Kale recipe for Alan

[Clipper]

I ran across this recipe link on Facebook Alan, and I remembered that you mentioned your love of kale last week in a post.

www.pauladeen.com/blogs/blog_view/the_approaching_short_season_and_craving_kale/

[Deleted]

Oh boy I will try it. Thanks a lot

[Clipper]

I finished putting in a small vegetable garden today. We are not capable of tending a huge garden like we used to have, but I put in tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and a row of swiss chard. (I find kale to be a bit bitter for my liking) Peppers have become so expensive that Kathy likes to freeze some and this year she wants to can some when they are in season. I don't know how she plans to can them, as she has not done it before, but I am sure she will find decent recipe. I love roasted or sauteed peppers on an Italian sausage sandwich. Green bell peppers got up to a buck apiece this past winter. That is ridiculous.

Grilling season is here and when I shop this week I will buy 10 or 12 lbs of pork butt to make a fresh batch of hot Italian sausage for patties to put on the grill. I wish we could find good sausage here, other than Johnsonville or Walmart brand. They are not bad, but they damned sure don't compare to Chanatry's or the other local sources up there. With an electric grinder, I make my own breakfast sausage and Italian sausage every two or three months in 10lb batches. I bought the small electric grinder quite some time ago to make venison sausage when we still lived up North.

Greens are big down here in the South. They even sell them in cans. You can buy kale and mustard greens, as well as collards. I always liked turnip greens, beet greens, escarole, chard and spinach. Never cared for collards, kale or mustard greens much. Do they sell your kale in a can up there? I have to imagine that canned greens would be quite soggy and mushy.

I picked a small batch of dandelion greens a week or so ago. Those are delish if they are very young and tender, but picking them is quite tedious. I used to pick 5 gallon pails of them up there in NY, but now I simply pick a batch or two a year and just enough for a side dish for the two of us.

[kit]

Clip, what brand and model number meat grinder do you have? Also, when doing raw meat, does it do a good job or does it often get clogged up with sinew?

[Clipper]

I bought it at a Northern Tool outlet here in Tennessee while visiting my mom and dad several years ago Kit. It is a Kitchner model #12. It was $79 when I bought it in the mid nineties but when I ordered new cutting blades for it, I saw that the grinder had gone up in price to around $100. Yes, it DOES get clogged with sinew occasionally. Not so much when using the coarse grinding plate while making sausage, but quite often when grinding chuck roast for burger with the fine plate.

The quality of the meat makes a difference in the amount of sinew of course. Once in a while I buy round if it is on sale, and that has much less sinew than the chuck roasts. For Italian sausage I grind with the coarse plate only. For breakfast sausage and ground beef, I grind it twice. First with the coarse plate and then a second time with the fine plate. That cuts down on the clogging with sinew also. When the fine plate becomes clogged, it is quite the pain in the butt because on occasion I have had to poke the sinew out of the holes with a toothpick when it would not flush out by back flushing with hot water. I scrape the face of the plate with a knife, and then back flush with real hot water. Venison was notorious for sinew clogs.

While I still like to make a batch of good lean burger occasionally, Sam's Club ground chuck seems to be good quality. Not too much water or fat renders out when cooking. The amount of water that they put in some supermarket ground beef when packaging often makes it difficult to even sear a patty because the water that is rendered steams the patty before it can sear. Not good if you like your hamburger cooked medium.

When I first bought the grinder I experimented with several recipes for different kinds of sausage. I also used to case some of it. I even made venison kielbasa once and smoked it on a small backyard smoker that I had for smoking bbq pork. It was a pain in the ass to make and the finished product was over smoked and not very good. Now I simply make breakfast sausage and Italian sausage and package it loose in 1lb packages for the freezer.

It is quite a messy task and quite labor intensive, but being retired I have plenty of time. Actually the novelty of making my own sausage has sort of worn off over time, but the lack of decent Italian sausage around here makes it necessary to make my own.

