Homemade Sausage Patties

I recently spent a month with the grandson that has all the severe food allergies (See In Search of Real Food). He absolutely loves sausage but he hasn't been able to have any due to all the nitrates and other preservatives that is so prevalent in commercial sausage. So I perused the internet and came up with a basic recipe which after much tweaking ended up with this one. Keep in mind that sausage varies wildly with the individual's preference so you may prefer yours more spicy or less. Experiment with these. They are great formed into patties and frozen with waxed paper in between them so you can pull just one or two out to cook. Keep the heat lower if cooking frozen ones and cook longer.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of pastured pork, ground
2 teaspoons of ground sage, slightly more if you use leaves rather than powder
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp 5-pepper blend
2 Tbl organic maple syrup or honey


Mix the meat with the spices and syrup. If your  meat is very lean, you may want to add a couple tablespoons of water to the mix. Form into patties keeping in mind that they will shrink about 30%.

Brown quickly on the first side and turn. Reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook until the juices run clear when pierced with a fork.



These are incredibly easy and taste so much better than commerical sausage that I doubt I'll every buy it again. Enjoy!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I got this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, a site that a friend of mine turned me onto that has some truly fabulous recipes. I was looking for a pineapple upside down cake that used fresh pineapple rather than the canned version because fresh pineapple seems to be a fruit that cruisers have on their boat frequently and I happen to love it. This recipe is great because it uses a pre-cooked caramel on the top (or bottom if you're making it) and it makes all the difference in the world with the fresh pineapple. Just ask the group of The Assembled here at the marina - the cake is already gone before it even cooled completely.




Topping:


1 medium pineapple, peeled, cored and sliced or use the Pineapple Slicer
3/4 stick of unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar



Prepare the pineapple and set aside.

If you have a cast iron skillet, melt the butter and brown sugar in it till bubbly and smooth, about 4 minutes.

Arrange the pineapple slices in the caramel sauce.
If you don't have a skillet, do this in a separate pan and transfer to 9" round baking pan or 8 x 8" pan and arrange the pineapple.







Batter:


1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbl dark rum
1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
2 Tbl dark rum for sprinkling over cake




Mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl with a whisk. Set aside. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. I don't have an electric mixer on board so I do everything with a whisk. Don't be intimidated by this. It just takes a little more muscle.









Add eggs, one at a time and beat well. Add vanilla and rum. Mix well.

Add 1/2 of the flour mixture and beat till creamy. It will be thick.

Add the pineapple juice and mix well again. The batter will look slightly curdled at this point. Add the remaining flour mixture and mix well.

Pour over pineapple and caramel and spread gently so as not to disturb the pineapple.

Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or till cake tester comes out clean and cake is golden brown. Cool on rack for 5 minutes. Put plate on top of pan or skillet, and holding both together firmly, turn over. Let sit for a minute to allow caramel to drain onto cake.

Lift off pan and scrape any pineapple that stick off and replace to cake. Sprinkle with remaining rum. Allow to cool till just warm and serve with dollops of whipped cream or chill and serve with ice cream.





Mmmmmmmm........

Perfect Iced Coffee

I'm an avid coffee drinker, but because I like my coffee piping hot, in the summer my coffee consumption drops dramatically just because of the heat. A while back my son-in-law got me hooked on iced coffee, a perfect compromise for summers in St. Louis. I'm also including a link to my reviews blog so you can read about the Thermos mug in the picture.  Enjoy!

Iced Coffee

3/4 Cup of coffee grounds, flavor of your choice.

10 Cups of filtered water

16 drops of Stevia extract or sugar or honey of your choice

1 Tbl vanilla extract

Full fat milk or some cream and some milk.

Ice

Brew the coffee and let cool completely. If you like really strong coffee, just put the grounds in the water and bring to boiling on the stove, turn off the heat, and let it steep for a while then just run it through a coffee filter or fine wire mesh basket to remove the grounds. Add the vanilla and Stevia. You can use sugar, but I try to stay away from sugar as much as possible so I use Stevia a lot. 

Pour coffee to about 1/2 or 2/3 of a glass / cup / mug. Add your milk or cream to your liking. Sorry no amounts here because this is totally personal preference. Some like it more creamy, some more coffee. Add ice. Enjoy. I keep the coffee / vanilla / Stevia  mixture in a quart jar in the fridge and add the cream or milk right before drinking. You'll see organic milk in my picture. If you've never had it, I can't stress the difference it makes in this recipe.  Pure delight.

