Kielbasa Chorizo Food

KIELBASA AND POTATOES

Steps:

• In a pot that will comfortably hold all ingredients, brown sausage (1 inch pieces or smaller) with chopped onion.
• The more you brown them, the better it will taste.
• Don't worry about a little bit of charring.
• Toss in peeled, cut potatoes and cook slightly to coat potatoes with juices.
• Add enough water to not quite cover potatoes.
• Salt lightly.
• Cook until potatoes fall apart with fork and the liquid has thickened, stirring occasionally.

KIELBASA, HOMEMADE KIELBASA, FRESH POLISH SAUSAGE

Steps:

• Put the garlic through a garlic press or mince really fine. Put the seasonings into a small pot with a pint of water. Boil and then cool. Here's where my Mom always said taste it and I wouldn't. That could account for the variance in taste from year to year!
• Meanwhile, cut the pork off the bone. Cut into strips maybe 1" by 3". Doesn't have to be exact size, we get pretty sloppy with it. Strips go through the grinder better than chunks. Don't trim anything off, unless you just can't stand not to. Trust me, if there's not enough fat, the kielbasa will be dry and hard. DO trim off any bloody-type stuff though. We then put the meat into plastic dishpans, pour the cool liquid over, add about 4 cups ice cubes and mix together until your hands freeze. It should be kinda sloppy. If not, add more water or ice. Cover with aluminum foil or such and put in fridge over night to marinate so the meat soaks up the flavor. Stir occasionally. The ice will probably all be melted the next day before you make the sausage. The meat kind of absorbs the flavors. Yes, it will smell up the fridge. In fact, it will smell up the whole house! Open the windows. Make the neighbors crazy!
• Next day, take the casings out and soak in warm water for several hours; it makes them more flexible. Cut in 4 ft. lengths. Shove the meat in the freezer for 1/2 to 1 hour before you start. The meat stiffens up a little and it's easier to put through the grinder. (We forget to do this a lot!) Stick one end of each casing on the faucet and run warm water through the inside of the casing.
• Ready? (Keep everything as cold as you can) This is the fun part. Put a little oil on your hand and run it over the horn where the meat will come out. Run casing through fingers to drain slightly. Put a casing on the horn. One person helps push the meat through the grinder while the other holds the casing while it is filling up. It kinda curls up as you hold it. I find for me that it's better if I hold it up while it's filling, less pressure on the casing. We make each one about 12-16". Or until it splits! Tie it off with string or knot the end if you can get it close to the end of the filled casing. Some people twist it every 6" or so to make smaller sausages. If the darn thing splits, you gotta scrape out the meat, dump it back with the other stuff in the dishpan and start over. Some years you're lucky, but some years the darn things split all the time. That's one reason for soaking the casings for a longer time, they don't split as easily. Sometimes it's just a bad batch of casings. Then all you can do is swear at it.
• We put the coils of sausage back into clean dishpans (on a rack if possible) and put back into fridge to kinda dry overnight. Then we pack them in Saran, aluminum foil, ziplock bags, anything that will keep the smell in, and put the packages in the freezer. We make 2-3 lb. packages. Since I have a vacuum sealer, I use that. It works really great.
• By the way, the sausage is pale because it is not smoked. We don't care for smoked kielbasa. But you can smoke it before freezing. Can't help you with that, though!
• We've been able to keep the sausage frozen for months. Just keep everything cold and clean while you're working. Keep a lot of paper towels handy to dry hands, answer the doggone telephone, etc.
• We have found over the years, that pork has become much leaner now.That is sometimes a problem. We've considered buying more fat and mixing it in but never have. It worked out all right just not cutting off any fat. But insufficient fat makes for dry sausage.
• It takes up about 1-1/2 hours altogether to fill the casings. It's really simple and easy. Of course sometimes we have splashes on the walls when "someone" gets a little rough pushing the meat through the grinder. Hey, that's the fun of it. It's a messy job, but someone has to do it.
• Oh yeah, the house smells for 3-4 days. But it smells good. If you like garlic. All the seasonings are to your personal taste. You really need a lot of salt though. The pepper -- eh, how much do you like? We like a lot. Same with the garlic.
• We keep a little of the ground meat and cook a couple of small patties of the sausage. That's when you can taste it and find out what you did wrong in the seasoning, too late, of course.
• Use the plate in the grinder which grinds the meat coarse. It's better if the meat is a little chunky. You don't want a mealy texture.
• If you run a search on google, you can find other information under kielbasa.
• One recipe I found says to knead meat and seasonings. Supposedly the more you knead, the more tender the sausage. We've never tried that.
• In recent years, we've set aside 3-4 lbs. of the ground sausage meat and made it into small patties like breakfast sausage, and larger patties like hamburgers. The grandkids really like that. We do, too. But for Easter and Christmas, it has to be the links.

