Home Made Sausages

Home Made Sausage Sandwich

         I love Sausages.  I love to make them and with the Bosch mixer and it's meatgrinder attachment and sausage attacment it is easy and fun to do.  It takes moments to make a lot of them and the enjoyment last as long as you have them on hand.  They tend to go fast, but they are so easy to make that I don't worry about how fast they go.  

     I love the meat grinder attachment to the Bosch.  It is great, I not only use it for sausages, but I love to grind meats for burgers and  it is easy to make breakfast sausages.  It makes making sausages fun and easy.   

      

      It's simple,  cut the meat in chunks and place the mixer on the side and attach the meatgrinder attachment.  Place the meat on the hopper and with the pusher, push it through the grinder.

      It only takes a moment,  the Bosch is fast and powerful.  Just another good reason to own a Bosch.  Infact I love all the attachments for the Bosch.  Nothing like have a machine that does it all.

      After the meat is ground,  remove the grinder part and add the sausage attachment.  It comes in three sizes,  I use the middle one for this style of sausages.  Sorry no photo, but the next step is placing the casings on the attachment.  It works well if you soak them in water and run water through them to open them up.  After you do this, place them on the attachment. After placing them on the attachment, tie a knot in the end where the hole is.  Start the mixer and fill the casing.

      I fill the casing to make one long sausage, sometimes it breaks, but no big deal.  After they are filled you can twist the casings to make smaller sausages..

From the sausage meat, I do sausages, patties, and just Italian suasage for pizza topping. 

Life is an adventure, and food is even a bigger adventure.  Making sausages is a fun adventure.  I love to create and have fun in the kitchen.  Adding grains makes them healthier and even better, they taste amazing.    Enjoy your adventure.  Chef Brad~America's Grain Guy

Homemade Sausages

5 lbs pork cushion meat or butt roast cut into chunks

6 cups cooked Grains

5 tablespoons Italian Suasage Seasoning

Kosher Salt 

Fresh ground pepper

Suasage Skins

Run meat through meat grinder and add seasonings and brown rice.  Blend well and attach skins to grinder without the cutter part and run meat again to fill casings.  

Hamburger Hotdog Buns. You can do it...

      I have a huge problem with hamburger buns.  The problem I have is the poor qualtiy of the flour used to make them.  It is filled with toxic chemicals.  Think about that for a moment.  They never go bad.  They can sit on the shelf for ages and not go bad.  Toxic chemicals all right.  I have a reaction moments after I eat them.  I get stuffed up and start iching.  I love hamburgers, but have quit eating them when I am out or traveling.  Hot dog buns are in the same class of low quality.  Toxic.   I have from a good source they are filled with bromains.  Bromains are chemicals that they add to flour.   Most white flour is filled with chemicals.  Bromains attach the thyroid gland and emune system.

     So,  I have decided to make them myself.  Chemical free and oh so tasty.  And they are so easy to make.  It just takes a few minutes in the Bosch Mixer and a few more minutes for raising and then you have the most wonderful hot dog or hamburger buns you have ever eaten.  Maybe this is what they should taste like after all.  Moist and fluffy, but not just filled with air.  These actually have texture and flavor.  

   

      I grind my flour fresh in the Nutri Mill Harvest.  Fresh ground flour is the best.  I do use a small amount of Natural White flour from Wheat Montana to give it a small boast.  

 

          After mixing the dough I divide it into pieces and roll them into balls and flatten them out.  Brush them with egg and top with sesame seeds.  Let rise until double.

        Hot dog buns are just as easy,  I make balls and roll them out into the size I want them.

Fresh baked bueaties.  

Great for anything from sausages to burgers.

   I love to take the time to do things like this.  I don't do it enough.  But when I do I love the results,  those include the happy faces of my family or those who I am teaching.  It is always worth the time and effort when we take the time to enjoy the simple things of life,  like fresh baked buns.  I hope you take the time to do simple yet satisfying things.  Chef Brad~America's Grain Guy

Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns

After making your own buns, it is hard to buy them at the store. 

