Angry® Mustard on Angry® Sausage

Here it is again, time for our Improv Challenge where cooks are assigned a couple unlikely ingredients and asked to come up with a recipe. September’s selected components are Sausage & Mustard.  I decided that I’d also toss in apples and hard cider, since it’s (supposed to be) Fall. My favorite hard drink, any time of year, is Angry Orchard® Crisp Apple.The mustard needed to be made a couple weeks early. It’s flavor is rather “angry” now – there’s quite a bit of kick to it. Next time I’ll not use that much of the mustard powder…The sausage I thought a little dry. So, next time I will skip the turkey and use all pork! To save time, (and because our final dish needed sausage crumbled) we did not stuff the mixture into casings – but I would highly recommend that for boiling then grilling…Our favorite way to eat sausage is to boil them in beer, toss them on the grill, shove them into a soft & chewy hoagie roll, pile them high with grilled peppers & onions, then slather them with some deli mustard!Unfortunately, when life hands members of the family a low-sodium & gluten-free diet, you have to modify that dream dish…

What I visualized was a nice Bob’s Red Mill^® Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour dough that I could wrap up some sausage & onion/pepper hand pies… Regrettably, said dough didn’t quite get that visualization and consequently did not cooperate in the desired manner.

I did manage, however, to spread the stupid uncooperative offending @$#%*&^ tacky dough across a sheet of parchment to create a sausage and onion & pepper flat bread. I put down a little mustard before sprinkling on the other ingredients.Oh wow! That turned out better than I’d hoped!And then, of course, served the Angy Mustard along side…

Here are the links to the SAUSAGE & MUSTARD dishes my friends created:

An InLinkz Link-up

Mici with Lemon Pistachio Pilaf

March’s Improv Cooking Challenge ingredients are lamb & rice. I must confess, I’ve never cooked lamb & the only time I ever tasted it was when we ate at Fogo de Chão some time ago… I didn’t even know where to shop for lamb meat in our town!But I did know which recipe I wanted to make. A few years ago our oldest had the opportunity to travel to Romania with a ministry team from our church. Despite the wonderful people he met, the incredible crusade they participated in, the historical sites they visited – what our boy talked about the most was the food he ate there!And the food that impressed him the most was mici. This is a traditional Romanian sausage (pronounced “meech”) that every family or geographical group seems to have a slightly different recipe from their “bunica”. The variables seemed to be types of ground meat(s), spice palate, and “resting” time – non-negotiable items were they 1) had to be grilled over charcoal, 2) must be served with potato fries or wedges,  3) must be served with prepared mustard, and 4) beer must be consumed along with the eating thereof…(Since I don’t “appreciate” beer; hard apple cider was appropriately substituted. )

The lamb meat I found at our favorite Asian/International market, along with various spices. I grabbed a combination from the ones I found in several recipes, then passed them under Zach’s nose to see if they should go in the mix. He approved the ones listed in my recipe.I’ve fixed pilaf in my oven many times; never before have I used my cast-iron skillet. And never again will I prepare it without said skillet! Cooking was a breeze!I figured I’d have a ton of leftovers to serve another meal. I was wrong. Only two fellas at this address had another meal of our lamb & rice.

Check out the links below to see how my fellow Improvers prepared their March ingredients:

An InLinkz Link-up

Grilled Eggplant Caprese

August’s ingredients for the Improv Cooking Challenge are Tomatoes & Herbs. Which is unfortunate for my garden, ‘cause those items  burnt  were ruined  expired at the end of June with our extreme heat! (Actually, I do have one basil plant left, so I used that with tomatoes from the market…)
First off, I made what would be kind of a pesto salt. I chopped (and chopped and chopped and chopped…)  a cup (lightly packed) of basil leaves, 5 cloves of garlic, and half a cup of kosher salt. The mixture was spread in a baking pan and spent the day  at the spa  dehydrating under the oven light. The finished salt was then bottled to await its ultimate purpose. (BTW -- that stuff is awesome on olive-oil-popped popcorn!)
The morning of “recipe day” I put together the drizzle for the salad. Into the pitcher of my Blendtec went 1 tablespoon red wine, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons honey, a clove of garlic, 2 cups (kinda sorta packed) fresh basil leaves (weighed about 2 oz.) and a couple grinds each of Himalayan salt & black pepper (to taste). When that became all nice & relatively smooth, 1/3 cup of olive oil was trickled in to blend up a sweet basil vinaigrette. Sooooooo tasty -- mmmmmmm!
I sliced an eggplant and brushed both sides of each slice with olive oil. Then I lightly sprinkled on some of that pesto herb salt. Those pretty little rounds got grilled until they had some lovely stripes criss-crossing their surface. I put them in a covered dish to chill until the ultimate assembly before dinner.
I’ve had my share of good caprese salads at restaurants (I’ve had at least one not quite so good caprese…) But let me tell you -- the addition of those grilled eggplant slices sends this salad into a whole different stratosphere!
The subtle flavor just melds so deliciously with the tomato and fresh mozzarella slices.
…and the drizzle -- ah, that sweet basil drizzle…
It was good to the last, ummmmm, drip… (you probably can’t tell I spooned some more on, right?)

Check out what my friends created with tomatoes & herbs:

An InLinkz Link-up