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Georgian Sausage with Walnut Sauce Frittata

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Georgian Sausage and Walnut Sauce Quiche
Georgian Sausage and Walnut Sauce Quiche
While in the country of Georgia, not the state, the country over just South of Russia, I got to experience a lot of different foods from around the region.  The culture is very diverse and has a wide range of really good organically grown food.  Additionally some of the best wine I’ve every had is grown and made there!

But back to breakfast.  This dish is made with Georgian Sausage, or as best as I can get it with the limited access to Silk Road spices, and Georgian farm fresh ingredients.  Topped with a little Sulguni Cheese, it’s quite tasty.  And for those of you doubter out there, the one in the picture above is not burnt.  The Megrelian ajika and the Walnut Sauce turned it this color.  This is also best eaten as a frittata.

Serves: 16 -22 (2 frittatas)

Ingredients

Georgian Sausage

  • 1 – 1/2 lbs Ground Pork
  • 1 large Onion, finely chopped
  • 1 – 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
  • 1 tsp freshly Ground Black Pepper
  • 2 cloves of Garlic, minced
  • 2 Tbsp chopped fresh Dill, or 1 tbsp of dried Dill
  • 1 Tbsp ground Coriander
  • 1 tsp dried Red Chile Flakes
  • 4 oz Pomegranate Juice
  • 1 tsp Cooking Oil

Megrelian Ajika

  • 2 – 4 Hot Red Chile Peppers
  • 1 – 2 Sweet Red Peppers
  • 1/2 cup chopped Parsley
  • 1/4 cup chopped Celery Leaves
  • 1/4 cup of chopped Basil
  • 1/2 cup of Garlic (about 6 cloves)
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp Fenugreek
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp Coriander
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp Marigold
  • 1 Tbsp  Dill
  • 1 tsp Salt

Walnut Sauce

  • 1/2 cup finely ground Walnuts
  • 1 tsp Coriander
  • 1 tsp Fenugreek
  • 1 tsp of Marigold
  • 1/2 tsp of Cinnamon
  • 2 crushed Garlic cloves
  • 2 tsp White Wine Vinegar

The Rest

  • 1 cup shredded Smoked Sulguni or Smoked Mozzarella Cheese (or plain Mozzarella if you can’t find it smoked)
  • 1/2 White Onion, chopped
  • 1 tsp Cooking Oil
  • 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds (optional)

Preparation

 Georgian Sausage

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Add the Pomegranate Juice in last but make sure everything is thoroughly mixed. The traditional method would have this mixture in casings but since this all gets chopped up anyway why bother.  Make into 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick patties (should make about 8 – 10) and refrigerate for about 30 minutes to firm them up.  Prepare a skillet on medium high with with a dash of cooking oil (I use olive oil) and when ready, place in and cook all of the patties that you’ve prepared for about 5 – 6 minutes per side.  They should be just a little charred on the outside.  Remove from the skillet and allow to drain onto some paper towels until cool.  When cooled chop them up into 1/2 inch pieces and refrigerate until ready for final assembly.

Megrelian Ajika

This will make a little over 1 1/2 cups of this seasoning.  Remove the tops of all the peppers and remove all the seeds and stems and discard them.  Quarter cut the peppers so they’ll fit into a food processor.  Fine chop the parsley, celery leaves, basil and garlic.  Put each of previous ingredients into a food processor and pulse until you have a finely chopped mush and everything is fully mixed.  Add into the processor the fenugreek, coriander, marigold, dill and salt.  Continue to mix by pulsing the processor until everything is fully mixed.  Remove from the processor and store in a container until ready to use in the final preparation.

Walnut Sauce

This will make a little over 1/2 a cup of this key ingredient.  Using a food processor finely chop walnuts until you have at least 1/2 cup of finely chopped or ground walnuts.  Then add in the other ingredients, except for the White Wine Vinegar and thoroughly mix in the processor.  This powder should be easily removed for the processor and placed in a bowl.  Add the White Wine Vinegar in and mix well.  Then you should simply add a little bit of water and mix until the mixture is a thick paste.  When you get the right consistency, put it away until final preparation.

 

The Rest

Shred your cheese and chop your 1/2 onion.  In a pan, put a little cooking oil and when hot, add the chopped onions and cook over medium high heat until they turn translucent.  Remove from heat and put both away in separate containers until ready for final preparation.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Line your pie pans with a little oil or butter to help the frittata release.  Take the chopped sausage and chopped onions you’ve prepared and roughly mix them together and place equal parts into your two pie pans.  Prepare the base quiche mix, but reduce the amount of half and half to 1/4 cup.  Add into this mixture the Ajika and Walnut Sauce and mix well.  Pour this over the sausages and onions in the pie pans.  Top this with the shredded cheese and cook in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes, or when the cheese is starting to turn golden brown.  Remove from the oven and either serve or pack them up for transport to the rink.  Also, if you want to add a pleasant surprise, drop on some pomegranates on top of each pie after about 20 minutes of cooking.