Quick Cheese Bread

This cheese bread is also from Cooks Illustrated, and while we're on the subject, I'll do a little plug for them here. It is a subscription service, but well worth the price of admission. They have very well-tested recipes, videos for particularly difficult processes, and excellent directions and pictures. At the beginning of each recipe they have a "Why this recipe works" comment with very helpful information.

That being said... my daughter would say I committed culinary travesty on this recipe this time because it calls for freshly grated parmesan cheese and I only had the dried powder type <gasp>. This happens sometimes when you're a cruiser and I will never publish any recipe here that can't be adapted well to what you might have on hand, so here we go (sorry Amber).

Ingredients:


3 ounces parmesan cheese shredded on large holes of box grater (about 1 cup)
3 C. all purpose flour (15 oz)
1 Tbl baking powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (I used a 5 pepper fiery blend I had on        hand)
1 tsp table salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
4 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese cut into small cubes
   (or mild asiago crumbled into 1 C.)
1-1/4 C. whole milk (or 2% but NOT skim)
3 Tbl unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg beaten lightly
3/4 C. sour cream




Heat oven to 350°. Grease 9x5 loaf pan then sprinkle 1/2 cup of the parmesan in the bottom of your pan.

In a large bowl mix the flour, bakng powder, peppers, and salt with a whisk.

Add the cheese and toss it until it's evenly coated with the flour mixture.

In another bowl, mix the milk, butter, egg and sour cream.








Stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture and blend it together quickly until all the dry ingredients are mixed in. Do not overmix as this will give you a pretty tough bread.

Spread it into the prepared pan and top it with the remaining parmesan. Bake it at 350° for 45-50 minutes. In my boat oven I need to cover the top loosely with foil the last 10 minutes or so because it rises high and starts to burn. I use an ice pick to test for doneness, but a word of caution - move the tester around a couple of times because if you happen to hit a cube of melted cheese it will look like the bread is not done when it might be.

Cool it on a rack in the pan for 5 minutes and then remove it to the rack to cool another 45 minutes. I know, it's not a quick bread in the sense that it's quick till you get to eat it, only quick to mix. If you can't resist the temptation and you cut it too soon, you'll miss the improved texture of the bread after it cools so try to wait if you can.

(I dare you).

Fish Cakes

This is an adapted recipe from Cooks Illustrated, a recipe site that my daughter virtually lives on, and continually passes me recipes from. The original recipe was for Maryland Crab Cakes, but since my husband developed a late-in-life allergy to shellfish, we adapted it to fish. It's a cruiser's delight because you never know what kind of fish or shellfish you're going to catch that day or have sitting in your freezer from previous days.

Ingredients:


2 pounds of lump crabmeat, lobster, or any other fish you might have. 
8 medium scallions, green part only, minced (about 1/2 cup) (see "never-ending green onion")
2 Tbl fresh parsley leaves, cilantro, dill or basil finely chopped
3 tsp Old Bay seasoning
4-8 Tbl dry bread crumbs
1/2 C. mayonnaise
2 large eggs
1/2 C. white or whole wheat flour
1/2 C. oil

Poach shellfish or fish until just cooked through. Drain and place in large bowl. 

Add scallions, cilantro, Old Bay, 4 tablespoons bread crumbs, mayonnaise, and eggs. Mix just until combined, leaving large chunks of fish. 

If the fish is moist and still won't bind, then add additional bread crumbs 1 tablespoon at a time until they will bind. 

Form into cakes and pat with flour till all sides are coated. 

Fry in oil until golden, turn, and fry other side until golden. 

Serve with either tarter sauce or Creamy Chipotle Chile Sauce, below.


Creamy Chipotle Chili Sauce
1/4 C. mayonnaise
1/4 C. sour cream
2 tsp canned chili in adobo sauce (minced)
1 small clove garlic, minced
2 tsp minced fresh cilantro leaves
1 tsp lime juice fresh from lime


Blend all ingredients together well and chill to blend flavors.