Ingredients:

4 cups warm milk

½ cup oil

4 tablespoons brown sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons salt

6 cups whole wheat flour, fresh ground

4 tablespoons Saf instant yeast

White flour or bread flour, various amounts

Add ingredients in the order given to your mixer. Turn on mixer and add white flour until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Mix for 6 minutes. 

Remove and divide into 24 pieces. Roll into balls using your cupped hand. Flatten into burger size circles, place on parchment paper, 6 to a pan, leaving plenty of room for them to grow. 

Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Let rise to double and then bake in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes and then drop temperature to 325 degrees and cook for another 6 to 10 minutes.

The Pressure Cooker Adventure Begins, Cuban Beef

Cuban Beef served over Brown Rice

     I love Pressure Cookers, the stove top style are great, and I love the electric pressure.  Whichever you own, pressure cooking is really great.  Food is always better cooked in a pressure cooker.  The pressure really brings out the flavors of food.  And the meats are so tender when cooked in a pressure cooker.  Everything is better in a pressure cooker, from rices to meats, potatoes to fish,  I love Pressure Cooking.

    Over the next few months I will be posting a new recipe every week on my blog for pressure cooking.  I am spending the next couple of months creating new recipes.  I decided I have been in a "food funk", meaning that I am tired of the foods we have been eating and I am ready for a change.  So look out family and world get ready for some really outstanding recipes from the Pressure Cooker.  

     I love Cuban food.  I started my mission for the Mormon Church a long time ago in Miami Florida.  That started my passion for Cuban Food.  Cubans are really fantastic cooks.  I have many fond memories of the amazing food I ate while I served in the Miami area.   I remember that was where I had my first taste of olive oil.  I had never really had olive oil and one of my first experiences with olive oil was pickled pig ears in olive oil.   I gaged from the strong flavor of olive oil and not to mention the crunchy texture of the pig ear.  I was worried at that point that this mission was going to be very long if all the food was like that.  Thinking back I am sure it was a trick,  a member with a sense of humor having fun with a new missionary.  

     The thing I love about Cuban foods are the flavors.  They are rich and full bodied.   I love their beans and meats most of all.  In fact, all meals are served with rice and beans.   The only time I had ever eaten rice before my mission was with milk and sugar.   I loved eating rice with beans and rice with great meat sauces.  

     Those two years as a missionary really made a great impact in my culinary tastes,  from the great Cuban food, to all the foods from South America I learned to love and cook.  I don't think they used pressure cookers. In fact they started cooking in the morning and the beans cooked all day on the back of the stove.  So over the years I have taken the things I learned and converted the recipes to pressure cooking. The end result is food that tastes even better, and could be cooked in minutes compared to hours.  Pressure cooking does save time without compromizing flavors or textures.  It only makes them better. 

So join me now on a pressure cooker adventure.  

Chopped Beef Roast

      First I chop the beef in chunks.   About 2 lbs. It can be pork if you want or even chicken would be great.   A little bit of fat is ok, but not to much.

Chopped Red Peppers

     Sweet red pepper are diced up with onions.
I love the these really wonderful peppers.  They really add flavor to the dish.









                                                       


Saute Onions

Add peppers and meat.  

Saute onions, cumin seed, peppers, and beef.  Start out with the oil and onions, add cumin seeds and saute for a moment.  Add beef and peppers.  Add Vinegar, water, and bay leaves.  Place lid on pressure cooker and cook for 35 minutes.  Remove pressure lid and add remaining ingredients and stir and place lid on again and pressure for 6 - 8 minutes.

I cooked the meat in one pressure cooker.

While the meat was cooking in the pressure cooker
I cooked the brown rice in the other pressure cooker.  

The finished dish.  Brown rice topped with meat, olives, potatoes, and fresh avacado.  