If you are looking to buy a grinder Kit, Walmart has both the Kitchner as well as one made by Panasonic. The only bitch I have about the Kitchner is that it is very noisy. It sounds like you are grinding bones and all. The motor and mechanism is very loud.

I also have a smaller, less powerful grinder that I bought at a garage sale before I had the Kitchner, it has an avacado green plastic case and I have no idea what brand it is. We have the old hand crank, antique grinder that was Kathy's moms. She uses it to make ham salad. Would you possibly believe that nothing ever gets tossed out around here? Hell, the rototiller that crapped out this week is in the garage and will be there forever waiting for me to tear it apart just to see what exactly broke in the gear case. If I ever get around to it, I will probably say "yep, just as I thought. It is broke! and THEN I will toss it out)

[Deleted]

I really miss gardening. Back in the religious life day in the noviciate we had a huge vegetable garden that I loved working. We did the same plantings of tomaotes( we grew so much that we sold a lot to the Loblaws Grocery Store and even managed to give some away) and peppers, onions, garlic, cukes, some variety of hot pepper's. We also did a lot of canning. We also had an orchard with a couple variety of apples and pears. And of course I can't forget the famous bee hive's. They were busy bee's in two different areas of land so we had clover and buckwheat. I am not fond of caring for bee's. Although I did enjoy riding our big tractor until one day I was going to fast on one of the hilly section of property and my Director banned me for life from getting on that again. LOL

My grandparent used to make their own sausage and pepperoni and sausage in oil. I remember seeing lots of it drying in the attic in the house on James St. That house is still standing and if grandma ever saw what it has become she would roll over in her grave.

Dandelion greens I really like. I remember picking them up at the parkway and other parks. Today that can't be done. The taste in much better with the fresh picked ones than the type I buy at Price Chopper. Green peppers still sell by the pound but have gone up. I got confused one day and saw red peppers and I thought they were $1.28 a pound so I bought two big bags and when the price rang up at the register it was $2.78 a piece and I was not going to pay $50.00 for what I bought . I remember when both red and green were .99 cents a pound, what ever happened to that!

Have fun gardening and canning I'll be with you in spirit.

[Clipper]

I picked dandelions on the parkway ski slope as well as in Proctor park and the Masonic home property, but you have to be very careful now. People put all sorts of nasty chemicals on their lawns and cities use it in their parks. Our local park here in Bristol is dandelion free and they spray with a tractor and pull behind sprayer with about a 16 foot spray boom.

[kit]

Some sources say that with green leafy vegetables, the more bitter they are - the more nutrition they have. One of the least nutritious is iceberg lettuce. Spinach, chard and of course kale are really good for you. Our family always put vinegar in our bitter greens so that's the only way I like them. (By the way - steaming them retains much more natural nutrition than boiling them)

Regarding sausage: I have a Hamilton Beach electric food grinder and like yours, it always gets clogged with sinew no matter which blade I use when grinding raw meats, so it's a pain in the butt (no pun intended). Cooked meats are no problem. So I just find a nice cut of pork shoulder butt at the supermarket and have the store grind it fresh for me and they don't charge for that service. I've also had good luck with their pre-ground packaged pork. I use this like you, Clipper, for breakfast sausage and Italian sausage. I usually make a pound at a time and press it into patties or roll it into balls then freeze them. (I use fried sausage balls along with homemade tomato sauce to make authentic Cavallo's 'Sausage Tunnels.')

Clipper- I'd like to see your recipe for breakfast sausage if you'd care to post it.

[Clipper]

Here's the recipe that I use for breakfast sausage Kit.

10lbs of very cold pork butt cut into 2 inch cubes (I put it in a bowl in the freezer until it is very cold but not starting to freeze

4 tbsp salt

4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3 tsp red pepper flakes, ground up in the spice grinder

1 tsp ground nutmeg

6-8 tsp of ground sage depending on how savory you like it

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 1/2 cups of ice cold water

Put all the ingredients except the pork into a bowl and mix with a whisk until well blended.