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South African BBQ Quiche

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South African BBQ with Monkey Gland Sauce
South African BBQ with Monkey Gland Sauce

For some reason, I became fascinated with South African style cooking for a while.  I reached out to some friends from Joburg, and they suggested this for the first try.  And why not, this South African BBQ, or “Braai”, even includes Monkey Gland Sauce!  Everyone liked it and it’s been a repeat offender in the locker room.  Even the Monkey Gland Sauce!  Oh, and it’s not really a gland from a monkey.  It’s just a BBQ sauce.  Sorry for including a Spanish cheese, but I like combining the Monkey Gland with a Winey Goat.

Ingredients

Braai or BBQ

  • 1 – 2 lbs. Rump or Sirloin cut Beef (should be 4 pieces no thicker than 1/2 inch)
  • 1 – 6 oz. can of Pineapple Juice
  • 6 oz. of Balsamic Vinegar
  • 1 tspn. Salt
  • 2 tspn. Ground Black Pepper
  • 1 tspn. Coriander
  • 4 tspn. Brown Sugar
  • 4 tspn. Olive Oil

Monkey Gland Sauce

  • 1/2 large Onion, finely chopped
  • 2 Garlic Cloves, chopped and crushed
  • 1 tspn Fresh Ginger, grated
  • 1 – 3 tblspn Cooking Oil
  • 4 tblspn Chutney
  • 4 tblspn Tomato Paste
  • 1 tspn Soy Sauce
  • 1 tblspn mild English Mustard
  • 1 tblspn Worcestershire sauce
  • 3 tspn Ketchup
  • 4 tblspn Red Wine
  • 1/4 cup Chicken Stock
  • 1/2 tspn Salt
  • 1/2 tspn Pepper

The Rest

  • 1/2 cup chopped Tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup chopped Red Bell Peppers
  • 1/2 cup chopped White Onion
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh Chives
  • 2 regular pie crusts
  • 1 cup shredded Winey Goat Cheese

Preparation

Braai or BBQ

Set up your grill with two areas, one that hot (400 deg) and another that is a little cooler (300 deg).  In a shallow bowl or a deep plate, lay out the steaks and poke holes in them with a fork.  Then dribble 6 to 10 drops of the Pineapple Juice over each steaks and poke again with a fork to work the Pineapple Juice in.  Let that sit undisturbed for about 15 minutes.  Then flip the steak over and repeat the whole process on the other side.  Once the pineapple juice has set for 15 minutes, repeat the whole process using the Balsamic Vinegar.  When the Balsamic Vinegar is finished setting, sprinkle on the remaining spices evenly on both sides.  If you want you should also rub these in a little bit.  Check to see that your grill is ready and if so, sprinkle about 6 to 10 drops of Olive Oil on the side of the steak that is going on the grill.  Flip the steaks onto the hot part of the grill being careful as there may be a flare up of flames.  Wait about a minute and sprinkle some more Olive Oil on the top side of the steaks.  Let that cook for about 4 – 5 minutes, then flip once and repeat staying on the hotter side of your grill.  After another 4 – 5 minutes, flip the steaks again, but put them on the cooler part of the grill.  Keep an eye on them for another 5 – 7 minutes and flip once more.  They should be done to a medium or medium well at the end of another 5 – 7 minutes.  Remove from the grill and allow them to sit around and cool down for at least 30 minutes.  When that step is done, cube the steaks into 1/2 inch or so cubes and refrigerate until final assembly.

Monkey Gland Sauce

In a sauce pan, add the oil and heat over medium high heat.  Once the oil is hot, add in the Onion, Garlic and Ginger and cook until the onion becomes translucent.  Then add in all the rest of the ingredients and continue cooking while stirring frequently for another 8 – 10 minutes.  This should make about 1/2 cup of sauce.  Allow to cool and refrigerate until ready for final assembly.

The Rest

The rest is pretty simply, just chop up these and either store them for until your ready to fill the pies.  Or if you want some more flavor, roast the chopped tomatoes, peppers and onion in a little aluminum foil tray on the grill for about 20 minutes, with a light coating of olive oil.  Put these away until your ready for final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Gather up all the meat, tomato, peppers and onion and mix well together and place evenly in the bottom of each pie crust.  Prepare the usual base quiche mix, but only use 1/4 cup of half and half.  Add to the base quiche mix the Monkey Gland Sauce and continue to mix for a couple more minutes.  Pour evenly over the other ingredients in the pie crusts and top equally with the Winey Goat Cheese, then sprinkle on the chopped Chives.  The oven should be ready, so in the pies go for 30 – 40 minutes or until the cheese is turning a golden brown.  Remove and your quiche is ready to serve or pack up for the rink.