 Beef and Potatoes Cuban Style with Brown Rice

2 lbs. beef cut into 1/2 inch pieces

2 onions, chopped

1 teaspoon whole cumin seed

1/2 cup water 

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon cursed red pepper flakes

2 jalepenos, seeded, and chopped or sweet red peppers

1/3 cup raisins

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon dried oregano 

1/3 cup stuffed olives

2 tablespoons capers

Fresh chopped cilantro, add at the end

In pressure cooker, add oil and saute onions, add cumin, suate for 1 minute.  Add beef, water, vinegar, and bay leaves.  Place lid on pressure cooker and cook for 35 minutes.   Open pressure cooker and add remaining ingredients except cilantro.  Place lid on pressure cooker and cook for 6 minutes.  Open and add cilantro.  Serve over fresh pressured brown rice with sliced red onions and tomatoes.   

Pressure cooking can be fun and exciting.   It saves time and food taste great.  Enjoy the upcoming recipes and share them with your friends.  Chef Brad~America's Grain Guy

Hands on Dinner Party

     This was a great event.  A hands on dinner cooking class,  my favorite type of class to have.   It was great.  The Bosch Kitchen Store in Clearfield Utah, known as For Your Kitchen, hosted this class.  It was a Traeger  Smoking Class.  For Your Kitchen sales Traeger Smokers,  my personal favorite smoker ever. I love them and use them often in my cooking at home experience.

     Traeger Smokers are a pellet fed smoker.   You put the pellets in a box at the end of the smoker and it feeds them to a small box in the middle of the smoker.  As it feeds them into the box it adds smoke and heat to the unit.  So easy and the food comes out perfect every time.

      This evening was a great,  there were about 26 persons in attendance.   This was  a hands on event. We prepared the recipes and set everything out for the guests to prepare the food,  from the salads to the  sausages.   We did most of the smoking ahead of time.  The ribs, beef,  and chickens were done ahead of time.  The sausages and vegetables/potatos were done at the event and the salads and beverages were also prepared by the guest.

     Hands on dinner parties are amazing.  It's a great way to entertain at home.  It gets everyone involved and it is amazing how much fun everyone can have when they are involved and preparing great food.  I love doing this type of event in my home.  I have done it for years working for Thermador and doing cooking classes.  It is always a success in a business setting or at home.  I am always amazed at how much everyone loves to get involved in the cooking process.

     Here is a picture view of the evening.   There will be recipes at the end of the blog posting.

This is an amazing fruit salad, notice the cooked pearled barley on the bottom. 

Smoked Ribs

The making of the sausages.

Best Friends in the Kitchen

     Everyone has a great time in the kitchen.  That is the power of food, it brings people together and builds and strengthens relationships.

     Friendships are deepened.  These two love cooking together and attend cooking classes and share ideas and their passion and love of food together.  It has added more to their friendship and through their love of food they have made many other wonderful friendships,  mine included.

Cooking together strengthens the relationship.

Smoked Paprika Wild Rice Sausages

They say that when a husband and wife cook together it strengthens the relationship. I believe that with all my heart.

I love making Sausages.  The Bosch Sausage attachment
works really great.  

     Take a good look at the happy faces.  Food, unlike any other thing in the world can bring people together.    I have learned over the years how much fun it can be.  From small dinner parties to large event like "Third Sunday Dinner" events like these are so important in life.  If we are not having these type of event in our lives we missing out on some of lives greatest moments.  

This is so much fun.  

We love cooking together.  

This is a fruit and grain salad.  

Look at all these sausages.

The best part is sitting down to eat.  

I'am a happy man right now.  

Yum, this is great food and fun. 

This is the face of a happy man.

Smoked Sausages

5 lbs pork cushion meat or butt roast cut into chunks

6 cups cooked wild rice

Smoked Spanish Paprika 

Kosher Salt 

Fresh ground pepper

Suasage Skins

Run meat through meat grinder and add seasonings and brown rice.  Blend well and attach skins to grinder without the cutter part and run meat again to fill casings.  