Pour the liquid mixture over the cubed pork and mix well with your hands.

Put the pork mixture through the grinder using the coarse grinding plate, and then once more using the finer plate. Mix well with your hands and form into patties. ( I wrap the patties separately in saran and freeze them in ziploc freezer bags so that I can take out a couple patties at a time and thaw them overnight for breakfast the next morning. )

I like it a little spicy, but you can adjust the quantity of black pepper or eliminate the ground red pepper if you like it more mild.

[kit]

Thanks, Clipper. Our ingredients are quite similar (except I use a little EV olive oil) and I make it with already ground pork and mix everything in a stand-type KitchenAid mixer with the paddle. Also, my freezer isn't very large so I make it only 1 or 2 lbs at a time. It's fairly quick and simple so the 'novelty' hasn't worn off for me yet. As I'm sure you know, the results are worth the effort.

Next time, you might try ground Cayenne pepper instead of grinding your own red pepper flakes. Again... quick and simple (but it's potent, so be careful).

[Clipper]

I have tried cayenne pepper in the past Kit. It may be my imagination, and the variety of peppers used may be the same, but I actually think that the crushed red pepper flakes have a flavor rather than just being blazing hot like cayenne. I noted that while using a little hot pepper in recipes such as greens, brussel sprouts, sauces, frittatas, my Italian sausage and other things. I keep crushed pepper around, and haven't used cayenne on anything in years, so I just don't have it in the spice cabinet. I have some fairly spicy hot Hungarian paprika around that I might try in a small batch just for the hell of it, but that would make for a reddish sausage like Italian style. Incidentally, a pinch of that spicy paprika and a little celery salt makes a pan of home fries taste awesome.

I have tried making sausage with meat already ground by my friend Charlie at the meat counter. It makes the spices harder to evenly distribute when mixing a large batch. As you can see, I mix the spices with the water and toss the meat chunks to absorb and get coated with the spice mixture. That distributes the spices more evenly through the meat when I grind it, and after the first grind I mix it some more by hand and then run it through the grinder with the fine plate in place. For Italian sausage I simply do the same thing, but only grind it once with the coarse plate. I imagine making small batches, the even distribution and mixing of the spices doesn't present the problem that it does with 10 lbs of meat or more.

[Clipper]

I will have to try your recipe for the sausage ball sandwiches Kit, if you can post the recipe for the sausage meatballs that you use. That sounds delicious.

I occasionally buy a little ground pork and mix it with beef like meat loaf mix for patties or meat loaf. Just adds a little flavor and moisture. Charlie grinds that for me. You don't see "meatloaf mix" of pork, beef, and veal down here like you can buy up there and you seldom see ground pork packaged and ready to go. They sell a lot of ground turkey for the diet conscious, but I don't like ground poultry products. I don't even like the idea that they are grinding that stuff in the same grinder that they use for pork and beef, lol.

[kit]

Some very good points, Clip. I must confess that I'm not a hot pepper officianado like you are so just a little cayenne for the 'zing' is all I need, especially in breakfast or Italian sausage where another spice is dominant. Also a good point about the distribution of spices in a 10 lb batch of sausage. For only 1 or 2 lbs my KitchenAid mixes the spices just fine in about 2 minutes.

Paprika and celery salt in home fries sounds interesting. I ALWAYS cook onions in my home fries. To me, home fries without onions is like a day without sunshine (eg. most days of Winter in Utica). Sometimes I go a little crazy and mix up potatoes, onions, Italian sausage, peppers and egg (with a little oregano) and make a giambotta. I love it but can usually eat only half of it and eat the other half the next day.

I don't use the sausage balls in a sandwich - I use patties for that. I put the balls in with my sauce when I portion it out to freeze. When I want spaghetti, a tunnel, or whatever I take a portioned container out of the freezer either the day before, or I nuke it to thaw. My recipe for the sausage is in the next post.

