Sausage Stroganoff

by Sheila Connolly

I cannot believe that I haven't posted this recipe before.  This was one of the staple dishes from my starving student days, from the mother of one of my roommates (the same mother who gave me the Apple Goodie recipe, for which I will be forever grateful!).  It was quick and inexpensive, and it tastes good.  We added it to our rotation of kielbasa dishes (kielbasa with noodles, kielbasa with potatoes, kielbasa with rice, kielbasa with cabbage, and so on…hey, kielbasa was cheap!).

We used to make it with those white pizza mushrooms, which was about all you could get back then.  You can use more exotic ones these days, but any delicate ones will be pretty much drowned out by the rest of the dish.

SAUSAGE STROGANOFF

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms

1 lb. ground sausage

3 Tblsp lemon juice

3 Tblsp white wine

1 can beef broth

1 tsp salt

Pepper

1/4 lb. medium egg noodles (about two cups)

1 cup sour cream

Melt the butter in a skillet and saute the onion, garlic and mushrooms.  Add sausage and cook, stirring, until the red color of the meat has disappeared (this is not critical, since the dish will cook for half an hour after this step).  Add the lemon juice, wine, broth, salt and pepper.  Simmer gently, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Stir in the uncooked noodles.  Cover and continue to simmer until the noodles are tender (approx. 15 min.)

Mix in the sour cream.  Heat quickly but do not boil (that would curdle the sour cream).

Serves 4

Coming in only four days:  Buried in a Bog!

Rainy Day Split Pea Soup

After all my complaining about hot and humid weather, Mother Nature flipped a switch and shot us straight into temperatures cold enough to turn on the furnace and want to snuggle by the fireplace.


Is it just me or does anyone else hear evil cackling?


Consequently, I went for a bracing soup this week. Based on a recipe in The Best of Gourmet 1988, it's been a favorite of mine for a long time. I've monkeyed with it, of course, but it turns out delicious every time. The good news is that it's an easy recipe in that everything basically goes into a big pot and simmers for three hours. The bad news is that after ignoring the soup for three hours, it needs to be pureed, which is messy but worth doing because it results in a lovely velvety texture.

The original recipe called for 10 cups of water, but I prefer the denser consistency achieved by using less water. If you don't have kielbasa handy, the recipe also works with pork chops or ham. I think it's best if you have leftover pork bones to toss into it (be sure to take them out before pureeing!). It's a nice way to use the leftover bone from a ham. Kielbasa probably adds more flavor since it's already laden with spices, but I've made it many times with ham and it's always great. On one notable occasion, since I didn't have an onion, I substituted an entire bulb of garlic, chopped. It was still delicious.

One other big bonus is that this can be made ahead of time. It keeps nicely in the fridge for a couple of days. Serve by the fire with a loaf of crusty bread and a creamy cheese.

Rainy Day Split Pea Soup

2 tablespoons butter
1 onion (or, should you be avoiding vampires, 1 entire garlic bulb)
1 pound dried split peas
2 cups carrot slices (about 5 average carrots)
3/4 cup sliced celery
1 kielbasa
1 ham bone (or several pieces of leftover bone from pork)
8 to 10 cups of water
1 large bay leaf
salt (to taste -- depends on how salty the kielbasa is)

Over medium low heat, melt the butter and saute the onions until soft. Add the peas, carrots, celery, kielbasa, pork bones, water and bay leaf. Bring to a gentle boil, cover and simmer for three hours. Hint: for a thicker soup use 8 cups water, 10 cups for a thinner soup.

Puree in a blender or food processor. Hint: no matter how large your food processor or blender, do this in batches and pour them into a large container so you can stir them all together when done. Serve hot.

If you want to dress it up, toss some croutons on top. No croutons? Use mini cookie cutters to cut pieces of soft bread and toast them at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Add to soup at last minute as a garnish.

Enjoy!

Fresh Polish Sausage and Sauerkraut

I live in the Chicago area, where it’s easy to find great Polish food, but without a doubt the very, very best Polish food always showed up on holiday tables at my house, my aunt’s and my Busia’s (grandmother’s). To this day I swoon at the sight of golabki, (ga-LOOM- key -- stuffed cabbage rolls in a tomato sauce), hoska bread (egg twist with golden raisins), and what we fondly refer to in this house as “dusty noodle soup.”

In my last post I mentioned that Thanksgiving was always our holiday growing up. My mom took it over when she and my dad got married. In addition to serving the traditional turkey, her family stuffing (ooh, yum!) and all the fabulous side dishes you might expect to enjoy on Thanksgiving, my mom—whose mother came from Luxembourg and whose father was French-Belgian—bravely attempted to prepare fresh Polish Sausage and sauerkraut.

Her process—simple, yet delicious—is the same one I follow these days when I make the Polish Sausage and sauerkraut for the Thanksgiving feast at my brother’s house. It’s pretty fabulous and even though she didn’t care for it herself, my mom truly made the best Polish Sausage, ever.

Polish sausage is known as kielbasa (keel-bassa) and that’s what we always called it. Most folks recognize kielbasa as the red, smoked variety. I prefer the fresh, also known as kielbasa biala.

This photo is from the Polana website. I usually pick up my sausage from a local Polish-owned deli, but after perusing the Polana site... I'm sorely tempted to give them a try.

Preparing the fresh version is easy, and it was only after I got married that I realized my non-Polish mom had added an extra step—one that makes all the difference.

**Warning**
As healthy recipes go, this one is NOT
;-)

For a big feast…

The day before: Place 5 - 7 lbs of fresh Polish Sausage in a large Dutch oven. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat so that the sausage simmers for a little while. Say, about 25 minutes. Remove from the water and cut into serving-size pieces. Don’t worry if the sausage is still pink, you’re not finished cooking yet. Place all the pieces in a very large bowl and refrigerate.

On the “feast” day – cut up bacon slices into small pieces and fry them up in another deep Dutch oven. When they’re crisp and sizzling in grease, add three jars/cans of prepared sauerkraut (kapusta). Trust me, the store-bought versions are pretty excellent. I prefer Frank’s Polish Style with Caraway. Mix the bacon, grease, and kraut well and keep it hot until ready to serve.

Here’s the extra step: About a half hour before serving, melt a little Crisco in a very, very big frying pan. (We have a specific Polish Sausage pan.) Add your serving-size pieces of sausage. Keep the heat on medium and keep stirring the sausages (watch out, they like to bounce out!) until the pink is all cooked away, and the casings start to brown.

Most folks serve the sausage with the kraut, but we prefer to keep them in separate bowls. There are quite a few of us who enjoy mixing our kraut with our mashed potatoes.

If you have any fresh horseradish on hand… bring it out!
Yum!!

My personal pics aren’t here because I won’t make this until Wednesday this week, but I can’t wait. Getting hungry already!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!!

Hugs to all,

Julie

My White House Chef Mystery series includes State of the Onion, Hail to the Chef, and Eggsecutive Orders (coming in January). All from Berkley Prime Crime.

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