Smoked Vegetable and Grain Salad

Ingredients:
2 yellow squash, washed and cut into length wise strips
2 zucchini, washed and cut into length wise strips
onions
Peppers, cut into quarters
1-2 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2-4 cobs corn
2 lbs Peruvian potatoes, pressure cooked for 5 minutes and cooled
1 cup artichoke heart pieces
3 cups cooked farro

Dressing:
18 year old balsamic vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
1 T. fennel
1 T. rosemary
1 T. oregano
Salt & pepper

Directions:
Start by tossing the vegetagbles with oil in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.  Place in Smoker and smoke for 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove and chop vegetables and remove corn from the husk.  Toss with dressing and grain and enjoy.  

Hint  Place cooked grain in smoker on open pan to get smokey flavor.

Entertaining can be fun and it is worth all the effort.  Getting to know others can often be tricky and uncomfortable, but food seems to make it a lot easier and by the time the night is over friendships are made and old friendships are strengthened.  Great success to you in your culinary adventures. 
Chef Brad~America's Grain Guy

Young Adult Pizza Party at Chef Brad's

Nothing like a group of young adults having a great time eating food and enjoying each other.

Rolling out the dough. About 50 pizzas.

  So when I was called recently and asked to come and teach a class for the Single Adults for the Family Home Evening, I was thrilled to be asked, but thought that a group of young single adults would not want to sit through a lecture on food.  I know single young adults and sometimes the attention span is not that great.   And I know from years of experience that they do love to eat and  no attention is required. .  So I recommended that they invite all of them to my home for an outdoor pizza party.

     Really?  That was the response I got from them.  I replied that "yes, really, that would be great and the youth would love it".  And they did.

     It was a wonderful evening.  I am not sure how many came, somewhere between 80 to 100, maybe more with all the coming and going that was going on.

Happy happy faces.

     Nothing like food can bring a group together for a great time.  And this was pretty easy thing to do.  I have a grill, a wood burning pizza oven, and a smoker.  I put a pizza stone in each one and we were able to bake 5 pizzas at a time.  It worked great.  No one really had to wait for food it went pretty fast. I think we made at least 50 pizzas.







     Notice the cuties box.  That is how I do pizza parties.  I get a flat box and containers with lids and fill it with all the toppings needed.  I make a huge bowl of pizza dough, with grains added.  The secret of pizza parties is to add my Sour dough starter to the dough.  It keeps the dough alive for the entire evening.

This is how we make the pizzas.  Totally organized and fun.  Five stones are hot in the BBQ and smokers. 

This young man was amazing at rolling out the dough. 

This is the life.

Are they ready yet.  I am hungry.

It's Done 

Cooked to perfection. 

Everyone is having a great time.

Even the Adults. 

It's getting later and no one wants to go. 

So keep making them. 

Champion Pizza Makers. 

The apron tells all. 

Wait, let it cool down first. 

That is what parties are all about,  bringing the youth together, 

Dessert pizza. 

Fun

More fun, eating is the life.  

That is a happy face. 

     I love the youth of today.  They are outstanding in every way.    It was a great evening to get to rub shoulders with some of the best young men and women in Mesa.  I was thrilled at how they showed up early to set up  and took ownership of the entire event.

     Some of them really wanted to just hang out, but made sure the job was done first sacrificing what they really wanted to do.  I was impressed with each of them.  No one complained and each person that was asked to do something did it quickly and with a smile.

    Some times we don't do things like this because we fear the work, but I have found that most everyone when asked will pitch in and help.  So really this was a wonderful evening for me.  Before they left they made sure all was done.  I would have to say "hat's off" to the parents who taught them so well.

   

Perfect picture face.  He could be a model. 

     Food is a wonderful thing.  If used the right way it can be a great blessing to all those who participate.  I will continue to encourage everyone everywhere to open your homes and your hearts and feed those who need to be feed.  When we feed the body we feed the spirit at the same time.

He rolled and rolled. 

Time to go....

No one wants to go.  I love it.

    I really hope you are enjoying my blog.  I really really hope it inspires you do do some of the things I an doing to bless the lives of those around you.  I hope you get the picture that it is not always easy, but it is ALWAYS worth it.  ALWAYS.   Chef Brad~America's Grain Guy