[kit]

My recipe is a little different from the usual but it's just the way I like it. The recipe is for each pound of ground pork. Scale it up to whatever size batch you're making.

Italian Sausage:

1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cayenne
1-1/2 tsp fennel seed
1/4 tsp dried basil
1 tsp paprika (the regular variety)
2 tsp EV olive oil
1 Tbsp ice cold water
1 lb ground pork (refrigerator cold)

Mix the dry spices first. Put cold pork, oil and water in KitchenAid with paddle and start mixing on low. Slowly add the spices and mix about 2 minutes. Put in bowl, cover and refrigerate 8 hours or overnight. Next morning, form into patties, balls, or stuff into casings and freeze.

For balls, I roll about 1 oz into balls and brown in a little olive oil. Then I nuke the whole batch for a minute or so to cook the inside. When they cool I either freeze them as is or put a couple of them in a portioned container of homemade tomato sauce along with a couple of meatballs to use either with pasta or stuff into a hollowed-out steak roll as a 'tunnel.'

One tip... I pre-measure a few bunches of dry spices for 1 pound each and put them into my old prescription bottles and keep them in my freezer so it doesn't take much time at all to make a batch of sausage.

[Clipper]

I also use finely diced onion in my homefries or hashbrowns Kit. I got the idea of using paprika in them by eating at Whitey's Luncheonette on Bleecker Street. He makes awesome homefries that make me salivate just remembering them. I understand that Chris is suffering from cancer now and his son is running the restaurant. I keep Chris in my prayers. He is a great guy and breakfast at Whitey's is just one more of those wonderful East Utica experiences that remain a pleasant memory of life in Utica.

I was curious about the sausage balls when you stated that you make Cavallo's style meatball tunnels with them. I wondered if you were using your breakfast sausage recipe with sauce added on the sandwich. Your Italian sausage recipe is quite similar to mine also. I guess with Italian sausage, there is the fennel, garlic, and other spices that are standard, and the recipes for AUTHENTIC tasting sausage only very slightly in the amounts of those flavorful ingredients used.

Using the paddle attachment on your kitchenaid mixer is a great labor saver for the small batch, but you are right. Doing ten pounds at a time would make it rather impractical for me. Actually adding the spice mixture before grinding distributes the spices nicely. I DO mix it a gently by hand just to be sure of even distribution after the first grinding and before I grind it with the fine plate. Italian sausage is only ground once with the coarse plate, so I DO mix that quite well by hand.

I told Kathy how you mix the sausage mixture with the stand mixer and she thought that to be a great idea and will use the mixer to make her meatloaf rather than doing it by hand.

Kathy does make meatballs with Italian sausage or with a mix of beef and sausage, depending on how the mood happens to strike her at the moment. I will have to try the Cavallo's style tunnel with sausage balls. Sounds good.

Have a good day Kitster. I am off to work outside after a short tour to pay some local bills and to pick up charcoal for the grill and some local strawberries for shortcake. Gotta eat those berries as often as we can before the season passes and we are relegated back to using the frozen berries. Rainy this morning but supposed to clear out this afternoon. Hope to grill some burgers and a link of keilbasa for supper, along with a couple ears of "fresh" corn on the cob. (I use the term "fresh" loosely when speaking of corn from a supermarket, LOL)

Bought the pork butts yesterday for sausage. Ended up with about 13lbs, so yesterday afternoon I sliced off a hunk of one of the butts, and cut them into country style ribs that I did on the grill yesterday afternoon. This evening, Kathy will hide out in the living room while I make sausage and make a mess in her kitchen. She hides until the process is complete and I have returned her kitchen to it's normal pristine condition, ROFL.

PS: I am not the "hot pepper officianado" that I used to be. Seems that as I age, my digestive tract simply doesn't put up with that foolishness. The small dish of jalepenos that used to be on the table at almost every meal is gone, and I don't use them on sandwiches any more. Cherry peppers and Pepperocini is my maximum level "hot stuff" now, lol. The hot sauce bottle also gets less use in recent months.