large nonreactive sauté pan over medium heat. Add the balls and cook, gently turning with a wooden spoon, until browned all around, about 12 minutes. Transfer the balls to a plate and set aside.
To finish the dish, return the sauté pan to medium heat and whisk in the yogurt mixture. Cook, stirring, until it is almost at the boiling point. Then slowly whisk ½ cup of the yogurt mixture into the mustard-egg mixture. Return the combined mixtures to the pan, whisking gently and constantly. Decrease the heat to medium-low and bring almost to a boil, taking care not to let the mixture actually boil. Add the butter-mint mixture and swirl it around without mixing it in.
To serve, return the balls to the pan and heat, still taking care not to let the broth boil. Ladle the bulgur balls and broth into individual wide bowls and serve steaming hot.
Once veg burger and veg ball are in the sausage lexicon, why not include another offbeat member? In the spirit of having fun stepping outside the box, and for the love of my vegetarian son, Jenan, here is a cabbage leaf–wrapped brown rice, walnut, and dandelion green mix that simulates sausage without the meat. Dandelion greens are the surprise. No matter how young and tender you pick them, they retain a decidedly bitter pucker. But tucked into the brown rice, they cease to affront and instead demur to lending their healthful, herbal kick to the dish. The made-on-the-spur-of-the-moment tomato-caper sauce adds the acid element that brings it all together.
SERVES 6
1 cup short- or long-grain brown rice, preferably organic
2⅓ cups water
1 yellow or white onion, finely chopped
1 cup chopped dandelion greens
½ cup walnuts, toasted and finely chopped
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large head cabbage (2 to 3 pounds)
Sauce
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large tomato, peeled and coarsely chopped, or 2 canned plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
3 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon capers, preferably salt packed, rinsed
1 tablespoon chopped lemon peel (not just the zest)
Kosher salt
To cook the rice, rinse it, place in a small saucepan, and add 2 cups of the water. Bring to a boil over high heat, cover, and decrease the heat to low. Cook until the water is absorbed and the rice is plumped, 40 to 45 minutes. Set aside off the heat with the lid still on and let steam dry for 10 minutes.
To make the stuffing, bring a small saucepan filled with water to a boil over high heat. Add the onion and dandelion greens and blanch until the onion is translucent, about 2 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large bowl. Add the rice, walnuts, parsley, tomato paste, salt, and pepper, and knead with your hands until thoroughly blended. Set aside at room temperature.
To prepare the cabbage leaves, bring a large pot three-fourths full of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Core the cabbage, place it in the pot, cover, and cook until the outer leaves are quite wilted, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer the cabbage to a colander and set aside until cool enough to handle.
One at a time, gently pull off the cabbage leaves. You should have about 12 leaves of varying sizes. Arrange the leaves, with the inside facing up and the stem end nearest you, on a work surface. Place about ¼ cup of the stuffing in the center of each leaf. Fold up the bottom of the leaf over the stuffing, then fold in the sides and roll up the leaf to make a tight packet. Arrange the packets, seam sides down, in a single tight layer in a large saucepan. Pour the remaining ⅓ cup water into the pan around, not over, the packets, and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, decrease the heat to maintain a simmer, cover, and cook until the cabbage is very tender, about 25 minutes.
While the packets are cooking, make the sauce. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the tomato, garlic, capers, and lemon peel and stir to mix. Cook until just beginning to boil, then remove from the heat. Season with salt and set aside until ready to use.
To serve, briefly reheat the sauce if desired. Arrange the cabbage packets on a platter and spread the sauce across the top.
Grinding Meats and Stuffing Sausage at Home
Meats
Not all cuts of meat, whether pork, beef, lamb, or poultry, are suitable for sausage. Here are the cuts to choose for grinding at home.
Use shoulder meat, purchased either as a pork butt or pork shoulder roast or as shoulder chops. These cuts are usually trimmed by the butcher and need no further trimming. Pork tenderloin with a little added fat and the fatty ends of pork loin are also good for sausages, but the center-cut loin is not. Use a grinding plate with ⅜-inch holes. This size cuts the meat and its fat just right to make a tender sausage, without smashing either of them or cutting them too large to “melt” when cooked.