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Longsilog Torta

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Pinoy Longsilog Torta
Pinoy Longsilog Torta

I was at the local Asian market on afternoon to pick up some “special” mushrooms and decided to wander the isles for a bit. While carefully giving the fish section a little extra nasal space, I stumbled across some Filipino breakfast sausage called Longanisa, and since I didn’t have my wife with me at the time, I had no idea what this was except it was made from meat and came in a wide variety of meats and spices. The most appealing one at the time was the hot pork version, so I picked some up to experiment with. And after consulting the internet and a few of my Filipy friends I concocted this Longsilog Torta which is a lot like a frittata.  WARNING – there is enough garlic in this to scare away vampires, thus it’s nickname or Vampire Repellant Torta.

Serves 16 – 22

Ingredients

  • 2 pkg – 12 oz Frozen Hot Pork Longanisa
  • 6 slices –  uncured Bacon (optional)
  • 2 tomatoes – diced
  • 1 cup – rice
  • 12 cloves – garlic chopped (should be about 1/4 cup)
  • 4 tbspn – cooking oil (I use coconut oil for this)
  • 1/4 cup – Fish Sauce
  • 1/2 cup – shredded White Cheddar Cheese
  • 2 pie pans

Preparation

Cook the rice as directed by the package.  Prepare the tomatoes and garlic by getting all the chopping done.  In a large pot, but in the cooking oil and heat on medium high heat.  When it’s hot enough add in all the garlic and stir until its all starting to brown.  Remove half of the garlic and set aside till final assembly.  Drop in the rice with the remaining garlic and stir while frying for about 5 -10 minutes or until the rice is just a little browned.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Put this away in the fridge until ready for final assembly.

Chop up the longanisa and bacon into 1/2 chunks and then cook in a skillet over medium high heat until it’s all thoroughly cooked.  Remove from the skillet and place on a paper towel to drain.  Raise the heat to high and the skillet is still a little greasy add in the tomato chunks and cook until they start to wilt and get browned edges.  This should take about 6 minutes.  Remove and mix together with the meats from above.  Refrigerate until ready for final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Apply a thin coating of coconut oil to the bottom of the pie pans.  Mix all of the previously prepared ingredients together thoroughly and place equal portions into each oiled pie pan.  In a mixing bowl, prepare the standard quiche base mix but add in the Fish Sauce as well.  Whisk until frothy while adding a little salt and pepper to taste (I use 1 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons pepper) and pour over the fillings in the pie pans.  Put on a thin coating of a white shredded cheese on top and then add the remaining fried garlic.  This all goes in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until its starting to brown on the top.  Remove from the oven and it’s ready to serve as soon as it’s cooled down a little.  Or pack it up a blanket for the rink.

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Canadian Drunken Pumpkin Bacon Balls

I was looking for a reason to make something that resembles the maple bacon cupcakes and doughnuts that everyone seems to be making.  But I wanted to step it up a bit, both for flavor (the drunken) and for fall (the pumpkin).  After researching how these things are typically made by about 20 others, I came up with this.

The boys liked them as much as they like the quiche so it’s got to be a hit.

This makes about 30 – 1 1/2 inch balls

Ingredients

Balls

  • 1/2 cup evaporated milk
  • 1 package of bacon, fried and chopped
  • 1/4 cup bacon grease from cooking the bacon, in solid form
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast (2 packets)
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1/2 cup your favorite spiced rum (Kraken or Captain Morgan‘s)
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 4 tablespoons of maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice
  • 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 2 2/3 of all-purpose flour, plus a little extra if needed
  • vegetable oil for frying (I used 2 quarts)

Glaze

  • 2 cup powdered sugar
  • 4 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 2 tablespoon bacon fat, melted
  • 2 tablespoons evaporated milk
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup of the rum used in the balls

Preparation

I did most of this the evening before just because everyone likes their balls freshly cooked and warm, right.

First you need to cook up the package of bacon. I find it best to bake this on a foil lined cooke sheet in a 375 to 385 degree oven for 7 to 10 minutes per side, draining the grease at the flip. Then take the finished bacon and drain on some paper towels. Put the bacon grease into a bowl and refridgerate long enough to make it the consistency of warm butter. Now to make some bacon butter. Add the evaporated milk to a saucepan over medium-low heat and heat until just warm enough to melt the bacon grease. Pour the warm milk over top of the bacon grease slowly and stir constantly until it’s fully mixed. Set side to let cool to room temperature.

While that’s cooling, take a few minutes to loosely chop half of the bacon. Finely chop the rest and keep the two separate.

The next thing you can premake is the glaze. In another bowl add all the glaze ingredients along with the finely chopped bacon and whisk until this becomes a glaze. Then refrigerate till ready to use.