Best Banana Bread

In keeping with my trend toward very versatile recipes, this banana bread is a very flexible recipe that allows you to customize it to your family's particular tastes. It calls for all-purpose flour but I sometimes use all whole wheat or half whole wheat. It calls for walnuts but I've used walnuts or pecans and I've also replaced half or all of the nuts with flax seed and gotten excellent results. It also calls for margarine but I refuse to even have the stuff in my house, considering it not to even be "real food", so I use butter. It also calls for buttermilk which I almost never have in the fridge so I use 1/3 of the amount in plain yogurt or sour cream and mix it in a cup with milk to make buttermilk. You can use a higher ratio of yogurt to milk if you like a little more tartness.

Ingredients:

3/4C (1 1/2 sticks) margarine, softened to room temp.
1 1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 C mashed ripe bananas (~3)
1 t vanilla
1 3/4 C unsifted flour
1 t baking soda
3/4 t salt
1/2 C buttermilk (I use milk cause I never have buttermilk)
1 C chopped nuts (pecans, optional)

Preheat oven to 325 F

Grease bread pan. This recipe makes one 5x5 inch pan or two 4x7 1/2 inch pan or one 9x5 inch pan,or you can multiply the ingredients by 1.3 and do it in a 9x13 pan. I've had good luck baking it in a couple 13oz empty metal coffee cans. It makes a nice shape for wrapping up and giving as a gift. You will have to adjust your baking times accordingly.

The key to success with this recipe is to be sure that your bananas are ripe. They should be brown on the outside and squishy to the touch. When I have bananas that are ready in my fruit bowl but I don't have time to make the bread, I just throw the bananas in the freezer, skin and all, and when I have enough to do the recipe and the time to bake then I thaw them out. You can squish bananas in their skins if you do it carefully and then scrape them out. Saves on the mashing time. Also, on the boat where I don't have an electric mixer, I use a potato masher to mix this recipe. They work great for hand-mixed recipes like cookies and so forth that are thick.

After mashing your bananas in the bowl, add the softened butter. Mash it together and then add the rest of the liquid ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and stir quickly but completely. Over-mixing will produce a dense loaf that can be tough.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. As you can see here, I'm feeding a big group so I have used the 9x13 pan. It will bake for 45-50 minutes in my boat oven and since I know my oven is cooler than the indicated thermostat it will bake at 350° not 325°. You will need to experiment with your oven. Let the bread cool a bit before cutting. You can sprinkle powdered sugar on top if you're doing it in the cake pan. You can also frost it with whipped cream icing and use it like a cake. It keeps well, although there's rarely enough left to worry about it. You can also freeze it. It's great either warm or cold with cream cheese. Enjoy!

Sailing Day Quick Enchiladas

Today was Easter Sunday.  The day dawned blue sky and 10 kts of wind, just chilly enough to need a jacket and be able to drink coffee.  Our friend Kacey had invited us sailing and we had decided the night before to take our breakfast out on the lake, even if we had to motor out there and sit, bobbing, while we ate. We did not have to bob after all, but enjoyed a wonderful sail for a few hours.

When someone asks you to go sailing, you should go. Now. As a result, there is often not enough time left in the day to make homemade corn tortillas and enchilada sauce. Times like these call for a grab into the pantry for a few cans and 30 minutes later you have a good hot meal around which to reminisce about the season's maiden sail.

Ingredients:

Package of corn tortillas
1 pound of sharp cheddar
1 can refried beans, seasoned
1 large 29oz can enchilada sauce

Sour cream
Corn tortilla chips
Jasmine rice

Preaheat oven to 375°. Pour half of the can of enchilada sauce into a 9 x 13 pan. Set aside.

Grate cheddar. Place a good handful of grated cheddar on tortilla and roll up. Place seam side down into sauce in pan. Repeat with other tortillas until you have a line the length of the pan.

Mix half of the can of refried beans with a good handful of cheddar and stir well. Spread on tortilla and roll up. Repeat with three more tortillas and line up in two rows of two in remaining space in pan. This is the ratio of cheese to bean enchiladas that our family likes, but you can make as many of each as you care for.

Pour the remaining sauce on top, being sure to cover all the tortillas. Add remaining grated cheddar on top. Bake 375° for 30 minutes or until sauce bubbles up between enchiladas and cheese is bubbly. Serve with sour cream, chips, and rice. These reheat very well.

At this point I would normally have a really terrific picture of the finished product but, truthfully, I totally forgot because we were trying to get dinner in before we had to leave the boat to come back to the city. I'll try to remember next time!