CHORIZO BREAKFAST BURRITOS

Steps:

• Generously coat a large frying pan with cooking spray. Cook and stir chorizo over medium high heat until well browned and crumbled. Add onion and chile pepper, and continue cooking until onion is tender.
• Beat eggs in a bowl, and add to chorizo mixture. Reduce heat to medium-low, and continue cooking and stirring until eggs are scrambled and no longer runny.
• Warm flour tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds. Spoon mixture into the middle of each tortilla and top with shredded Cheddar cheese. Roll up like a burrito, and enjoy!

KIELBASA CHORIZO

Steps:

• Heat the oil on low in a skillet, stir in all the rest of the ingredients (except the kielbasa) and heat through.
• I like to peel the casing off the kielbasa but its not necessary.
• Dice the kielbasa and add to other ingredients in skillet and heat through.

CHORIZO - COLOMBIAN STYLE

Steps:

• The casings:.
• 1. Soak the hog casings in 4 cups tepid water (90 degrees to start) overnight in the fridge. Some sausage experts may disagree but I soak the casings overnight and then, prior to stuffing them, I add about 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar per cup of water (4 tbs. in this case) and let the casings soak for the final 15 minutes. I have found that the vinegar makes the casings more pliable and translucent.
• 2. Rinse the casings thoroughly inside and out (simply slide the end of the casing over your faucet and run water through). Begin stuffing right away since the casings may become tough or burst if you let them dry too much.
• The stuffing:.
• 1. Cut the pork meat and the pork belly into very small cubes (approximately ¼ inch). This is the longest and most tiring part but don't be lazy; the more uniform your cubes are, the better the mixture will blend and the more evenly your chorizo will cook. Please, do not grind the meat!
• 2. Put the cubed meat in a large bowl and mix it well.
• 3. Add the finely chopped cilantro and green onions and mix well.
• 4. Add the rest of the ingredients (minced garlic, oregano, salt and vinegar). Mix well with your hands.
• 5. Finally, start adding the water gradually and mixing it with your hands. I normally add two cups, mix it and then add more water until the mixture becomes sticky but not runny. Continue to hand-mix for approximately ten minutes to make sure that the water is fully incorporated into the mixture.
• 6. This is where some other experts may also disagree but I let the stuffing mixture sit in the fridge overnight, covered. I honestly think that this allows all of the flavors to really soak into the meats and bring out the unique Colombian flavor in the chorizos.
• 7. Tie one end of the casing in a knot. I don't like to use thread because it gets stuck between my teeth. Stuff the casings and tie the other end. To make the links, I simply twist the stuffed casing two or three times every six inches or so (up to you on the link length). Stuffing is one of those trial-and-error kinds of things. Too tight and you may burst the casing as you twist it into links; too loose and your chorizo will get all wrinkly and have air pockets all over the place. I usually stuff one end of the casing fairly full and then very lightly at the other end. This way, I can start twisting from the heavy end, twist and allow the mixture to move along the length of the casing and fill in the light end. (Boy, I hope that made sense!).
• 8. After the links are done, use a pin or needle to poke three or four holes on each side of the link. This prevents bursting while cooking.
• 9. The final step is yet one more with which the experts may disagree. However, I most assuredly remember that all of the restaurants I visited as a child that served chorizo, cured the links for approximately three days. My "curing" consists simply of hanging the chorizos as horizontally as possible from hooks around the bay window frame in my butler pantry. If you decide to cure them, make sure that you place paper towels or newspaper on the sill to catch the drippings. Allowing the chorizos to dangle vertically will probably result in the twisted links unraveling somewhat.
• 10. Storage: My family loves chorizos so I really do not have to worry too much about storage. However, on the couple of occasions where I had to store a few links, they will keep perfectly in the refrigerator for up to 20 days. I have also frozen some of them and have had no problems thawing them out and using them normally.
• Cooking:.
• 1. My favorite cooking method is to put the links in a frying pan with enough water to reach about half way up the prone link. Turn your burner to low and allow the chorizo to cook slowly until all the water has evaporated, turning occasionally so all sides cook evenly. After the water has evaporated, the chorizo will look kind of whitish and opaque. Continue to fry until dark brown. The fat from the chorizo mixture will escape through the pin holes and will provide enough of a frying medium so that you do not have to add oil or any other frying agent.
• 2. Other methods include cooking them over charcoal, on your gas grill, boiled, skewered over a wood fire and, of course, cut into chunks as part of lentil soup and other dishes. Whatever method you choose, remember that chorizo should be cooked slowly and gently to avoid bursting the casings. Please come back in the future as I plan to soon upload my recipe for "sancocho" which, of course, includes lots of chorizo.

QUINOA CHORIZO

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Cover quinoa with vegetable broth in an oven-proof saucepan. Bring to a boil. Cover the saucepan with aluminum foil.
• Bake in preheated oven until quinoa is dry and fluffy, about 15 minutes. Keep covered.
• Heat a skillet over medium heat. Pour in vegetable oil. Cook and stir onion and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, annatto paste, vinegar, paprika, oregano, cumin, and chipotle pepper. Cook until mixture is thick and stew-like, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Toss the mixture with the baked quinoa. Let cool, about 10 minutes. Season with salt.