Now to make the dough. In the large bowl whisk together the yeast and warm water to activate it. Let this mixture sit for about five minutes until foamy. Then add in cooled bacon butter. Mix well using an electric mixer on low speed. Add in the eggs, syrup, salt, nutmeg, pumpkin spice, rum, coarse chopped bacon and half of the flour mixture, mixing on low speed until combined. Add the remaining flour, mixing on medium speed until combined which will take about five minutes. Then knead the dough for about five minutes or until it fully pulls from the bowl. If it is sticky add a few tablespoons of flour and knead until it pulls off smoothly. Have another vegetable oil coated bowl ready and transfer the dough when it pulls easily, cover and let rise in a warm place for about and hour.

Prepare a couple cookie sheets with parchment paper and a little coating of oil or baking spray. Then pinch off pieces of the dough that you can roll into balls about an inch to inch and a half in diameter. Place these on the cookie sheets keeping at least a half an inch to one inch separation. Then cover loosely with a sheet of plastic wrap and let this rise at room temperature for another thirty minutes. Then move to the refrigerator for the night.

Assembly

First thing you need to do is get the dough nuts out of the refrigerator and allow them to warm to room temperature. If your pressed for time, warm up the oven a little and put the balls in there with the door cracked so it’s about 100 degrees in the oven for about five minutes. Warm up your glaze either in a microwave or pot just enough to liquify it again.

While the balls are warming, heat your oil a large pot on medium high heat, making sure it is about 365 degrees. You should also only need about two to three inches of oil. And if you want them a little crisper and healthier, use coconut oil. Add the dough nuts into the oil five or six at a time, frying on each side for about 1 minute, and flipping with a spider or slotted spoon. Remove and let drain on wire rack placed above a paper towel. When finished, dip each ball halfway in glaze. They are ready to serve or pack in a foil covered tray for transport. If your taking these to the rink, make sure to leave a little vent in the foil cover to let the steam out, but keep most of the heat in.

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Chipotle Steak Fajitas w/ Pinto Beans Quiche

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Chipotle Steak Fajitas with Pinto Beans
Chipotle Steak Fajitas with Pinto Beans

Being in the southwest, we get some good choices for Steak Fajitas.  This recipe takes the basic ingredients of a good Fajita and Bean Burrito and turns it into quiche.  This particular one also has some green chile and other extra ingredients that you won’t get at your local Chipotle burrito shop.

Serves: 16 – 22 (2 quiches)

Ingredients

  • 1 lb Flank or Skirt Steak (about 4 pieces)
  • 2 tspn Salt
  • 4 tspn Pepper
  • 6 tspn Ancho Chile Pepper Spice (McCormick is what I’ve used)
  • 1 can of Trappey’s Pinto Beans with Jalapenos (Walmart might have them)
  • 1 Green Bell Pepper
  • 2 Anaheim Chile Peppers
  • 1/2 Red Onion, chopped
  • 4 tblspn Olive Oil
  • 1/2 jar of Colorado Green Chile (hot is best, and a good substitute is Sadies Roasted Green Chile Salsa)
  • 2 cups shredded Mexican Cheese (best is to mix Asadero and Monterey Jack Cheese equally)
  • 1/4 cup fine chopped black olives (optional)
  • 2 pie crusts

Preparation

Combine the salt, pepper and chile pepper spices in a large zip lock bag.  Place the meat into the bag and shake up so that the spices coat all sides of the meat like a good rub.  Put in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

In a pot over medium heat cook down the can of beans until the liquid has reduced by half.  This should take about 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and drain the beans and juices into separate containers and refrigerate until ready for final assembly.

Get your grill heated up to at least 350 degrees for grilling the meat.  Chop the red onion and brush with olive oil.  Brush the other peppers with olive oil as well.   Take the steaks, peppers and onion and place them all on the grill.  The meat will cook in about 15 minutes, flipping once.  When done remove from heat and allow to cool.  The peppers and onion will cook in about 25 minutes, flipping as needed to get some char marks on all sides.  Take everything and chop it up into about 1/2 inch chunks, but keep the meat separate from the rest for now.  Also discard stem ends and the seeds from the peppers.  Once you’ve got this all chopped up, store properly until ready for final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  In a large mixing bowl, add the meat, peppers, onion and beans together and mix thoroughly.  Place evenly into your prepared pie crusts  making sure that the mixture is loose.  Prepare the usual base quiche mix, with only 1/4 cup of half and half, and add to it the liquid reserved from cooking the beans and the salsa.  Mix this thoroughly.  Pour this equally over the ingredients in the pie pans and top with the shredded cheese mixture.  If you’re going to include the olives, sprinkle them on top and pop the pies into the oven for 30 – 40 minutes, or until the cheese starts to get golden brown.  Remove and serve or pack it up for the rink.